CHAPTER 4

Using Codes of Conduct to Integrate Ethics Education in the Accounting Curriculum

Susan Rhame, Liz Mulig, Cheryl Prachyl, and Robert Walsh

University of Dallas

Introduction

This chapter discusses the integration of ethics education into existing accounting courses. First, a broad overview of ethics education is provided, and its place in a business school curriculum in the United States is examined. A series of questions are considered and answered. Assuming ethics can be taught, should it be as a stand-alone course, integrated into a series of courses, or both? And finally, if ethics can be integrated into individual accounting courses, in what ways (by examples) could that integration take place? Also considered is how teaching the codes of conduct from the different areas of accounting (financial accounting, managerial accounting, auditing/accounting information systems (AIS), and tax) can be integrated into the various courses.

Accounting Education and Ethics

The study of ethics by business and accounting students was first emphasized in the early 1970s.¹ In 1978, Loeb edited the text “Ethics in the Accounting Profession,” which at the time was considered a landmark effort.² In the 1970s, business ethics became an academic field, and by the 1980s, ethics education had become standard in many business schools.³ Accounting curricula began to reflect a course in business ethics or accounting ethics. There are ethical expectations for accountants in public practice that greatly exceed some other areas of business.⁴ This consideration of the ethical obligations of accountants became more widely recognized in the mid-1980s. In 1986, the American Accounting Association (AAA), published the monograph Future Structure, Content, and Scope of Accounting Education, which directly proposed ethics education in every accounting curriculum.⁵ In 1987, the AAA, in conjunction with the National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting, also advocated the importance of ethics in accounting education.⁶

The attention given to business and accounting ethics in a college curriculum has increased over the years, often as a result of the attention the popular press has shown to ethical scandals and breakdowns.⁷ As a consequence of the negative publicity of these lapses, more and more universities have made ethical studies a focal point of business and accounting education.

While it is widely accepted that accountants should be educated in ethical reasoning, there is little agreement on how this education should occur. Should the education of ethics and ethical reasoning be a standalone course taught in the business school or a philosophy course taught in liberal arts? Alternatively, some believe that ethics should be taught within each accounting course in the context of the topics covered in the course.

Teaching Ethics Across the Accounting Curriculum

The question of whether ethics can be taught in an accounting curriculum has been the subject of some debate. Another issue is whether ethics should be taught as a stand-alone course or integrated in courses throughout the accounting curriculum.

There are advantages and disadvantages of each approach. For example, Desplaces and colleagues argue that a stand-alone course in ethics provides little to increase a student’s moral reasoning ability.⁸ In addition, many accounting educators may feel unqualified or uncomfortable teaching a course in ethics. Bean and Bernardi cite as reasons for this discomfort their unfamiliarity with research in ethics, the lack of available resources to teach ethics, or knowledge of the best approach to introduce students to various methods of ethical reasoning.⁹

National and international accreditation agencies for business and accounting schools do not require a stand-alone course in ethics. The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) requires that ethics be taught in business but does not mandate that it be taught as a stand-alone course.¹⁰

In the United States, each state determines the educational requirements to take the Uniform Certified Public Accounting Examination. These state boards look to the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) for guidance in setting these educational requirements.¹¹ The NASBA has not mandated a separate accounting ethics course, though some states do (e.g., Texas).

Introducing ethics into existing accounting courses as a supplement to the current curriculum has its disadvantages as well. Many required courses in accounting have already seen tremendous growth in the subject matter that should be covered in these courses. Madison argues that the coverage requirements for many accounting courses are so lengthy that including ethics into a course could be done only briefly and superficially.¹²

An additional question is whether accounting faculty would be motivated to teach ethics within their courses. A few studies have found that some faculty do not believe that ethics can be taught in an accounting or business course.¹³ However, other researchers have discovered that there are benefits to integrating ethical discussion within various accounting and business courses, including the usage of cases specific to subfields of accounting.¹⁴

Assuming that ethics can be taught within accounting courses, how and where should this integration take place? A starting point would be to integrate the professional codes of conduct from each subarea of accounting into the appropriate course. These codes of conduct would be tailored toward the subject matter within the course.

