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Perceptions of Accountants’ Ethics: Evidence from Their Portrayal in Cinema

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Abstract

This article examines popular representations of accountants’ ethics by studying their depiction in cinema. As a medium that both reflects and shapes public opinion, films provide a useful resource for exploring the portrayal of the profession’s ethics. We employ a values theoretical framework to analyze 110 movie accountants on their basic ethical character, ethical behavior, and values. We use factor analysis to reduce 22 personal characteristics to five factors encompassing two terminal and three instrumental value sets, which we relate to ethical behavior. Findings indicate that in popular cinema, the ethical behavior of accountants is positively associated with intrinsic terminal values, but negatively related to competency (instrumental) values.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Accounting, Brock University, 500 Glenridge, St. Catharines, ON, Canada, 2S3A1

    Sandra Felton & Darlene Bay

  2. School of Business, Queen‘s University, Kingston, ON, Canada, K7L 3N6

    Tony Dimnik

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  1. Sandra Felton
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  2. Tony Dimnik
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  3. Darlene Bay
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Correspondence to Darlene Bay.

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Felton, S., Dimnik, T. & Bay, D. Perceptions of Accountants’ Ethics: Evidence from Their Portrayal in Cinema. J Bus Ethics 83, 217–232 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9613-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9613-z

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