scholarly journals Marital Status, Religiosity, And Experience As A Predictor Of Ethical Awareness Among Accounting Professionals

2014 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javad Gorjidooz ◽  
Cindy Greenman

Many corporations and their accountants have taken ethics for granted. This oversight has led to the closing of companies such as Enron and WorldCom. Accountants are placed in positions of having to render ethical decisions daily, and when they lose sight of ethical values, the dissolution of corporations can occur. The goal in this quantitative research is to investigate the relationship between the independent variables of marital status, religiosity, and years of work experience and the dependent variable of ethical decision-making. Eighty-three members of the Michigan Association of Certified Public Accountants (MACPA) completed an internet-delivered survey on ethical dilemmas. Because they were contacted through the MACPA weekly E-newsletter, the respondents were those members who chose to accept the weekly electronic newsletter and who read it. The 83 participant responses were saved within Survey Monkey and extracted by the authors. A nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test examined differences in mean rank order of ethical decision-making scores among the marital status groupings and revealed no significant differences in mean ranks (?2 (4, N=83) = 3.810, p = .432) or among the years of work experience (?2 (5, N = 83) = 7.768, p = .170). Based on results of the tests, the hypothesis that there is no relationship between ethical decision-making and marital status and between ethical decision-making and years of work experience cannot be rejected. A Spearman correlation analysis revealed no significant association (rho = -0.084, p = 0.226, n = 83) between ethical decision-making and religiosity. Based on the results of these and related tests, the hypothesis that there is no relationship between ethical decision-making and religiosity could not be rejected. The results from this study have added to the limited literature on ethical decision-making and three variables of marital status, religiosity, and years of work experience. The authors recommendation for future research is to conduct studies within different professional organizations and with additional variables including gender, sexual orientation, age, and self-assessments. Also, given the small response size of this study, a larger, more representative sample size would give the study more credibility.

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 213-224
Author(s):  
Becky Grace ◽  
Tony Wainwright ◽  
Wendy Solomons ◽  
Jenna Camden ◽  
Helen Ellis-Caird

Given the nature of the discipline, it might be assumed that clinical psychology is an ethical profession, within which effective ethical decision-making is integral. How then, does this ethical decision-making occur? This paper describes a systematic review of empirical research addressing this question. The paucity of evidence related to this question meant that the scope was broadened to include other professions who deliver talking therapies. This review could support reflective practice about what may be taken into account when making ethical decisions and highlight areas for future research. Using academic search databases, original research articles were identified from peer-reviewed journals. Articles using qualitative ( n = 3), quantitative ( n = 8) and mixed methods ( n = 2) were included. Two theoretical models of aspects of ethical decision-making were identified. Areas of agreement and debate are described in relation to factors linked to the professional, which impacted ethical decision-making. Factors relating to ethical dilemmas, which impacted ethical decision-making, are discussed. Articles were appraised by two independent raters, using quality assessment criteria, which suggested areas of methodological strengths and weaknesses. Comparison and synthesis of results revealed that the research did not generally pertain to current clinical practice of talking therapies or the particular socio-political context of the UK healthcare system. There was limited research into ethical decision-making amongst specific professions, including clinical psychology. Generalisability was limited due to methodological issues, indicating avenues for future research.


1998 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-40
Author(s):  
Paul A. Holmes ◽  
Mary J. Meehan

Reports the results of a survey that sought to measure the “ethical awareness” of healthcare professionals at a number of area hospitals and nursing homes. Notes that the survey was helpful in isolating areas for needed inservices on ethical issues. Indicates that in creating the ethical environment necessary for the making of ethical decisions, pastoral care staff can offer encouragement to administrators in assessing the ethical awareness of the hospital's employees in such a way that not only clinical staff, but support staff and administrators as well, become more aware that many “non-clinical” situations are also the arena for ethical decision-making.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nieves Carrera ◽  
Berend Van Der Kolk

