Ethical perceptions of accounting students in a Portuguese university: the influence of individual factors and personal traits

Abstract

Our purpose is to empirically examine whether gender, age, work experience, and attendance of a course on ethics affect the ethical perceptions of Portuguese accounting students and analyze the influence of some individual factors that may affect their ethical decision-making. Additionally, we consider the degree of importance assigned to a list of personal traits and their relationship with those factors. We concluded that gender influenced the degree of importance attributed by students to initiative/entrepreneurship, obedience, and responsibility; age influenced the degree of importance attributed by students to integrity; work experience influenced the degree of importance attributed by students to obedience; and attendance of a course on ethics influenced the degree of importance attributed to independence. For each of these factors, the influence did not prove to be statistically significant in decision-making. Similarly, the study identified some reservations regarding attitudes the students' peers might have, and when asked about this, they had negative opinions, believing their colleagues would have lower ethical standards. Our results add to the literature, especially because, in Portugal, little has been done to understand which factors may affect students' ethical decision-making processes. We expect to bring added value to stakeholders, teachers, and scholars engaged with these matters. ARTICLE HISTORY

Addressing Ethical Matters in Ukrainian Accounting Practice

“…Green & Weber (1997) also suggest that the courses with a strong emphasis on the Code of professional conduct (AICPA) could have a positive impact on the ethical behaviour of a future accounting professionals as according to Finn et al (1988) there do exist opportunities for the unethical behaviour even if most professionals do not regard it as a way to success. The importance of ethical educations for accounting students was also outlined by Melé (2005); Cooper et al (2008); Costa et al (2016). The findings of Marques & Azevedo-Pereira (2009) also stressed the importance of ethical education as the "predictor"of ethical behaviour.…”

Accounting Ethics Education Research

“…The media attention and subsequent investigations into corporate collapses left commentators questioning the ethics of the accounting profession resulting in an upsurge of accounting ethics education, inspiring research on the reasons and benefits of accounting ethics education (Bean & Bernardi, 2005;Costa, Pinheiro, & Ribeiro, 2016;Ferguson, Collison, Power, & Stevenson, 2011;Fisher, Swanson, & Schmidt, 2007;Fourie & Contogiannis, 2014;Gordon, 2011;Halbesleben, Wheeler, & Buckley, 2005;Koumbiadis & Okpara, 2008;Loeb, 2006;McManus & Subramaniam, 2009;Misiewicz, 2007;Ghazali, 2015;Saat et al, 2010a;ŞENGÜR, 2017;Sugahara & Boland, 2011;Van Hise & Massey, 2010;Win et al, 2014). Corporate scandals involving the accounting profession has thus become a major catalyst for accounting ethics education research (e.g.…”

“…Thorne (1999) find that the moral development among a sample of Canadian accounting students is associated with years of education and gender but is not associated with age or audit experience. Research evaluates the perception of ethical behaviour and moral development of accounting students, to examine the effectiveness of ethics education (Saat et al, 2010b) or by the individual factors (gender, age, work experience, and attendance of a course on ethics) (Costa et al, 2016). These studies also indicate that ethics education significantly influences ethical conduct and moral development (Gonzalo & Garvey, 2005;Rahman, 2003;Saat et al, 2010b); while Costa et al (2016) find that gender, age and work experience influences students' initiative, obedience and integrity.…”

Thoughts from the IAAER’s 12th World Congress of Accounting Educators and Researchers

“…project reveal complex patterns of relationships, but give cause to consider the need to extend support programmes particularly where students are not learning in their first language. Costa et al (2016), the third paper in the section, is concerned with students' ethical perceptions based on a study in Portugal. Ethics is clearly a topic of considerable concern in the accounting profession and in accounting education.…”

“…The first group are three papers (Coetzee, Janse van Rensburg, & Schmulian, 2016;Costa, Pinheiro, & Ribeiro, 2016;Hill, 2016), that deal in one way or another with student attributes and opinions. The middle paper (Webb & Chaffer, 2016) considers the opinions of professional accounting trainees on the role and importance of generic skills development as part of their degree studies.…”