Do Building Up of Values Matter? An Analysis of Ethical Values of Accounting Professionals and Unethical Reporting Practices in Accounting

摘要

Accounting scandals have shaken the confidence of the investor in the companies. Large numberof people lost their money in these scandals. All these scandals were attributed to false,misleading, or untruthful accounting. This undermines the role of accounting professionals whodid not report material manipulations in the financial results of the company. The studyattempted to find an association between ethical values of accounting professionals and theirchoices in ethical dilemmas in their profession. Correlation scores in this study revealed thatthere is a statistically significant low degree of positive correlation between value assessmentratings and ethical dilemmas in scenarios. Similarly, the correlation coefficients computedbetween scenario ratings and formal ethics education indicates that the latter would be importantin preventing the instances of unethical reporting. Ethical value score of professionals werefound to be more explanatory than formal ethical education. The study strongly recommendsbuilding up of rigorous ethical and fiduciary responsibility in the financial sector through variousmeans. The auditors must be trained to become responsible, independent, and judicious whileconducting audits. Professional bodies should encourage compliance with ethical reportingpractices in accounting by both carrot and stick approach.