The Relationship between Religiousness and Corporate Social Responsibility Orientation: Are there Differences Between Business Managers and Students?

The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a relationship between a person’s degree of religiousness and corporate social responsibility orientation. A total of 411 managers and 506 students from seven universities were surveyed. The statistical analysis showed that religiousness does influence students’ orientation toward the economic, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities of business. It does not, however, have a significant impact upon the managers’ attitudes. When the “low religiousness” students and managers were compared, differences were found with respect to the economic, ethical, and philanthropic components of corporate social responsibility. Similar results were obtained when the “high religiousness” students and managers were compared. The implications of these findings are discussed. Nabil Ibrahim is the Grover Maxwell Professor of Business Administration at Augusta State University, Augusta, Georgia. He teaches courses in Strategic Management and Applied Statistics. Dr. Ibrahim’s articles have appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Health Care Management Review, the Journal of Applied Business Research, as well as many other journals and proceedings. Donald P. Howard is an Associate Professor of Management at Augusta State University, Augusta, Georgia. He teaches courses in Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship. His articles have appeared in a number of journals such as the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Applied Case Research, and Health Care Management Review, as well as many proceedings. John Angelidis is Professor and Chair, Department of Management, St. John’s University, New York, NY. He teaches courses in Strategic Management and International Business. Dr. Angelidis has published articles in the Journal of Business Ethics, Review of Business, Journal of Commerce and Management, as well as many other journals and proceedings.     

Managerial Authority as Political Authority: A Retrospective Examination of Christopher McMahon’s Authority and Democracy

An introduction to the March, 2005 symposium “The Political Theory of Organizations: A Retrospective Examination of Christopher McMahon’s Authority and Democracy” held in San Francisco as part of the Society for Business Ethics Group Meeting at the Pacific Division Meetings of the American Philosophical Association. Jeffery Smith is an Assistant Professor and founding Director of the Banta Center for Business, Ethics and Society at the University of Redlands. His current research focuses on communicative ethics and the moral foundations of collaborative decision-making within economic organizations. He is also interested in the role of principles in moral decision-making and the extent to which principled decisions can be made in organizational contexts. Professor Smith’s writings have appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics: A European Review, Southern Journal of Philosophy and in other journals. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota in 2000.     

Does East Meet West in Business Ethics: An Introduction to the Special Issue

This article introduces and summarizes selected papers from the first World Business Ethics Forum held in Hong Kong and Macau in November 2006, co-hosted by the Hong Kong Baptist University and by the University of Macau. Business Ethics in the East remain distinct from those in the West, but the distinctions are becoming less pronounced and the ethical traffic flows both ways. Gabriel D, Donleavy is Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at the University of Macau teaching Business Ethics, Business Negotiation and Advanced Management. His work has been published in Critical Perspectives in Accounting, Corporate Governance, the Journal of Business Ethics, Advances in Applied Business Strategy, the Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, Long Range Planning and the Asian Review of Accounting which he co-founded. Kit-Chun Joanna LAM is Professor in Department of Economics of the Hong Kong Baptist University. She is also Guest Professor in the Centre for Business Ethics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, China. She received her Ph.D. degree in economics from Harvard University. Her work has appeared in the Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Labor Economics, Canadian Journal of Economics, Economica, Journal of Comparative Economics, and Labour Economics. Simon S.M. Ho is Dean and Professor at the School of Business and Director for Corporate Governance and Financial Policy, Hong Kong Baptist University. He founded the Asia-Pacific Corporate Governance Conference and the world’s first master programme in corporate governance & directorship in 2004. He published over 40 academic refereed articles in leading journals such as Journal of Accounting, Accounting & Finance, Journal of Accounting & Public Policy, and Journal of Corporate Finance.     

The Social Norms of Tax Compliance: Evidence from Australia,Singapore, and the United States

