An Examination of the Determinants of Student Ethical Behavior

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Abstract

There has been a continuing debate for the past two decades or more about the lack of ethical behavior prevalent across the accounting profession. Several violations of ethical guidelines in the accounting profession have prompted a discussion about what, if anything, can be done to reduce or eliminate the frequency of such events in future. While some practitioners believe that having more severe penalties could be a deterrent, others believe that there needs to be an increased ethics component in the college curricula.

This research attempts to throw some light on this debate by (1) examining the ethical choices business students, both graduate and undergraduate, make when faced with an ethical dilemma in a controlled environment, (2) examining whether business students, both graduate and undergraduate, make the choices they stated they would make when actually placed in a similar ethical dilemma, (3) determining whether there is a difference in the ethical choices made between graduate and undergraduate students when placed in an ethical dilemma, and (4) determining whether gender, GPA, and magnitude of the ethical dilemma drive the ethical choices made by the graduate and undergraduate business students.

Results of this research indicate that a majority of both graduate and undergraduate business students do not behave in an ethical manner when faced with an ethical dilemma. Additional findings indicate that female undergraduate business students are more likely to behave ethically than female graduate business students. However, results also indicated that male graduate business students were marginally more likely to behave ethically than male undergraduate business students. Also, results show that the undergraduate business students with high GPAs reacted significantly more ethically than did the graduate business students. However, results also indicated that graduate business students with low GPAs reacted more ethically than did the undergraduate business students.

Author

• Sanjay Gupta, Valdosta State University