The Effect of Ethical Sensitivity and Accountability Pressures on the Ethical Decision-Making

Abstract

This study investigates the effect of ethical sensitivity on Ethical Decision Making (EDM) in an accounting context, with a laboratory experiment using a 2×2 between subjects involving 61 postgraduate students. It considers the person-situation interaction approach with rationalist-intuition as the basis of moral decisions. Our analysis reveals that ethical sensitivity affects EDM. Furthermore, accountability pressure interacts with ethical sensitivity to affect EDM. Our results are consistent with Rest (1986) model and Jones (1991) theory. EDM is affected by individual factors (ethical sensitivity) and organizational factors (anonymity and feedback accountability pressures). Our findings reveal that to improve EDM, organizations should increase the ethical sensitivity of their organizational members as well as set accountability pressures for them. Individu with high ethical sensitivity who are under the pressure of feedback accountability are more ethical in decision-making. This study employs students as subjects, the results should be interpreted cautiously. Future study should validate the findings using professional accountants as subjects or performing other research strategies, such as a qualitative approach, to answer why such phenomena exist.