Tax compliance is a concern to governments around the world. Prior research (Alm, J. and I. Sanchez: 1995, KYKLOS 48, 3–19) has attributed unexplained inter-country differences in compliance rates to differences in social norms. Economics researchers studying tax compliance in the United States (U.S.) (see for example J. Andreoni et al.: 1998, Journal of Economic Literature 36, 818–860) have called for more attention to social (as opposed to economic) influences on tax compliance. In this study, we extend this prior research by explicitly examining the role of social norms [Cialdini, R. and M. Trost: 1998, The Handbook of Social Psychology (Oxford University Press, New York)] on tax compliance in three different countries. We test our research hypotheses using a hypothetical compliance scenario, which was administered in Australia, Singapore, and the U.S. There were differences in compliance rates and social norms among the three countries. Factor analysis of the social norm questions identified three distinct social norm constructs. Two of these factors were significant in explaining tax compliance behavior. The first and most influential factor was taxpayers’ own personal moral beliefs, along with the beliefs of those close to them (e.g., friends and important others). The second significant factor represented societal views of proper behavior. We conclude that social norms help to explain tax compliance intentions and why tax compliance rates are higher than would be predicted by strictly economic models. Donna D. Bobek is an Associate Professor in the Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting at the University of Central Florida. Her research focuses on taxpayer and tax professional judgment and decision-making, with an emphasis on ethical decision-making. Donna has published in a number of academic journals including Accounting, Organizations & Society, Behavioral Research in Accounting, the Journal of the American Taxation Association, Advances in Taxation and Advances in Behavioral Accounting Research. John T. Sweeney is the Ted Saldin Distinguished Professor of Accounting and the Chair of the Department of Accounting at Washington State University. His research interests include accounting ethics and organizational justice. He has published in a number of accounting research journals, including Accounting, Organizations, & Society, The Accounting Review, Behavioral Research in Accounting, the Journal of Accounting & Public Policy, the Journal of Business Ethics, and Research on Accounting Ethics. Robin W. Roberts is the Al and Nancy Burnett Eminent Scholar and Director of the Kenneth G. Dixon School of Accounting at the University of Central Florida. His recent research focuses on ethics and regulation in the accounting profession and on corporate social responsibility. Robin has published in a number of academic journals including Accounting and the Public Interest, Accounting, Organizations & Society, Advances in Accounting, Auditing: A Journal of Practice & Theory, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, and Research in Governmental and Nonprofit Accounting.     

Attitudes towards business ethics of business students in Malaysia

The main objective of this paper is to assess the attitude of a group of Malaysian business students towards business ethics. The survey results indicate that the respondents in general are of the opinion that the businesses in Malaysia consider ethics as secondary. A greater emphasis on ethical values in the business curricular has been strongly supported by the respondents. Moreover, the majority of the respondents believe that moral/ethical education and top management attitudes are the most important factors influencing ethical standards in business practices.Dr Kazi Firoz Alam is a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Accountancy, Massey University, New Zealand. He has been teaching Accounting to MBA students since 1984 and has supervised Masterate students in different areas of accounting, including accounting and tax ethics. He has written three books on Accounting and Taxation and has published articles on Corporate Taxation and Company Financial Policy, The Influence of Tax Incentives on Investment Decisions, Taxation and Company Dividend Policy and Business Ethics. Some of the journals where his publications have appeared includeMetu Studies in Development, Managerial and Decision Economics, Accounting Forum, Investment Analysts Journal andJournal of Business Ethics.     

Cultural and socioeconomic constraints on international codes of ethics: Lessons from accounting

This paper provides a framework for the examination of cultural and socioeconomic factors that could impede the acceptance and implementation of a profession's international code of conduct. We apply it to the Guidelines on Ethics for Professional Accountants issued by the International Federation of Accountants (1990). To examine the cultural effects, we use Hofstede's (1980a) four work-related values: power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, and masculinity. The socioeconomic factors are the level of development of the profession and the availability of economic resources. We evaluate the applicability and relevance of the accounting guideline, and discuss the implications for accounting and other professions.Jeffrey R. Cohen is Assistant Professor of Accounting at Boston College. He is a CMA and a KPMG Peat Marwick Faculty Fellow. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Accounting Research, Decision Sciences, The Organizational Behavior Teaching Review, andThe International Journal of Accounting. His work on ethics has appeared inJournal of Business Ethics, Issues in Accounting Education, Management Accounting andThe CPA Journal.Laurie W. Pant is Associate Professor of Accounting at Suffolk University. She holds an MBA and DBA and an M.Ed. She is a CMA and serves on the editorial board ofIssues in Accounting Education. Her articles have appeared inJournal of Business Ethics, Issues in Accounting Education, Management Accounting, The Organizational Behavior Teaching Review, andThe International Journal of Accounting.David J. Sharp is Assistant Professor of Accounting at the University of Western Ontario. He received his Ph.D. and M.Sc. He is an ACMA and serves on the editorial board ofJournal of International Accounting Auditing and Taxation. His articles have appeared in theMidland Corporate Finance Journal, Sloan Management Review, andThe International Journal of Accounting.     

