Every culture is indeed unique and diverse, shaping and molding its belief systems, values , and knowledge. In Africa, particularly Nigeria, we have traditionally been an oral society, in that from the days of slave trade, our forefathers have passed on the art of story-telling from one generation to another. Today, some of the stories have been compiled and taught as legends in our education systems and some are still being told by our fathers and grandfathers as the inherited from their forefathers. If we look at the origins of some of these legends we will never find their source, thus, we are to conclude that our fathers and their forefathers committed plagiarism with no proper referencing.
The advent of western influences and globalization has a great impact on our society in that we now know the meaning of academic integrity. Evolution has taken place in our country, that it is now an acknowledged fact that a person can own his or her words and knowledge, for example, our Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka(Literature). Had he not owned his works, would he have been recognized in his field? Just as musicians have copyrights, so equally do academics own their work. Academic integrity is founded on the principle that plagiarism is unethical and a theft of intellectual property right.
Academic integrity is also applicable in an organization as increasing concern is being observed in many areas to enhance standard of conduct and integrity issues. A characteristics of this concern is that many organizations are themselves beginning to promote concern for proper conduct in a broad sense within their staff, taking measures to sensitize and possibly even impose penalty in instances where the required standard of conduct are lacking.
This assignment is insightful for me at workplace to be aware of conducting myself. And when I am providing research and reference on specific materials, I will endeavour to comply with