Chapter 1: IntroductionChapter 1: IntroductionBusiness leaders and their subordinates have experienced varying levels of integrity crises and corruption. Interest in the ethics surrounding the accounting profession was prompted by the duplicitous financial reporting of American International Group, Enron, WorldCom, Arthur Anderson, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac (Jaffar, Abu Baker, & Tahir, 2011; Premeaux, 2009; Warinda, 2013). ). The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) published the most recent report on fraud based on 1,843 fraud cases which revealed that losses amounting to $ 2.9 trillion and 5% of revenues were lost in the period between 2008 and 2009. Out of the 1, 843 fraud cases studied, 90% were classified as asset misappropriations, 5% were corruption cases and 5% were financial statements fraud (Saksena, 2012).
The ACFE’s Report to the Nations (2012) which analyzes reported fraud cases reports that 77% of the cases were carried out by individuals in accounting, upper management, sales and purchasing departments, 87% of the individuals being first time offenders. From 2007 to 2011, corporate accounting and securities fraud pending cases increased steadily from 529 to 726 pending cases (Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI], 2011). In 2011, there were 242 indictments and 241 convictions dealing with accounting and securities issues (FBI, 2011). The ACFE’s Report (2012) observed that the persons convicted of fraudulent activities exhibited behavioral signs as follows; 18% had control issues, 19% had unusually close relationships with the vendors, 27% were facing financial difficulties and 36% had lifestyles that exceeded their income.
The financial scandals have increased the general public outcry for accountability, have continued to erode consumer confidence, and have raised awareness of the decreased levels of ethical awareness and practices in the accounting profession (Elias, 2008; Thomas, 2012). Financial statement fraud, which involves intentional manipulation of information and misstatements, leads to great losses for users of this information especially if they base their financial decisions on this it e.g. investment decisions (Isa, 211). Misappropriation of assets will lead to large losses for the company because the misuse of the resources in the company means that the company cannot meet its obligations if and when they fall due (Isa, 2011). Corruption which is also a form of fraud has great implication on the company, the customers and also on other businesses in the industry (Isa, 2011). This can be seen where a company makes business deals which harm the company because there is financial gain for the person representing the company, in turn substandard goods and services are offered to the customers and the other companies that could have done a better job are denied the opportunity.
Since today’s accounting students will be tomorrow’s accounting practitioners, their cognitive moral development may affect the integrity of future business finances. A study on the impact of ethics education at the university level concluded that an education from a higher learning institution has a positive influence on accounting students’ cognitive moral development (Thomas 2012). According to the study by Warinda (2013) ethical courses such as business ethics and accounting ethics increase the cognitive moral development and awareness in accounting students. Abdolmohammandi, Fedorowicz, and Davis (2009) concluded in their study that ethics education is a key contributor towards accounting students’ increased cognitive moral development. For example, a group of researchers found that accounting students who took and completed an ethics course endorsed higher levels of cognitive moral reasoning than accounting students who did not (Suryaningrum et al., 2013). The aim of this study is to examine whether ethics education influences the cognitive moral development of accounting students.BackgroundRecent accounting scandals by corporations have had anunsettling effect upon the perceptions of the character of the accounting profession and have galvanized public opinion (Wright, Dyball, Byers, & Radich, 2012; Youngblood, Turnley, & Mudrack, 2008). The lapse in professional judgment was perceived by the public as a deficit of ethics within the accounting profession (Wright et al., 2012). This has led to the debate by scholars on who should be blamed for the collapse in ethical decision-making by accountants. Many researchers have narrowed the focus down to academia. For example, a primary factor contributing to corporate unethical behavior among corporations such as HealthSouth, Arthur Andersen, Sunbeam, Enron, Equity Funding, and WorldCom is that the nature of instruction over the past 50-60 years among community college and university accounting programs has remained unchanged (Warinda, 2013). The business world changes and the ethical consideration on what is right or wrong may not be clear to the accountants; this situation can be remedied if the nature of instruction changes to include these changes. In addition, numerous organizations, such as the National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting (NCFFR), the Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC), the American Accounting Association (AAA), and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), have been petitioning for more ethics instruction within the classroom (Ibrahim & Angelidis, 2008). Blanthorne, Kovar, and Fisher (2007),however, pointed out that following the accounting scandals since the early 2000s, significant modifications have not yet become visible and requirementsto integrate ethics into the accounting curriculum have not yetbeen made.
