Abstract:This paper investigates the Selection-Socialization Theory (SST) and its related Inverted-U Phenomenon (IUP) in the moral reasoning of Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) in industry and public practice. This is an extension of the literature that has primarily focused on CPAs in public practice and has reported mixed results. We do not find significant differences in moral reasoning (as measured by the P-score of the Defining Issues Test) between various professional ranks of practicing accountants. This resu… Show more
“…Ponemon (1992) provided early evidence of a selection-socialization in which disproportionately more accountants with low levels of P-scores were promoted to higher professional ranks in accounting firms than those with higher P-scores. However, more recent, and larger scale, studies have not found selection-socialization to be a factor in promotion in public practice (Bernardi & Arnold, 1997;Scofield et al, 2004) or industry practice (Abdolmohammadi & Ariail, 2009). Our finding of SF/ST dominance in 2005 that is also associated with lower P-score than NF/NTs raises the question again as to whether or not a conscious (or unconscious) selection takes place that might explain why these individuals are attracted to the accounting profession.…”
Section: Summary and Implicationsmentioning
confidence: 96%
“…In his explanation of this issue, Ponemon (1992) suggests that high-ranking accountants may be attracting or retaining people similar to themselves in a selection socialization mechanism, thus promoting individuals with a lower level of ethical reasoning than found in the overall population of lower rank accountants. More recent and larger scale studies find no evidence in support of this bias in promotion to higher ranks for CPAs in public practice (Bernardi & Arnold, 2004;Scofield, Phillips, & Bailey, 2004) or industry practice (Abdolmohammadi & Ariail, 2009).…”
“…Ponemon (1992) provided early evidence of a selection-socialization in which disproportionately more accountants with low levels of P-scores were promoted to higher professional ranks in accounting firms than those with higher P-scores. However, more recent, and larger scale, studies have not found selection-socialization to be a factor in promotion in public practice (Bernardi & Arnold, 1997;Scofield et al, 2004) or industry practice (Abdolmohammadi & Ariail, 2009). Our finding of SF/ST dominance in 2005 that is also associated with lower P-score than NF/NTs raises the question again as to whether or not a conscious (or unconscious) selection takes place that might explain why these individuals are attracted to the accounting profession.…”
Section: Summary and Implicationsmentioning
confidence: 96%
“…In his explanation of this issue, Ponemon (1992) suggests that high-ranking accountants may be attracting or retaining people similar to themselves in a selection socialization mechanism, thus promoting individuals with a lower level of ethical reasoning than found in the overall population of lower rank accountants. More recent and larger scale studies find no evidence in support of this bias in promotion to higher ranks for CPAs in public practice (Bernardi & Arnold, 2004;Scofield, Phillips, & Bailey, 2004) or industry practice (Abdolmohammadi & Ariail, 2009).…”
“…More recently, studies have shown no evidence of selection-socialization among, for example, professional accountants (Abdolmohammadi and Ariail, 2009). …”
Section: Socialization Worknorm and The Ethical Perceptionsmentioning
“…Our findings suggest that there could be socialization at play within the Brazilian tax authorities and that the tax auditors regress in their ethical decision making abilities as their tenure increases. Length of service affects auditors working for the public administration in Brazil in a similar fashion, it affects accountants and auditors working for the private sector in other contexts (e.g., Abdolmohammadi and Ariail 2009). These results challenge studies on public administration that suggest that length of service positively influences public sector servants' moral development (Stensöta, 2010).…”
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of length of service and ethical ideologies on cognitive moral development (CMD) and ethical behavioral intentions among public sector tax auditors in Brazil.
Design/methodology/approach
The research data were collected via survey questionnaires from a sample of 625 auditors who work for the Brazilian tax authority. Participants voluntarily complete an online instrument which included three scenarios with context-specific moral dilemmas, questions about the specific scenarios and an ethics position questionnaire. Multinomial logistic and ordinary least squares regressions were used to analyze the data.
Findings
The findings reveal that public sector tax auditors with shorter length of service are more likely to be at higher stages of moral development; relativistic ideology among public sector auditors is positively associated with more lenient ethical behavioral intention; idealistic ideology among public sector auditors is positively associated with stricter ethical behavioral intention; public sector auditors classified as absolutists are stricter in their ethical behavioral intentions; and public sector auditors classified as absolutists with length of service between 5 and 15 years are more likely to be at higher stages of moral development when compared to public sector tax auditors with longer length of service.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study is one of the first studies that attempt to understand the effects of length of service and ethical ideology on CMD and ethical behavioral intention among public sector auditors. Additionally, it examines these issues in the context of Latin America.
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