Gender differences in determining the ethical sensitivity of future accounting professionals

This paper explores possible connections between gender and the willingness to tolerate unethical academic behavior. Data from a sample of 285 accounting majors at four public institutions reveal that females are less tolerant than males when questioned about academic misconduct. Statistically significant differences were found for 17 of 23 questionable activities. Furthermore, females were found to be less cynical and less often involved in academic dishonesty. Overall, the results support the finding of Betz et al. (1989) that the gender socialization approach dominates the structural approach. Elsie Coker Ameen is an associate professor and chair of the Department of Business at Coker College. Professor Ameen has published articles in The Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Auditing: A Journal of Practice and Theory, Review of Financial Economics, and other journals. Daryl M. Guffey is an assistant professor at East Carolina University. He joined the faculty at East Carolina University in 1995. Dr. Guffey has published several articles in such journals as The Financial Review, Journal of Business Finance and Accounting, Review of Financial Economics, Quarterly Journal of Business and Economics, and The Accounting Educators' Journal. Professor Guffey's research has been supported by a grant from the Ernst & Young Foundation. Jeffrey J. McMillan, Jr. is an associate professor of accounting at Clemson University. He joined the faculty of Clemson University in 1990. Dr. McMillan has published articles in such journals as The Accounting Review, Advances in Accounting, Issues in Accounting Education, and The CPA Journal.     

Accountants’ Value Preferences and Moral Reasoning

This paper examines relationships between accountants’ personal values and their moral reasoning. In particular, we hypothesize that there is an inverse relationship between accountants’ “Conformity” values and principled moral reasoning. This investigation is important because the literature suggests that conformity with rule-based standards may be one reason for professional accountants’ relatively lower scores on measures of moral reasoning (Abdolmohammadi et al. J Bus Ethics 16 (1997) 1717). We administered the Rokeach Values Survey (RVS) (Rokeach: 1973, The Nature of Human Values (The Free Press, New York)) and the Defining Issues Test (DIT) (Rest: 1979, Development in Judgment Moral Issues (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, MN)) to164 graduating accounting students enrolled in capstone courses at two universities in the Northeastern United States. As potential entrants into the accounting profession, these subjects bring their values and moral reasoning to bear on attitudes and behaviors in the workplace. We find a highly significant inverse relationship between “Conformity” values and principled moral reasoning (i.e., those who prefer Conformity values have lower levels of moral reasoning). However, we also find that accounting students as a group do not prefer Conformity values above other values such as Self-actualization and Idealism, and we find positive relationships between Self-actualization and Idealism values and moral reasoning. Implications for values and ethics research are discussed.An earlier version of this paper was presented at a workshop at Bentley College and we have greatly benefited from participants comments, especially those of Jean Bedard, Marty Howe, James Hunton, Mark Nixon, and Jay Thibodeau.Mohammad J. Abdolmohammadi is the John E. Rhodes Professor of Accountancy at Bentley College. Having interest primarily in behavioral auditing and ethics research, professor Abdolmohammadi has published extensively in Accounting and Business Research, The Accounting Review, Advances in Accounting, Auditing: a Journal of Practice and Theory, Behavioral Research In Accounting, Contemporary Accounting Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Teaching Business Ethics, and Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes among others.C. Richard Baker is Professor of Accounting at Adelphi University. His primary research interests are in regulatory, ethical and disciplinary aspects of the public accounting profession. He has published over fifty journal articles in accounting and ethics research.     

A validation and extension of a multidimensional ethics scale

Reidenbach and Robin (1988, 1990) proposed and refined a multidimensional ethics scale. This study replicates and extends their work by examining the generalizability of the scale beyond marketing to accounting, and to subjects from across the United States and other countries. Results indicate that, in general, the scale holds for this different sample and context. However, an additional utilitarian construct emerged in the current study as important for accounting academics in their ethical decision-making. We also found that when we refined Reidenbach and Robin's measure of intention to make a particular choice, a social desirability bias or halo effect was identified. Methodological implications for business ethics research are also presented.Jeffrey R. Cohen is Associate Professor of Accounting at Boston College. He is a C.M.A. and a KPMG Peat Marwick Faculty Fellow. His articles have appeared in theJournal of Accounting Research, Decision Sciences andThe Organizational Behavior Teaching Review. His work on Ethics has appeared inJournal of Business Ethics, Issues in Accounting Education, Management Accounting, andThe CPA Journal.Laurie W. Pant is Associate Professor of Accounting at Suffolk University. She holds an M.B.A. and a D.B.A. and an M.Ed. She serves on the editorial board ofIssues in Accounting Education. Her articles on Ethics have appeared inJournal of Business Ethics, Issues in Accounting Education, Management Accounting andThe Organizational Behavior Teaching Review.David Sharp is Assistant Professor of Accounting at University of Western Ontario. He holds a Ph.D. and an M.Sc. He serves on the editorial board of theJournal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation. His articles have appeared inThe Midland Corporate Finance Journal andSloan Management Review.     

