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Ethical Attitudes of Accountants: Recent Evidence from a Practitioners’ Survey

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  • Tisha Emerson
  • Stephen Conroy
  • Charles Stanley

Abstract

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 tricksâ€\x9D 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 tricksâ€\x9D 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. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. 2007

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:71:y:2007:i:1:p:73-87
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-006-9125-2
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Ponemon, Lawrence A., 1992. "Ethical reasoning and selection-socialization in accounting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(3-4), pages 239-258.
    2. Paul M. Healy & Krishna G. Palepu, 2003. "The Fall of Enron," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 17(2), pages 3-26, Spring.
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    1. Manuel Pedro Rodríguez Bolívar, 2017. "Policy makers’ perceptions on the transformational effect of Web 2.0 technologies on public services delivery," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 227-254, June.
    2. Chris Perryer & Brenda Scott-Ladd, 2014. "Deceit, Misuse and Favours: Understanding and Measuring Attitudes to Ethics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(1), pages 123-134, April.
    3. Gregory A. Liyanarachchi & Ralph Adler, 2011. "Accountants’ Whistle-Blowing Intentions: The Impact of Retaliation, Age, and Gender," Australian Accounting Review, CPA Australia, vol. 21(2), pages 167-182, June.
    4. Jeffrey D'Silva & Chan Meng & Jamilah Othman & Zoharah Omar, 2015. "Personal Moral Philosophy of Undergraduates towards Academic Dishonesty," Modern Applied Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(11), pages 144-144, October.
    5. Giacomo Gistri & Matteo Corciolani, 2020. "Towards a better understanding of practitioners’ ideas about product placement: an empirical analysis in the Italian context," Italian Journal of Marketing, Springer, vol. 2020(4), pages 261-288, December.
    6. Blaufus, Kay & Zinowsky, Tim, 2013. "Investigating the determinants of experts' tax aggressiveness: Experience and personality traits," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 151, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    7. Brian Mayhew & Pamela Murphy, 2009. "The Impact of Ethics Education on Reporting Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 86(3), pages 397-416, May.
    8. Barrainkua, Itsaso & Espinosa-Pike, Marcela, 2018. "The influence of auditors’ professionalism on ethical judgement: Differences among practitioners and postgraduate students," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(2), pages 176-187.
    9. 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.
    10. Stephen Conroy & Tisha Emerson & Frank Pons, 2010. "Ethical Attitudes of Accounting Practitioners: Are Rank and Ethical Attitudes Related?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 183-194, January.
    11. 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.
    12. Özgür Özmen Uysal, 2010. "Business Ethics Research with an Accounting Focus: A Bibliometric Analysis from 1988 to 2007," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(1), pages 137-160, April.
    13. Rodríguez Bolívar, Manuel Pedro & Navarro Galera, Andrés & Alcaide Muñoz, Laura, 2015. "Governance, transparency and accountability: An international comparison," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 136-174.
    14. Jean Damascene Mvunabandi & Haruna Maama, 2023. "The Impact of Ethics on the Audit Quality of Firms in Sub-Sahara Africa," International Journal of Economics and Financial Issues, Econjournals, vol. 13(5), pages 119-127, September.
    15. repec:arp:tjssrr:2019:p:27-36 is not listed on IDEAS

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