The rest of the chapter describes some of the ethical issues encountered in each of the subdisciplines along with teaching strategies for these courses.

Ethical Issues and Teaching Strategies by Accounting Subdisciplines

Typically, ethical issues in accounting can be divided into four categories closely aligned with the subdisciplines of accounting: financial accounting, managerial accounting, auditing/AIS, and taxation. In some cases, there can be a crossover ethical issue capturing two or more of these subdisciplines. For example, the computation of an income tax liability (deferred tax liability) is based on both financial accounting income and taxable income.

The following sections cover examples of ethical issues that could be integrated into each type of course.

Ethical Issues—Financial Accounting

The purpose of financial accounting is preparation of financial statements in accordance with appropriate accounting standards (e.g., generally accepted accounting principles, international financial reporting standards, or some other set of accounting standards). The financial statements are prepared for the use of stakeholders such as shareholders, investors, creditors, suppliers, and regulatory bodies. It is imperative that these statements accurately reflect the financial condition, performance, and financial position of the company because these stakeholders rely on the financial statements and disclosures accompanying them to make decisions regarding the company.

Some of the major accounting scandals of the late 1990s and early 2000s, such as Enron and WorldCom, led to increased scrutiny, regulation, and penalties for the accounting profession. In the United States, the Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 and the Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010 exemplify two acts of antifraud legislation resulting from mentioned accounting scandals followed by the financial crisis of 2008.¹⁵ After analyzing 30 fraud cases detected in 2010 to 2013, the authors concluded that these Acts “have not provided a sufficient replacement for the lack of ethical behavior.”¹⁶

The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Code of Professional Conduct was recently revised. It includes separate sections that apply to members who are Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) in public practice, members in business, and other members.¹⁷ The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) is currently revising its code of ethics to “enhance its clarity, usability, and enforceability.”¹⁸

In spite of increased attention, penalties, and revised codes of ethics, ethical issues in financial reporting continue to occur. A major ethical issue in financial reporting is earnings management. Often accountants may face pressure from company executives or management to manage earnings in order to meet analysts’ earnings per share (EPS) projections, to cover up a company’s declining financial condition, or to maintain increased stock prices for purposes of increased compensation or stock options.¹⁹ Management of earnings can be manifested in a number of ways: overstating revenue by aggressive revenue recognition policies, understating expenses either by erroneously capitalizing and delaying to a future period, or inappropriate accruals.

Soltani comparatively analyzed six American and European corporate fraud cases.²⁰ He included six core concepts in the theoretical analysis framework:

1. Corporate ethical climate and management misconduct

2. Tone at the top and executive leadership

3. Environmental factors including bubble economy and market pressure

4. Accountability, control mechanisms, auditing, and corporate governance

5. Executive personal interest, compensation packages, and bonuses

6. Fraud, fraudulent financial reporting, and earnings management.²¹

Interrelationships exist among these core concepts. For example, Soltani stated: “The concept of ethical climate is a multidimensional construct which concerns the ethical culture, tone at the top, and ethical leadership.”²² A poor ethical climate combined with the failure of the CEOs to establish core values including independence, integrity, and accountability, contributed to the demise of the analyzed corporations.²³

Shafer conducted a survey of private industry professional accountants and found that the perceptions of the company’s ethical climate, the tone at the top, influenced the accountant’s rationalization of earnings management decisions. These findings suggest that the tone at the top really does matter and a corporation’s top management can have a positive impact on the prevention of earnings manipulation.²⁴

