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1.
Research into the ethical disposition of students hasbeen popular in recent years. However, research intothe ethical disposition of accounting students inparticular has been sparse. Because of the uniquecharacteristics of those who choose to enter the fieldof accounting, generalizing findings of businessstudents to accounting students may not be valid. Consequently, additional studies of accountingstudents are useful.This study investigates context (academic vs.business)-based and gender-based differences inaccounting students ethical intent. We find mixedsupport for gender-based mean differences; theseresults are consistent across context. With regard tocontext we find a greater variability in respondentsbehavioral intent in an academic context relative toa business context. We also find gender-baseddifferences in how ethical issues are grouped (thatis, the perceived cognitive structure of ethicalissues). Implications of these findings are discussedwith particular interest relative to education. 相似文献
2.
David E. Desplaces David E. Melchar Laura L. Beauvais Susan M. Bosco 《Journal of Business Ethics》2007,74(1):73-87
Recent highly publicized ethical breaches including those at Enron and WorldCom have focused attention on ethical behavior
within the accounting profession. At the heart of the debate is whether ethical attitudes of accountants are to blame. Using
a nationally representative sample of accounting practitioners and a multidisciplinary student sample at two Southern United
States universities, we compare sample responses to 25 ethically charged vignettes to test whether they differ. Overall, we
find no significant difference – even for a specific “accounting tricks” vignette, which resembles the Enron and WorldCom
situations. We do find, however, that the practitioners were more accepting of vignettes that involved physical harm (PH)
to individuals and those that were legal (but ethically questionable). We postulate that accounting practitioners may apply
a legalistic framework to their assessment of the acceptability of each vignette. Focusing on an “accounting tricks” vignette,
we also find no significant difference between auditors and institutional practitioners compared to all other types of accountants
in the sample. We conclude that ethical attitudes of accounting practitioners do not differ significantly by specialty area.
Tisha L. N. Emerson is an Assistant Professor of Economics at Baylor University in Texas. In addition to business ethics,
Professor Emerson has published articles in the areas of environmental economics and economic education. She teaches courses
in environmental economics, international trade, intermediate microeconomics and microeconomic principles.
Stephen J. Conroy is an Associate Professor of Economics at the University of San Diego in California. In addition to business
ethics, Professor Conroy has published articles in the areas of economic development and demography, economics of education
and economics of aging. He teaches courses in managerial economics at both the graduate and undergraduate level, as well as
undergraduate courses in urban and regional economic development, intermediate microeconomics and principles of micro- and
macroeconomics.
Charles W. Stanley is an Associate Professor of Accounting at Baylor University in Texas. In addition to business ethics,
Dr. Stanley has published articles in the areas of financial accounting, managerial accounting, auditing, accounting systems,
tax, and professional ethics for accountants. He has also authored several on-line continuing education courses for CPAs including
one that meets the Texas State Board of Accountancy requirements for continuing education by Texas CPAs. He teaches courses
in auditing, ethics, financial accounting and managerial accounting in the MBA program at Baylor. 相似文献
3.
The state of war is a popular metaphor employed by many business writers seeking to explain the imperatives of strategic decision-making. It is a metaphor which draws on a realist characterisation of war as a Hobbesian state of nature devoid of a moral dimension. However, the work of Walzer (1977) has demonstrated that rules of war, established over generations and across cultural divides, play a significant role in the conduct of warfare. Through identifying and analysing rules of war in parallel with ethical dilemmas in business life, such as whistleblowing, it is possible to develop a more sophisticated understanding of the war metaphor in place of simplified, state of nature realism. This alternative version of the war metaphor is a useful means of introducing students to Aristotlean virtues as well as challenging their preconceptions about the nature of business activity. 相似文献
4.
Ethics researchers advise managers of organizations to link rewards and punishments to ethical and unethical behavior, respectively. We build on prior research maintaining that organizations operate at Kohlbergs stages of moral reasoning, and explain how the over-reliance on rewards and punishments encourages employees to operate at Kohlbergs lowest stages of moral reasoning. We advocate designing organizations as ethical communities and relying on different assumptions about employees in order to foster ethical reasoning at higher levels. Characteristics associated with ethical communities are identified and AES Corporation and Semco S/A serve as examples of corporations exhibiting the design characteristics and assumptions of ethical organizations. 相似文献
5.
