Sociodemographic variables and ethical decision-making: a survey of professional accountants in Nigeria

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine the role of selected sociodemographic variables in the ethical decision-making (EDM) process of professional accountants in Nigeria. Design/methodology/approach The study obtained data from 329 professional accountants with the aid of a structured questionnaire containing four dilemmatic ethical vignettes. The data were analysed using Kendall correlation, Kruskal–Wallis and Jonckheere–Terpstra tests. Findings The results revealed that upbringing, especially parental discipline, and education are significant sociodemographic determinants of EDM. Religion and experience played little or no significant role in predicting accountants’ EDM in the face of ethical dilemmas. Research limitations/implications The study used a questionnaire to measure its variables, which may bias and somewhat inflate the findings. Hence, caution should be applied regarding its conclusion. Practical implications The evidence in this study could stimulate policy change and review to include a separate ethics course in the accounting education curriculum, which could enhance the ethics training of future accountants. This is important for countries like Nigeria, where no provision is made for a discrete ethics course in the curriculum for accounting under-graduate education. Social implications The study draws attention to the fact that ethical conduct among professionals and in society could be enhanced through proper upbringing and formal education. Originality/value The study adds some uniqueness in focusing on professional accountants in Nigeria, a developing country with high corruption profile and weak government institutions, and, as such, contributes to the limited research output on accounting ethics in developing countries.

Emotional intelligence and fraud tendency: a survey of future accountants in Nigeria

“…Alexander and Becker (1978) and Weber (1992) noted that adopting previously validated measurement scales facilitates comparisons and cross-validation of results. Lastly, in an attempt to address any omitted variables-related issues (Wooldridge, 2016), this study employs a set of control variables, namely gender, academic intelligence, religion and income, that may impact individual behavioral tendencies and moral dispositions, chosen with reference to previous behavioral studies (Ajzen, 1991; Ajzen and Fishbein, 2005; Craft, 2013; Kohlberg, 1973; Lehnert et al ., 2015; Oboh, 2019; Oboh and Omolehinwa, 2022). For example, Ajzen and Fishbein (2005) identified a wide variety of personal and situational factors, such as gender (male and female), age (young and old), education (educated and uneducated), and economic status (rich and poor), that may be influencing individual behavioral beliefs about a given behavior, leading to the formation of an intention or tendency towards the behavior.…”

“…The Enron scandal is a classic case that depicts accountants as accomplices of occupational fraud with management and directors of companies, especially financial statement fraud, to meet market expectations and impress investors (Ajekwe and Ibiamke, 2017; Albrecht et al ., 2019; Nanda et al ., 2019; Rezaee, 2005; Rezaee and Riley, 2010). Recent fraud cases of Volkswagen, Toshiba, Nissan and other multinational companies involving accountants are shreds of evidence necessitating research response and counter fraud interventions (Gaspar et al ., 2021; Oboh, 2019; Oboh and Omolehinwa, 2022).…”

“…It remains a leading threat to the growth and survival of businesses, and it permeates into public and private organizations, causing economic uneasiness in developed and developing countries, as over $3.3 bn is lost to occupational fraud annually (ACFE, 2020;Central Intelligence Agency [CIA], 2017; Nanda et al, 2019). A survey of 125 countries by the ACFE in 2020 confirms the rise and threat posed by occupational fraud to the global economy and security (ACFE, 2020), and amid these rising fraud incidences, accountants are accused of being enablers of occupational fraud (Adekoya et al, 2020;Matthews and Gandel, 2015;Oboh et al, 2020;Oboh and Omolehinwa, 2022; Rezaee and Riley, Emotional intelligence and fraud tendency 3 2010; Sikka and Lehman, 2015). Critical accounting scholars (e.g.…”

Views of physiotherapists on factors that play a role in ethical decision-making: an international online survey study

“…The highest approval rates were related to these three survey statements: item 36 "Physiotherapists need to behave ethically because it is socially expected as their professional role"; item 27 The highest level of agreement ("strongly agree" and "agree"; range: 21.3 -91.6%) by over 80% of the participants was identified for seven items, which also determined the ranking of agreement by the mean values (item 36,27,34,35,21,13,22). Ten items still achieved an agreement by more than 70% of the participants* (item 32,39,15,17,40,29,43,18,28,16). The highest rejection ("strongly disagree" and "disagree", range 1.1 -52.7%) by over 40% of the participants occurred with four items (25,23,33,20) and one item (26) was rejected by almost 40% of the participants (38.9%).…”

“…Learning formally about a code of ethics has been described as a predicting factor for experiencing ethical situations less frequently by physiotherapists [2]. Also, a relationship of formal (ethics) education and the development of moral judgement has been identified [13][14][15][16], but is not generalizable to all regions, populations or professions [17][18][19]. The adequacy and location of entry-level education were further What's already known about this topic?…”