Teaching Strategies—Financial Accounting

From the recent financial reporting fraud cases, a common issue appears to be a lack of ethical leadership in upper management. Students need to be able to recognize when they are being pressured to make unethical choices related to financial reporting and know what steps to take. Part 2 of the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct (Code) provides guidance for members in business. While there are specific rules and interpretations that apply in certain situations, it is important to teach students how to determine when an ethical conflict exists and how to properly analyze the situation. In the absence of a specific rule or interpretation, the Code delineates a Conceptual Framework approach where members in business should take the following steps: “(a) Identify threats such as self-interest and undue influence, and so on. (b) Evaluate the significance of a threat. (c) Identify and apply safeguards.”²⁵ Each type of threat is clearly defined. For example, the Undue Influence Threat is defined as follows:

The threat that a member will subordinate his or her judgment to that of an individual associated with the employing organization or any relevant third party due to that individual’s position, reputation or expertise, aggressive or dominant personality, or attempts to coerce or exercise excessive influence over the member. Examples of undue influence threats include the following:

1. A member is pressured to become associated with misleading information.

2. A member is pressured to deviate from a company policy.

3. A member is pressured to change a conclusion regarding an accounting or a tax position.

4. A member is pressured to hire an unqualified individual.²⁶

Paragraph 2.000.020 of the Code also addresses the steps to be taken when an ethical conflict arises such as documentation, consultation with the appropriate persons, and consideration of discontinuing the relationship with the employer. Exposing students to this part of the Code will better equip students when they encounter ethical dilemmas as they begin their professional careers.

Financial Accounting Case

Ethical Issues—Managerial Accounting

Managerial accountants provide information and support for decision makers within organizations. They support allocation of scarce resources through budgeting processes, facilitate performance evaluation by providing data comparing actual and expected outcomes, and enhance communication within the organization by providing budgets that are understandable to users throughout the company and that clearly reflect management’s expectations regarding priorities during the period.

The Statement of Ethical Professional Practice of the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) includes the ethical principles of honesty, fairness, objectivity, and responsibility. Because managerial accountants are supporting all of the functions listed previously, they may sometimes be the bearers of bad news. It is difficult to convey a message that the accountant knows will be ill-received. However, the accountant has a responsibility to objectively and accurately report facts so that management has a realistic view of the allocation of resources within the organization and the performance of the organization and its segments. So that students can be prepared to deal with these situations, it is important that they be exposed to ethical issues that may be faced by managerial accountants at the same time that they are learning the technical tools they may use in their jobs.

The IMA Statement on Management Accounting, Values, and Ethics: From Inception to Practice provides a framework for developing an ethical culture in the organization.²⁷ It begins with identification of the current state of the organization followed by development of a code of conduct and ending with measurement of results. Review of this framework can give students an overview of the many areas that must be included in promoting an ethical climate in the workplace. Developing an ethical culture requires that the organization evaluate its progress toward implementing ethical management. A key skill that accountants may bring to this process is the ability to identify measures that will help the organization to effectively evaluate results. For example, the company might develop a code of ethical conduct and provide training for employees. The training could include testing so that measurement of understanding the code of could be evaluated.

The managerial accountant might face an ethical dilemma when a report indicates poor performance. There could be a temptation to manipulate the numbers so that better news could be presented. This lack of objectivity on the part of the management accountant could lead to poor decisions based on bad information. If upper management insists on good reports rather than realistic reports, the ethical culture of the organization can be suspect and the accountant should try to address the underlying ethical problem rather than the issue of altering reports to present the desired results.

The managerial accountant must remain objective and present facts. The accountant should provide analysis of data that will provide useful information for management to use in making decisions. Management relies on the competence of the accountant to provide such information. If accountants lack competence in a particular area, they should disclose this rather than present analyses that may be flawed.

Teaching Strategies—Managerial Accounting

As each topic is covered in managerial accounting, ethical issues can be discussed. The importance of honesty, fairness, objectivity, and responsibility (from the IMA Statement of Ethical Practice) can be highlighted. For example, when discussing budgeting, the implications of padding the budget should be brought up. Students can discuss the importance of using realistic projections when preparing a budget so that management can properly allocate scarce resources.