Integrative Social Contract Theory and Urban Prosperity Initiatives

Urban communities in 21st century America are facing severe economic challenges, ones that suggest a mandate to contemplate serious changes in the way America does business. The middle class is diminishing in many parts of the country, with consequences for the economy as a whole. When faced with the loss of its economic base, any business community must make some difficult decisions about its proper role and responsibilities. Decisions to support the community must be balanced alongside and against responsibilities to owners, shareholders and relevant “stakeholders” in a relatively new context. Corporations in urban communities “hollowed out” by white flight or urban sprawl must decide what level of support they can and should provide. This paper examines corporate decisions within the emerging urban prosperity initiatives, using the framework of integrative social contract theory proposed by Donaldson and Dunfee. We suggest that urban prosperity initiatives present a mandate on corporations sufficiently strong as to qualify as an authentic norm. Further, we argue that strict adherence to a corporate bottom line approach or “corporate isolationism” is not congruent with contemporary community standards. Anita Cava is an Associate Professor of Business Law at the University of Miami’s School of Business Administration and serves as Co-Director of the University of Miami’s Ethics Programs, a university-wide entity that promotes research, teaching and service across the disciplines in areas of ethical interest and concern, and Director of Business Ethics Programs in the SBA. Professor Cava received her B.A. with Distinction from Swarthmore College and her J.D. from New York University School of Law, where she was a Hays Fellow. She joined the faculty after several years in private practice in Washington, D.C. and Miami. Her experience ranged from national employment cases to commercial and consumer litigation. Professor Cava’s teaching specialties are the legal environment of business and business ethics; here research interests concern legal and ethical aspects of healthcare administration, business ethics and employment issues. She has published in law reviews and business journals on such topics as “Advance Directives: Taking Control of End of Life Decisions,” “Law, Ethics and Management: Toward an Effective Audit” and “The Collision of Rights and s Search for Limits: Free Speech in the Academy and Freedom from Sexual Harassment of Campus”. Recipient of several School of Business Administration Excellence in Teaching Awards, Anita Cava was honored in 1996 by a University-wide Excellence in Teaching Award. She regularly teaches in UM’s well-known Executive MBA Program and has received Teaching Awards from these adult students as well. A frequent speaker on the topic of Business Ethics and Corporate Compliance, Professor Cava’s audiences have included community groups, management trainees, top executives of several corporations, the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce Goals Conference and Leadership Florida, among others. Don Mayer teaches ethics, legal environment of business, and environmental law at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. He is a full professor in the Department of Management and Marketing at the School of Business. He attended Duke University Law School (J.D., 1973) and Georgetown University Law Center (Master of International and Comparative Law, 1985) and practiced law in North Carolina from 1975–1990 after serving in the United States Air Force from 1973–75. He has taught as a visiting professor at the University of Michigan, California Polytechnic State University, and the University of Iowa. He has been at Oakland University since 1990 and served as Associate Dean in 2000 and 2001. Professor Mayer has published in related areas of international law, environmental law, and corporate ethics. Recent publication include “Fort’s ‘Business as Mediating Institution’-A Holistic View of Corporate Governance and Ethics,” in 41 American Business Law Journal (Summer 2004), “Yes! We Have No Bananas: Forum Non Conveniens and Corporate Evasion,” Academy of Legal Studies International Business Law Review, vol. 4, at 130 (2004), and “Corporate Governance in the Cause of Peace: An Environmental Perspective,” Vanderbilt Transnational Law Journal, Vol. 35, No. 2 (March 2002). An article on corporate free speech and the Nike v. Kasky case is forthcoming in the Business Ethics Quarterly.     