To address the continuing lack of ethics in the accounting courses, the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) suggested modifications to Rules 5-1 and 5-2 of the Uniform Accountancy Act (Mintchik & Farmer, 2009; NASBA, 2005; Wright et al., 2012). The discussion on modifications of the ethics education became a critical component of the accounting curriculum by provoking more responses from the accounting profession than any other Uniform Accountancy Act exposure draft. Fisher’s (2007) study of accounting professionals demonstrated that 98%favor the inclusion of ethics in accounting courses to remedy the corporate malfeasance.The draft of the other Uniform Accountancy Act proposed a 150-hour curriculum and an increase in the number of accounting and business courses required to sit for the CPA exam, a three-credit-hour class on business ethics, and a three-credit-hour class on accounting ethics(Blanthorne, Kovar, & Fisher, 2007; Falkenberg & Woiceshyn, 2008;Mayhew & Murphy, 2009).
The outcome of the exposure draft was calculated by NASBA’s Board of Directors and a committee was appointed to reexamine alternate procedures concerning the 150-hour education rules and the exposure draft. After the end of the three years, the committee concluded that three added hours of accounting ethics were not required, as it would impose costs and limits on accounting programs in higher education; however, the failure to increase ethics in accounting programs may result in serious long-term consequences for the profession (Falkenberg & Woiceshyn, 2008). The committee did not explain the limitations of their program costs and the lack of capital, which further prohibited a three-hour course in accounting ethics. Mayhew and Murphy (2009), however, argued that the greatest risk to the accounting profession merits further responsiveness.
Accounting programs leaders are required to make sure that their students are equipped with the fundamental tools needed to be successful in the accounting profession. Elias (2008) asserted that accounting curricula do not place enough emphasis on integrity, values, and ethics. Since 1976, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) has been advising Colleges of Business to incorporate ethics education into their programs (Eias & Farag, 2011; Falkenberg & Woiceshyn, 2008).However, several business schools cut ethics courses shortly after news of the Enron and WorldCom scandals broke (Blanthorne et al., 2007). As a result, only 33% of AACSB-accredited business schools offer a stand-alone ethics course (Blanthorne et al., 2007). AACSB encourages its member schools and their faculties to renew and revitalize their commitment to ethical responsibility at both the individual and organizational level (Bernardi, Melton, Roberts, & Bean, 2008, p. 165). Pastfraudulent conduct in the accounting profession has highlighted the need for ethics education in accounting (Waples, Antes, Murphy, Connelly, & Mumford, 2008).
Statement of the Problem
Exclusively measuring business success by profits has negatively impacted the ethical behavior of accounting professionals (Gruber & Schlegelmich, 2013); work duties of accountants have increased dramatically, resulting in daily fast-paced ethical decisions in the workplace that affects directly or indirectly every facet of the global economy (Falkenberg & Woiceshyn, 2008; Ibrahim & Angelidis, 2008; Lan, Ma, Cao, & Zhang, 2009). Corporate fraud cost is estimated to be $2.9 trillion, which represented approximately 5% of the corporate annual revenues between the time of 2008 and 2009 (Saksena, 2012). This has brought to the forefront the importance of cognitive moral development for accounting students entering the business arenas (Waples et al., 2008). The inclusion of ethics education in accounting programs is one intervention to improve moral reasoning of accountants that have received support from several studies (Abdolmohammadi & Baker, 2006; Ho & Lin, 2008). There is, however, little research available on the development of moral reasoning as a student progresses through the coursework. Billot et al (2012) recommend further research in order to determine the impact of ethics education on moral development after the accounting students have had continued exposure to ethics courses. Brenner (2012) noted that more research is needed to explore the differences between gender, age, and undergraduate accounting students that have taken an ethics course. In their research, on the effectiveness of professional context on accounting students, moral reasoning, Fleming, Romanus, and Lightner (2009) recommended the need for further research on the influence of contextual factors on moral reasoning will strengthen the collective knowledge of accountants’ ethical judgment and decision-making.