The topic of cost allocation can also involve ethical considerations. The method used to allocate costs can have a significant impact on the performance evaluations of people in different areas. The managerial accountant should be as objective as possible in this process. The accountant should not try to allocate costs to improve the performance measurements of some individuals over the performance evaluations of others.

Because the use of information prepared by the managerial accountants is so widely used throughout the organization, there are ethical topics that can be discussed for every topic that is covered in a particular course. The instructor might choose to identify and discuss current news items that illustrate the impact that the accounting numbers have on both internal and external decision makers. These discussions can help students to better understand the context and importance of the topics that they cover in managerial accounting.

Managerial Accounting Case

Ethical Issues—AIS and Auditing

AIS exist to aid accountants in recording input, processing this data, producing output (e.g., reports, graphs, etc.) and ultimately in storing the information (a valuable asset) of the company. The functions and ethicality of AIS depend on different controls being in place and companies adhering to them. Auditors examine and test the AIS and the controls employed to ascertain that financial statements are a fair representation of financial reality at the company and also to assure that there are no violations of ethical issues. Such issues include (but are not limited to) the correct representation of company financial status, disclosure of private information only to authorized persons, protecting assets from loss by fraud, and protecting the company’s interests from being harmed by inadvertent mistakes occurring when an employee fails to follow set procedures or is not trained well enough for the job at hand. Examples of these characteristic ethical issues encountered in the AIS and auditing arenas are presented here.

Confidentiality

A company is ethically responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of numerous types of data. These include employee data, vendor records, and customer records. Proper controls must exist in the AIS and any interfaces with other systems, internal or external to the company, to assure that this ethical responsibility is upheld. If these controls do not exist or if they are bypassed, data confidentiality might be compromised. Bypassing the controls to purposely leak confidential data would constitute fraud and would be a blatant ethical violation.

Working with Auditors

Employees of a company, including those who work with AIS on both the accounting and the information technology (IT) sides, have an ethical obligation to supply internal and external auditors with accurate, up- to- date information. Company IT management must assure that the programs currently used in production are the ones supplied to auditors for use in their testing, and accountants must have all records up-to-date or provide explanations as to why they are not. Failure of either party (AIS or IT) to provide correct information to the auditors would constitute an ethical breach.

Training

Companies are ethically responsible for training their employees. A well-trained AIS employee has not only received training on the company’s ethical requirements, but has also been properly trained to do his or her job. This employee knows that bypassing procedures and controls can result in incorrect information and ethical violations. A well-trained employee is also much less likely to inadvertently issue fraudulent information to management or other users of AIS information.

An employee without sufficient training might not realize the danger of downloading and manipulating data in spreadsheets for use in reports rather than using the complete set of unaltered data residing in the AIS. Spreadsheets are not normally subjected to the same controls as programs written or updated by the IT department since they can be, and generally are, simply altered at a user’s terminal. If an employee did, in fact, use incomplete data or an inaccurate spreadsheet to prepare reports for distribution, the company’s ethical obligation to provide correct and complete information would be violated. This would also result in an audit write-up when auditors found that the reports were derived from data sources (the spreadsheets) that were prepared without using quality controls.²⁸

Teaching Strategies—AIS and Auditing

Students in AIS and auditing classes need to develop an understanding of why awareness of ethical issues is vital. They also need to appreciate why controls are of utmost importance in the data processing cycle.

One effective method to use is the presentation and discussion of various codes of ethics in the accounting profession. Company codes and policies are researched along with those of state boards of accounting and those of various accounting associations including the AICPA, the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), the IMA, and the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE).

AIS/Auditing Case

Ethical Issues—Taxation

Ethical education within the study of taxation has grown substantially, and not just because of the recognition of its importance from accounting standards. Lawyers and the American Bar Association have adopted a much more aggressive approach to teaching ethics since the early 1970s.³⁴

Tax practice in the United States is guided by three pronouncements: the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct, the AICPA Statements on Standards for Tax Services, and the Internal Revenue Service Circular 230. CPAs performing tax services are required to adhere to the standards set forth in all three pronouncements. Anyone performing tax work is required to comply with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Circular 230.

