Professional Documents
Culture Documents
INSTRUCTION IN ACCOUNTING
ETHICS EDUCATION:
ANOTHER LOOK
ABSTRACT
Research on Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accounting, Volume 19, 149 180
Copyright r 2015 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited
All rights of reproduction in any form reserved
ISSN: 1574-0765/doi:10.1108/S1574-076520150000019015
149
150 DAVID J. BURNS ET AL.
accounting ethics education (Holder-Webb & Cohen, 2007; Yang & Wu,
2009; Young & Annisette, 2009).
The assumption that ethics education alone will positively affect the ethi-
cal behavior of students, however, is not necessarily valid. Students may be
trained to perform well on examinations regarding questions of ethical con-
duct or recognizing ethical issues (Gautschi & Jones, 1998), but extrapolat-
ing those results into real-world ethical dilemmas where the price for
ethical behavior must be paid in the form of decreased productivity or effi-
ciency presents external validity issues (Williams & Dewett, 2005).
As Bloodgood, Turnley, and Mudrack (2010) hypothesized, providing
college training in ethics may not improve ethical behavior in students
whose personalities predispose them to act in their own self-interest. If this
hypothesis is correct, then to a large degree, the ethical preparation pro-
vided by many business schools may not be successful in altering the beha-
vior of future executives. From this perspective, students who are
predisposed to behave ethically will do so, and students who are predis-
posed toward unethical conduct will do so regardless of the ethical theories
or analytic training that is presented to them in college. The counterargu-
ment to Bloodgood et al.’s hypothesis says that ethics courses cause stu-
dents to think more carefully about the social consequences of unethical
behavior, thereby modifying their attitudes and increasing the likelihood
that they will avoid such behavior (French, 2006).
Currently, persuasive evidence indicating that taking college courses in
business ethics results in reduced unethical behavior when students migrate
into the business world appears to be absent (Williams & Dewett, 2005),
supporting Bloodgood et al.’s hypothesis. Indeed, several recent studies
report that business ethics instruction has little or no effect on the subse-
quent choices made by students (e.g., Jewe, 2008; Natale & Sora, 2010;
Peppas, 2003; Peppas & Diskin, 2001; Ritter, 2006). Seshadri, Broekemier,
and Nelson (1998) concluded that classes in business ethics have no impact
on the ethicality of students’ subsequent decision making. Consequently,
business students remain the most prolific cheaters on college campuses
(McCabe, Butterfield, & Trevino, 2006)
An examination of accounting ethics education research shows similar
results, although there is disagreement over whether ethical education ulti-
mately produces accountants who will act more ethically (Tweedie, Dyball,
Hazelton, & Wright, 2013). Some evidence exists suggesting that ethics edu-
cation may affect accounting students’ moral sensitivity (e.g., Dellaportas,
Leung, & Jackling, 2006), ethical standards (e.g., Keller, Smith, & Smith,
2007), and their cognitive moral capability (e.g., Jones, Massey, & Thorne,
152 DAVID J. BURNS ET AL.
2003), but such effects may be short-lived (LaGrone, Welton, & Davis,
1996). Similarly, Liu et al. (2012) found that ethics instruction appears to
have at least a temporary effect on several ethics-related perceptions, such
as sensitivity and moral reasoning, but these effects appear to have limited
influence on the ethicality of choices actually made during one’s educa-
tional experience (e.g., academic dishonesty) or on subsequent decision
making in the workplace. Indeed, Thomas (2012) noted that the observa-
tional effects in past studies have been relatively weak. Loeb (1988) sug-
gested that the goals of ethics education in accounting should be more
modest, focusing on issues such as helping students to recognize ethical
issues in accounting and to develop a sense of moral obligation instead of
directing behavior. Tweedie et al. (2013) noted that education is unlikely to
achieve even these more modest goals.