We investigated associations between moral reasoning and epistemological beliefs in an accounting context using the sample
of 140 senior accounting students from a public university in Midwestern U.S. We found no significant correlations between
accounting students’ principled reasoning about Thorne’s ethical dilemmas and their beliefs about knowledge measured by administering
Schommer epistemological questionnaire. We conducted post-hoc power analysis and present the evidence that the lack of associations
should not be attributed to the lack of power. Overall, our results suggest that reflective thinking and moral reasoning represent
separate dimensions of cognitive process which develop at a different pace. Thus, a stand-alone course of ethics in accounting
education is warranted since higher moral reasoning does not automatically follow from extended technical education and improved
critical thinking skills. 相似文献
6.
Thomas J. Frecka 《Journal of Business Ethics》2008,80(1):45-59
Under present accounting rules, lessees frequently structure contracts for leased assets, in situations where they enjoy benefits
similar to outright ownership, in a way that keeps both the leased assets and related liabilities off their books. This method
of accounting creates off-balance sheet financing and is called operating lease accounting. The paper debates the ethicality
of intentionally structuring lease contracts to avoid disclosing leased asset and liability amounts and describes the “slippery
slope” of rule-based accounting for synthetic leases and special purpose entities, that, in the author’s opinion, led to the
accounting debacles at Enron and other companies. The ethical intent that is implicit in the Securities and Exchange Commission
and Financial Accounting Standards Board regulations is discussed and suggestions for improving the ethicality of financial
reporting are provided.
Thomas J. Frecka is the Vincent and Rose Lizzadro Professor of Accountancy at the University of Notre Dame. He teaches financial
reporting and accounting fraud courses. 相似文献
7.
Although the foundation of financial accounting and auditing has traditionally been based upon a rule-based framework, the
concept of a principle-based approach has been periodically advocated since being incorporated into the AICPA Code of Conduct
in 1989. Recent high profile events indicate that the accountants and auditors involved have followed rule-based ethical perspectives
and have failed to protect investors and stakeholders – resulting in a wave of scandals and charges of unethical conduct.
In this paper we describe how the rule-based traditions of auditing became a convenient vehicle that perpetuated the unethical
conduct of firms such as Enron and Arthur Andersen. We present a model of ten ethical perspectives and briefly describe how
these ten ethical perspectives impact rule-based and principle-based ethical conduct for accountants and auditors. We conclude
by identifying six specific suggestions that the accounting and auditing profession should consider to restore public trust
and to improve the ethical conduct of accountants and auditors. 相似文献
8.
This paper examines the advent of the Web as a critical media tool in the promotion and sale of goods to consumers and the ethical questions it raises that are issues of public policy. We examine four traditional ethical rationales that guide organizational decision-making – utilitarianism, distributive justice, moral rights of man and relativism, further characterized as "ends-based", "equity-based", "rules-based" and "comparison-based" rationales – and we apply them to four moral dilemmas attributed to the proliferation of dot.com companies as they relate to consumer welfare. We find that ethical rationale in the New Media is largely non-existent, and where it exists, it is primarily reactive and driven by utilitarian or relativistic reasoning. We attribute this condition to the newness of the industry and to its economic context, representing, as it does, many characteristics embodied in the concept of the "perfect market." We offer some remedies to improve ethical conduct by e-business. 相似文献
9.
Denise M. Patterson 《Journal of Business Ethics》2001,30(2):123-159
Prior researchers have studied individual components of a theoretical decision-making model. This paper presents the results of a more complete study of the model components and presents limited support of theory. The study examines the relative importance of regulatory, organizational, and personal constructs on an individual's ethical sensitivity. Auditors from the major international accounting firms, located in two southeastern cities, are surveyed. Structural equation modeling is used to allow for the simultaneous evaluation of the three constructs of interest. The results indicate that the regulatory and organizational constructs are negatively correlated with the personal experience construct. The three constructs are not significant causal factors on ethical sensitivity. This result may be due to the manner in which ethical sensitivity is typically measured or may indicate that the complexity of the ethical decision-making process is not fully captured in the theoretical models. Thus, the models suggested in the prior literature and the results presented in prior studies of the individual components may need to be reconsidered. 相似文献
10.