Consumers’ Ethical Beliefs: The Roles of Money,Religiosity and Attitude toward Business

This article presents the results of a study that investigated the roles that one’s money ethic, religiosity and attitude toward business play in determining consumer attitudes/beliefs in various situations regarding questionable consumer practices. Two dimensions of religiosity – intrinsic and extrinsic religiousness – were studied. A global scale of money ethic was examined, as was a global measure of attitude toward business. Results indicate that both types of religiosity as well as one’s money ethic and attitude toward business were significant determinants of at least some types of consumer ethical beliefs. Scott J. Vitell is Phil B. Hardin Professor of Marketing at the University of Mississippi. He received his Ph.D. in Marketing from Texas Tech University. His recent publications have appeared in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Journal of Retailing, the Journal of Business Ethics and the Journal of Consumer Marketing, among others. Jatinder J. Singh is a Ph.D. student in marketing at the University of Mississippi. He received his masters from Punjab Technical University, India. He has authored papers previously published in the Journal of Business Ethics and a paper for the American Marketing Association’s Winter Educators’ Conference. Joseph G.P. Paolillo is a Professor of Management in the School of Business at the University of Mississippi. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Oregon, Eugene in Organization and Management. His publications have appeared in the Journal of Management, Journal of Management Studies, Human Relations, Group and Organization Studies, The Accounting Review, Journal of Advertising and Journal of Business Ethics, among several others.     

Ethics Programs, Perceived Corporate Social Responsibility and Job Satisfaction

Companies offer ethics codes and training to increase employees’ ethical conduct. These programs can also enhance individual work attitudes because ethical organizations are typically valued. Socially responsible companies are likely viewed as ethical organizations and should therefore prompt similar employee job responses. Using survey information collected from 313 business professionals, this exploratory study proposed that perceived corporate social responsibility would mediate the positive relationships between ethics codes/training and job satisfaction. Results indicated that corporate social responsibility fully or partially mediated the positive associations between four ethics program variables and individual job satisfaction, suggesting that companies might better manage employees’ ethical perceptions and work attitudes with multiple policies, an approach endorsed in the ethics literature. Sean Valentine (D.B.A., Louisiana Tech University) is an Associate Professor of Management in the college of Business at the University of Wyoming. His teaching and research interests include business ethics, organizational behavior, and human resource management. He has published in journals such as Behavioral Research in Accounting, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management, and Journal of Business Ethics. Gary Fleischman (Ph.D., Texas Tech University) is an Associate Professor and is the McGee Hearne and Paiz Faculty Scholar in Accounting at the University of Wyoming. His teaching expertise is in accounting and entrepreneurship and his research interests are in business ethics and behavioral business research. He has published in journals such as Behavioral Research in Accounting, The International Journal of Accounting and Journal of Business Ethics.     

Applying Ethical Concepts to the Study of “Green” Consumer Behavior: An Analysis of Chinese Consumers’ Intentions to Bring their Own Shopping Bags

Drawing on the general ethics and social psychology literature, this study presents a model to delineate the major factors likely to affect consumers’ intentions to bring their own shopping bags when visiting a supermarket (called “bring your own bags” or “BYOB” intention). The model is empirically validated using a survey of 250 Chinese consumers. Overall, the findings support the hypothesized direct influence of teleological evaluation and habit on BYOB intention, as well as that of deontological evaluation and teleological evaluation on ethical judgment about the BYOB practice. Teleological evaluation exerts a much stronger influence on ethical judgment than does deontological evaluation. In addition, the findings reveal that consumers who perceive the BYOB practice to be more important are more inclined to rely on their ethical judgment to derive their BYOB intention. Academically, these findings provide some encouraging evidence for the application of general ethics theories to explain green consumption-related practices. Practically, the findings also suggest that a utilitarian approach (i.e., emphasizing the consequences of BYOB) may represent an effective means for the Chinese government to promote BYOB practice among consumers. Dr. Ricky Y. K. Chan is associate professor of the Department of Management and Marketing at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interests lie in green marketing and behavioral aspects of Chinese consumers. He has contributed to such journals as Business Horizons, European Journal of Marketing, International Business Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of International Marketing, Journal of Management Studies and Journal of Services Marketing. Dr. Y. H. Wong is associate professor of the Department of Management and Marketing at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He is the author of a book, Guanxi: Relationship Marketing in a Chinese Context (co-authored with Dr. T. K. P. Leung). His research has been published in journals, including Industrial Marketing Management, International Business Review, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Journal of International Consumer Marketing and Journal of Services Marketing. Dr. T. K. P. Leung is associate professor of the Department of Management and Marketing at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research areas include business to business marketing, Chinese cultures and their implications to Sino-foreign negotiation. He has published articles in such journals as European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of International Consumer Marketing and Marketing Intelligence and Planning. He also co-authored a research book with Dr. Y. H. Wong titled Guanxi: Relationship marketing in a Chinese context published by the Haworth Press.     

