Accountant’s Ethical Orientations Under Ethical Decision Making Literatures Review Of Accounting’s Aspect From 1995 To 2012

The objective of this study is to invent ethical judgments of Accountants from 1996 - 2013. The research’s used O’Fallon and Butterfield, 2005 about empirical ethical orientations from 1994 to 2004, and Craft review 2013 also from 2005 to 2012. Research method used in this study is the literatures base on the reviews of empirical ethical decision making. Code of ethics and ethical education affect the ethical orientations of accountants in practice, and empowered idealism Dan relativism (ethical philosophy). The implementations  of an ethical climate in business step by step would strengthen ethical decisions made by accountants in practice

Internal auditor and internal whistleblowing intentions : a study of organisational, individual, situational and demographic factors

Whistleblowing is a type of ethical decision-making behaviour, and it has been one ofthe positive outcome behaviours investigated in the ethical decision-making literature.The issue has garnered widespread attention since the collapse of global multinationalcompanies which lead to the passage of the renowned Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.Since then a vast amount of research has been conducted in the whistleblowing stream,though it is still predominantly taking place largely in western countries. Such studiesas have been undertaken in Asian countries neglect to consider how Malaysianrespondents might play their roles in undertaking this type of ethical decision-makingbehaviour. There have been arguments in the whistleblowing literature on whether the internalreporting of corporate wrongdoings should be considered as an internal whistleblowingact, and whether internal auditors should also be regarded as whistleblowers. Despitethe fact that internal auditors hold a unique position in their organisations to prevent,deter and detect corporate wrongdoings, the role of this profession in investigatingethical decision-making behaviour has been much neglected. Hence, there is littleresearch concerning internal auditors’ internal whistleblowing intentions in theliterature. The purpose of this study is to investigate internal auditors’ internalwhistleblowing intentions on corporate wrongdoings in Malaysia. Theoretically, the study explored individual’s prosocial behaviour theory andorganisational ethical climate theory to provide the general framework for predictinginternal auditors’ internal whistleblowing intentions. The model developed for thisstudy included four levels of factors that can influence an internal auditor’s internalwhistleblowing intentions: organisational, individual, situational and demographicfactors. The organisational factors are ethical climate, size of organisation and job level.The individual factors are ethical judgment, locus of control, and organisationalcommitment. The situational factors include seriousness of wrongdoing and status ofwrongdoer. The individual demographics include gender, age and tenure. This researchis the first to examine the effect of these four factors in the internal auditing professionin Malaysia

The impact of foreignness on the compliance with the international standards for the professional practice of internal auditing

The Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) was established to organise the profession. The IIA provides members with an International Professional Practices Framework (IPPF) to lead their professional practice and confirm the highest-quality internal audit effects in various environments. One of the IPPF components is the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (the Standards). The goals of the Standards are to describe essential principles that characterise the practice of internal auditing, to deliver a framework for performing and promoting a wide range of value-added internal auditing, to create the basis for the assessment of internal audit performance, and to foster development of organizational processes and operations. However, some researchers have reported many factors related to the lack of compliance with the Standards, related directly to the fieldwork of the profession, which can be controlled by the board of directors, executives or audit committee either in the short or long term. This study however, is premised on the assumption that solving the internal factors (for instance, internal auditors’ educational level (college degree), professional certificates, Certificate of Internal Auditors (CIA), membership of organisation and age of internal audit staff) related directly to the organization or its resources is not the ultimate solution to compliance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing Standards. This is because, if a particular organisation tries to adopt a certain strategy to eliminate negative effects associated with internal factors, there are complicated external environmental factors that may not be controllable. For this reason, this study examines foreignness (social capital) as a major factor that affects internal auditors’ compliance with the Standards from an environmental perspective, which is one of the main significant contributions of this study. The study examines compliance with International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing in relation to various cultural factors, such as personal, friendship, and family relationships, which are especially salient in developing, Arab, and Gulf countries. Moreover, another contribution of this study is to examine compliance with the standards from a linguistic prospective. Many countries may recognize and use English as an official language and have no trouble in the basic comprehension of the standards, but meaning may not be completely and accurately conveyed in the nuances of the language, which are unique to different cultural settings. For this reason, the study assumes that language will play a critical role with regard to understanding and consequently complying with the standards. In non-English speaking countries, the IIA has tried to solve this issue by translating the standards into the host country language. Therefore, the study also examines compliance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing in terms of two main linguistic factors, Understanding and Translation. A questionnaire strategy was used to collect quantitative data. The companies listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange Market, selected from different sectors in order to have a diversity of responses from many industries. The results showed that there is an influence of social capital (personal social capital, friendship social capital, and family social capital) on the compliance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing (Independence and Objectivity, Individual Objectivity, and Governance). The findings also showed that there is an effect of Linguistic Social Capital (Understanding, and Translation) on compliance with the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing with regard to professional terms such as Add Value and Residual Risk

