IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/jbuset/v153y2018i4d10.1007_s10551-016-3411-4.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Developing Ethical Confidence: The Impact of Action-Oriented Ethics Instruction in an Accounting Curriculum

Author

Listed:
  • Anne Christensen

    (Montana State University)

  • Jane Cote

    (Washington State University Vancouver)

  • Claire Kamm Latham

    (Washington State University Vancouver)

Abstract

While there is considerable support for integrating ethics education in accounting curricula, research presents conflicting evidence on how best to incorporate it. A review of accounting ethics scholarship highlights criticisms of the literature, including limited research into actual behavior and a lack of theory. We report the results of a study that is theory based, captures behaviors rather than attitudes, and explores the effect of repeated practice to develop voice efficacy. We examine the impact of two types of ethics instructions. Across four classes in an accounting curriculum, one student cohort participated in traditional ethics instruction, while the other cohort participated in Giving Voice To Values (GVV) instruction. We collected student responses to an ethical challenge and conduct a between-subject analysis. The results reveal consistent unethical behavior in the traditional cohort but not in the GVV cohort, indicating that faculty should consider the use of this pedagogy in accounting ethics education.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:153:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-016-3411-4
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-016-3411-4
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10551-016-3411-4
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10551-016-3411-4?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. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    2. Daniel Arce & Mary Gentile, 2015. "Giving Voice to Values as a Leverage Point in Business Ethics Education," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(3), pages 535-542, October.
    3. Nonna Martinov-Bennie & Rosina Mladenovic, 2015. "Investigation of the Impact of an Ethical Framework and an Integrated Ethics Education on Accounting Students’ Ethical Sensitivity and Judgment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(1), pages 189-203, March.
    4. Stephen Loeb, 2015. "Active Learning: An Advantageous Yet Challenging Approach to Accounting Ethics Instruction," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(1), pages 221-230, March.
    5. Anne Christensen & Jane Cote & Claire Latham, 2016. "Insights Regarding the Applicability of the Defining Issues Test to Advance Ethics Research with Accounting Students: A Meta-analytic Review," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(1), pages 141-163, January.
    6. Neil Granitz & Dana Loewy, 2007. "Applying Ethical Theories: Interpreting and Responding to Student Plagiarism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 72(3), pages 293-306, May.
    7. 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.
    8. Mark Edwards & Nin Kirkham, 2014. "Situating ‘Giving Voice to Values’: A Metatheoretical Evaluation of a New Approach to Business Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(3), pages 477-495, May.
    9. Roberta Bampton & Christopher Cowton, 2013. "Taking Stock of Accounting Ethics Scholarship: A Review of the Journal Literature," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 114(3), pages 549-563, May.
    10. Salvador, Rommel & Folger, Robert G., 2009. "Business Ethics and the Brain: Rommel Salvador and Robert G. Folger," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(1), pages 1-31, January.
    11. Sheehan, Norman T. & Schmidt, Joseph A., 2015. "Preparing accounting students for ethical decision making: Developing individual codes of conduct based on personal values," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 183-197.
    12. Victoria McWilliams & Afsaneh Nahavandi, 2006. "Using Live Cases to Teach Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(4), pages 421-433, September.
    13. Louise M. Hassan & Edward Shiu & Deirdre Shaw, 2016. "Who Says There is an Intention–Behaviour Gap? Assessing the Empirical Evidence of an Intention–Behaviour Gap in Ethical Consumption," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 219-236, June.
    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. Donald L. Ariail & Katherine Taken Smith & Lawrence Murphy Smith & Amine Khayati, 2024. "An Examination of Ethical Values of Management Accountants," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 195(2), pages 407-423, November.
    2. Diana Elisabeta MATICA & Lucian CERNUȘCA & Sorina-Ioana MOCIAR COROIU, 2022. "Ethics In The Romanian Accounting Profession. A Gender And Religion Comparative Study," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 2(2), pages 131-142, December.
    3. Alina Beattrice VLADU & Dan Dacian CUZDRIOREAN, 2022. "Considerations on the Improvement of Ethical Decision Making in the Accounting Profession," CECCAR Business Review, Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania (CECCAR), vol. 3(1), pages 44-52, January.
    4. 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.
    5. W. Robert Knechel & Natalia Mintchik, 2022. "Do Personal Beliefs and Values Affect an Individual’s “Fraud Tolerance”? Evidence from the World Values Survey," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(2), pages 463-489, May.
    6. Kathleen A. Tomlin & Matthew L. Metzger & Jill Bradley-Geist, 2021. "Removing the Blinders: Increasing Students’ Awareness of Self-Perception Biases and Real-World Ethical Challenges Through an Educational Intervention," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 169(4), pages 731-746, April.
    7. 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.

