1. What are the ethical issues in this case?
2. Do we live today in a “cheating culture?” Do you agree with Callahan’s analysis of the situation?
3. Is cheating outside of work in one’s personal life directly or indirectly related to cheating at work?
4. How can a person hold two sets of ethics and behave consistently in either venture? Give examples from your own personal life.
5. Could flawed ethics in golf just be considered “part of the game” and unrelated to ethics at work?
6. What insights into character, management behavior, and thinking do you get from this case?
7. Are there parallels between the experiences of executives described in this case and the lives of students? How are they similar or different?

David Callahan published an influential book titled The Cheating Culture: Why More Americans Are Doing Wrong to Get Ahead. In this book, Callahan documents how cheating has been on the rise for the past two decades. It has been evident in business scandals, doping in sports, plagiarism by journalists, and cheating by students. Callahan blames the dog-eat-dog economic climate of the past two decades for much of the cheating that is going on. He points to four reasons why we have more cheating today. New pressures are part of it. Bigger rewards for winning are also a key factor. Temptation is ever present. Finally, he believes trickle down corruption has been at work. With this fourth point, he is referring to the tendency for everyone to start cheating, because they perceive the system is stacked against them and so people start making up their own rules to justify their actions. In short, he argues that we live in a cheating culture.