Using one or more of these standards when contemplating an ethical issue is an excellent way to build accounting knowledge while also developing ethical reasoning. In general, all three pronouncements recognize that tax practitioners will be advocates for their clients. They will take positions on which they may not be absolutely certain. On the other hand, all three pronouncements recognize that the tax practitioner has a responsibility to uphold the tax laws and cannot simply ignore any duty whatsoever to the IRS or the government. If they fail to uphold tax laws, they face preparer penalties that may include fines and possibly prison sentences.

Teaching Strategies—Taxation

CPAs and others practicing in the tax area are often confronted with ethical issues in how they handle client information and the client’s expectations/estimation of future events. For example, when a client reports taxable income but asks the tax preparer to ignore it for purposes of completing a tax return, the tax preparer faces an ethical issue involving information about the client that the preparer has. Another example could be when a new client provides prior years’ tax returns prepared by another CPA and those returns contain mistakes or omissions. Again, the tax preparer now has information about the client and that information requires an ethical analysis to determine if action should be taken. Finally, a client may over- or underestimate a component of a tax return based on prospective information about the industry in which the business is engaged or the economy in general. The tax preparer may be informed of the overly optimistic scenario and is faced with the prospect of refusing to complete the return and losing a client in the process.

Taxation Issues

Advice for Teachers

To prepare students to be ethically aware, accounting professors should be familiar with codes of ethics and typical ethical issues that impact their specific areas of accounting. Jackling et al. agree, concluding from their survey results of member bodies of the IFAC that professional ethics education should be ongoing for accountants and that students should receive ethics education in an individual class and within other classes.³⁵ Prior to the early 2000s, accounting professors cited that accountants were well known for their high ethical standards. As recently as August 2001, a survey of attitudes within the business community undertaken for the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA) showed accountants as having the highest reputation for ethical integrity of the groups included in the survey.³⁶

However, events of the last approximately 15 years have served to undermine the reputation of ethical integrity of accountants. Professors should make students aware of this shift. Professors should provide students with knowledge on how to address ethical violations that they observe and how to avoid being drawn into committing violations themselves. Students should be able to incorporate ethical issues into class discussions or assignments. A typical ethical analysis should include the following: (a) identification of ethical issue(s); (b) identification of all the stakeholders involved; (c) identification of all the practical options available; and (d) determination of the best course of action.

Ethics in Accounting Education—Developing Versus Developed Countries

As global commerce has increased, the interactions among business people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds have increased as well. Wong-on-Wing discusses differences in how persons from various cultures interpret the morality of actions.³⁷ Managers must be sensitive to these differences as they work toward developing an ethical environment within the organization. In a classroom setting in which there is cultural diversity, the instructor can encourage students to discuss cultural differences and how those differences might affect ethical judgments.

Many developing countries pattern their accounting certifications after the developed countries, and hence their codes of ethics are similar as well. For example, the foremost accounting organization in Egypt is the Egyptian Society of Accountants and Auditors (ESAA). In order to gain membership in the ESAA, you must first be a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales or another acceptable foreign professional body, and then pass the ESAA’s examinations on Egyptian tax and company law.³⁸ The ESAA Code of Ethics includes statements similar to those of the United States and other developed countries, including components of integrity, objectivity, professional competence, due care, and confidentiality.

On the other hand, many have argued that a worldwide ethical standard or a code of ethics is simply not possible. For example, Wallace argues that the international community cannot agree on an international set of harmonized accounting standards.³⁹ Part of this problem is the disagreement over what is required to be a technically proficient accountant. Many less developed countries have higher levels of poverty and less personal savings to invest in education, including accountants who are well trained in accounting standards and ethical reasoning. In these developing countries, the focus may be more on developing businesses and increasing the standard of living than on educating students on ethical decision making.

