Refocusing ethics education in accounting: an examination of accounting students’ tendency to use their cognitive moral capability

Abstract

The traditional focus of accounting ethics education research has been on developing an understanding of how to increase the cognitive moral capability of students entering the accounting profession. Nevertheless, it has not previously been ascertained whether accounting students use their cognitive moral capability in the resolution of accounting-specific moral dilemmas. This study examines the cognitive moral capability, prescriptive reasoning, and deliberative reasoning of 110 accounting students enrolled in a cooperative accounting program. The results suggest that cooperative accounting students do not use their full cognitive moral capability in the resolution of accounting-specific moral dilemmas. In addition, associations between demographic variables and accounting students' cognitive moral capability reported in existing accounting ethics research do not appear to extend to cooperative accounting students' propensity to utilize principled moral considerations. This suggests the need for additional investigation of factors that may influence accounting students' propensity to use principled moral considerations in the resolution of accounting-specific moral dilemmas, and for further investigation into the effect of cooperative accounting education on accounting students' moral reasoning.