The Impact of Social Influence Pressure on the Ethical Decision Making of Professional Accountants: Australian and New Zealand Evidence

Abstract

This paper reports the results of an online survey examining whether inappropriate social influence pressure, in the form of obedience and conformity pressure generated by superiors and colleagues, influences the ethical decision making of members of four professional accounting institutes in two countries, namely Australia and New Zealand. We also evaluate the effects of organisational and professional commitment and what role, if any, such commitment plays in mitigating inappropriate social influence pressure. The results indicate that despite the members of the professional bodies displaying a high level of ethical judgement, obedience and conformity pressure do influence their ethical decision making. Furthermore, high levels of organisational and/or professional commitment were found to mitigate inappropriate social influence pressure, in that respondents who exhibit high levels of organisational and/or professional commitment are less likely to succumb to inappropriate social influence pressure. Our findings contribute to an understanding of the influences on ethical decision making by professional accountants, which could make workplace environments more conducive for ethical decision making by focusing on reducing inappropriate social influence pressure by taking steps to increase organisational and/or professional commitment.