Ethical Obligations and Decision Making in Accounting, 4/e 1
Chapter 1 Cases
Suggested Discussion and Solution Guide
NOTE: Cases 1-2, 1-7, and 1-9 are treated as Giving Voice to Values (GVV) cases in the
Test Bank for Chapter 2. The GVV approach that is described in Chapter 2 enables
Case 1-1 Harvard Cheating Scandal
Yes. Cheating occurs at the prestigious Harvard University. In 2012, Harvard forced dozens of
students to leave in its largest cheating scandal in memory, but the institution would not address
assertions that the blame rested partly with a professor and his teaching assistants. The issue is
whether cheating is truly cheating when students collaborate with each other to find the right
from the graduate teaching assistants who ran the class discussion groups, graded assignments,
and advised them on interpreting exam questions.
Administrators said that on final-exam questions, some students supplied identical answers (right
down to typographical errors in some cases), indicating that they had written them together or
plagiarized them. But some students claimed that the similarities in their answers were due to
Ethical Obligations and Decision Making in Accounting, 4/e 2
exams.
Students claim to have believed that collaboration was allowed in the course. The course’s
instructor and the teaching assistants sometimes encouraged collaboration, in fact. The teaching
assistants—graduate students who graded the exams and ran weekly discussion sessions—varied
widely in how they prepared students for the exams, so it was common for students in different
Answer the following questions about the Harvard cheating scandal.
1. Using Josephson’s Six Pillars of Character, which of the character traits (virtues)
apply to the Harvard cheating scandal and how do they apply with respect to the
actions of each of the stakeholders in this case?
The stakeholders in this case are the students in the class who did cheat, the students in
the class who did not cheat, the professor, the teaching assistants, other students at the
university, alumni of the university, parent of students and future employers of the
students.
2. Who is at fault for the cheating scandal? Is it the students, the teaching assistants,
the professor, or the institution? Use ethical reasoning to support your answer.
The Harvard cheating scandal is not black or white from an ethical perspective. One way
to evaluate it is by examining the behavior and actions of the stakeholders. The instructor
is partly to blame because unclear questions had to be clarified and that would have
promoted collaboration to better understand just what the instructor’s intentions were.
3. Do you think Harvard had a right to search the e-mail accounts of junior faculty,
looking for the source of leaks to the news media? Explain.
Harvard had a right to set policies on using university owned computers and university
provided email accounts. Most organizations with a computer and email usage policies
state whether the organization reserves the right to monitor email usage and to review
Internet history on computers. If Harvard did not have such a policy, then such a search
seems to be vendetta search against the leak. Had Harvard or any of the faculty
previously spoken to the press? Could the leak have come from a student? Did Harvard
search the email accounts of the students at Harvard?
4. What is meant by the culture of an organization? Can an honor code establish a
culture of academic integrity in an institution such as Harvard University?
Every organization creates its own culture and normal operating procedures. The culture
is highly influenced by the top officers and what is rewarded in the organization. A
university is based on a principle of shared governance with administrators and faculty.
Under shared governance, a task force or committee composed of administrators, faculty
and students would have held many discussions of what an honor code does, what it