Do gender, educational level, religiosity, and work experience affect the ethical decision-making of U.S. accountants? [An article from: Critical Perspectives on Accounting]

This digital document is a journal article from Critical Perspectives on Accounting, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
Accounting plays a key role in the social and economic progress of a nation. Ethical standards are a hallmark of the accounting profession. An important question is what factors affect the ethical choices made by accountants. Past research suggests that factors such as gender, educational level, religiosity, and work experience may be related to the development of a person's ethical standards. This study attempts to do two things. First, the study provides a short review of contemporary ethical models, including the hermeneutical model. Second, the study examines factors affecting a person's ethical perspectives. Understanding the factors which shape the ethical standards of future accountants will help educational institutions develop appropriate ethics curriculum and help firms develop appropriate ethics training for their employees. Failure to bring appropriate ethical standards to the workplace will most assuredly hamper the profession's time-honored commitment to serve the public interest. The findings suggest that there are differences in individual ethical standards based on gender, college level (graduate versus undergraduate), religiosity, and work experience.