One of our readers put us on to this research earlier today (thanks, Breadcrust) after reading Jim Hancock’s post, Eating the Horse We Rode in On, about the convergence of two trends in American education. Jim pointed out that U.S. education lags behind many countries in terms of quality while at the same time fewer young people enroll in college. Now add to those trends the alarming fact that the majority of undergraduates and graduates admit to cheating. These students may be getting the grade, but they aren’t getting an education. And what does this bode for business in the future when we have fewer, more poorly educated graduates who managed to get through school by cheating?

Let’s back up a minute. How bad is it? 56% of MBA students admitted to cheating – using crib notes in exams, plagiarizing, and downloading essays from the web. The actual percentage is actually much higher because some students did not report incidents for fear of being caught.

Can it get any worse?

Donald McCabe, the author of the report, says that undergraduate cheating is higher, and high school students are even worse. The shape of things to come…?

And you would have thought that the famous corporate “cheaters” of the past few years from Enron, MCI WorldCom, etc. would have been sufficient object lessons to steer us away from our cheating ways. But as the people interviewed in the report indicated, they were afraid of being disadvantaged by those who got ahead by cheating….even though the lesson of the aforementioned cheaters is that the end is not good.

Want to consider even worse news? Surveys indicate that 60% or more of the American population considers itself “Christian.” So it doesn’t appear that there is any of this “salt of the earth” influence happening in schools or business. (Ken Lay and Bernie Ebbers were church leaders.)

Society and business survive and prosper by being established on a foundation of integrity. The Bible warns us to apply “true weights and measures” in the marketplace, to honor boundaries, to let our “yes, be yes, and our no, be no”, to not cheat or steal.

So how do we begin to establish a foundation of integrity?

Mr. McCabe thinks that schools need to develop codes of conduct. Others believe that courses on ethics need to be taught. I don’t think it will work. My community of Colorado Springs is home to the Air Force Academy. This remarkable institution with its code of conduct and classes on ethics has been wracked with scandals over the past few years. The problem is that a code imposed on people who don’t have a worldview that believes in truth and right and wrong will only work until they feel no one is watching and they can get away with it. Codes only act as guardrails. They don’t improve our steering.

Is there a plumb line that we can use to build a foundation of integrity? I believe that it is, to borrow a phrase from the Book of Proverbs, the fear of God. We must understand that we are accountable to God for our actions. Understanding this leads us to a life of wisdom, of understanding the moral consequence of choices. And this in turn leads us to a life of stability and productivity.

If you are thinking about hiring these highly touted MBA’s today, consider this. In all likelihood your candidate has cheated…maybe a lot. What will you do to create a company culture that embraces and resolutely maintains integrity?

As a student, as a business person, build and guard your integrity even in the face of seeming disadvantage and temptation. Read the book of Proverbs with these themes in mind. Take a chapter each day for a month. Then do it again.

Here’s a sample from Proverbs 11:1, 3-6 The Message to get you thinking.

God hates cheating in the marketplace; he loves it when business is aboveboard.
The integrity of the honest keeps them on track; the deviousness of crooks brings them to ruin.
A thick bankroll is no help when life falls apart, but a principled life can stand up to the worst.
Moral character makes for smooth traveling; an evil life is a hard life.
Good character is the best insurance; crooks get trapped in their sinful lust.