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Linking “Doing”, “Doing Right” and “Doing Right With Others”—Empirical Indications of the Relationship Between Ethical Competency, Diversity Competency, and Other Parts of the Competency Construct

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New Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility

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Abstract

As a construct, competency is generally divided into several parts (e.g., professional competency, social competency, personal competency), of which ethical competency (“to do right”) and its social counterpart, diversity competency (“to do right with others”), are still being researched. The importance of this research is obvious: Especially, but not exclusively, in business education, teaching “to do” as well as “to do right” and “to do right with others” is becoming more urgent and complex, and concepts related to corporate as well as individual social responsibility are gaining recognition as essential elements. However, analysis of university curricula indicates that higher business education programs are often not as “doing”-orientated as the construct of competency may imply. What is more, effective and efficient methods of measuring students’ expectations and experiences with regard to the teaching of ethical and diversity competency are not yet available.

We therefore developed a short self-report scale to screen expected academic acquisition of ethical competency and diversity competency. We tested the scale with the help of students from several business degree programs at a German university. We compared their expected ethical and diversity competency acquisition with expected acquisition of unspecific professional and methodological expertise, social competency and personal competency, as well as their general self-efficacy. Despite the small sample size, the results of the study indicate acceptable degrees of construct validity of the scales within the general construct of competency. We identify a pronounced demand for the teaching of “doing right” as well as “doing right with others” and specific relationships between diversity competency, ethical competency, and the other parts of the competency construct (e.g., an expected strong relationship between “doing right” and “doing right with others”, or the surprisingly missing relationship between ethical competency and social competency).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    In this chapter we use the expression “competency” as a description of those characteristics of an individual that, when used, result in successful performance, whereas the term “competence” is used to describe the successful performance itself (Dubois 1998; Gilbert 1996).

  2. 2.

    This definition is based on a functional-pragmatic concept of competence. For overviews see Klieme et al. (2008) or Hartig and Klieme (2006).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. FOM University of Applied Sciences,, Leimkugelstraße 6, 45141, Essen, Germany

    Dr. Frank P. Schulte

  2. Universität Paderborn Department of Business and Human Resource Education, Warburger Straße 100, 33098, Paderborn, Germany

    JProf. Dr. Karl-Heinz Gerholz

  3. FOM University of Applied Sciences, Essen, Germany

    Stefan Heinemann

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  1. Dr. Frank P. Schulte
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  2. JProf. Dr. Karl-Heinz Gerholz
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  3. Stefan Heinemann
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Correspondence to Frank P. Schulte .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management, Essen, Germany

    Linda O'Riordan

  2. FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management, Essen, Germany

    Piotr Zmuda

  3. FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management, Essen, Germany

    Stefan Heinemann

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Schulte, F., Gerholz, KH., Heinemann, S. (2015). Linking “Doing”, “Doing Right” and “Doing Right With Others”—Empirical Indications of the Relationship Between Ethical Competency, Diversity Competency, and Other Parts of the Competency Construct. In: O'Riordan, L., Zmuda, P., Heinemann, S. (eds) New Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility. FOM-Edition. Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-06794-6_26

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