Interestingly, although Thomas (2012) observed that a college education
has a positive effect on students’ deliberative reasoning (when comparing
freshmen and senior accounting students), Josien and Broderick (2013)
observed that the rate of academic dishonesty increases as students pro-
gress through their education. Abdolmohammadi and Baker (2007)
observed that students’ moral reasoning is inversely related to their plagiar-
ism activity. The relationship between ethical reasoning and academic dis-
honesty, therefore, does not seem to be clear. Bay and Greenberg (2001)
observed that knowing the right thing to do does not necessarily lead to
ethical choices. Similarly, Lampe and Engleman-Lampe (2012) suggested
that individuals often make choices not consistent with their beliefs and
attitudes of what may be the “right” course of action when they deal with
the subsequent dissonance through rationalization. To further complicate
matters, Ferguson, Collison, Power, and Stevenson (2011) suggested that
the way that accounting is taught may predispose accountants to act in
unethical fashions regardless of ethics education.
Determining whether a student is predisposed toward unethical behavior
is a difficult question. Josien and Broderick (2013) recognized that the lar-
gest limitation to research on academic dishonesty is the reliance on self-
reported data. The limitations of self-report data are evident in three areas.
First, Burrus, McGoldrick, and Schuhmann (2007) noted that students
often do not have a clear picture of what cheating is. Without first giving
students a clear definition of academic dishonesty, students’ self-reports of
their cheating behavior may be inconsistent. Second, unethical individuals
with even modest intelligence would likely not willingly provide evidence of
their dishonesty, and would likely fabricate answers to questions or ethical
cases to conform to their professor’s expectations. Third, the use of survey
Effectiveness of Instruction in Accounting Ethics Education 153
carefully on this ethics anomaly and take a more realistic appraisal of what
college ethics courses accomplish.
Research suggests that student ethics may vary based on gender
(Crown & Spiller, 1998). Klein et al. (2007) observed that in about half of
the studies they examined, males cheat more than females, while no rela-
tionships were observed in the other half. Given the lack of agreement on
the existence of a gender effect, studies examining academic dishonesty
should control for gender.
On the other hand, students’ propensity to cheat appears to vary with
their GPA. Burrus et al. (2007) and Straw (2002), for instance, observed
that students with lower GPAs tend to be more likely to cheat. Straw attri-
butes the difference in tendencies to differences in importance individuals
with lower GPAs have more to lose if they acquire a lower grade in a class.
An alternative explanation, however, may be that students with lower
GPAs may have earned the lower grades because they have less motivation,
use less effort or have lower abilities and rely on cheating to overcome
these shortcomings. Hence, studies examining student cheating activity
should also control for students’ GPA.
HYPOTHESES
The overall conclusion of Bloodgood et al. (2010) focuses on the observa-
tion that individual personality characteristics play a larger role than ethics
instruction in determining student attitudes toward academic dishonesty.
Although research seems to support Bloodgood et al.’s (2010) hypothesis,
the study used a 20-item scale developed by Christie and Geis (1970) to
classify students according to their inclination for Machiavellian behavior.
As mentioned earlier, however, high Machs can be expected to engage in
Effectiveness of Instruction in Accounting Ethics Education 159
H2. Students who express that ethical failures can be best prevented
through additional ethical education are more likely to cheat than stu-
dents who believe that ethical failures can best be prevented through
increased punishment. In other words, students who express that the
ethical failure in the examined case could have been best prevented or
mitigated with additional ethical education (hypothesized to be high
Machs) possess higher similarity indexes and include lower numbers of
references in their class project than students who express that the ethi-
cal failure could have been prevented with increased punishment
(hypothesized to be low Machs).
162 DAVID J. BURNS ET AL.
METHODOLOGY
The three factors evaluated in this study are the type of ethical lecture, stu-
dents’ beliefs that ethical education will prevent or mitigate the incidence of
ethical lapses, and students’ beliefs that increased penalties for ethical viola-
tions will prevent or mitigate the incidence of ethical lapses as discussed
above. The dependent variables are the adjusted SI score from the assigned
term papers and the number of verifiable references cited by each student.
