IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/arp/tjssrr/2018p894-903.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors Influencing Ethical Decision-Making of Professional Accountants in Malaysia

Author

Listed:
  • Mohd Hafizuddin Shah Ismail

    (Accounts Department UMW Corporation Malaysia, Malaysia)

  • Hilwani Hariri*

    (Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia)

  • Razinah Hassan

    (Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia)

Abstract

Numerous incidences of unethical behaviours of accountant has been reported globally in the recent years have left significant impact to the accounting profession. These incidences raised concern of accountants’ ethical decision making. In the accounting profession, ethical decision making is a complex process partly due to accountants’ fiduciary obligatios to their clients, as well as protecting public interests.The objective of this study is to examine the effect of demographic factors (gender, age, professional qualification) and ethical ideology, on ethical decision making of accounting practitioners. A survey questionnaire comprises of Ethical Position Questionnaire and two ethical dilemma vignettes was distributed and 125 responds were analysed.Statistical analyses found that age and professional qualifications have significant positive influence on ethical decision making of practitioner accountants, suggesting that these two factors influence accountants to be stricter when confronting with ethical issues. Furthermore, this study also found that idealism as significantly influence ethical decision making of practitioner accountant in Malaysia. As a conclusion, age, professional qualification and idealism have influence on an accountant’s ethical decision-making in Malaysia.

Suggested Citation

  • Mohd Hafizuddin Shah Ismail & Hilwani Hariri* & Razinah Hassan, 2018. "Factors Influencing Ethical Decision-Making of Professional Accountants in Malaysia," The Journal of Social Sciences Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, pages 894-903:5.
    • Handle: RePEc:arp:tjssrr:2018:p:894-903
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.arpgweb.com/pdf-files/spi5.1-894-903.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.arpgweb.com/journal/7/special_issue/12-2018/5/4
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Tisha Emerson & Stephen Conroy & Charles Stanley, 2007. "Ethical Attitudes of Accountants: Recent Evidence from a Practitioners’ Survey," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 71(1), pages 73-87, March.
    2. Pedro Marques & José Azevedo-Pereira, 2009. "Ethical Ideology and Ethical Judgments in the Portuguese Accounting Profession," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 86(2), pages 227-242, May.
    3. Mario Fernando & Rafi Chowdhury, 2010. "The Relationship Between Spiritual Well-Being and Ethical Orientations in Decision Making: An Empirical Study with Business Executives in Australia," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 95(2), pages 211-225, August.
    4. Satish Deshpande & Jacob Joseph & Rashmi Prasad, 2008. "Impact of Managerial Dependencies on Ethical Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(3), pages 535-542, December.
    5. A. Greenfield & Carolyn Norman & Benson Wier, 2008. "The Effect of Ethical Orientation and Professional Commitment on Earnings Management Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(3), pages 419-434, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:arp:tjssrr:2019:p:27-36 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Razana Juhaida Johari & Zuraidah Mohd Sanusi & Arumega Zarefar, 2019. "Auditor¡¯s Ethical Judgments: The Influence of Moral Intensity, Ethical Orientation and Client Importance," International Journal of Financial Research, International Journal of Financial Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 10(3), pages 77-87, May.
    3. Luca Casali, Gian & Perano, Mirko, 2021. "Forty years of research on factors influencing ethical decision making: Establishing a future research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 614-630.
    4. Tabea Franziska Hirth-Goebel & Barbara E. Weißenberger, 2019. "Management accountants and ethical dilemmas: How to promote ethical intention?," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 287-322, October.
    5. Jana Craft, 2013. "A Review of the Empirical Ethical Decision-Making Literature: 2004–2011," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 221-259, October.
    6. Fuan Li & Mike Chen-ho Chao & Nancy Yi-feng Chen & Sixue Zhang, 2018. "Moral judgment in a business setting: The role of managers’ moral foundation, ideology, and level of moral development," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 35(1), pages 121-143, March.
    7. Peter Mudrack & E. Mason, 2013. "Ethical Judgments: What Do We Know, Where Do We Go?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 115(3), pages 575-597, July.
    8. Deepak, 2016. "Antecedent Value of Professional Commitment and Job Involvement in Determining Job Satisfaction," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 41(2), pages 154-164, May.
    9. Donna Bobek & Amy Hageman & Robin Radtke, 2015. "The Influence of Roles and Organizational Fit on Accounting Professionals’ Perceptions of their Firms’ Ethical Environment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 125-141, January.
    10. Zou, Lili Wenli & Chan, Ricky Y.K., 2019. "Why and when do consumers perform green behaviors? An examination of regulatory focus and ethical ideology," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 113-127.
    11. Anadi Saran Pande & Neerja Pande, 2024. "Enriching the Construct of Workplace Spirituality with Insights from Indian Philosophy and its Empirical Validation in Indian Context," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 13(2), pages 210-227, July.
    12. Manuel Tejeda, 2015. "Exploring the Supportive Effects of Spiritual Well-Being on Job Satisfaction Given Adverse Work Conditions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 173-181, September.
    13. Mukaddes Sakalli Demirok, 2018. "Career satisfaction and professional commitment of special education teachers," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 52(2), pages 1187-1199, December.
    14. Camacho-Miñano, María-del-Mar & Campa, Domenico, 2014. "Integrity of financial information as a determinant of the outcome of a bankruptcy procedure," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 76-85.
    15. Mehdi Nekhili & Fahim Javed & Haithem Nagati, 2022. "Audit Partner Gender, Leadership and Ethics: The Case of Earnings Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(2), pages 233-260, May.
    16. Karen Green & Benson Wier, 2015. "Influence of Ethical Position and Information Asymmetry on Transfer Price Negotiations," Accounting and Finance Research, Sciedu Press, vol. 4(1), pages 1-30, February.
    17. Hengky Latan & Charbel Jose Chiappetta Jabbour & Ana Beatriz Lopes de Sousa Jabbour, 2019. "Ethical Awareness, Ethical Judgment and Whistleblowing: A Moderated Mediation Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 289-304, March.
    18. Thushini S. Jayawardena-Willis & Edwina Pio & Peter McGhee, 2021. "The Divine States (brahmaviharas) in Managerial Ethical Decision-Making in Organisations in Sri Lanka: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 168(1), pages 151-171, January.
    19. Wenchuan Huang & Shouming Chen & Talib Hussain & Ahmed Rabeeu, 2024. "How spirituality affects individuals’ attitudes towards corporate social responsibility: a moderated mediation model," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-12, December.
    20. Alex Chan & Hoi Cheung, 2012. "Cultural Dimensions, Ethical Sensitivity, and Corporate Governance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 110(1), pages 45-59, September.
    21. William Shafer, 2015. "Ethical Climate, Social Responsibility, and Earnings Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 43-60, January.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arp:tjssrr:2018:p:894-903. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Managing Editor (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arpgweb.com/?ic=journal&journal=7&info=aims .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.