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how experience and gender relate to the auditors’ moral awareness. Design/methodology/approach Hypotheses are informed by a neurocognitive approach to ethical decision-making and tested using survey data from 191 auditors of a Big Four audit firm in The Netherlands. Findings The main findings indicate that more experienced auditors (i.e. those with more years of work experience, a higher rank and a higher age) show higher levels of moral awareness. This positive relationship is stronger for morally questionable situations related to accounting and auditing, compared to general business moral dilemmas. In addition, the results support the expectation that on average, female auditors have higher moral awareness than their male counterparts. Originality/value To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first study that considers a neurocognitive approach to inform hypotheses about the antecedents of auditors’ moral awareness. The findings suggest that the involvement of experienced auditors in ethical decision-making processes may be beneficial given their enhanced ability to identify ethically disputable situations as such. Furthermore, increasing the number of women in senior positions may positively affect ethical decision-making in audit firms. Finally, this paper presents directions for future research.


2000 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ronny Swain

The paper describes the development of the 1998 revision of the Psychological Society of Ireland's Code of Professional Ethics. The Code incorporates the European Meta-Code of Ethics and an ethical decision-making procedure borrowed from the Canadian Psychological Association. An example using the procedure is presented. To aid decision making, a classification of different kinds of stakeholder (i.e., interested party) affected by ethical decisions is offered. The author contends (1) that psychologists should assert the right, which is an important aspect of professional autonomy, to make discretionary judgments, (2) that to be justified in doing so they need to educate themselves in sound and deliberative judgment, and (3) that the process is facilitated by a code such as the Irish one, which emphasizes ethical awareness and decision making. The need for awareness and judgment is underlined by the variability in the ethical codes of different organizations and different European states: in such a context, codes should be used as broad yardsticks, rather than precise templates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jimin Rhim ◽  
Ji-Hyun Lee ◽  
Mo Chen ◽  
Angelica Lim

The autonomous vehicle (AV) is one of the first commercialized AI-embedded robots to make autonomous decisions. Despite technological advancements, unavoidable AV accidents that result in life-and-death consequences cannot be completely eliminated. The emerging social concern of how an AV should make ethical decisions during unavoidable accidents is referred to as the moral dilemma of AV, which has promoted heated discussions among various stakeholders. However, there are research gaps in explainable AV ethical decision-making processes that predict how AVs’ moral behaviors are made that are acceptable from the AV users’ perspectives. This study addresses the key question: What factors affect ethical behavioral intentions in the AV moral dilemma? To answer this question, this study draws theories from multidisciplinary research fields to propose the “Integrative ethical decision-making framework for the AV moral dilemma.” The framework includes four interdependent ethical decision-making stages: AV moral dilemma issue framing, intuitive moral reasoning, rational moral reasoning, and ethical behavioral intention making. Further, the framework includes variables (e.g., perceived moral intensity, individual factors, and personal moral philosophies) that influence the ethical decision-making process. For instance, the framework explains that AV users from Eastern cultures will tend to endorse a situationist ethics position (high idealism and high relativism), which views that ethical decisions are relative to context, compared to AV users from Western cultures. This proposition is derived from the link between individual factors and personal moral philosophy. Moreover, the framework proposes a dual-process theory, which explains that both intuitive and rational moral reasoning are integral processes of ethical decision-making during the AV moral dilemma. Further, this framework describes that ethical behavioral intentions that lead to decisions in the AV moral dilemma are not fixed, but are based on how an individual perceives the seriousness of the situation, which is shaped by their personal moral philosophy. This framework provides a step-by-step explanation of how pluralistic ethical decision-making occurs, reducing the abstractness of AV moral reasoning processes.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1434-1450
Author(s):  
Ebtihaj A. Al-A'ali ◽  
Abdul Redha Al-Sarraf

Ethical consumerism is the outcome of an ethical decision-making process. This research examines situational factors exemplified in context-related issues affecting decision-making as perceived by business students at the University of Bahrain. Reward systems, authority, bureaucracy, work role, organizational culture and national and cultural context are investigated. Qualitative research employing open-ended questions in questionnaire form is used. Two hundred and forty students participated in this research. Five questions were asked in the research. Themes involved are illustrations of reward systems, bureaucracy, organizational culture, national and cultural context and work roles. This research suggests that work roles require to be thoroughly investigated in future research. The research also shows that students are unaware of ethical consumerism. This explains reasons for not translating views of students to behavior as a reflection of ethical consumerism.


