How Workplace Accounting Experience and Gender Affect Ethical Judgment

Abstract

We investigated how individuals' ethical intentions and moral judgments were influenced by the discipline that they were studying or practicing and by their gender. Results showed that, compared with men, women consistently viewed questionable actions as less ethical and expressed a lower likelihood that they would perform these actions. Accounting students had higher ethical intentions and stricter moral standards than either students in other disciplines or accounting practitioners. Furthermore, there were no gender differences in moral judgments among accounting practitioners.