Comparison of Perception of Ethics Among the Accounting Professionals, Accounting Educators and Accounting Students

Think India ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-40
Author(s):  
Amit Pusti
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Score Test ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Hard Copy ◽  
Accounting Ethics ◽  
Ethical Behaviour ◽  
Corporate Scandals ◽  
Accounting Professionals

The concept of ethics in accounting education has gained paramount importance in todays world. The accounting professionals had experienced controversially the deepest crisis regarding their professions with the discovery that accountants had acceded in notable fictitious financial reporting by corporate giants such as Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Satyam and the like. The accounting profession in India has started focussing more on accounting ethics at undergraduate and postgraduate levels due to various corporate scandals, especially Satyam scam in India and other scams in the world. Through the close survey of various corporate scams, it is apparently clear that business professionals are likely to be involved in the corporate scandals, their ethical behaviour can be used to measure ethical conduct. Commerce or business students are to become future leaders in business field and their behaviour largely affects the performance of businesses as well as the economic development of the society. Because of the scandals, professionals trustworthiness and objectiveness have raised questioned. The various corporate scams have led to increase the demand for accounting ethics within the professionals and students who are in commerce or business education. The purpose of the study is to explore the perception of ethics of accounting students, teachers, and professionals. For the purpose, we sent a questionnaire to accounting professionals, teachers, and students through email and hard copy to collect their views and we have used the z score test to make a comparison of the perceptions of ethics among the accounting groups. The result shows significant differences among accounting students, teachers, and professionals regarding perception of accounting ethics.

Ethics and Accounting Education

2012 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 399-418 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Thomas
Keyword(s):  
Business Students ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
First Year ◽  
Teaching Ethics ◽  
Ethical Decisions ◽  
Frequent Use ◽  
Accounting Courses ◽  
Deliberative Reasoning ◽  
Positive Effect

ABSTRACT The current study investigates how a university accounting education affects the rationales used by accounting and first-year business students in making ethical decisions, the level of deliberative reasoning they employ, and their ethical decisions. Senior accounting students (with approximately four accounting courses to complete) were found to exhibit higher deliberative reasoning, make more frequent use of post-conventional modes of deliberative reasoning, and make more ethical decisions than first-year accounting students. These results suggest that a university accounting education has a positive effect on deliberative reasoning, on the use of post-conventional modes of deliberative reasoning, and on ethical decisions. There was no difference between the level of deliberative reasoning and ethical decisions of first-year accounting and first-year business students, but there were differences in their modes of deliberative reasoning. These results suggest that first-year accounting and first-year business students may make ethical decisions differently, implying the need for a different emphasis when teaching ethics to these two groups of students.

scholarly journals Problems of Accounting Professionals Residing in Istanbul and the Suggested Solutions

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 18-27
Author(s):  
Mustafa Uçar ◽  
Cevdet Kızıl ◽  
Oğuzhan Oğuz
Keyword(s):  
Ethics Education ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Ethics ◽  
Certified Public Accountants ◽  
Public Authorities ◽  
Accounting Professionals ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Public Accountants ◽  
To Come ◽  
Education In Turkey

Some problems of accounting professionals in Turkey were solved with the introduction of Law on Public Accountants, Certified Public Accountants and Sworn-in Certified Public Accountants in 1989. However, many other problems still remain to be solved for accountants in Turkey as of 2018. There were two main objectives of this study. The first one was to identify the problems faced by accounting professionals living in Istanbul, Turkey and the second one was to come up with solutions for these problems. The eesearch took advantage of questionnaire methodology. According to research findings, accounting occupation doesn’t have a professional identity in Turkey. Also, accounting education given in universities is perceived as inadequate. The leading reason why accounting professionals are only considered as bookkeepers in Turkey is knowledge defficiencies. The main motivation behind choosing the accountant career path is commercial (monetary). The leading reason for lack of confidence against accountants in Turkey is ignorance of accounting ethics. Lack of practice is the leading deficiency concerning accounting education in Turkey. This is followed by insufficient accounting ethics education. Leading problems of accounting professionals in Turkish business life are economical. Our literature review shows that, expectations from public authorities, professional accounting chambers and bodies increase to solve the problems of accounting professionals. Thus, the suggested solutions by this study to eliminate determined problems of accounting professionals should be evaluated and considered by public authorities, professional accounting chambers and bodies. Moreover, effective communication, coordination and agreement on legal arrangements must be present among accounting professionals, chambers, bodies and public authorities to solve the problems of accounting professionals residing in Istanbul, Turkey.

