Measuring the value of integrating GVV into a standalone accounting ethics course

Abstract

This paper empirically assesses the efficacy of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curricular offering. GVV training purports to increase both a person’s confidence level in dealing with ethical issues and his or her likelihood to try to resolve and actually report an ethical issue when encountered. While the GVV curriculum has been piloted in nearly 1000 schools, companies, and other organizations on all seven continents, very little empirical research has been conducted to assess its efficacy, especially in accounting education. We integrated the GVV offering utilizing an ethical decision-making framework developed by Mintz and Morris (2014), based on Rest (1986) model of ethical action, into a semester-long accounting ethics class. We extend the existing literature in the field by developing an important theoretical link between Rest (1986) four-stage model of moral action and GVV. When using ANOVA to analyze the treatment and control groups separately, we find significant increases in all four stages of Rest’s model for the treatment group. When applying multivariate analysis to the incremental change between the treatment and the control groups, we find significant increases in both students’ confidence and their intent to confront ethical issues. Additionally, we find similar increases in students’ ethical sensitivity (ability to recognize ethical issues), ethical judgment (determining the best course of action), and their intent to try to resolve and report them between our treatment and control groups for certain vignettes. Student comments suggest the GVV material to be more enjoyable, and faculty believe the depth of the analysis utilizing GVV is better. Faculty also suggest that student engagement is higher with GVV. Our findings suggest that integrating GVV into the curriculum of an accounting ethics course is of value and worth pursuing. Given the ease with which the offering can be implemented, our study may encourage accounting academics to include GVV coverage in other accounting courses as well.