Purpose of the StudyThe purpose of this non-experimental quantitative study is to examine the effects of an online and traditional delivery of an ethics course on the cognitive moral development of university-level accounting students as they progress through their coursework. The study will compare the moral reasoning processes of accounting students between groups by gender and age. Ethics education interventions into coursework are linked to an individual’s moral reasoning insight and in turn lead to improved ethical behavior (Mayhew, 2012). Specifically, the objective of this study will be to examine whether undergraduate accounting students experienced a significant improvement in their moral reasoning after the insertion of ethics education in their coursework. This study will use a valid and reliable survey and online data collection. The Defining Issues Test 2nd edition (DIT-2) survey instrument will be administered to gather information about the participants’ moral reasoning ability (Mayhew, 2012, Kohlberg, 1981). The DIT-2 will be administered to traditional brick and mortar and online undergraduate accounting students in the Southwestern region of the United States. The population of the sample will consist of accounting students (n=102). For a large effect size of f = .40, a sample of 102 records would be required. The sample population numbers was based on a priori power analysis with GPOWER 3.0.10 software to ensure an adequate sample size (Faul, Erdfelder, Buchner, & Lang, 2009). Power is defined as (1-β), where β is the chance of Type II error (i.e., one accepts the null hypothesis when it is, in fact, false). At a power of .80, one has an 80% chance of seeing significance that is truly in the data.
Theoretical FrameworkFrom a theoretical perspective, ethical behavior arises from ethical decision-making and moral reasoning. More specifically, theories of cognitive moral development have suggested that ethical and moral reasoning help guide an individual’s behavioral outcome. Kohlberg’s (1981) Cognitive Moral Development (CMD) theory and the theoretical structure of ethical behavior will be briefly discussed to understand the framework under which moral reasoning, ethics and ethical behavior interact with each other and impact accounting students’ moral reasoning and potential future ethical behavior in the business worldbetter.
Kohlberg’s (1981) CMD theory has been the most widely accepted viewin assessing an individual’s moral development (Ho & Lin, 2008, p. 884). Kohlberg’s CMD is comprised of three main levels which are each subdivided into two stages. Thelowest level, the pre-conventional level, is narcissistic and consists of stage one: obedience and punishment orientation and stage two: instrumental purpose and exchange. Brown-Liburd and Porco (2011) stated that stage one contains heteronymous morality and stage two encompassesinstrumental morality. Individuals at this first stage are only concerned about themselves (Ge & Thomas, 2008). They simply follow the rules and adapt to the authority to avoidreprimand. Individuals who are at stage two are self-absorbed. They try to circumvent the rules. They are inspired by a vengeful notion of receiving something for giving something. They think about the personal benefits of arranging favors and making deals.
The second level, the conventional level, is social relativism and consists of stage three: interpersonal accord and conformity and stage four: social accord and system maintenance. According to Kracher and Marble (2008) stage three includes interpersonal conformity and stage four includes social accordance and routine maintenance. For example,in stage three, social interactions and roles matter; individuals do not believe in individualism, but in participation in longstanding, communal relationships (Cano & Sams, 2009; Ge &Thomas, 2008). They are concerned with being trustworthy and dedicated. They adhere to guidelines in order to fit in. In stage four, individuals tend to see themselves as part of a group and their group has extended to society as a whole. They understand the importance of their civic roles and the importance of following regulations in order to protect the social order.
The third level, the post-conventional level, describes autonomous moral choice and consists of stage five: social contract, utility, and individual rights (Kracher & Marble, 2008) and stage six: universal ethical principles. Individuals at the fifth stage begin to think outside of their particular social structures and adopt moral principles (Ge & Thomas, 2008). By stage five, individuals protect individual rights through social contracts that ensure overall social welfare. Individuals at stage six focus on universal moral principles and think outside of their social network, suggesting that they have internalized the principle of justice (Baril & Wright, 2012).
