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Personal Values and Ethical Behavior in Accounting Students

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Abstract

This study develops and tests an integrated model that explains how Schwartz’s higher order personal values of Openness to Change, Conservation, Self-Transcendence and Self-Enhancement influence the ethical behavior of accountants. The study further explores the influence of ethics training, gender and religiosity on ethical behavior. A survey instrument was administered to 252 accounting students and the findings reveal that some of the higher order personal values (Conservation, Self-Transcendence, Self-Enhancement) are significant in explaining the ethical behavior of accounting students. The findings also reveal that gender and ethical training influence ethical behavior, and that effect of the personal value Self-Transcendence differs depending on participant gender and also religiosity. The implications of the findings are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. California State University Sacramento, 6000 J Street, Sacramento, CA, 95819, USA

    Grace Mubako

  2. University of Texas at El Paso, 500 West University Avenue, El Paso, TX, 79968, USA

    Kallol Bagchi, Godwin Udo & Marjorie Marinovic

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  1. Grace Mubako
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Correspondence to Grace Mubako.

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The questionnaire and methodology for this study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the University of Texas at El Paso (# 970628-1).

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Appendices

Appendix 1

See Table 9.

Table 9 How HOVs relate to LOVs
Full size table

Appendix 2

See Table 10.

Table 10 Ethical behavior survey items
Full size table

Appendix 3: Formula for Multi-group Analysis

$$ S_{12} = \left( {\sqrt {\frac{{(N_{1} - 1)^{2} }}{{N_{1} + N_{2} - 2}} \cdot S_{1}^{2} + \frac{{(N_{2} - 1)^{2} }}{{N_{1} + N_{2} - 2}} \cdot S_{2}^{2} } } \right) \cdot \left( {\sqrt {\frac{1}{{N_{1} }} + } \frac{1}{{N_{2} }}} \right) $$
$$ t_{{{\text{s}}\,{\text{pooled}}}} = \, \frac{{\left( {{\text{PC}}_{1} - {\text{PC}}_{2} } \right)}}{{\left[ {S_{{{\text{pooled}}}} \times \, \left( {(1{/}N_{1} ) + (1{/}N_{2} )} \right)} \right]}} $$

where S12 is the pooled estimator for the variance, tspooled is the t-statistic with (N1 + N2 − 2) degrees of freedom, Ni is the sample size of dataset for groupi, Si is the standard error of path in structural model of groupi, PCi is the path coefficient in structural model of groupi.

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Mubako, G., Bagchi, K., Udo, G. et al. Personal Values and Ethical Behavior in Accounting Students. J Bus Ethics 174, 161–176 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04606-1

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