Absract Using Hofstede’s culture theory (1980, 2001, Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviours, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nation. Sage, NewYork), the
current study incorporates the moral development (e.g. Thorne, 2000; Thorne and Magnan, 2000; Thorne et al., 2003) and multidimensional ethics scale (e.g. Cohen et al., 1993; Cohen et al., 1996b; Cohen et al., 2001; Flory et al., 1992) approaches to compare the ethical reasoning and decisions of Canadian and Mainland Chinese final year undergraduate accounting
students. The results indicate that Canadian accounting students’ formulation of an intention to act on a particular ethical
dilemma (deliberative reasoning) as measured by the moral development approach (Thorne, 2000) was higher than Mainland Chinese accounting students. The current study proposes that the five factors identified by the
multidimensional ethics scale (MES), as being relevant to ethical decision making can be placed into␣the three levels of ethical
reasoning identified by Kohlberg’s (1958, The Development of Modes of Moral Thinking and Choice in the Years Ten to Sixteen. University of Chicago, Doctoral dissertation)
theory of cognitive moral development. Canadian accounting students used post-conventional MES factors (moral equity, contractualism,
and utilitarianism) more frequently and made more ethical audit decisions than Chinese accounting students.
Lin Ge is an accountant at Guest-tek Interactive Entertainment Ltd. Her research interest includes ethics and judgment of
accountants and auditors, cross-cultural studies and international business.
Stuart Thomas, Ph.D., is associate professor of accounting in the Faculty of Management at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta,
Canada. He has published in the Journal of Business Ethics, Business and Society, Research on Professional Responsibility
and Ethics in Accounting, Advances in Management Accounting and the Journal of Accounting Case Research. His research interests
focus on ethical decision making and the effects of pay schemes on performance and standard setting. 相似文献
11.
When a member of an organization has to make a decision or act in a way that may benefit some stakeholders at the expense of others, ethical dilemmas may arise. This paper examines ethical sensitivity regarding the duties to clients and owners (principals), employees (agents), and responsibilities to society (third parties). Within this framework, ethical perceptions of male and female managers are compared between the U.S. and Turkey – two countries that differ on power distance as well as the individualism/collectivism dimensions. Our results show that ethical sensitivity varies depending upon whether the interests of principals, agents, or third parties are affected by a given ethical dilemma. We also find that, contingent upon the principal-agent–society relationships, the nationality and gender of the decision-maker influences ethical sensitivity.
Can Simga-Mugan is a Professor of Accountancy at Department
of Business Administration of Middle East Technical University,
Ankara, Turkey. She received her Ph.D. in
accountancy from University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign.
Her current research interests are ethics, international financial
reporting issues, manipulation in the stock market and effect of
news on the stock market.
Bonita A. Daly, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Accounting
in the School of Business, University of Southern Maine in
Portland, Maine. She teaches auditing and financial
accounting to both undergraduate and graduate students. Dr.
Daly also teaches business ethics in continuing education
programs for practicing accountants. Her research on the
accounting profession has appeared in Critical Prespectives
on Accounting, Accounting, Organizations, and
Society, and the St. Johns Law Review, among others.
Dilek Onkal is a Professor of Decision Sciences and is currently
the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Business Administration at
Bilkent University, Turkey. She received a Ph.D. in
Decision Sciences from the University of Minnesota, and is
doing research on ethics judgements, risk perception, risk
communication, and judgmental forecasting.
Lerzan Kavut is an Associate Professor at Faculty of Business
Administration of Istanbul University. She has received her
B.A. and Ph.D. from Istanbul University. Her current
research interest is in the area of behavioral auditing. 相似文献
12.
