The Role of Individual Variables, Organizational Variables and Moral Intensity Dimensions in Libyan Management Accountants’ Ethical Decision Making

This study investigates the association of a broad set of variables with the ethical decision making of management accountants in Libya. Adopting a cross-sectional methodology, a questionnaire including four different ethical scenarios was used to gather data from 229 participants. For each scenario, ethical decision making was examined in terms of the recognition, judgment and intention stages of Rest’s model. A significant relationship was found between ethical recognition and ethical judgment and also between ethical judgment and ethical intention, but ethical recognition did not significantly predict ethical intention—thus providing support for Rest’s model. Organizational variables, age and educational level yielded few significant results. The lack of significance for codes of ethics might reflect their relative lack of development in Libya, in which case Libyan companies should pay attention to their content and how they are supported, especially in the light of the under-development of the accounting profession in Libya. Few significant results were also found for gender, but where they were found, males showed more ethical characteristics than females. This unusual result reinforces the dangers of gender stereotyping in business. Personal moral philosophy and moral intensity dimensions were generally found to be significant predictors of the three stages of ethical decision making studied. One implication of this is to give more attention to ethics in accounting education, making the connections between accounting practice and (in Libya) Islam. Overall, this study not only adds to the available empirical evidence on factors affecting ethical decision making, notably examining three stages of Rest’s model, but also offers rare insights into the ethical views of practising management accountants and provides a benchmark for future studies of ethical decision making in Muslim majority countries and other parts of the developing world

A neo-institutional perspective on ethical decision-making

Drawing on neo-institutional theory, this study aims to discern the poorly understood ethical challenges confronted by senior executives in Indian multinational corporations and identify the strategies that they utilize to overcome them. We conducted in-depth interviews with 40 senior executives in Indian multinational corporations to illustrate these challenges and strategies. By embedding our research in contextually relevant characteristics that embody the Indian environment, we identify several institutional- and managerial-level challenges faced by executives. The institutional-level challenges are interpreted as regulative, normative and cognitive shortcomings. We recommend a concerted effort at the institutional and managerial levels by identifying relevant strategies for ethical decision-making. Moreover, we proffer a multi-level model of ethical decision-making and discuss our theoretical contributions and practical implications

Capitalising on Diversity: Espousal of Māori Values in the Workplace

This study investigated the relationship between organisational espousal of cultural group values and organisational commitment and citizenship behaviours. The study focused on Ma–ori employees, and their perceptions of the extent to which their organisation espoused some of the central values of Te Ao Ma–ori (the Ma–ori world), specifically manaakitanga (caring), whakawhanaungatanga (relationships), wairuatanga (spirituality), auahatanga (creativity) and kaitiakitanga (guardianship). Furthermore, the role of identification with the Ma–ori culture was investigated as a potential moderator of the relationship between organisational espousal of each of the Ma–ori values and the outcome variables. The methodology was tested in a sample of 91 Ma–ori employees from Ma–ori-led organisations. The participants completed an anonymous online survey. The data was analysed using moderated hierarchical regression analysis. Organisational espousal of the composite Ma–ori values wairuatanga and whakamana tangata was reciprocated with organisational commitment. Although no significant main effects were found with respect to Ma–ori values and organisational citizenship behaviours the interaction of identification with Ma–ori culture with Ma–ori values influenced this outcome; those with lower identification with Ma–ori culture, and who also perceived that their organisation did not espouse Ma–ori values, reported lower levels of organisational citizenship behaviours. Taken together, the results suggest that organisations benefit in being aware of, and incorporating values of the cultural groups represented in the workforce with their overall practices, as this is manifested in higher commitment and citizenship behaviours among employees