Student GPA was used as a covariate, and student gender was treated as a
categorical control variable. Multivariate analysis of covariance
(MANCOVA) was used to examine effects of the three factors on the joint
relationship between SI and the number of student references. (Since stu-
dent gender is a categorical variable, it cannot be directly employed as a
covariate. Computationally, student gender was entered as a factor since
doing so is mathematically equivalent to including it as a covariate in the
form of a dummy variable.) In a secondary analysis, analysis of covariance
(ANCOVA) was used to separately evaluate SI and the number of student
citations. Both MANCOVA and ANCOVA are used for the sake of com-
pleteness; a significant MANCOVA result does not imply a significant
ANCOVA, and vice versa. Students were then classified into four groups
based on their beliefs that ethical education will lower the incidence of ethi-
cal lapses and on their beliefs that increased penalties for ethical violations
will lower the incidence of ethical lapses.
RESULTS
Frequencies
Similarity index
(SI)
Number of r = −.3385
references p = .000
Ethical r = −.2441 r = .227
instruction p = .002 p = .004
Increase r = −.3240 r = .2377 χ2 = .036
penalties p = .000 p = .003 p = .874
Ethics lecture r = .0375 r = .0772 χ2 = 1.239 χ2 = .106
p = .641 p = .336 p = .335 p = .751
Gender r = .2539 r = .2937 χ2 = −.1255 χ2 = −.0977 χ2 = .095
p = .001 p = .000 p = .117 p = .224 p = .760
GPA r = −.2564 r = .2139 r = −.0004 r = .1482 r = −.0270 r = −.0949
p = .001 p = .007 p = .996 p = .064 p = .737 p = .237
Notes:
Pearson correlation and biserial correlations are reported when ratio measure(s) are examined.
Chi-squares are reported when both measures are nominal.
Significant (at the .05 level) relationships are indicated in bold.
Ethical Instruction = Students’ beliefs that ethical education will lower the incidence of ethical
lapses.
Increase Penalties = Student’s belief that increased penalties for ethical violations will lower the
incidence of ethical lapses.
Ethics Lecture = Exposure to enhanced ethics lecture.
166 DAVID J. BURNS ET AL.
Notes:
Significant (at the .05 level) relationships are indicated in bold.
Ethical instruction = Students’ belief that ethical education will lower the incidence of ethical
lapses.
Increase penalties = Student’s belief that increased penalties for ethical violations will lower the
incidence of ethical lapses.
Ethics lecture = Exposure to enhanced ethics lecture.
168 DAVID J. BURNS ET AL.
F df Significance F df Significance
Notes:
Significant (at the .05 level) relationships are indicated in bold.
Ethical instruction = Students’ belief that ethical education will lower the incidence of ethical
lapses.
Increase penalties = Student’s belief that increased penalties for ethical violations will lower the
incidence of ethical lapses.
Ethics lecture = Exposure to enhanced ethics lecture.
Effectiveness of Instruction in Accounting Ethics Education 169
Summary Statistics
The overall MANCOVA is significant (at the .05 level) indicating signifi-
cant differences across the four groups. For further insight, the results from
individual ANCOVAs (where SI and number of references were viewed
separately) are provided. The results from both ANCOVAs were consistent
with the results observed for the MANOVA.
Post hoc test was conducted for each ANCOVA. Since disagreement
exists over the appropriateness of using Tukey tests when ANCOVAs are
used (as opposed to ANOVAs), Šidák tests were utilized. The results of
post hoc Šidák tests are also displayed in Table 6.
For SI, a significant (at the .05 level) difference was observed for only
one group comparison. The significant difference was observed between
Group 2 and Group 3, supporting H2. Specifically, a significant difference
was observed between the SIs for the groups viewed to represent high
Mach and low Mach individuals high Mach students possess signifi-
cantly higher SIs than low Mach individuals, signifying higher rates of pla-
giarism. For number of references, significant (at the .05 level) differences
were observed for two group comparisons. First, a significant difference
was again observed between Group 2 and Group 3, supporting the H2.
Specifically, a significant difference was observed between the number of
references cited for the groups believed to represent high Mach and low
170 DAVID J. BURNS ET AL.
ANCOVAS
F df Significance F df Significance
Notes:
Significant (at the .05 level) relationships are indicated in bold.
Effectiveness of Instruction in Accounting Ethics Education 171
study suggests that increasing specific penalties for ethical failures may be
effective.