The purpose of the present study is to examine the attitudes of Portuguese chartered accountants with respect to questions
of ethical nature that can arise in their professional activity. Respondents were asked to respond to the Ethics Position
Questionnaire developed by Forsyth (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
39(1), 175–184, 1980), in order to determine their idealism and relativism levels. Subsequently, they answered questions about five scenarios
related to accounting practices, with the objective of measuring their ethical judgments. Based on the idealism and relativism
levels of our respondents, they were classified into one of four groups, representing different ethical ideologies (absolutism,
exceptionism, subjectivism, and situationism). The results indicated that age was the major determinant of relativism. Contrary
to previous research, older respondents revealed themselves significantly more relativistic than younger ones. Gender seems
to be the most important determinant of ethical judgments; against expectations, men evidenced significantly stricter judgments
than women in two of the five scenarios. Findings also indicated that respondents’ ethical judgments did not differ significantly
based on their ethical ideology, supporting the idea that ethical ideology is not an important determinant of ethical judgments. 相似文献
13.
This study investigates the differences in individuals' ethical decision making between Canadian university business students and accounting professionals. We examine the differences in three measures known to be important in the ethical decision-making process: ethical awareness, ethical orientation, and intention to perform questionable acts. We tested for differences in these three measures in eight different questionable actions among three groups: students starting business studies, those in their final year of university, and professional accountants.The measures of awareness capture the extent to which respondents felt that a particular action was unethical according to each of several ethical criteria. We found few differences between the two student groups on these measures, suggesting that their education had minimal effect on raising their awareness of the ethical issues in the vignettes. Indeed, overall, the graduating student's scores were marginally lower than those of the entry-level students. However, the professionals viewed some actions as significantly less ethical than did the graduating students.The measures of ethical orientation capture the weight respondents placed on each of the criteria above in their evaluation of the overall morality of an action. The differences between the three groups were generally small, and were a function of the vignette, consistent with Jones' (1991) model of issue-contingent ethical reasoning.The measures of intention capture the extent to which a respondent perceives that s/he would perform the action. There were significant differences between the groups in three of the eight vignettes, driven by a difference between the professionals and the other two student groups. The awareness measures were strong predictors of intention. We discuss the implications of these findings for professional training and future research. 相似文献
14.
Accounting ethics failures have seized headlines and cost investors billions of dollars. Improvement of the ethical reasoning and behavior of accountants has become a key concern for the accounting profession and for higher education in accounting. Researchers have asked a number of questions, including what type of accounting ethics education intervention would be most effective for accounting students. Some researchers have proposed virtue ethics as an appropriate moral framework for accounting. This research tested whether Smithian virtue ethics training, based on Adam Smith’s “The Theory of Moral Sentiments” (1790/1976), is effective in improving accounting student’s cognitive moral development (CMD). This research used a pre-test, treatment, post-test, quasi-experimental design utilizing the Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT-2) instrument to measure students’ CMD. Analysis of DIT-2 gain scores did show a significant improvement in subjects’ personal interest scores and a significant improvement in an overall measure of CMD, the DIT N2 index, whereas their DIT-2 post-conventional scores did not improve significantly. This research supports the proposition that the concepts contained in Smithian virtue ethics can contribute to an effective accounting ethics education intervention. However, further research is required to determine what concepts should be included to improve accounting students’ post-conventional moral reasoning. 相似文献
15.
A heterogeneous survey sample of for-profit, non-profit and government employees revealed that organizational factors but
not personal characteristics were significant antecedents of misconduct and job satisfaction. Formal organizational compliance
practices and ethical climate were independent predictors of misconduct, and compliance practices also moderated the relationship
between ethical climate and misconduct, as well as between pressure to compromise ethical standards and misconduct. Misconduct
was not predicted by level of moral reasoning, age, sex, ethnicity, job status, or size and type of organization. Demographic
variables predicted job satisfaction and organizational variables added significant incremental variance. Results suggest
the importance of promoting a moral organization through the words and actions of senior managers and supervisors, independent
of formal mechanisms such as codes of conduct.
相似文献
Joel LefkowitzEmail: |
16.
