IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/accted/v24y2015i4p275-290.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Improving Ethical Attitudes or Simply Teaching Ethical Codes? The Reality of Accounting Ethics Education

Author

Listed:
  • Robyn Ann Cameron
  • Conor O'Leary

Abstract

Ethical instruction is critical in accounting education. However, does accounting ethics teaching actually instil core ethical values or simply catalogue how students should act when confronted with typical accounting ethical dilemmas? This study extends current literature by distinguishing between moral/ethical and legal/ethical matters and then re-evaluating the effectiveness of ethics training. A cohort of final-year accounting students with significant ethical training evaluated ethical scenarios. Half were moral (non-legal) and half contained legal as well as moral components. After further ethical instruction they re-evaluated the scenarios. Ethical attitudes towards legal/moral issues improved, but attitudes towards moral-only issues did not. This questions previous studies which purport to demonstrate the effectiveness of ethical instruction and queries the benefits of accounting ethics education. Are fundamental ethical principles being ignored in an effort to prevent more obvious accounting wrongdoings? Accounting ethics training needs to be reassessed if true ethical improvement is to be achieved.

Suggested Citation

  • Robyn Ann Cameron & Conor O'Leary, 2015. "Improving Ethical Attitudes or Simply Teaching Ethical Codes? The Reality of Accounting Ethics Education," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(4), pages 275-290, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:accted:v:24:y:2015:i:4:p:275-290
    DOI: 10.1080/09639284.2015.1036893
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/09639284.2015.1036893
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/09639284.2015.1036893?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. Bailey, Charles D. & Soileau, Jared S., 2011. "Q-analytics: An ethics case on unlicensed software usage," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 50-59.
    2. Barry Cooper & Philomena Leung & Steven Dellaportas & Beverley Jackling & Grace Wong, 2008. "Ethics Education for Accounting Students—a Toolkit Approach," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 405-430.
    3. Breda Sweeney & Fiona Costello, 2009. "Moral Intensity and Ethical Decision-making: An Empirical Examination of Undergraduate Accounting and Business Students," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 75-97.
    4. Lisa Christensen & Ellen Peirce & Laura Hartman & W. Hoffman & Jamie Carrier, 2007. "Ethics, CSR, and Sustainability Education in the Financial Times Top 50 Global Business Schools: Baseline Data and Future Research Directions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 73(4), pages 347-368, July.
    5. Alan Graham, 2012. "The Teaching of Ethics in Undergraduate Accounting Programmes: The Students' Perspective," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(6), pages 599-613, December.
    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. Apostolou, Barbara & Dorminey, Jack W. & Hassell, John M. & Rebele, James E., 2016. "Accounting education literature review (2015)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 20-55.
    2. Luis M. Arciniega & Laura J. Stanley & Diana Puga-Méndez & Dalia Obregón-Schael & Isaac Politi-Salame, 2019. "The Relationship Between Individual Work Values and Unethical Decision-Making and Behavior at Work," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(4), pages 1133-1148, September.
    3. 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.
    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. Berk, Cem & Gundogmus, Fatih, 2018. "The Effect of Work-life Balance on Accounting Ethics," 6th International OFEL Conference on Governance, Management and Entrepreneurship. New Business Models and Institutional Entrepreneurs: Leading Disruptive Change (Dubrovnik, 2018), in: 6th International OFEL Conference on Governance, Management and Entrepreneurship. New Business Models and Institutional Entrepreneurs: Leading Disrupt, pages 289-302, Governance Research and Development Centre (CIRU), Zagreb.
    6. 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.
    7. Pruijssers, Jorien Louise & Singer, Gallia & Singer, Zvi & Tsang, Desmond, 2023. "Social influence pressures and the risk preferences of aspiring financial market professionals," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).

    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. 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.
    2. Ross Taplin & Abhijeet Singh & Rosemary Kerr & Alina Lee, 2018. "The use of short role-plays for an ethics intervention in university auditing courses," Accounting Education, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(4), pages 383-402, July.
    3. Larrán Jorge, Manuel & Andrades Peña, Francisco Javier, 2015. "La oferta de asignaturas de responsabilidad social corporativa y ética empresarial en las titulaciones de finanzas y contabilidad: análisis comparativo con el ámbito de la gestión de organizaciones," Revista de Contabilidad - Spanish Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 1-10.
    4. 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.
    5. Gavin Price & Andries Walt, 2013. "Changes in Attitudes Towards Business Ethics Held by Former South African Business Management Students," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 113(3), pages 429-440, March.
    6. Giorgia Miotto & Marc Polo López & Josep Rom Rodríguez, 2019. "Gender Equality and UN Sustainable Development Goals: Priorities and Correlations in the Top Business Schools’ Communication and Legitimation Strategies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-18, January.
    7. Ervin L. Black & F. Greg Burton & Joshua K. Cieslewicz, 2022. "Improving Ethics: Extending the Theory of Planned Behavior to Include Moral Disengagement," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 181(4), pages 945-978, December.
    8. Larry Floyd & Feng Xu & Ryan Atkins & Cam Caldwell, 2013. "Ethical Outcomes and Business Ethics: Toward Improving Business Ethics Education," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(4), pages 753-776, November.
    9. Thomas Li-Ping Tang, 2016. "Theory of Monetary Intelligence: Money Attitudes—Religious Values, Making Money, Making Ethical Decisions, and Making the Grade," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(3), pages 583-603, February.
    10. Valentine, Sean & Godkin, Lynn, 2019. "Moral intensity, ethical decision making, and whistleblowing intention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 277-288.
    11. Apostolou, Barbara & Dorminey, Jack W. & Hassell, John M. & Watson, Stephanie F., 2013. "Accounting education literature review (2010–2012)," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 107-161.
    12. van Dijke, M.H., 2014. "Understanding Immoral Conduct in Business Settings: A Behavioural Ethics Approach," ERIM Inaugural Address Series Research in Management EIA-2014-060-ORG, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam..
    13. Maurice Hamington, 2019. "Integrating Care Ethics and Design Thinking," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 91-103, March.
    14. Andrew West & Sherrena Buckby, 2020. "Ethics Education in the Qualification of Professional Accountants: Insights from Australia and New Zealand," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 61-80, June.
    15. Walter Leal Filho & Amanda Lange Salvia & Fernanda Frankenberger & Noor Adelyna Mohammed Akib & Salil K. Sen & Subarna Sivapalan & Isabel Novo-Corti & Madhavi Venkatesan & Kay Emblen-Perry, 2021. "Governance and sustainable development at higher education institutions," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(4), pages 6002-6020, April.
    16. Iwona Bak & Grazyna Wolska & Maciej Oesterreich, 2019. "The Application of Correspondence Analysis in Studies of CSR Awareness at Economic Universities in Poland and Croatia," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 443-456.
    17. Walter Wymer & Sharyn R. Rundle-Thiele, 2017. "Inclusion of ethics, social responsibility, and sustainability in business school curricula: a benchmark study," International Review on Public and Nonprofit Marketing, Springer;International Association of Public and Non-Profit Marketing, vol. 14(1), pages 19-34, March.
    18. Nuria Toledano, 2020. "Promoting Ethical Reflection in the Teaching of Social Entrepreneurship: A Proposal Using Religious Parables," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(1), pages 115-132, June.
    19. James Swaim & Michael Maloni & Stuart Napshin & Amy Henley, 2014. "Influences on Student Intention and Behavior Toward Environmental Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(3), pages 465-484, October.
    20. 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.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:accted:v:24:y:2015:i:4:p:275-290. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAED20 .

    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.