Moral Judgment and Causal Attributions: Consequences of Engaging in Earnings Management

Recent, well-publicized accounting scandals have shown that the penalties outsiders impose on those found culpable of earnings management can be severe. However, less is known about how colleagues within internal labor markets respond when they believe fellow managers have managed earnings. Designers of responsibility accounting systems need to understand the reputational costs managers impose on one another within internal labor markets. In an experimental study, 159 evening MBA students were asked to assume the role of a manager in a company and respond to a scenario in which another manager (the target manager) has the opportunity to engage in earnings management. Participants provided causal attributions, assessed the morality of the target manager, and indicated whether they would change their judgments about the target manager’s reputation. The study manipulated three between-subjects factors: (1) whether the target manager chose to engage in earnings management, (2) whether the company’s budgetary control system was rigid or flexible, and (3) whether the target manager’s work history was average or above average. We found that causal attributions are affected more by the budgetary systems when the target did not manage earnings than when the manager did. We also found that morality judgments were significantly associated with the target manager’s behavior, but not with the budgetary system. In addition, participants’ judgments about the target manager’s reputation were more strongly associated with morality judgments than with causal attributions. We discuss implications of the role of reputation in management control systems design. Steven E. Kaplan received his B.S. degree from Arizona State University and his graduate degrees from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. Professor Kaplan has published in numerous academic and professional journals, including Advances in Accounting, Cost and Management, Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, National Tax Journal, Management Accounting, and Auditing: A Journal of practice and Theory. His current research focuses primarily on auditor judgment. He is a member of the American Accounting Association. Professor Kaplan has two daughters, Leah and Serena. He enjoys trout fishing and bowling. James C. McElroy is University Professor and the Bill and Liz Goodwin Faculty Fellow in the Department of Management at Iowa State University. He has a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University, an MBA from the University of South Dakota and a B.S. from Jamestown College. Dr. McElroy has published over 55 refereed articles in a variety of journals including the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management, Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, Journal of Educational Computing Research and Computers in Human Behavior. He serves on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Vocational Behavior, Journal of Labor Research, and Journal of Managerial Issues. His current research deals with personality and computer use, self handicapping behavior, and technology as a form of object language. Susan P. Ravenscroft is the Roger P. Murphy Professor Accounting and currently teaches managerial accounting and governmental and non-profit accounting. She and Professor Steve Kaplan have won the Glen McLaughlin Award for Research in Accounting Ethics. She has a PhD from Michigan State University. Dr. Ravenscroft’s research interests include ethics, pedagogical issues, and the social role of accounting information. Charles B. Shrader is a Bill and Liz Goodwin professor of Management in the College of Business at Iowa State University. His PhD and MBA degrees are from Indiana University. His current research interests include the relationships of strategy, diversity, and corporate social responsibility with organizational performance.     

An Exploration into the Developmental Psychology of Ethical Theory with Implications for Business Practice and Pedagogy

This article is an attempt to understand ethical theory not just as a set of well-developed philosophical perspectives but as a range of moral capacities that human beings more or less grow into over the course of their lives. To this end, we explore the connection between formal ethical theories and stage developmental psychologies, showing how individuals mature morally, regarding their duties, responsibilities, ideals, goals, values, and interests. The primary method is to extract from the writings of Kohlberg and his students the cues that help to flesh out a developmental picture of a wide range of ethical perspectives. Thus, developmental psychology benefits from gaining a broader understanding of “morality” and “ethics,” and ethical theory benefits from a richer understanding of how moral maturity arises from youthful beginnings in juvenile and adolescent thinking. Results of this study offer insight into the difficulty of teaching ethics and a refined ability to assess moral maturity in business activity. F. Neil Brady is the Jack R. Wheatley Professor of Management Ethics in the Romney Institute of Public Management and a member of the Ethics Group at the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University. He has published over thirty articles on ethics in a variety of journals including the Academy of Management Review, Administration & Society, and the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. He has authored Ethical Managing (Macmillan 1990) and edited Ethical Universals in International Business (Springer Verlag 1996). For twenty years, his research has focused on the application of ethical theory to managerial decisions. David W. Hart is assistant professor of public management in the Romney Institute of Public Management and a member of the Ethics Group at the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University. He received his PhD from the State University of New York at Albany. His current research focuses on administrative ethics, business-government interaction, and the external environment of organizations. He has published in a variety of journals and is the co-author of a book. Wall Street Polices Itself: How Securities Firms Manage the Legal Hazards of Competitive Pressures (Oxford University Press, 1998).     