Whistleblowing in India: evidence from accounting students and professionals

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-146
Author(s):  
Richard G. Brody ◽  
Gaurav Gupta ◽  
Todd White
Keyword(s):  
Internal Control ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Western World ◽  
Accounting Ethics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Accounting Professionals ◽  
The Us ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Logistic Regressions ◽  
Univariate Analyses

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whistleblowing behavior in the accounting community (students and professionals) in an emerging economy – India. Design/methodology/approach Using a case-based approach, data were collected from 263 accounting students and 268 accounting professionals in India. Findings Using multivariate and univariate analyses of variance and logistic regressions, the authors provided evidence on how accounting students and professionals behave in a whistleblowing environment. Specifically, the authors found mixed results when comparing the behavior of accounting students and professionals in a whistleblowing scenario. All subjects reflected a more collectivist attitude, although professionals were more concerned about “fixing” the identified internal control problem (a “shared” problem). Both groups expressed a firm desire to collect more evidence against the likely fraudster. Practical implications In this era of global offshoring of services including accounting, the current study makes significant contributions to the accounting ethics literature and the accounting profession by analyzing whistleblowing behavior from an Indian perspective – a highly underrepresented area in the accounting ethics literature. The study aims to guide companies and investors in the US and elsewhere that do business in India. Originality/value While the accounting literature has plenty of research on whistleblowing in the Western world, there is a dearth of literature on whistleblowing in India. This paper is among the first to document whistleblowing behavior in India, a country that prides itself on its vast availability of English-speaking and technically sound accounting professionals.

The Socialization of Undergraduate Accounting Students

2000 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-17 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul M. Clikeman ◽  
Steven L. Henning
Keyword(s):  
Earnings Management ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Financial Statement ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Committee Report ◽  
Senior Year ◽  
Socialization Process ◽  
Corporate Managers ◽  
Senior Students

One purpose of accounting education is to introduce students to the values and ethical standards of the accounting profession (AAA Bedford Committee Report 1986). This study investigates whether undergraduate accounting education is successful at instilling in accounting students a sense of responsibility to financial statement users. In a longitudinal study of accounting and other business students, we find that accounting students oppose earnings management more strongly during their senior year than they did during their sophomore year. We also find that senior accounting students oppose earnings management more strongly than do senior students in other business disciplines. These results are consistent with a socialization process taking place wherein accounting students learn to give priority to financial statement users' needs, while students majoring in other business disciplines come to identify more closely with the goals of corporate managers.

scholarly journals Narcissism And Accounting Majors

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill Brown ◽  
Michael D. Akers ◽  
Don E. Giacomino
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Style ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Student Organizations ◽  
Business Leaders ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
College Age ◽  
The Past ◽  
Personality Research

Narcissism is a personality trait that varies in individuals much like other characteristics. Accordingly, narcissism can positively or negatively impact the leadership style and career of business leaders. While personality research has examined the level of narcissism in college-aged students over the past 30 years, only recently has limited research examined narcissism in business students. Prior research has not examined accounting students. Using the Narcissistic Personality Inventory (NPI), we assess the level of narcissism in accounting students at a public and private institution in the Midwest. Our findings show accounting students have a lower level of narcissism than other business students, both undergraduate and graduate, and the general population of college-age students. We find differences in the level of narcissism by gender and whether the student is a leader, or not, in student organizations. We also discuss implications for accounting education.

scholarly journals The Relationship between Personal Traits and Accounting Students Perception on Ethics and Love of Money: Case of Malaysian Government-Linked University

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (8) ◽  
pp. 174-182
Author(s):  
Elinda Esa ◽  
Abdul Rahman Zahari
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Partial Least Square ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Police Academy ◽  
Accounting Profession ◽  
Corporate Scandals ◽  
Love Of Money ◽  
Malaysian Government

Ethical crises occur in all professions, affecting not only those already in the profession, but also those preparing to enter it. The accounting profession experienced controversial the deepest crisis in its history with the discovery that accountants had acceded in historic fictitious financial reporting by corporate giants such as Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Parmalat and others. The long term destruction inflicted on these professions is still being felt. However the view among those preparing to enter their particular profession, e.g. they are enrolled in a police academy, seminary, college or higher learning institution, is a crucial significance. Since the accounting students will be the future members of the accounting profession and are prone to be involved literally in the corporate scandals, their ethical behavior can be used to measure ethical conduct. Thus, using primary data collection through questionnaire survey on accounting students in one of the Malaysian government-linked university and partial least square (PLS) tool, the aims of the study is to investigate the influence of personality traits towards love of money (perception to money) and ethics.

scholarly journals Expanding The Accounting Education Horizon: Sensitizing Students To The Professions Societal Obligations

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian W. Carpenter ◽  
Daniel P. Mahoney
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Accounting Standards ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Financial Accounting ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Financial Accounting Standards Board ◽  
Teaching Pedagogy ◽  
Alternative Teaching ◽  
Setting Process ◽  
Topical Area

