Professional ethical crises: A case study of accounting majors

Purpose - To investigate how accounting majors have reacted to recent accounting scandals and to evaluate the extent to which they are familiar with the scandals, the effects of the scandals on their opinions of accountants and corporate managers, and the consequent influences on the student's educational and career plans. Design/methodology/approach - In total 105 accounting majors at two institutions were surveyed. Forsyth's ethics position questionnaire was used to evaluate the student's ethical orientation. The survey instrument also measures student demographic data, the student's knowledge of the profession and the scandals, and how the scandals affected the student's opinions and plans. The data are analyzed using linear regression. Findings - Accounting students are generally knowledgeable about the scandals but seem to know considerably less about the accounting profession. Accounting students lowered their opinions of corporate managers more than that of accountants. Accounting students also express an increased interest in majoring in accounting and seeking a position in the profession, but express less interest in working for a Big 4 firm. Students scoring higher on the idealism scale tended to lower their opinions of accountants more than that of corporate managers. Research limitations/implications - The results represent a case study only. It is believed that the conclusions may apply to other student populations. Practical implications - The results can guide educators to prepare interventions that help students to avoid ethical crises. Originality/value - The paper introduces ethical orientation in explaining how students react to ethical crises. The results enable accounting educators to understand what students feel and how and why they react to such events.