Moral reasoning is a representation of an individual’s moral development and cognitive makeup (Frank et al., 2010). Targeted ethics courses used to develop moral reasoning can help provide an understanding of ethical behavior and dilemmas while providing avenues for increased ethical decision-making based on improved judgment capacity (Billiot et al., 2012). Currently, ethics courses are used to encourage ethical behavior; however, from a cognitive moral development perspective, it is theorized that moral reasoning must be impacted in order to create positive change (Graham, 2012). Students at the entry level in college or university is said to be in the second conventional level of Kohlberg’s CMD model and they need to develop their moral reasoning capacity to the third level in order to make sound ethical decisions once they join the accounting profession (Rezaee, Szendi, Elmore & Zhang, 2012). Ethics education provides the students with a solid base which will act as a point of reference when the student is faced with ethical dilemmas. Also through participation in the ethics courses, awareness of ethics and development of moral reasoning skills is achieved which therefore supports the conclusion that ethics education has a role to play in moral reasoning development (Rezaee, Szendi, Elmore & Zhang, 2012).
Research QuestionsThe research questions for this quantitative study were developed to examine group differences between the levels of moral reasoning ability of introductory and advanced accounting students who have undertaken an ethics education course in accounting programs in a community college and a university . The focus of the study will be structured around the research questions listed below. The intent of the research questions is topropose testable hypotheses in order to address the study’s problem statement. The research questions and hypotheses will be tested using appropriate descriptive and inferential statistical methods.
Q1. To what extent do the DIT-2 scores of online undergraduate accounting students differ based on whether they complete an ethics course?
Q2. To what extent do the DIT-2 scores of traditional undergraduate accounting students differ based on whether they complete an ethics course?
Q3. To what extent do DIT-2 scores of undergraduate accounting students differ based on method of ethics instruction (online vs. classroom), and age?
Q4. To what extent do DIT-2 scores of undergraduate accounting students differ based on method of ethics instruction (online vs. classroom) and gender?
Hypotheses
H01. There is no statistically significant difference in DIT-2 scores of online undergraduate accounting students differ based on whether they complete an ethics course.
HA1. There is a statistically significant difference in the DIT-2 scores of online undergraduate accounting students differ based on whether they complete an ethics course.
H02. There is no statistically significant difference in DIT-2 scores of traditional undergraduate accounting students differ based on whether they complete an ethics course.
HA2. There is a statistically significant difference in the DIT-2 scores of traditional undergraduate accounting students differ based on whether they complete an ethics course.
H03. There is no statistically significant relationship between the DIT-2 scores of undergraduate accounting students differ based on method of ethics instruction (online vs. classroom), and age.
HA3. There is a statistically significant relationship between the DIT-2 scores of undergraduate accounting students differ based on method of ethics instruction (online vs. classroom), and age.
H04. There is no statistically significant relationship between the DIT-2 scores of undergraduate accounting students differ based on method of ethics instruction (online vs. classroom) and gender.
HA4. There is a statistically significant relationship between the DIT-2 scores of undergraduate accounting students differ based on method of ethics instruction (online vs. classroom) and gender.
Nature of the StudyA non-experimental quantitative research design will be used to assess the impact of accounting students age and gender (independent variables) on his or her moral reasoning (dependent variable) as measured by the DIT-2 scores(Bean & Bernardi, 2005; Onyebuchi, 2011). The DIT-2 survey instrument will be employed to determine the moral reasoning level of accounting students. The DIT-2 will be administered using survey monkey to the undergraduate accounting student cohorts taking an ethics course online and in a traditional face to face format. The university students will consist of junior- and senior-level accounting students enrolled in a senior-level accounting ethics course. The students that enroll in the two accounting courses will be asked to participate in the study. The participants will be given moral dilemma situations and reasoning questions from which the DIT scores will be generated. The study will cover various types of analyses. Descriptive statistics will be used to describe age, gender, religious affiliation, race/ethnicity, and class classification within the sample. The power analysis will be performed for a mixed between-within groups (2 X 2 X 2) ANCOVA. The ANCOVA will include a between groups independent variable of ethics course with two levels of (a) online delivery and (b) traditional face to face delivery. A second between groups independent variable of gender will also be included in the ANCOVA analysis. A within-groups effect of time will also be included in the analysis and will include two classifications of (a) pre-ethics class DIT-2 test time and (b) post-ethics class DIT-2 test time. The covariate for the ANCOVA analysis will be age, which will be each student’s age in years. The dependent variable will be DIT-2 test score.
