IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/joaced/v27y2009i4p185-196.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Accountants’ cognitive styles and ethical reasoning: A comparison across 15years

Author

Listed:
  • Abdolmohammadi, Mohammad J.
  • Fedorowicz, Jane
  • Davis, Ophera

Abstract

Recent attention to accountants’ ethics in the news, in professional practice, and by academia leads to questions about the ethical and cognitive characterization of students selecting accounting careers. We employ the Myers/Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) for assessing cognitive styles, and the Defining Issues Test (DIT) for assessing ethical reasoning to study differences between two groups of accounting graduates and new hires entering the accounting profession across a period of 15years. We show that the dominant cognitive make-up of accountants has not changed significantly over the study period, which is consistent with prior research. Also, we hypothesize and provide evidence that this dominant style is associated with lower levels of ethical reasoning (as measured by the DIT) than other cognitive styles. The ethical reasoning scores are lower for the 2005 sample than for the 1990 sample. This result may be attributable to age, gender, grade point average, or political orientation; however, incomplete data in our sample does not allow us to make definitive conclusions regarding these control variables. We discuss the implications of these findings for curriculum development and professional practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Abdolmohammadi, Mohammad J. & Fedorowicz, Jane & Davis, Ophera, 2009. "Accountants’ cognitive styles and ethical reasoning: A comparison across 15years," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 185-196.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:joaced:v:27:y:2009:i:4:p:185-196
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jaccedu.2010.07.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S074857511000031X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jaccedu.2010.07.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Steven Dellaportas, 2006. "Making a Difference with a Discrete Course on Accounting Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 65(4), pages 391-404, June.
    2. Ponemon, Lawrence A., 1992. "Ethical reasoning and selection-socialization in accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 239-258.
    3. Richard A. Bernardi & Donald F. Arnold, 1997. "An Examination of Moral Development within Public Accounting by Gender, Staff Level, and Firm," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(4), pages 653-668, December.
    4. Richard A. Bernardi & Donald F. Arnold, 2004. "Testing the “Inverted†U†Phenomenon in Moral Development on Recently Promoted Senior Managers and Partners," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 353-367, June.
    5. Jack Flanagan & Kevin Clarke, 2007. "Beyond a Code of Professional Ethics: A Holistic Model of Ethical Decision‐Making for Accountants," Abacus, Accounting Foundation, University of Sydney, vol. 43(4), pages 488-518, December.
    6. Scofield, Stephen B. & Phillips, Thomas Jr. & Bailey, Charles D., 2004. "An empirical reanalysis of the selection-socialization hypothesis: a research note," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(5-6), pages 543-563.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hamed Dehghanzade & Mahammad Ali Moradi & Mahvash Raghibi, 2011. "A Survey of Human Factors¡¯ Impacts on the Effectiveness of Accounting Information Systems," International Journal of Business Administration, International Journal of Business Administration, Sciedu Press, vol. 2(4), pages 166-174, November.
    2. Heinz, Philip & Patel, Chris & Hellmann, Andreas, 2013. "Some theoretical and methodological suggestions for studies examining accountants' professional judgments and earnings management," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 299-311.
    3. Wolcott, Susan K. & Sargent, Matthew J., 2021. "Critical thinking in accounting education: Status and call to action," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    4. Alan Reinstein & Eileen Z. Taylor, 2017. "Fences as Controls to Reduce Accountants’ Rationalization," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 477-488, March.
    5. Conor O’Leary & Jenny Stewart, 2013. "The Interaction of Learning Styles and Teaching Methodologies in Accounting Ethical Instruction," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(2), pages 225-241, March.
    6. Phebian L. Davis & Denise Dickins & Julia L. Higgs & Joseph Reid, 2024. "Microaggressions in the Accounting Academy: The Black Experience," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 192(3), pages 627-654, July.
    7. Anne Christensen & Jane Cote & Claire Kamm Latham, 2018. "Developing Ethical Confidence: The Impact of Action-Oriented Ethics Instruction in an Accounting Curriculum," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 1157-1175, December.
    8. Apostolou, Barbara & Hassell, John M. & Rebele, James E. & Watson, Stephanie F., 2010. "Accounting education literature review (2006–2009)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 145-197.

