|
UPSI Digital Repository (UDRep)
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract : |
| Ethical crises in business have gained more attention from public and have led many to question the effectiveness of ethics education in university. Therefore, this study was designed to investigate the ethical attitudes of accounting and business students, their willingness to become whistleblowers, and the impact of ethics education on students’ ethical attitude. A total of 275 usable questionnaires that consists of four ethical scenarios were analysed. The findings of the study show that a small percentage of accounting and business students are willing to involve in unethical behaviour. About 10.9% of students were categorized as unethical as they would cheat in an examination and that only 1% of the students would accept bribes to defraud the tax office. Once an element of risk of being caught was introduced, the percentage of students willing to cheat in an examination and those willing to defraud the tax office decrease to 4.8% and 0.7% respectively. The finding also shows that once the penalty was introduced, the number of students who would act unethically decrease and the number of those who would act as whistle blowers increase. In general, the students are willing to become whistleblowers. The majority of accounting and business students who discovered fraud and decided not to participate are willing to report the case to relevant authorities. However, the findings indicate no significant relationship between ethics courses and ethical attitudes of students. |
| References |
1. Alleyne, P. & Persaud, N. (2012). Exploring undergraduate students’ ethical perceptions in Barbados: Differences by gender, academic major and religiosity. Journal of International Education in Business, 5(1), 5-21. 2. Bernaards, C. A. & Sijtsma, K. (2005). Bias factor loadings from questionnaire data with imputed scores, Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation, 75(1), 13-23. 3. Bigel, K. S. (2002). The impact of a business ethics course on the moral development of undergraduate and graduate business students. Delta Pi Epsilon Journal, 44 (2), 125-138. 4. Bloodgood, J.M., Turnley, W.H. & Mudrack, P. (2008). The influence of ethics instruction, religiosity, and intelligence on cheating behavior. Journals of Business Ethics, 82(3), 557-571. 5. Bogdanovic, M. & Tyll, L. (2016). Attitude of Management students towards whistleblowing: Evidence from Croatia. Central European Business Review, 5(1), 45-61. 6. Burks, B. D. & Sellani, R. J. (2008). Ethics, religiosity, and moral development of business students. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 49-71. 7. Cagle, J. A. B. & Baucus, M. S. (2006). Case studies of ethics scandals: Effects on ethical perceptions of Finance students. Journal of Business Ethics, 64, 213-229. 8. Conroy, S. J. & Emerson, T. L. N. (2004). Business ethics and religion: Religiosity as a predictor of ethical awareness among students. Journal of Business Ethics, 50 (4), 383-396. 9. Dellaportas, S., Gibson, K., Alagiah, R., Hutchinson, M., Leung, P., & Van Homrigh, D. (2005). Ethics, governance & accountability: A professional perspective. Queensland, Australia: John Wiley & Sons. 10. Dellaportas, S. (2006). Making a difference with a discrete course on accounting ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, 65, 391-404. 11. Dellaportas, S. (2004). The moral reasoning abilities of Australian and Malaysian accounting students: A comparative analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 12(1), 48-63. 12. Desplaces, D. E., Melchar, D. E., Beauvais, L. L. & Bosco, S. M. (2007). The impact of business education on moral judgment competence: An empirical study. Journal of Business Ethics. 74, 73-87. 13. International Federation of Acccountants (2003). Rebuilding public confidence in financial reporting: An international perspective, July, International Federation of Accountants, New York. 14. Jewe, R. D. (2008). Do business ethics courses work? The effectiveness of business ethics education: An empirical study. Journal of Global Business Issues, 1-6. 15. Kohlberg, L. (1969). Stage and Sequence: The cognitive developmental approach to socialization. In Handbook of SocializationTheory and Research. Chicago: Rand McNally, pp.347-480. 16. Kohlberg, L. (1976). Moral stages and moralization: The cognitive-development approach, in T. Lickona (ed), Moral Development and Behavior: Theory, Research and Social Issues. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, pp. 34-35. 17. Kohlberg, L. (1972). The cognitive-developmental approach to moral education. The Humanist,Nov-Dec, pp. 13-16. 18. Kohlberg, L. (1981). The Meaning and Measurement of Moral Development, Clark University Press, Worchester, MA. 19. Kohlberg, L (1984). The Psychology of Moral Development: The Nature and Validity of Moral Stages. San Francisco, CA: Harper & Row. 20. Lee, E. (2005). To blow or not to blow. Accountants Today. August, 17-18. 21. Maisarah, M. S., Porter, S., & Woodbine, G. (2010). An exploratory study of the impact of Malaysian ethics education on ethical sensitivity, Journal of Business Ethics Education, 7, 39-62. 22. Maisarah, M. S., Porter, S., & Woodbine, G. (2009). Does religiosity influence ethical sensitivity? An investigation on Malaysian future accountants. Malaysian Accounting Review, 8(2), 17-41. 23. Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (2005). Guidelines on criteria and standards for educational programmes in the field of accountancy, Quality Assurance Division (Ed.). Malaysia: Ministry of Higher Education. 24. Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (2007). Hala Tuju 2: Reassessment Report on Accounting Programme at Public Universities of Malaysia 2006. 25. Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (2015). Hala Tuju 3: Reassessment Report on Accounting Programme at Public Universities of Malaysia 2013. 26. Nur Barizah, A.B., Suhaiza, I., & Suaniza, M. (2010). Will graduating year accountancy students cheat in examination? A Malaysian case. International Education Studies, 3(3), 145-152. 27. Nur Barizah, A.B., Suhaiza, I., & Suaniza, M. (2008). Ethics of future accounting professional: Evidence from Malaysia. Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, 6(1), 21-33. 28. O’Leary, C. & Cotter, D. (2000). The ethics of final year accountancy students: an international comparison. Management Auditing Journal, 15(3), 108-115. 29. O’Leary, C., & Shafi, M. (2006). A Tri-national study of accountancy students’ ethical attitudes. Malaysian Accounting Review, 5(1), 139-157. 30. O’Leary, C. & Radich, R. (2001). An analysis of Australian final year accountancy students’ ethical attitudes. Teaching Business Ethics, 5(3), 235-249. 31. Shah, S. (2007). Safeguarding the integrity of financial statements. Accountants Today, 20. 32. Sheehan, N. T. & Schmidt, J. A. (2015). Preparing accounting students for ethical decision making: Developing individual codes of conduct based on personal values. Journal of Accounting Education,33, 183-197 . 33. Wang, L. C. & Calvano, L. (2015). Is business ethics education effective? An analysis of gender, personal ethical perspectives, and moral judgement. Journal of Business Ethics,591-602. DOI 10.1007/s10551-013-1973-y. 34. Zaimee, A. (2007). Mini-Enrons shaking up Malaysia’s corporate governance? Accountants Today, 7, July. |
| This material may be protected under Copyright Act which governs the making of photocopies or reproductions of copyrighted materials. You may use the digitized material for private study, scholarship, or research. |