Student academic dishonesty is a pervasive problem for higher education institutions all over the world. The purpose of the present study is to take an interpretative, qualitative approach intended to understand student thinking and reflections when it comes to the perceived seriousness and prevalence of cheating. Peer interviews, i.e., students interviewing students, were chosen as the data collection method. Open and analytical coding based on the principles of grounded theory provided the foundations for the analyses. Overall, the results of this study support previous correlational findings, but they also demonstrate that many students tend to talk about cheating as if it is “part of the game”. It furthermore seems that students rate different forms of cheating from less to more serious, and that some forms of cheating are not perceived as cheating at all. “Everybody else does it” is obviously a widespread belief, which easily leads to—as one informant expressed it—“if you don’t cheat, you lose”. In order to deal with student cheating, the students themselves recommended fewer take-home examinations and more use of continuous assessment. The findings further indicate that schools should make an effort to build a “non-cheating culture”. Rather than punishing students, convincing them that normal behavior is not to cheat, and that cheating benefits no one is probably the best way to deal with this behavior.
Grenness, Tor & Warner-Søderholm, Gillian (2018)
Project GLOBE differences in values and practices scores - mind the gap: the case of the nordics
7(1) , s. 116- 142.
Grenness, Tor (2017)
Storytelling as a way for Humanizing Research Methods
5(1)
Warner-Søderholm, Gillian & Grenness, Tor (2016)
Kulturelle normer, selvsensur og ytringsfrihet: finner vi regionale forskjeller?
, s. 247- 272.
Grenness, Tor (2015)
Culture matters: space and leadership in a cross-cultural perspective
National culture and economic performance: a cross-cultural study on culture's impact on econimic performance across the 27 member countries of the european union
This paper suggests that avoiding the ecological fallacy is - under certain circumstances - possible. One problem in (cross-cultural) research is that there are often two levels of theorizing (individual and country) that needs to be taken into account when data are being analyzed and conclusions are drawn. Typically, as is the case with Hofstede's (1980) well-known research, cultural values are measured on country level. Consequently, researchers who make causal inferences from such group data to individual behaviors are making the ecological fallacy, i.e they (most often) wrongly assume that relationships observed for groups necessarily hold for individuals. If, however, a method could be found that could help determining how individuals behave from the study of aggregated data, the usefulness of Hofstede's research (and research on aggregated data in general) from a manager's point of view would definitely increase. In this paper the problem of the ecological fallacy, as well as different methods of avoiding it is discussed, and a particular solution of the problem is suggested.
Grenness, Tor & Paoli, Donatella De (2012)
Building and transferring corporate culture and leadership philosophy through alternative workplace design. The case of Telenor Norway
(1) , s. 29- 55.
Grenness, Tor (2011)
The impact of National Culture on CEO Compensation and Salary Gaps between CEOs and Manufacturing Workers
