Ethics Education and Accounting Students’ Level of Moral Development: Experimental Design in Tunisian Audit Context

This study explores the influence of ethics education on accounting students’ level of ethical reasoning in Tunisia. Based on cognitive developmental theory, we tested the effectiveness of an ethics intervention before and after ethics education with a control group. A triangulated research design w...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of business ethics
Authors: Arfaoui, Feten (Author) ; Damak-Ayadi, Salma (Author) ; Ghram, Raouf (Author) ; Bouchekoua, Asma (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Springer Science + Business Media B. V 2016
In: Journal of business ethics
Further subjects:B ethics education
B Audit
B experimental design
B Cognitive Moral Development
B Tunisian context
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Summary:This study explores the influence of ethics education on accounting students’ level of ethical reasoning in Tunisia. Based on cognitive developmental theory, we tested the effectiveness of an ethics intervention before and after ethics education with a control group. A triangulated research design was incorporated. Experimental and qualitative methods were used to control for experimental bias. This study revealed that the progress of moral development was not significant between the pre-test and the post-test. Data analysis revealed the primary challenges in teaching ethics in the Tunisian audit context. Through a confirmatory qualitative survey, stating “the consequences of unethical behaviour in the long term” demonstrates that the intervention meets the primary interest of this study, and it may influence auditors’ decisions and their perceptions of the potential consequences of their decisions.
ISSN:1573-0697
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of business ethics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1007/s10551-015-2643-z