    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. Damon Fleming & Chee Chow & Wenbing Su, 2010. "An Exploratory Study of Chinese Accounting Students’ and Auditors’ Audit-specific Ethical Reasoning," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(3), pages 353-369, July.
    2. Shafer, William E., 2008. "Ethical climate in Chinese CPA firms," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(7-8), pages 825-835.
    3. William E. Shafer & Richard S. Simmons, 2011. "Effects of organizational ethical culture on the ethical decisions of tax practitioners in mainland China," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(5), pages 647-668, June.
    4. Elaine Doyle & Jane Frecknall-Hughes & Barbara Summers, 2014. "Ethics in Tax Practice: A Study of the Effect of Practitioner Firm Size," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 122(4), pages 623-641, July.
    5. Elaine Doyle & Jane Frecknall Hughes & Barbara Summers, 2013. "An Empirical Analysis of the Ethical Reasoning of Tax Practitioners," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 325-339, May.
    6. William E. Shafer, 2009. "Ethical climate, organizational‐professional conflict and organizational commitment," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 22(7), pages 1087-1110, September.
    7. Breda Sweeney & Don Arnold & Bernard Pierce, 2010. "The Impact of Perceived Ethical Culture of the Firm and Demographic Variables on Auditors’ Ethical Evaluation and Intention to Act Decisions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(4), pages 531-551, June.
    8. Doyle, Elaine & Frecknall-Hughes, Jane & Summers, Barbara, 2022. "Ethical reasoning in tax practice: Law or is there more?," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 48(C).
    9. Soraya Bel Haj Ali, 2011. "Les valeurs culturelles, l'indépendance et le développement moral cognitif : quel lien pour quel auditeur ?," Post-Print hal-00646460, HAL.
    10. Hunt, Nicholas C. & Curtis, Mary B. & Rixom, Jessica M., 2022. "Financial priming, psychological distance, and recognizing financial misreporting as an ethical issue: The role of financial reporting responsibility," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    11. Scofield, Stephen B. & Phillips, Thomas Jr. & Bailey, Charles D., 2004. "An empirical reanalysis of the selection-socialization hypothesis: a research note," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 29(5-6), pages 543-563.
    12. Wayne Decker & Thomas Calo, 2007. "Observers’ Impressions of Unethical Persons and Whistleblowers," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 76(3), pages 309-318, December.
    13. Lamar Pierce & Jason Snyder, 2015. "Unethical Demand and Employee Turnover," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(4), pages 853-869, November.
    14. Al-Najjar, Basil & Salama, Aly, 2022. "Mind the gap: Are female directors and executives more sensitive to the environment in high-tech us firms?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    15. Abdul Halim Chew Abdullah, 2021. "Real Earnings Management: Do the Experience and Gender of Big4 Auditors Matters?," GATR Journals afr206, Global Academy of Training and Research (GATR) Enterprise.
    16. Alaa Mansour Zalata & Collins Ntim & Ahmed Aboud & Ernest Gyapong, 2019. "Female CEOs and Core Earnings Quality: New Evidence on the Ethics Versus Risk-Aversion Puzzle," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 515-534, December.
    17. 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.
    18. Tsui, Judy S. L., 1996. "Auditors' ethical reasoning: Some audit conflict and cross cultural evidence," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 31(1), pages 121-133.
    19. Wilhelm, William J. & Weber, Peter & Douglas, Kacey & Siepermann, Markus & Abuhamdieh, Ayman, 2021. "Moral reasoning and anti-immigrant bias: Experimental evidence from university students in Germany and the United States," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    20. Amondarain, Josune & Aldazabal, M. Edurne & Espinosa-Pike, Marcela, 2023. "Gender differences in the auditing stereotype and their influence on the intention to enter the profession," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C).

    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:eee:joaced:v:27:y:2009:i:4:p:185-196. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-accounting-education .

    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.