Significance of the StudyThe outcome from this research will supplement the current body of literature, responding to the appeal for further exploration into influential factors that affect development of moral reasoning in accounting students. This will provide needed research in the field, since limited research exists on whether ethics courses actually do help in decreasing unethical behavior. Many of the studies that have attempted to show the impact of university level education in ethics have an influence on ethical decision making have not uniformly demonstrated these significant effects (Morgan & Neal, 2011). With the changing business world where the number of scandals is increasing it is important to continually examine whether the intervention of including ethics education in the curriculum is yielding the objectives. This can only be tested through such studies as this current one. This study will also add further test of the connection between ethics education and moral reasoning and provide additional support for Kohlberg’s (1981) CMD theory.
Finally, public trust has become an issue of concern within the accounting profession due to the past decade of business ethical failures that have affected numerous stakeholders (Svanberg, 2011). The ethical failures have been a constant reminder of the significance of the code of ethics that govern Certified Public Accountants’ (CPAs) public reliability and professional integrity (Thomas, 2012). As a CPA, there is consistent responsibility to collaborate with other CPAs to elevate the profession of accounting by increasing the public’s trust (Article 1, Section 52.01 of the AICPA Professional Standards, 1996). Addressing the challenges, accounting professionals may invest into the field by developing the cognitive moral standards of future accountants. This study might help in identifying significant factors that affect the moral reasoning development and provide insight on the extent to which these factors affect moral reasoning. Developing these standards could aid in reducing the frequency of unethical behavior, thus increasing public confidence in the accounting profession.
Definition of Key TermsDetailed explanations are required for a number of definitions used herein. Note that some terms can be used interchangeably and are defined below:
Accounting student – anundergraduate or graduate college student who is majoring in accounting (Elias, 2008).
Business ethics – the moral rights and wrongs that define ethical standards of a society as applied to business institutions and organizations(Falkenberg & Woiceshyn, 2008).Ethics – the discipline that studies one’s moral standards or a society’s standards on what is right or wrong, good or evil (Eias & Farag, 2011).
Ethical Behavior–behavior based on individual or societal morals that are deemed by the society to be appropriate(Youngblood et al., 2008).
Ethical Decision Making–is the practice of selecting the appropriate alternativefor attaining the best outcomes in agreement with individual and societal values, moral values, and regulations(Wright et al., 2012).
Ethical relativism – the view that there are no moral standards that are unequivocally opportune and that apply or should be applied to the companies and peoples of all societies(Svanberg, 2011).
Moral–demonstrating the values of right and wrong, good or evil based on what the society views as acceptable in daily conduct(O’Leary & Stewart, 2013). Morals can be used interchangeably with ethics.
Morality – these are societal standards that an individual or a group need to determine what is right and wrong or good and evil (Abdolmohammadi & Baker, 2006; Warinda, 2013).
Moral reasoning – the term used by Kohlberg and Rest (1986) to describe the process by which individuals and institutions evaluate and determine what is “morally right” or “morally wrong”.
Moral standards – the norms about the kinds of actions that are morally right and wrong as well as the values placed on the kinds of objects the society believes to be morally good and morally corrupt (Premeaux, 2009).
Utilitarianism – a general term for any view that holds that actions and policies should be evaluated on the basis of the benefits and costs they will impose on society (Bernardi & Bean, 2008).
Summary The accountants’ participation in fraud scandals has highlighted the deteriorating levels of cognitive moral development. The major role of accountants in certifying financial statements that are used by stakeholders exhibits the need for ethics within the field of accounting (Boyle, Carpenter & Hermanson, 2012). This study will build upon the foundation of previous research, which has observed accounting students’ ethical reasoning. There have been mixed results on whether ethics education has an impact with argument being raised on whether ethics as a course can be taught and the impact it has on the students’ moral reasoning. This research will focus on the impact of ethics education on students’ moral reasoning taking into consideration the gender, grade levels, and their age. By analyzing the DIT scores of accounting students from two institutions namely community college and university, comparisons will be made and concluding findings on whether ethics education courses impact on the students moral reasoning development………………..