Preparers of financial statements are in a position to manipulate the view of economic reality presented in those statements to interested parties. This paper examines two principal categories of manipulative behaviour. The term macro-manipulation is used to describe the lobbying of regulators to persuade them to produce regulation that is more favourable to the interests of preparers. Micro-manipulation describes the management of accounting figures to produce a biased view at the entity level. Both categories of manipulation can be viewed as attempts at creativity by financial statement preparers. The paper analyses two cases of manipulation. First, it describes a recent case of significant and successful lobbying against the accounting regulator in the USA. The second case examines some recent Spanish earnings manipulation to demonstrate the effects of biased reporting at the entity level. Both types of creativity are considered in an ethical context. The paper concludes that the manipulations described in it can be regarded as morally reprehensible. They are not fair to users, they involve an unjust exercise of power, and they tend to weaken the authority of accounting regulators. 相似文献
17.
18.
Financial and cost accounting information is processed by decision-makers guided by their particular need to support decisions. Recent technological advances impacting on information as well as organizations such as the European Community mandating financial reporting requirements for many countries is rapidly changing the landscape for decision making using accounting information. Hence, the importance of individuals' decision making is more important than it was previously. These decisions are also influenced by individuals' ethical beliefs. The Throughput Modeling approach to cultural and ethical concerns provides a way of dealing with accounting information processed through various pathways by decision-makers. This modeling approach captures different philosophical perspectives from which to understand what is involved in "thinking scientifically." In the Throughput Modeling approach, pathways highlight the importance of how different philosophical perspectives may be used by individuals in arriving at a decision. This paper highlights key concepts involved in rethinking the basis of moral decision making in terms of an underlying process, rather than focusing on the application of principles or the development of a virtuous character. Examples are provided from both English and Spanish settings to help emphasize the importance of modeling ethical decision making globally. 相似文献
19.
J. Thomas Whetstone 《Journal of Business Ethics》2001,33(2):101-114
This paper proposes that managers add an attention to virtues and vices of human character as a full complement to moral reasoning according to a deontological focus on obligations to act and a teleological focus on consequences (a balanced tripartite approach). Even if the criticisms of virtue ethics cloud its use as a mononomic normative theory of justification, they do not refute the substantial benefits of applying a human character perspective – when done so in conjunction with also-imperfect act-oriented perspectives. An interactive tripartite approach is superior for meeting the complex requirements of an applied ethic. To illustrate how deficiencies of a "strong" virtue ethics formulation can be overcome by a balanced tripartite approach, this paper compares normative leadership paradigms (each based on a combination of virtue, deontology, or consequentialist perspectives) and the dangers inherent in each. The preferred paradigm is servant leadership, grounded in a tripartite ethic. Effective application of such an ethics approach in contemporary organizations requires further empirical research to develop a greater understanding of the moral language actually used. Meeting this challenge will allow academics better to assist practicing managers lead moral development and moral reasoning efforts. 相似文献
20.
Steven Dellaportas 《Journal of Business Ethics》2006,65(4):391-404
Calls for the expansion of ethics education in the business and accounting curricula have resulted in a variety of interventions
including additional material on ethical cases, the code of conduct, and the development of new courses devoted to ethical
development [Lampe, J.: 1996]. The issue of whether ethics should be taught has been addressed by many authors [see for example:
Hanson, K. O.: 1987; Huss, H. F. and D. M. Patterson: 1993; Jones, T. M.: 1988–1989; Kerr, D. S. and L. M. Smith: 1995; Loeb,
S. E.: 1988; McDonald, G. M. and G. D. Donleavy: 1995]. The question addressed in this paper is not whether ethics should
be taught but whether accounting students can reason more ethically after an intervention based on a discrete and dedicated
course on accounting ethics. The findings in this paper indicate that a discrete intervention emphasising dilemma discussion
has a positive and significant effect on students’ moral reasoning and development. The data collected from interviews suggest
that the salient influences on moral judgement development include: learning theories of ethics particularly Kohlberg’s theory
of cognitive moral reasoning and development; peer learning; and moral discourse. The implications from the findings in this
study suggest that moral reasoning is responsive to particular types of ethics intervention and educators should carefully
plan their attempts to foster moral judgement development. 相似文献