In the aftermath of crisis: The post-Enron implications for Spanish university accounting educators

Abstract

This paper is a consideration of the role that ethics must play in accounting education followed by a set of implementation proposals. It is based on the lack of response by the profession in Spain, as in some other European countries, to the crisis produced by recent financial scandals, both at a national and international level. Three proposals are made in the paper to reintroduce ethics into accounting education. Firstly, a case is made for a more contextual learning of accounting standards. This would help to avoid teachers and future professionals becoming passive and blind adopters of accounting rules. Secondly, the paper advocates the introduction of ethical reasoning in all accounting courses, as the best way for students to understand that there is more to the preparation of accounts than just following accounting standards. Thirdly, the paper points critically to the lack of accountability by professionals who prepare financial statements in corporations and supports them being made more responsible for their actions. This set of proposals is seen to be consistent with the notion of an accounting profession that is ethical at an individual level and responsible at a social level.Accounting education, ethics, financial scandals, professional accountability, financial reporting standards, Spain,

Accounting Ethics Education Research

“…The first theme is centred on approaches to teaching ethics by comparing standalone ethics courses with a pervasive approach to teaching ethics where ethics is integrated across all or many required courses (see for example Cooper, Leung, Dellaportas, Jackling, & Wong, 2008;O'Leary & Mohamad, 2008;Shawver, 2009). The second theme is focused on the importance of ethics education and how ethics education may impact the ethical behaviour of the future accountants (Abdolmohammadi, 2008;Cooper et al, 2008;Gonzalo & Garvey, 2005;Rahman, 2003).…”

“…Breaux, Chiasson, Mauldin, and Whitney (2009) The viewpoint of accounting faculty on the importance of ethics education was sought and compared with that of accounting students to identify differences in the way the two cohorts perceive the goals and benefits of accounting ethics education (Adkins & Radtke, 2004). This stream of research finds that students embrace the importance of accounting ethics education and value their experience in ethics education (Cooper et al, 2008;Gonzalo & Garvey, 2005;Rahman, 2003). Blanthorne et al (2007) provided faculty opinions on whether ethics should be included in the accounting curriculum, who should teach ethics, and how and where in the curriculum ethics should be taught.…”

“…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. In spite of the positive findings, authors continue to claim a need for a more ethics education by business schools and accounting programs and future accountants (Abdolmohammadi, 2008).…”

University versus Practice

“…Fast changes in economic environments have challenged the competencies (technical knowledge, skills and attitudes) of professional accountants (Barac, 2009). Accounting curricula at higher education institutions (HEIs) should ensure that accounting graduates are skilled and equipped to become competent chartered accountants (Gonzalo and Garvey, 2005). Ideally, accounting curricula should be revised regularly through an assessment of business requirements, and applications of these revisions need to meet the new requirements (IFAC, 2003;Barac, 2009).…”

Ética y enseñanza de la contabilidad (una propuesta de discusión)

“…Las propuestas que se van a desgranar a continuación buscan, de forma consciente, incidir en puntos muy controvertidos de la educación de los profesionales, directamente relacionados con su comportamiento posterior, en aquéllos extremos donde puede sospecharse que existen unas mayores deficiencias en el sistema educativo. El origen de lo que se propone puede verse en Gonzalo y Garvey (2005), trabajo donde se han expuesto, más resumidas, las presentes tesis. No se trata de diseccionar o analizar la docencia de la contabilidad a través de datos o de comportamientos previamente medidos, sino de proponer algunas mejoras, al objeto de hacer que la enseñanza de la contabilidad cumpla con objetivos diferentes a la mera instrucción o entrenamiento en la captación y medida de transacciones y otros hechos económicos.…”