Peers Versus National Culture: An Analysis of Antecedents to Ethical Decision-making

Given the recent ethics scandals in the United States, there has been a renewed focus on understanding the antecedents to ethical decision-making in the research literature. Since ethical norms and standards of behavior are not universally consistent, an individual’s choice of referent may exert a large influence on his/her ethical decision-making. This study used a social identity theory lens to empirically examine the relative influence of the macro- and micro-level variables of national culture and peers on an individual’s intention to behave ethically. Our sample consisted of respondents from Germany, Italy, and Japan. The results indicated that both national culture and peers were found to act as significant referents in ethical decision-making dilemmas. Although peers exerted a much stronger influence on an individual’s ethical decision-making, the impact of peers varied depending on the national culture levels of individualism and power distance. James W. Westerman is an Associate Professor of Management at Appalachian State University. He received his Ph.D in Management from the University of Colorado at Boulder and an MBA from Florida State University. His research interests include person-organization fit, compensation, and employee ethics, and has been published in the Journal of Organizational Behaviour, Journal of Business Ethics, Academy of Management Learning and Education, Group and Organization Management and the Journal of Business and Psychology, among others. Rafik I. Beekun (Ph.D., the University of Texas at Austin) is Professor of Management and Strategy in the Managerial Sciences Department at the University of Nevada. Reno, and Co-director, Center for Corporate Governance and Business Ethics. His current research focuses on business ethics, national cultures and the link between management and spirituality. He has published in such journals as the Journal of Applied Psychology, Human Relations, Journal of Management, Journal of Business Ethics and Decision Sciences. Yvonne Stedham is a Professor of Management in College of Business at the University of Nevada, Reno. She received a Ph.D. in Business and an MBA from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas and undergraduate degrees in Economics and Business from the University of Bonn, Germany. She joined the University of Nevada, Reno in 1988 and served as Chair of the Managerial Sciences Department from 1999-2002. Dr. Stedham's research covers a broad spectrum of management issues with a special focus on international, business ethics and gender aspects, and has been published in the Journal of Management. Women in Management Review, the Journal of Management Studies, the Journal of Business Ethics,the Journal of European Industrial Training, and the Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resource, and others. Jeanne H. Yamamura, CPA, MIM, PHD, is Associate Professor at the University of Nevada Reno. Her research is focused in the area of the international management of accounting professionals and in ethical decision making. She has published in journals such as the International Journal of Accounting, the International Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Performance Evaluation and the International Journal of Human Resource Management.     

Ethical Exemplification and the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct: An Empirical Investigation of Auditor and Public Perceptions

This research applies the impression management theory of exemplification in an accounting study by identifying and measuring differences in both auditor and public perceptions of exemplary behaviors. The auditors were divided into two groups, one of which reported self-perceptions (A-S) while the other group reported their perceptions of a typical auditor (A-O). There were two separate public groups, which gave their perceptions of a typical auditor and were divided based on their levels of accounting sophistication. The more sophisticated public group was comprised of bank loan officers (LO) while the less sophisticated public group consisted of investment club members (IC). Comparisons were made on 30 behaviors contained in the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, which served as the basis for the research instrument. Profile analysis, a special form of MANOVA technique, was used to analyze the results. A-S perceptions were the highest of the four treatment levels and were significantly higher (i.e., more exemplary) than the perceptions of both the A-O and LO groups. The more sophisticated user group (LO) provided the lowest perceptions of the four treatment levels. For at least four of the six measures, the LO treatment group perceived the typical auditor to be less exemplary than both the IC and A-O treatments. There were no differences in perceptions between the A-O group and IC. Additional analysis revealed that auditors overrated the degree to which the public relied on financial statements. However, both public groups reported a reasonably high level of reliance on financial statements when making decisions. Philip A. Brown is an Associate Professor and Directtor of the Accounting Program at Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas. He has a bachelor's degree from Harding University, an MBA from West Virginia University and a Ph.D. from the University of Mississippi. His research interests are in accounting ethics and in accounting education. He has published in Advances in Accounting, The Journal of Accounting and Finance Research, and others. He is a CPA in the State of Arkansas. Morris H. Stocks serves as the Dean of the Patterson School of Accountancy at the Universtiy of Mississippi. He received his undergraduate degree in accounting from Trevecca Nazarene University, his Masters degree from Middle Tennessee State University and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina. He is a Certified Public Accountant in the State of Mississippi. He is a behavioral accounting researcher and has published in Accounting, Organizations and Society, Accounting Horizons, Behavioural Research in Accounting, Decision Sciences Journal, Advances in Accounting, Advances in Accounting Information Systems, Advances in Behavioral Accounting Research, Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, Advances in Taxation and others. W. Mark Wilder is KPMG Lecturer and Associate Professor of Accountancy at The University of Mississippi. His educational background includes a bachelor's degree in mathematics from The University of Alabama, an MBA from the University of South Alabama, and a Ph.D. in Accounting from Florida State University. He is a CPA in the State of Mississippi. Mark has published in Accounting Horizons, Advances in Taxation, the Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, the Journal of Computer and Information Systems, the CPA Journal, and others. In the past 2 years he has received several awards, including the top two campus-wide faculty awards at Ole Miss and also the MSCPA Outstanding Educator Award. In 2004 he was inducted into the Alabama Tennis Hall of Fame.     

