The Relationship between the Ethical Environment of Public Accounting Firms

• In Event: Organizational Dynamics and Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Recent research in the management literature (e.g., Ambrose et al., 2008; Wang and Hsieh, 2012) has investigated the link between the ethical climate of an organization and the job attitudes of its employees. We extend this research stream by examining the relationship between public accounting professionals’ assessment of their firm ethical environments and their own job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and organizational commitment. Based on a sample of 139 professionals currently employed at public accounting firms, our results indicate that those who rate the ethical environment of their firm as strong are more likely to have higher levels of job satisfaction and stronger commitment to their firms; however, ethical environment ratings have no influence on turnover intentions. Firm leaders are less likely to indicate that they intend to leave their job, but have similar levels of job satisfaction as non-leaders when controlling for other factors. Interestingly, we find only a weak relationship between the average number of hours worked per week and turnover intentions, and no relationship between hours worked and job satisfaction or organizational commitment. The results of this study contribute to the accounting job attitudes literature and provide insight on factors associated with positive job attitudes that may be of interest to leaders of public accounting firms.

Authors

• Donna Bobek Schmitt, University of South Carolina

• Amy M Hageman, Kansas State University

• Robin Rae Radtke, Clemson University