    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. 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.
    2. G. Venkat Raman & Swapnil Garg & Sneha Thapliyal, 2019. "Integrative Live Case: A Contemporary Business Ethics Pedagogy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(4), pages 1009-1032, April.
    3. W. Robert Knechel & Natalia Mintchik, 2022. "Do Personal Beliefs and Values Affect an Individual’s “Fraud Tolerance”? Evidence from the World Values Survey," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(2), pages 463-489, May.
    4. Alina Beattrice VLADU & Dan Dacian CUZDRIOREAN, 2022. "Considerations on the Improvement of Ethical Decision Making in the Accounting Profession," CECCAR Business Review, Body of Expert and Licensed Accountants of Romania (CECCAR), vol. 3(1), pages 44-52, January.
    5. Valeria Superti & Cynthia Houmani & Ralph Hansmann & Ivo Baur & Claudia R. Binder, 2021. "Strategies for a Circular Economy in the Construction and Demolition Sector: Identifying the Factors Affecting the Recommendation of Recycled Concrete," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-32, April.
    6. Frommeyer, Britta & Wagner, Elisa & Hossiep, C. Richard & Schewe, Gerhard, 2022. "The utility of intention as a proxy for sustainable buying behavior – A necessary condition analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 201-213.
    7. Dirk C. Moosmayer & Yanyan Chen & Susannah M. Davis, 2019. "Deeds Not Words: A Cosmopolitan Perspective on the Influences of Corporate Sustainability and NGO Engagement on the Adoption of Sustainable Products in China," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 135-154, August.
    8. Lortie, Jason & Cox, Kevin C. & Roundy, Philip T., 2022. "Social impact models, legitimacy perceptions, and consumer responses to social ventures," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 144(C), pages 312-321.
    9. Henri Kuokkanen & William Sun, 2020. "Companies, Meet Ethical Consumers: Strategic CSR Management to Impact Consumer Choice," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(2), pages 403-423, October.
    10. Krause, Marlen S. & Matzdorf, Bettina, 2019. "The intention of companies to invest in biodiversity and ecosystem services credits through an online-marketplace," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    11. Shah, Sayed Kifayat & Zhongjun, Tang, 2021. "Elaborating on the consumer’s intention–behavior gap regarding 5G technology: The moderating role of the product market-creation ability," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    12. Andersen, Margaret L. & Klamm, Bonnie K., 2018. "Haidt’s social intuitionist model: What are the implications for accounting ethics education?," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 35-46.
    13. Sylvain Charlebois & Lianne Foti, 2017. "Using a Live Case Study and Co-opetition to Explore Sustainability and Ethics in a Classroom: Exporting Fresh Water to China," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 18(6), pages 1400-1411, December.
    14. William F. Miller & Tara J. Shawver, 2018. "An Exploration of the State of Ethics in UK Accounting Education," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 153(4), pages 1109-1120, December.
    15. William Sun, 2020. "Toward a theory of ethical consumer intention formation: re-extending the theory of planned behavior," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 10(3), pages 260-278, December.
    16. Rosina Mladenovic & Nonna Martinov-Bennie & Amani Bell, 2019. "Business Students’ Insights into Their Development of Ethical Decision-Making," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 275-287, March.
    17. Eunjung Lim & Shin Arita & Soonhee Joung, 2019. "Advancing Sustainable Consumption in Korea and Japan—From Re-Orientation of Consumer Behavior to Civic Actions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(23), pages 1-22, November.
    18. Wiesława Kuźniar & Tomasz Surmacz & Bogdan Wierzbiński, 2021. "The Impact of Ecological Knowledge on Young Consumers’ Attitudes and Behaviours towards the Food Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    19. Grace Mubako & Kallol Bagchi & Godwin Udo & Marjorie Marinovic, 2021. "Personal Values and Ethical Behavior in Accounting Students," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 174(1), pages 161-176, November.
    20. Diane Pelly & Orla Doyle, 2022. "Nudging in the workplace: increasing participation in employee EDI wellness events," Working Papers 202208, Geary Institute, University College Dublin.

    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:kap:jbuset:v:153:y:2018:i:4:d:10.1007_s10551-016-3411-4. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.