Another complicating factor in considering ethical accounting education is the general business culture in developing versus developed countries. As Cohen, Pant, and Sharp point out, these differences can range from whether a country’s culture is collectivist or individualist, the litigious nature of the country, or the perceived distance or differences that are felt between superiors and subordinates.⁴⁰

Perceived threats to computerized AIS in some developing countries are similar to what is experienced in the United States. Research calls for management to educate employees about confidentiality and also notes that there are probably unauthorized users seeking to gain access to company data. Effective security programs and associated controls are needed.⁴¹ If confidentiality is not upheld by employees, there is an ethical breach.

In other developing economies, computer hardware and software are not even in adequate supply and there is a lack of education as well as cultural and political issues affecting accounting practices. Computerized accounting and auditing practices in these countries and even tax preparation and reporting software are nowhere near matching that of the United States or more developed international practices.⁴² The lack of standardization of accounting, auditing, and tax practice, leaves companies in these countries more susceptible to fraud and other ethical breaches.

Conclusion

Ethical business practices and ethical education are important throughout the world. In some developing countries, ethics education may not be stressed as much as in more developed countries because their accounting profession is less developed. However, more countries are stressing ethics and are developing Codes of Professional Conduct to guide businesses in fully participating in the global business community in an ethical manner. Ethics education throughout the world will help to improve the global business climate.

__________________

¹ Loeb and Bedingfield (1972).

² Melé (2005).

³ DeGeorge (1987).

⁴ Langenderfer and Rockness (1989); Blank, Wood, and Wood (2003); Mintz (1995).

⁵ Bedford Committee (1986).

⁶ The Treadway Commission (1987).

⁷ Sims and Felton (2006).

⁸ Desplaces et al. (2007).

⁹ Bean and Bernardi (2007).

¹⁰ Benner (2002).

¹¹ Mastracchio (2008).

¹² Madison (2001).

¹³ Gunz and McCutcheon (1998).

¹⁴ Massey and Van Hise (2009).

¹⁵ Gray and Ehoff (2015).

¹⁶ Gray and Ehoff (2015, 20).

¹⁷ AICPA (2015).

¹⁸ Global Accounting Alliance (2015).

¹⁹ Lenard, Bing, and York (2013).

²⁰ Soltani (2014).

²¹ Soltani (2014, 253).

²² Soltani (2014, 254).

²³ Soltani (2014).

²⁴ Shafer (2015).

²⁵ AICPA (2015, 130–31).

²⁶ AICPA (2015, 132).

²⁷ Institute of Management Accountants (2015).

²⁸ Blanke, Conger, and Mulig (2013).

²⁹ Cressy (1953).

³⁰ Van (2002).

³¹ Nuzum (2004).

³² Li (2010).

³³ O’Rourke (2004).

³⁴ Ross (1992).

³⁵ Jackling et al. (2007).

³⁶ Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (2001).

³⁷ Wong-on-Wing and Lui (2013).

³⁸ Smith et al. (2009).

³⁹ Wallace (1990).

⁴⁰ Cohen, Pant, and Sharp (1992).

⁴¹ Muhrtala and Ogundeji (2013).

⁴² Zakari (2013).

References

AICPA Code of Professional Conduct. 2015. American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. n.p., n.d. Web. 28 September 2015.

Bean, D.F., and R.A. Bernardi. 2007. “A Proposed Structure for an Accounting Ethics Course.” Journal of Business Ethics Education 4, pp. 27–54.

Bedford Committee: Committee on the Future Structure, Content, and Scope of Accounting Education. 1986. Future Accounting Education: Preparing for the Expanding Profession. Issues in Accounting Education Spring, 168–95.

Benner, J. 2002. MBA Accreditation Body Resists Professors’ Call for Required Ethics Course. AFX Global Ethics Monitor Online, November 14.

Blank, D., A. Wood, and C. Wood. 2003. “A Matter of Ethics.” The Internal Auditor 60, no. 1, pp. 26–31.