2008 ◽  
pp. 3250-3268
Author(s):  
Cecilia Andrews ◽  
Edward Lewis

“Counter-terrorism refers to the practices, tactics and strategies that governments, militaries and other groups adopt in order to fight terrorism.” Counter Terrorism (CT) is a complex system driven by political, stress and time pressures that contribute to the enormous difficulty that involved people face in making sustainable ethical decisions. This chapter proposes a systems planning approach for enhancing the sustainability of crucial ethical decisions in CT. First, we describe the need for enhancing crucial ethical decision-making using some recent cases. Next, we evaluate the relevance and utility of a systems planning approach in providing such enhancements for CT. We develop the “ideal state” for tools and techniques to be used for crucial ethical decision-making in CT. We propose the POWER systems planning framework as a model for advancing towards this ideal state Finally, we consider how games and simulation could be used to envision and inform, aid synthesis of and support evaluation of decision-making through the POWER model.


Author(s):  
Özgür Önen ◽  
Burcu Tibet

How many times do people encounter an ethical dilemma within a day? Many of them, probably, say more than one. Frequently encountering ethically questionable situations which have heavy costs to both business and educational organizations is very common. It is crucial to understand how teachers, for example, make decisions when they are faced with ethically questionable situations, such as intimate relationship offers or dishonest grading desires. Indeed, every individual involved with schools—not only teachers, but principals, students, and even parents—are faced with ethically questionable situations, forcing them to choose between right and wrong, possibly benefiting themselves or the ones they are close to and/or harming innocent others. So, increasing knowledge on how individuals make judgments and act when they are confronted a dilemma is important. Which factors affects ethical decisions? Do people simply choose the options granting their positions or beneficial for them in some way? A review of theoretical models of ethical decision-making revealed that existing models need to be modified in order to cover some ignored aspects. Additionally, there seems to be a need to add new constructs to the moral intensity factor: ease of the act and magnitude of the gain are possible issue contingents to be considered. Furthermore, empirical findings, in general, present contradictory results on proposed factors affecting ethical decision-making. However, some factors, such as moral intensity and reward–sanction systems, were found to consistently affect decisions on ethically questionable issues. There are, nonetheless, many finer points to be understood regarding what exactly is happening when people face dilemmas. This suggests new studies need to be conducted.


1998 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 206-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kaye Spence

This article examines the involvement of neonatal nurses in ethical issues, achieved through a survey of Australian neonatal nurses. The aim was to discover if nurses were involved in ethical decisions, to examine various categories of neonates and the concerns that nurses felt about them, and to determine the extent to which nurses saw themselves as advocates. A response rate of 65% was achieved from nurses in two states who worked in intensive care and special care nurseries. The findings show that nurses were more likely to be involved in clinical decision making than in ethical decision making, showed the greatest concern for infants who had an uncertain prognosis, and saw themselves as advocates for their patients. The issues surrounding these findings are examined.


2007 ◽  
Vol 7 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 230-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
LaChelle R. Wilborn ◽  
Robert A. Brymer ◽  
Ray Schmidgall

The purpose of this paper is to assess the sources influencing an ethical decision-making process of European hospitality students. Ten scenarios were used (1) to indicate whether the action posed was ‘ethical’, ‘unethical’, or ‘not a question of ethics’ and (2) to indicate what they would do if they were in this situation. We found that of the nearly 400 European hospitality students, 54 per cent females and 46 per cent males, both genders indicated that parents, close friends, and business management courses influenced their ethical beliefs the most. Additionally, we found that responses were significantly different for only one of the ten scenarios with regards to gender. The action responses to the proposed scenarios were, however, statistically significant for five scenarios; four of these five were business scenarios. Female European hospitality students were more likely to engage in ethical behaviour and are generally less tolerant of questionable practices than their male peers.


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