INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ETHICS: A RESEARCH FRAMEWORK
CONCLUSIONS
It was very clear from the responses that there were no significant differences in ethical beliefs
amongst MBA and MS-CIS graduate students. It should be noted that in both cases the students
had not received formal training related to computer ethics within there program of study, though
in both cases the topic was covered in sections within their curriculum. The curriculum for the
MBA students is changing next year to include a formal course in business ethics that will
include information technology related topics.
Though the support was not as strong there was support that significant differences do not exist
between undergraduate and graduate computer information systems students. One limitation to
our study however, is that there were significantly more male students than female students
which may have influenced this result. The undergraduate students that participated in this study
had received instruction in information technology ethics as part of their curriculum, including
case study analysis.
Based upon the results of our study, we concluded that significant differences existed between
male and female computer information systems students in their ethical beliefs. Though as noted
previously, there was a small sample population of female students. This is significant because it
supports the industry study gender differences that show that software piracy and hacking tend to
be more prevalent amongst males than females