This paper presents an alternative teaching pedagogy that goes beyond the learning of complex rules to provide accounting students with a better appreciation for their profession’s societal obligations.  The proposed pedagogy presents students with the evolution of accounting standards in a given topical area, and challenges them to evaluate the extent to which the different stages of evolution succeeded in meeting the profession’s obligations to society.  These obligations are defined in terms of the financial reporting objectives set forth in the Concepts Statements of the Financial Accounting Standards Board.  The proposed pedagogy is offered as a means of addressing problems with respect to the more conventional “memorize these rules” method of accounting instruction.  Our aim is to develop students who take a greater interest in the standard setting process and in fulfilling its promise of meeting the financial reporting needs of society.

scholarly journals Understanding of Accounting Students About Earning Management to Preparation of Financial Statements, and Code of Ethics for Accountant

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 12-19
Author(s):  
Eddy Winarso ◽  
Revelino D. Garcia
Keyword(s):  
Earnings Management ◽  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Teaching Method ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Financial Statements ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Accounting Profession ◽  
New Students ◽  
The Difference

OECD based on one component of Corporate Governance is the existence of an adequate financial reporting system. Wyatt (2004) mentions that there are weaknesses in accounting, is the greed of individuals and corporations, providing services that reduce independence, too ‘soft’ on the client and avoiding participation in existing accounting rules. Should give greater attention in accounting education on two things, namely the appreciation of the accounting profession and an appreciation of the ethical dilemmas. This can be manifested in a subject, teaching method to the preparation of the curriculum which is based on the values of ethics and morals. The development of accounting education based on ethics is needed feedback about the current conditions. This study aimed to determine students ‘perceptions with intent to know the understanding of earnings management in the preparation of the financial statements and the effectiveness of the existing curriculum in shaping students’ understanding of accounting. The study sample consisted of 139 students majoring in Accounting S1 Regular programs are divided into 100 final year students and 39 new students. It also conducted tests of differences with other accounting courses, the number of samples used in this study were 156 students in Accounting Diploma program, and 62 students of the Accounting Profession. Based on the research results, (1) that the disclosures of information to the problem avoid differences between groups of respondents. (2) The student refuses accounting earnings management. (3) The difference in the curriculum between studies in accounting education programs leads to differences in perception between students across the course. (4) The process of teaching in S1 has managed to give a better understanding to the students that accountants require interaction with the environment.

The IFRS Transition and Accounting Education: A Canadian Perspective Post-Transition

2012 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandy R. Hilton ◽  
Nathalie Johnstone
Keyword(s):  
Financial Reporting ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Accounting Students ◽  
Curriculum And Pedagogy ◽  
Financial Reporting Standards ◽  
Accounting Curriculum ◽  
Canadian Perspective ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Potential Content ◽  
Discussion Topic

ABSTRACTCanada transitioned to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in 2010–2011. In this commentary, we discuss the impact that the transition had from an accounting education perspective, particularly on undergraduate accounting programs. Our experience was that the transition was not a substantial hurdle but that it did provide opportunity for many formal and informal discussions of the accounting curriculum and pedagogy. Canada also introduced separate accounting standards for private enterprises at the same time as we transitioned to IFRS. Therefore, accounting educators were concerned with potential content overload and strategies for minimizing content overload. In this commentary we discuss both of those issues as well as a third common discussion topic in Canada during the transition—how to teach professional skills to accounting students. This commentary summarizes those three topics that were common in accounting education in Canada during the IFRS transition.

Business students at university : are they trained to cheat?

2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 33
Author(s):  
Faizah Mohd Khalid ◽  
Siti Jeslyn Hasan
Keyword(s):  
Academic Dishonesty ◽  
Business Students ◽  
Higher Learning ◽  
Ethical Behaviour ◽  
Accounting Fraud ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
Corporate Scandals ◽  
Common Behaviour ◽  
Learning Institutions

Over decades, we have been bombarded with an increased of corporate scandals involving allegations of unethical behaviours mostly against accounting fraud. The debacles left us to ponder whether the education system implemented at university levels and education modules have taught students to be corrupted rather than acted responsibly and ethically. This study centres on business students at one of the private higher learning institutions in Malaysia. Surprisingly, the finding indicates that majority of students has cheated throughout their period of study. The research discovers that students’ cheating behaviour is influenced by their beliefs; on what constitutes cheating and the perception that cheating has become a common behaviour among other students. In addition, gender, academic performance (i.e. grade point average) and area of specialization have also significantly influenced on academic dishonesty. The results of the study illustrate that strict monitoring and fear of being prosecuted may reduce the tendency of cheating. Seeing that this situation has reached at an alarming stage, thus, the study has recommended some guidelines to the universities for its implementation. It is believed that by enhancing academic code of conducts, incorporating ethics components in subjects taught and establishing ethical community-building among students are advantageous to inculcate a sense of responsibility towards ethical behaviour and organise rigorous campaigns to promote integrity as way of life.

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