Does Selection-Socialization Help to Explain Accountants' Weak Ethical Reasoning?

Recent business headlines, particularly those related to the collapsed energy-trading giant, Enron and its auditor, Arthur Andersen raise concerns about accountants' ethical reasoning. We propose, and provide evidence from 90 new auditors from Big-Five accounting firms, that a selection-sociali...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics 2003-01, Vol.42 (1), p.71-81
Main Authors: Abdolmohammadi, Mohammad J., Read, William J., Scarbrough, D. Paul
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accountancy
Accountants
Accounting ethics
Accounting firms
Business ethics
Business studies
Civil disobedience
Cognition
Cognition & reasoning
Cognitive style
Education
Ethical instruction
Ethics
Gender
Hypotheses
Investigations
Men
Moral development
Morality
Obstruction of justice
Older people
Personality
Psychological tests
Reasoning
Recruitment
Socialization
Students
Studies
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Recent business headlines, particularly those related to the collapsed energy-trading giant, Enron and its auditor, Arthur Andersen raise concerns about accountants' ethical reasoning. We propose, and provide evidence from 90 new auditors from Big-Five accounting firms, that a selection-socialization effect exists in the accounting profession that results in hiring accountants with disproportionately higher levels of the Sensing/Thinking (ST) cognitive style. This finding is important and relevant because we also find that the ST cognitive style is associated with relatively low levels of ethical reasoning, regardless of gender. This finding implies a need for emphasis on the ethical training of accountants. The results also suggest that accounting firms should consider recruiting accountants with cognitive styles associated with relatively higher levels of ethical reasoning.
ISSN:0167-4544
1573-0697
DOI:10.1023/A:1021691001119