Academic Plagiarism: Relevance to Business Environment Professionalism

This report examines academic plagiarism, defining it as the representation of others' work as one's own, and explores its relevance to professionalism in a business environment. It delves into the causes, consequences, and ethical implications of plagiarism, highlighting its prevalence among students and academics. The report discusses ethical theories like deontology and utilitarianism to analyze the issue, emphasizing the importance of original thought and proper referencing. It explores how plagiarism can undermine an individual's professional credibility and lead to legal and professional repercussions. The report concludes by stressing the need for ethical practices, including proper documentation, critical analysis, and the development of original ideas. It underscores the importance of integrity and cognitive honesty in academic and professional settings, providing a comprehensive overview of plagiarism's impact on business and the steps needed to prevent it.

What is Academic Plagiarism and
analyse it’s relevance to professionalism
in a Business environment ?

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION...............................................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Plagiarism basically occurs when an individual represents someone else’s ideas and work
as their own with or without any consent (Jamieson, 2016). In this regard, academic plagiarism is
known as a serious stuff and considered as a crime because intellectual property is usually
protected under the guidelines of government. These kind of issues usually occur when a writer
apparently uses words from any other source without considering precise reference and quotation
marks from the original work. Thus, this report is going to determine reason behind academic
plagiarism as well as an analysis based on critical thinking and theoretical framework.
MAIN BODY
Academic plagiarism has become a big issue in the lives of college students and other
academic scholars and writers (Joob and Wiwanitkit, 2018). It is a crime committed by students
in which they copy the work, ideas and words of others and represent them as their own work.
According to Irving Hexham, 2005 Plagiarism is the breaking of one's academic integrity
and using others work without proper referencing and acknowledgement. It occurs when they
intentionally or unintentionally uses the words or ideas with the help of continuous paraphrasing
and other forms of plagiarism (The Plague of Plagiarism: Academic Plagiarism Defined, 2005).
It is an unethical practice and dishonesty towards all the people in the academic community. It
reflects the failure in the learning process of a person. Furthermore, they commit this treachery
and faces various consequences. This leads to taking of legal actions against them. As it leads to
undermining the goodwill of the institution and the degree it issues. There are some theories of
ethics are determining that helps in analysing academic ethics:
Deontology
As per the views of Matthew T. Brodhead, and Shawn P. Quigley, 2018 Deontology is a
theory which differentiate right from wrong. This philosophy is associated with Immanuel kant.
Kant always believed that individual’s needs to take ethical actions by a reason which defines
themselves as a person (Introduction to ABA, Ethics, and Core Ethical Principles, 2018). So
when people used plagiarism in any context and lose their personality and credibility, this
somewhere shows that a person is losing their definition. It is derived the relationship between
ethical issues and morality which effect the human resources. These theory is related to how we

can prevent plagiarism and unethical behaviour in the environment. This theory actually used in
protecting human rights, people had a duty to not to violate these theories.
Utilitarianism
According to Brian Duignan, 2020 Utilitarianism theory explained that Foster defines the
happiness and pleasure and revoke that actions which reduce the happiness of a person. It is
directly related to the social, economic, environmental factors (Utilitarianism, 2020). This theory
includes all the effect either it is bad or good, produced from an action. It shows that every good
impact comes from a bad effect. Its main motive is to increase the good things in the
environment and decrease the bad things from the environment. By stopping plagiarism this
theory improves the working behaviour of people and are prevent from the losses comes under
unethical practices. It will increase the happiness and remove the pain from the life.
On the basis of above study, it has been analysed that students must avoid such practices
as they have come to learn and express their original views. It can be done in an ethical manner
with the help of analysing others work and making conclusions from it. Also, by implementing
proper literature review, quoting the work of authors and providing referencing in it. Thus, one
can follow the principle of cognitive honesty and integrity in their work
As per the views of Teresa S. Welsh, Melissa S. Wright, 2010 academic plagiarism is a
result of lack of knowledge in respects of how to properly document a source. To avoid such, it
is required for a writer to segregate what information is borrowed from another source as well as
which is related to original work.
In the context of a business environment, individual requires to represent their own ideas
and view point that can assist them to remain as professional (Kauffman and Young, 2015). As
the academic plagiarism has a direct influence over the working behaviours and though process
of individual. Thus, it may influence professional working of a person because they will be
putting the same due to habitual form of work in their business. Plagiarism may impact the
students, learning institution, and the academic life of a scholar in general. It may affect the
students’ academic life ruined or even get expelled from the school.
According to Lorenza Shabe, 2018 in high school students who are doing plagiarism can
face difficulties in their future growth like difficulties in getting admission in universities and job
prospects (What are the consequences of plagiarism in college? 2020). While in professional
career, they find major negative impact of this like; deduction in pay scale, loss of professional

credibility, professional licensed and degree may be revoked. Plagiarism may not only impact
the students, but collage also, as well as it affects the credibility of a scholar, and decrease the
trust and integrity of the researcher. There are legal repercussions of this which is very serious
and lead to the imprisonment (Levin, 2018). And if there is no legal repercussion then it will
definitely lead to a major monitory repercussions and its majorly put on the writers, blogger, and
publishers. Plagiarism research is harmful if it is related to medical line as this could be the loss
of people's life.
After all this when there is plagiarism done by one person it will negatively affect the
others credibility and trust also who are actually doing their project. So students must be learned
in their institution about their own words, ideas and innovation, rather than paraphrasing, copy-
pasting, replacing words or correcting references. People should refer a content, understand it
and try to rephrase in their own words. Make yourself good at writing and increase the
understanding power.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been summarised that academic plagiarism might be
intentional or accidental but it counted as an unethical practice. Thus, it is required for individual
to avoid such practices and cite their content with relevant sources. These kind of practices may
influence professional working of an individual in terms of their habitual working behaviour or
the in the form of ethical misconduct.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Jamieson, S., 2016. Is it plagiarism or patchwriting? Toward a nuanced definition. Handbook of
academic integrity, pp.503-518.
Joob, B. and Wiwanitkit, V., 2018. Plagiarism: Either intentional or unintentional, it is still
plagiarism!. Perspectives in clinical research. 9(3). pp.151-151.
Kauffman, Y. and Young, M.F., 2015. Digital plagiarism: An experimental study of the effect of
instructional goals and copy-and-paste affordance. Computers & Education. 83. pp.44-
56.
Levin, V.I., 2018. Plagiarism, its Essence and Measures to Prevent and Handle it. Vysshee
obrazovanie v Rossii= Higher Education in Russia. 27(1). pp.143-150.
Online
Introduction to ABA, Ethics, and Core Ethical Principles. 2018. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/deontology>.
Utilitarianism. 2020. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.britannica.com/topic/utilitarianism-philosophy>
Ethical literacy: scholarly communication and the academic code of conduct. 2010. [Online].
Available through:< https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/plagiarism>.
The Plague of Plagiarism: Academic Plagiarism Defined. 2005. [Online]. Available through:<
http://people.ucalgary.ca/~hexham/content/articles/plague-of-
plagiarism.html#:~:text=Academic%20plagiarism%20occurs%20when%20a,author's
%20own%20research%20and%20scholarship.>
What are the consequences of plagiarism in college? 2020. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.scribbr.com/plagiarism/consequences-of-plagiarism/ >.