An Examination of the Structure of Executive Compensation and Corporate Social Responsibility: A Canadian Investigation

We explore the extent to which Boards use executive compensation to incite firms to act in accordance with social and environmental objectives (e.g., Johnson, R. and D. Greening: 1999, Academy of Management Journal 42(5), 564–578 ; Kane, E. J.: 2002, Journal of Banking and Finance 26, 1919–1933.). We examine the association between executive compensation and corporate social responsibility (CSR) for 77 Canadian firms using three key components of executives’ compensation structure: salary, bonus, and stock options. Similar to prior research (McGuire, J., S. Dow and K. Argheyd: 2003, Journal of Business Ethics 45(4), 341–359), we measure three different aspects of CSR, which include Total CSR as well as CSR Strengths and CSR Weaknesses. CSR Strengths and CSR Weaknesses capture the positive and negative aspects of CSR, respectively. We find significant positive relationships between: (1) Salary and CSR Weaknesses, (2) Bonus and CSR Strengths, (3) Stock Options and Total CSR; and (4) Stock Options and CSR Strengths. Our findings suggest the importance of the structure of executive compensation in encouraging socially responsible actions, particularly for larger Canadian firms. This in turn suggests that executive compensation can be an effective tool in aligning executives’ welfare with that of the “common good”, which results in more socially responsible firms (Bebchuk, L., J. Fried and D. Walker: 2002, The University of Chicago Law Review 69, 751–846; Zalewski, D.: 2003, Journal of Economic Issues 37(2), 503–509). In addition, our findings suggest the importance of institutional context in influencing the association between executive compensation and CSR. Further implications for practice and research are discussed.Lois. Mahoney is an Assistant Professor at Eastern Michigan University. Her research is focused in the areas of ethics and accounting information systems. She has published in ethics and accounting journals including Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly, Research on Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accounting, Information and Organization. Dr. Mahoney has received several research awards, including Best Paper award at the Seventh Symposium on Ethics Research in Accounting. Dr. Mahoney is also actively involved in the American Accounting Association.Linda Thorn is an Associate Professor at York University in Toronto Ontario. Her research focuses on ethical decision making, the ethics of accountants and accounting students and ethical aspects of accounting information. She has published in ethics and accounting journal including among others, Business Ethics Quarterly, Journal of Business Ethics, Contemporary Accounting Research, Behavioral Research in Accounting and Audit: A Journal of Practice in Theory.     

Seven Pillars of Business Ethics: Toward a Comprehensive Framework

This article first addresses the question of “why” we teach business ethics. Our answer to “why” provides both a response to those who oppose business ethics courses and a direction for course content. We believe a solid, comprehensive course in business ethics should address not only moral philosophy, ethical dilemmas, and corporate social responsibility – the traditional pillars of the disciple – but also additional areas necessary to make sense of the goings-on in the business world and in the news. These “new pillars,” that we advocate include moral psychology, organizational design and behavior, motivational theory, and a unit on how society, business, and law interact. This last unit builds upon the work of Francis P. McHugh (1988) who urged an integration of “disciplines related to business ethics.” Our seventh pillar would encompass an integration of law, socio-political theory, and policy to demonstrate how business helps construct its own regulatory framework. The concluding recommendation is for a comprehensive “Seven Pillars” of business ethics approach. William Arthur Wines holds a B.S.B.A. with distinction from Northwestern University and a J.D. from the University of Michigan. He is admitted to the practice of law in Minnesota and the State of Washington. His research has appeared in over three dozen journals including the American Business Law Journal, Arizona Law Review, Economics of Education Review, Delaware Journal of Corporate Law, Denver Journal of International Law and Policy, Journal of Business Ethics, Labor Law Journal, Marquette Law Review, Nebraska Law Review, and The William and Mary Journal of Women and the Law. He is the author of two volumes of readings in business ethics and “Ethics, Law, and Business”, published by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. in 2006. This material is subject to various copyright laws. Please do not transmit electronically, quote, or copy without the prior written permission of the author.