This conclusion is consistent with past research on deterrents to aca-
demic dishonesty. Deterrence theory suggests that the incidence of cheating
activity will depend in part on the perceived costs of engaging in the activ-
ity (McCabe & Trevino, 1997; Tibbetts, 1999). Part of the problem with
ethical failures, therefore, may be the lack of sufficient deterrents (penal-
ties). Indeed, several studies (e.g., Chapman et al., 2004; Smith et al., 2002)
have observed that students’ cheating tendencies drop dramatically if stu-
dents view that the perceived costs of cheating are high (a high risk of being
caught). Research on the effectiveness of honor codes on the incidence of
cheating behavior supports this conclusion. McCabe Trevino and
Butterfield (2001) observed that the existence of an honor code in and of
itself is insufficient to have a significant effect on students’ cheating beha-
vior it must be enforced to be effective. In other words, effective deter-
rents (penalties) may be needed.
In conclusion, although the study does not suggest that ethics instruc-
tion is not worthwhile, it does support the research that suggests that ethics
education may not positively affect the ethics of many students. What
should be the focus of ethics research then? The results suggest that a more
fruitful approach for future research may be to focus more attention on the
relative effectiveness of various forms of deterrents to ethical failures. Since
high Machs are logically those who are most likely to engage in cheating
activity, deterrents to unethical activity may be able to affect the choices of
these individuals. Research, therefore, indicates that developing appropri-
ate penalties may be successful to prevent or mitigate ethical failures.
The study is significant for several reasons. First, the results provide
classroom instructors with insight into the causes of Internet plagiarism;
that is, Internet plagiarism may originate in the nature of the students
involved instead of a lack of ethical instruction. The study also supports
previous studies which similarly suggest that the effects of ethical instruc-
tion may not affect students’ ethical behavior.
Second, through the means used to assess students’ Machiavellianism,
the study was able to bring the role of deterrence (penalties) into the discus-
sion as a possible substitute to ethics education as a way to prevent or miti-
gate ethical failures. The results suggest that classroom instructors may be
able to effectively reduce academic dishonesty by increasing deterrents to
academic dishonesty instead of expanding ethical instruction.
Third, past research suggests that unethical behavior in an academic set-
ting appears to lead to unethical behavior in business. Consequently, the
174 DAVID J. BURNS ET AL.
study suggests that unethical behavior in business may arise at least in part
from the qualities of individual business persons some individuals may
have more Machiavellian tendencies than others. If true, this suggests that
a focus on hiring may be an area where significant change can be enacted.
It further suggests that the extent of potential hirees’ ethical education may
not be the best evidence to examine to predict their likely future choices.
Instead, the findings suggest that potentially more fruitful examination will
focus on evidence of the relative Machiavellianism of potential hires as
identified through their past ethical failures.
Lastly, the study employed a “reverse methodology,” where students’
Machiavellianism was assessed directly from behavior instead of via a scale
or via measuring attitudes. By assessing actual behavior, external validity
can be enhanced and several measurement shortcomings can be overcome.
Limitations
The study possesses a number of limitations which may limit the generaliz-
ability of the results. First, the study included students attending advanced
accounting classes at a single university. The generalizability of the results
to students attending other academic institutions or those pursuing other
majors has not been assessed. Second, the study classified students as high
Machs based on only one form of academic dishonesty. The generalizabil-
ity of the findings to other forms of academic dishonesty has not been
unequivocally established. Third, although past research examining the
effects of ethics education tended to observe only short-term effects, this
study only examines the short-term effects of the ethics lecture. Fourth, stu-
dents in the experimental group were only exposed to only a single
enhanced ethics lecture. The results may be different if ethics were inte-
grated throughout the course or throughout the accounting curriculum.
Finally, although past research suggests a strong relationship between
ethics within an academic environment and ethics in the workplace, the
generalizability of the findings of this study to ethics in the workplace has
not been examined.
In addition to expanding the study to include different groups of stu-
dents studying accounting at different types of universities and at different
stages of their education, further research can provide additional insights
into unethical academic behavior. Longitudinal studies examining the long-
term effects of ethics instruction, for instance, would be insightful.
Furthermore, extending the study to address different types of academic
Effectiveness of Instruction in Accounting Ethics Education 175
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