Accounting Ethics Instruction

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Date Accounting Ethics Instruction Introduction Ethics and ethics education play a crucial role in accounting because accountants deal with sensitive information in their day-to-day activities. Failure to maintain ethical behavior within the profession has resulted in fraudulent practices in the past. As noted by Brands and Lange, the scandals associated with unethical behavior in the accounting profession has led to a decline in the level of trust in the profession (34). This has, in turn, facilitated the need for firm accounting ethics, which are usually incorporated into all accounting courses. However, questions on the best intervention techniques have been raised recently, which has also prompted a need for research in the area. The purpose of this research paper is to examine accounting ethics instruction and its effectiveness in enhancing the ethical reasoning ability among accountants. To do so, some articles that address the core concepts of this research paper, especially about accounting ethics, have been identified and analyzed. The analysis of the articles forms the basis of the research on accounting ethics instruction because they not only provide a source of materials for literature review but also gives direction on the development of the topic. Analysis of the Articles The analysis of the articles also provides a background of the study. By critically examining different studies that have been conducted on the concept of accounting ethics and its impact on the profession, it becomes possible to understand what has been achieved so far and the gaps that need to be filled. As such, these articles link to my future research in the sense that they provide background information as well as an insight into the areas that still need to be addressed about accounting ethics education. Article One The article by Shawver and Miller examined the effectiveness of specific ethics intervention in improving the perception of moral intensity among students taking an Advanced Accounting course. To effectively research their topic, they developed and investigated the hypothesis: “H1: Students’ perception of moral intensity as a whole will increase as a result of the ethics intervention in their Advanced Accounting course” (Shawver and Miller 3). Three other specific hypothesis were also developed and investigated: “H2a: Students will show an increase in their overall level of moral sensitivity/awareness as a result of the ethics intervention in their Advanced Accounting course, H2b: Students will show an increase in their overall level of Moral Judgment as a result of the ethics intervention in their Advanced Accounting course, and H2c: Students will show an increase in their overall level of Moral Intent as a result of the ethics intervention in their Advanced Accounting course” (Shawver and Miller 3). By developing the hypothesis further to address the specificity of moral intensity in terms of the judgment, intent, and awareness, these researchers were able to investigate specific variables that relate to ethics. The researchers invited applicants from two universities in the U.S. to participate in the study, although it is not clear the methodology adopted in the selection of the study. The study was controlled, and two measurement instruments were administered before and after the intervention. The researchers observed ethics in accounting research which is essential given that their research was about accounting ethics. According to Smith, requesting approval from the ethics board in an institution is important because it provides the researchers with informed consent (66). The same applies to participants who have to participate in the research voluntarily. Shawver and Miller requested permission from the Institutional Review Boards of both universities to undertake the research and ensured that participants did so out of their own accord (4). As shown in the table below, the study also adopted Rest’s Decision-Making Model, which in this case was properly used because the hypothesis was to measure the moral judgment and intent, all of which are part of the model’s components.666747162800(Shawver and Miller 13).0(Shawver and Miller 13). With post-test regressions showing higher t-values and higher adjusted R2, it shows that there is more significant relationship between moral intensity and moral intention, judgment, and intention after ethics intervention. The results of the study thus revealed that ethics instruction increased students’ awareness of unethical behavior, especially when instruction cases were used in class. Article Two The article by Cameron and O'Leary investigated the impact of ethics instruction on the attitude of accounting students who were exposed to ethical scenarios with legal and moral components. Three research questions were developed : “RQ1: Will accounting students’ attitudes towards ethical scenarios involving a legal and moral component improve post-ethical instruction RQ2: Will accounting students’ attitudes towards ethical scenarios involving only a moral component to improve post-ethical instruction? RQ3: Will accounting students’ attitudes towards ethical scenarios involving a legal and moral component change at a different rate to their attitudes towards ethical scenarios involving only a moral component post-ethical instruction?” (Cameron and O'Leary 279). To answer these questions, the researchers exposed a cohort of accounting undergraduate students in their final year to an additional ethics instruction course. The students were presented with ethical scenarios and requested to evaluate the ethical behavior of people in those scenarios pre and post the ethics instruction in an accounting ethics course. The use of a cohort and collecting data pre-and post the intervention was properly employed in this study as it allowed the researchers to determine the impact of ethics instruction accurately. The study employed frequency distribution to display and determine the data outcomes. The results revealed that ethics instruction only improved the attitude towards issues that had both moral and legal components, but no improvement was noticed on issues that only had a moral component (Table 3 and 4). left5517515(Cameron and O'Leary 283/4).0(Cameron and O'Leary 283/4). Approximately 41% of the students participating in the study were sure that ethics instruction had improved their attitude towards ethics while 35% believed that ethics instruction had no effect on their attitudes. The mean changes revealed some significant difference revealing the willingness of the participants to adopt ethical behavior. Article Three Christensen, Cote, and Latham examined the effectiveness of Defining Issues Test (DIT) in measuring moral reasoning and ethical choices made by accounting students. The researchers sought to answer nine research questions, among them being: “RQ1: Do practicing accountants have different levels of moral reasoning, as measured by the DIT P-score, than accounting college seniors? RQ2: Do DIT P-scores differ between accounting majors and other business majors as well as non-business majors? ...” (Christensen, Cote, and Latham). Other questions involved the measurement of DIT P-score about ethical choices, ethics instruction, political ideology, gender, GPA, age and the class level of the accounting students. To answer the research questions, the study employed a meta-analysis method by analyzing the existing studies on DIT and accounting ethics. This method was properly employed given that it is very effective in overcoming the shortcomings of individual studies. By employing these research methods, the researchers were able to increase the statistical power and precision of the estimates from individual studies. The results of the study indicated that the use of DIT is effective in ethics instruction among accounting students. In particular, the study revealed that the moral reasoning of accounting students increases as the level of education and GPA increases. Further, the findings of the study indicated that the ethical reasoning of students was high when ethics instruction was integrated within the accounting course. A meta-analysis of 8 samples revealed that there exists a correlation of 0.156 between ethical reasoning and integration of ethics instruction in an accounting course as shown in the table below. A correlation of 0.210, derived from 602 participants in different studies, exists between ethical choice and ethical reasoning. 857253886200(Christensen, Cote, and Latham).0(Christensen, Cote, and Latham). These two correlations reveal a significant relationship between ethics instruction, ethical choice, and ethical reasoning. Article Four The article by Burns, Tackett, and Wolf examined the effectiveness of ethics instruction in accounting by taking a second look at the phenomenon. Two hypotheses were developed and investigated in the study as follows: “H1: Exposure to a discussion on ethics does not affect student’s subsequent incidence of academic dishonesty. Specifically, no relationship exists between the level of student plagiarism in a college accounting writing assignment, and the type of training in ethical theories and frameworks students receive… H2: Students who express that ethical failures can be best prevented through additional ethical education are more likely to cheat than students who believe that ethical failures can best be prevented through increased punishment…” (Burns, Tackett and Wolf 159, 161). To test the hypothesis, the article employed a 2*2*2 full factorial on accounting students attending a business college. The factorial included the type of ethical training given to students, the student’s view on whether more ethical education is effective in preventing unethical behavior, and the student’s view on whether increased punishment is effective. The researchers based their study and ethical dishonesty on students likelihood to plagiarize their assignment(159). Using only ...