Exposure to unethical behaviour: does it change accounting firms’ ethical stance?

Abstract

Decisions to implement ethical policies and practices at the organizational level are assumingly influenced by two key factors: (1) the extent to which businesses are exposed to prevalent unethical behaviours; and (2) change of business owner/manager’s personal attitudes toward unethical behaviours. Based on the theories of planned behaviour (TPB) and reasoned action (TRA), it is hypothesised that exposure leads to changed personal attitudes of individual business owners/managers, which in turn determine the potential actions taken by them to implement ethical policies and practices in their respective firms. Using a sample of 209 Australian small accounting firms, we test these hypotheses. Path analysis results indicate close relationships between the exposure and firm owners/managers’ personal attitudes towards unethical behaviour; and between the exposure and firms’ decisions to implement ethical policies. Increased exposure to unethical behaviour is nonetheless a concern as it triggered stronger personal attitudes towards accepting unethical behaviour. However, more exposure to unethical behaviour creates motivates owners/managers of small accounting firms to take actions and implement more ethical policies and practices at firm level. Policy implications of these results and future research directions are discussed.

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