Ethics and taxation : a cross-national comparison of UK and Turkish firms

This paper investigates responses to tax related ethical issues facing busines

The Moral Reasoning Of Sports Management Students In The United States And Italy

The researcher analyzed the moral reasoning ability of Sports Management students in the United States and Italy. The researcher statistically analyzed data collected through a survey questionnaire designed to measure moral reasoning. The Defining Issues Test (DIT) developed by James Rest using Kohlberg’s six stages of moral judgment was used in this study. The short form of the DIT was used. This form contains three ethical scenarios each accompanied by a set of questions. A statistical analysis package is used to interpret the data, with significance established at the .05 level. The U.S. students also received a demographic questionnaire. The Italian professor failed to distribute the demographic questionnaire to the students. The researcher in this study investigated the relationship between Italian Sports Management students’ moral reasoning and United States Sports Management students’ moral reasoning. The study also examined the relationship between gender and moral reasoning of Sports Management students in the United States. The principled moral reasoning (P-scores) of United States Sports Management lower and upper classmen was also examined. The researcher investigated the relationship between the United States Sports Management students’ P- scores and their religious affiliations, specifically Catholicism versus other affiliations. A sample of 41 undergraduate Sports Management students from a private Catholic university in New York City and 31 undergraduate Sports Management students from the University of Rome’s Sports Management Program was utilized in this study. The mean “P”- score (principled moral reasoning) was 22.3 for the United States Sports Management students with a standard deviation of 12.4. The mean “P”- score was 26.4 for the Italian Sports Management students with a standard deviation of 12.5. No statistically significant difference was found between Italian and American Sports Management students at the 0.05 level. The American female respondents reported higher mean “P”- scores of 23.5 with a standard deviation of 10.2, than the American male respondents, who had a mean “P”- score of 21.7 and a standard deviation of 13.6. The American female Sports Management students had mean P-scores which were slightly higher than males but not significantly so. No statistically significant differences were found between the moral reasoning of American lower classmen and upper classmen in this study. No statistically significant differences were found between the moral reasoning of Catholic and non-Catholic Sports Management students

Guanxi, a two-edged sword! How Australian accounting professionals view the process within a moral framework

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine how Western business practitioners, specifically Australian accounting professionals, identify with the Chinese value concept of guanxi and the impact of their perceptions of guanxi on their ethical decision-making. This objective is predicated by a belief that aspects of guanxi are similar to the Western concepts of social networking and would be identified by practitioners as an organizational process providing positive benefits to those associated with its application. Further, it is anticipated that concepts of guanxi influence the way Australian accountants form ethical judgements and intentions, precursors to acceptable moral behaviour. Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional questionnaire based on a survey of 111 usable Australian accounting professionals was completed during 2012. A confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate each construct of guanxi before a path analysis was performed.Findings – Australian accounting professionals associate well with the favour-seeking aspects of guanxi, suggesting an affiliation with Western concepts of social networking. Both groups (i.e. public accountants and private accountants) reject rent-seeking guanxi as clearly unethical. Rent-seeking guanxi is seen to directly influence ethical judgement and intention; however, their favour-seeking guanxi attitudes do not influence ethical judgement or intention, regardless of employment type. Public and private accountants apply guanxi in a differential manner when determining moral intention. Public accountants are viewed as acting spontaneously without adequately considering the consequences (via the judgement phase), which appears to be a function of the nature of their personal association with the case study applied in this research. Originality/value – The research provides evidence that Australian accounting professionals relate to favour-seeking guanxi as representative of a broader notion of social networking. In this context, the guanxi instrument appears to be amenable to cross-cultural evaluations of group behaviour. Significant differences of opinion exist compared to the prior Chinese studies when unethical practices are considered. The guanxi instrument proves to be a useful tool when examining the group interactions involving Western professionals and also helps establish differences in moral constructions based on employment types

Research in multi-cultural relationship building

This study aims to explore the ‘missing gap' between the values of an Accounting firm and the preference shown by Maaori on how they would like to be approached when wanting to build a trusted relationship within a business sense. This study makes use of qualitative approaches in which data is collected primarily through interviews and analysed to produce results and recommendations. The study found that Maaori would like to be approached in a way that makes sense to them and also identifies with their cultural proceedings. It also provides insight into how important trust is when establishing a relationship with Maaori. The study recommends that further studies conducted should interview a wider variety of focus groups to add different elements to this research and that FIRM A's small business department's offerings do not align with what Maaori want so need to be rethought to adapt to Maaor expectations

Expanding the education role to narrow the audit expectation gap: exploring the expectation gap’s existence among accounting students

Society perceives and expects more from auditor’s than what auditors can actually achieve. Society has been found to misperceive the role of an auditor, in particular, in regards to fraud, internal controls and going concern issues. Society’s differing perceptions and expectations of the auditing profession is known as the audit expectation gap. This study aims to explore the audit expectation gap’s existence among Wintec accounting students and the effect that education has on the audit expectation gap. This research intends to answer two research questions. First, does an audit expectation gap exist among Wintec accounting students? Second, what is the effect of education on the audit expectation gap? To answer these research questions, 20 Wintec accounting students have been interviewed. Ten students who have received an audit education, and ten students who have not received audit education. Qualitative data was collected from these interviews and analysed using a mixed methods approach. This study found that an audit education exists among Wintec accounting students. This study also found that education reduced the audit expectation gap, in particular, the deficient performance gap and the communication gap. However, while education did reduce the audit expectations gap, it was not eliminated. This study recommends that Wintec provides a more basic auditing education during introductory accounting papers, educating students on the role of an auditor. This study also recommends that education focuses on the practical use of an audit report, to increase student’s understandings of the information in the audit report, and how this information is communicated. Thus, the researcher believes that these recommendations will help to further reduce the audit expectation