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Accounting scandals, ethical dilemmas and educational challenges

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  • Low, Mary
  • Davey, Howard
  • Hooper, Keith

Abstract

Publicity over the role of accountants often accompanies major corporate collapses. It is argued that recent corporate scandals have set a new low for the accounting profession. It is, after all, the accountants who have assisted in financial management, prepared financial statements and audited these statements. As a corollary to this, it can be argued that accountants play a significant role in good corporate governance and ethical sustainable business practices. Increasingly there are calls for greater transparency and corporate governance as well as increased adoption of professional and ethical practices by businesses. Is this possible given our inherently materialistic nature of accumulating wealth? The question must therefore be asked, if new or additional legislation would not work, what will? It has also been argued that poor quality professional education is one of the problems contributing to these scandals. This paper identifies and explores five factors that seemingly influences and contributes to the perpetuation of accounting and corporate scandals because of their impact on ethical behaviour. Also discussed in this paper is the debate related to the inadequacy of university curricula particularly with regard to the influence of ethics education on accounting graduates. To investigate further these issues, we surveyed students to ascertain whether they believe education can influence ethical behaviour. The findings from the surveys could not conclusively indicate that students perceived ethics education to have a significant influence on their ethical behaviour but nonetheless they believed that it was still important to have ethics education in their programme of study. This finding, in itself, suggests that it is still possible to influence the ‘thinking’ of accounting graduates before they entered the complex world of business.

Suggested Citation

  • Low, Mary & Davey, Howard & Hooper, Keith, 2008. "Accounting scandals, ethical dilemmas and educational challenges," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 222-254.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:19:y:2008:i:2:p:222-254
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2006.05.010
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    1. Prem Sikka & Hugh Wilmott, 2002. "Commentary on 'Accountability of accounting educators and the rhythm of the university: resistance strategies for postmodern blues'," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 191-197.
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    2. Abdulai Agbaje Salami & Mubaraq Sanni & Ahmad Bukola Uthman, 2018. "Accounting Ethics Education in Nigeria: Value-Improving or Value-Deteriorating Tool?," Academic Journal of Economic Studies, Faculty of Finance, Banking and Accountancy Bucharest,"Dimitrie Cantemir" Christian University Bucharest, vol. 4(4), pages 116-126, December.
    3. Maroun, Warren & Solomon, Jill, 2014. "Whistle-blowing by external auditors: Seeking legitimacy for the South African Audit Profession?," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 109-121.
    4. Guillermina Tormo-Carbó & Elies Seguí-Mas & Víctor Oltra, 2018. "Business Ethics as a Sustainability Challenge: Higher Education Implications," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(8), pages 1-17, August.
    5. Pablo Ruiz-Palomino & Ricardo Martínez-Cañas & Pedro Jiménez-Estévez, 2019. "Are Corporate Social Responsibility Courses Effective? A Longitudinal and Gender-Based Analysis in Undergraduate Students," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(21), pages 1-17, October.
    6. Ocampo-Gómez, Elizabeth & Ortega-Guerrero, Juan C., 2013. "Expanding the perspective and knowledge of the accounting curriculum and pedagogy in other locations: The case of Mexico," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 145-153.
    7. Morales, Jérémy & Sponem, Samuel, 2017. "You too can have a critical perspective! 25 years of Critical Perspectives on Accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 149-166.
    8. Noor Lela Ahmad & Habib Ahmed & Wan Salmuni Wan Mustaffa, 2017. "The Significance of Islamic Ethics to Quality Accounting Practice," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7(10), pages 693-703, October.
    9. Dixon, Keith, 2023. "Consequences of accountings, distributional and otherwise," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    10. Gabriel Sam Ahinful & Sheila Addo & Felix Obeng Boateng & Jeff Danquah Boakye, 2017. "Accounting Ethics and the Professional Accountant: The Case of Ghana," International Journal of Applied Economics, Finance and Accounting, Online Academic Press, vol. 1(1), pages 30-36.
    11. Tamara Poje & Maja Zaman Groff, 2022. "Mapping Ethics Education in Accounting Research: A Bibliometric Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 451-472, August.
    12. Dana Simona Gherai & Diana Elisabeta Balaciu, 2011. "From Creative Accounting Practices And Enron Phenomenon To The Current Financial Crisis," Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Oeconomica, Faculty of Sciences, "1 Decembrie 1918" University, Alba Iulia, vol. 1(13), pages 1-3.
    13. Haywood, M. Elizabeth & Wygal, Donald E., 2009. "Ethics and professionalism: Bringing the topic to life in the classroom," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 71-84.
    14. Ferhat D. Zengul & James D. Byrd & Nurettin Oner & Mark Edmonds & Arline Savage, 2019. "Exploring corporate governance research in accounting journals through latent semantic and topic analyses," Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(4), pages 175-192, October.
    15. Janie Bérubé & Yves Gendron, 2023. "Developing Ethical Sensitivity in Future Accounting Practitioners: The Case of a Dialogic Learning for Final-Year Undergraduates," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 183(3), pages 763-781, March.
    16. Noor Lela Ahmad & Habib Ahmed, 2017. "The Acceptability and Impact of Sharia Foundation of Islamic Ethics in Accounting Education," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 7(2), pages 494-506, February.
    17. Carmona, Salvador, 2013. "Accounting curriculum reform? The devil is in the detail," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 113-119.

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