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  • The Effect of Groupwork on Ethical Decision-Making of Accountancy Students

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    Author(s)
    O'Leary, Conor
    Pangemanan, Gladies
    Griffith University Author(s)
    O'Leary, Conor
    Year published
    2007
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    Abstract
    Recent accounting scandals involving the collapse of large corporate firms have brought into question the adequacy of ethics education within accounting programs. This paper investigates the ethical decisions of accountancy students and in particular analyses the effect of group (as opposed to individual) decision-making on ethical decisions. Final year accountancy students (sample size of 165) were randomly allocated into two experimental conditions. The participants were then presented with five (5) ethical vignettes. One experimental condition involved completing the ethical decisions as individuals (60). The other involved ...
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    Recent accounting scandals involving the collapse of large corporate firms have brought into question the adequacy of ethics education within accounting programs. This paper investigates the ethical decisions of accountancy students and in particular analyses the effect of group (as opposed to individual) decision-making on ethical decisions. Final year accountancy students (sample size of 165) were randomly allocated into two experimental conditions. The participants were then presented with five (5) ethical vignettes. One experimental condition involved completing the ethical decisions as individuals (60). The other involved completing the ethical decision-making as a group of 3-4 participants (34). A consistent pattern of behaviour was observed in the analysis of individual versus group responses. Individuals displayed stronger tendencies than groups to take the extreme actions of acting either unethically or ethically (whistleblowing), whereas groups displayed stronger tendencies to take the safer (neutral) options. It was concluded that groups reached consensus decisions, in an ethical context, probably as a result of peer pressure. The significant implication of this finding is in relation to the emphasis accounting programs place on group work. Group work may enhance students' abilities to work as a team. However, as revealed in this study's results, group work may not be an effective means of producing the optimal decision in all subject matter areas, especially complex areas such as ethical decision-making.
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    Journal Title
    Journal of Business Ethics
    Volume
    75
    Issue
    3
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-006-9248-5
    Copyright Statement
    © 2007 Springer Netherlands. This is an electronic version of an article published in Journal of Business Ethics, Volume 75, Issue 3, pp 215–228, 2007. Journal of Business Ethics is available online at: http://link.springer.com/ with the open URL of your article.
    Subject
    Auditing and Accountability
    Business and Management
    Marketing
    Applied Ethics
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/60645
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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