Blanke, S., S. Conger, and E. Mulig. 2013. “Linking IS Audit Concepts to the Real World Via an Experiential Learning Exercise.” Business Studies Journal 5, no. 2, pp. 59–69.

Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA). 2001. Protecting the Public Interest: The Role of the Chartered Accountancy Profession. A Report Prepared by Kroll Associates, August. Retrieved fromwww.cica.ca/index.cfm/ci_id/7760/la_id/1.htm

Cohen, J., L. Pant, and D. Sharp. 1992. “Cultural and Socioeconomic Constraints on International Code of Ethics: Lessons from Accounting.” Journal of Business Ethics 11, pp. 687–95.

Cressy, D.R. 1953. Other People’s Money. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.

DeGeorge, R. 1987. “The Status of Business Ethics: Past and Future.” Journal of Business Ethics 6, pp. 201–6.

Desplaces, D.E., D.E. Melchar, L.L. Beauvais, and S.M. Bosco. 2007. “The Impact of Business Education on Moral Judgment Competence: An Empirical Study.” Journal of Business Ethics 74, pp. 73–87.

Global Accounting Alliance. August 13, 2015. “Ethics: A New Path of Duty.” The Journal of Global Accounting. Retrieved from www.gaaaccounting.com/ethics-a-new-path-of-duty/

Gray, D., and C. Ehoff, Jr. 2015. “Sarbanes-Oxley and Dodd Frank: Then There Was Fraud.” Journal of Business and Economic Research 13, no. 1, pp. 19–26.

Gunz, S., and J. McCutcheon. 1998. “Are Academics Committed to Accounting Education.” Journal of Business Ethics 17, pp. 1145–54.

IMA Statement of Ethical Professional Practice. 2015. IMA Ethical Practices. Institute of Management Accountants, Inc. n.d. Web. September 28, 2015.

Jackling, B., B.J. Cooper, P. Leung, and S. Dellaportas. 2007. “Professional Accounting Bodies’ Perceptions of Ethical Issues, Causes of Ethical Failure, and Ethics Education.” Managerial Auditing Journal 22, no. 9, pp. 928–44.

Langenderfer, H.Q., and J.W. Rockness. 1989. “Integrating Ethics into the Accounting Curriculum: Issues, Problems and Solutions.” Issues in Accounting Education 4, no. 1, pp. 58–69.

Lenard, M.J., Y. Bing, and E.A. York. 2013. “Do Discretionary Accruals Distinguish Between Internal Control Weaknesses and Fraud.” International Business Research 6, no. 12, pp. 84–94.

Li, Y. 2010. “The Case Analysis of the Scandal of Enron.” International Journal of Business and Management 5, no. 10, pp. 37–41.

Loeb, S.E., and J.P. Bedingfield. October 1972. “Teaching Accounting Ethics.” The Accounting Review, pp. 811–13.

Madison, R. 2001. “To What Extent Is Ethics Taught in the Accounting Programs of Ohio’s Colleges and Universities.” Ohio CPA Journal. April–June, 39–42.

Massey, D., and D. Van Hise. 2009. “Walking the Walk: Integrating Lessons from Multiple Perspectives in the Development of an Accounting Course.” Issues in Accounting Education. November, pp. 481–510.

Mastracchio, N. 2008. “The Role of NASBA and State Boards in Accounting Education.” The CPA Journal 78, no. 3, pp. 64–69.

Mele, D. 2005. “Ethical Education in Accounting: Integrating Rules, Values and Virtues.” Journal of Business Ethics 57, pp. 97–109.

Mintz, S. 1995. “Virtue Ethics and Accounting Education.” Issues in Accounting Education 10, no. 2, pp. 247–260.

Muhrtala, T., and M. Ogundeji. 2013. “Computerized Accounting Information Systems and Perceived Security Threats in Developing Economies: The Nigerian Case.” Universal Journal of Accounting and Finance 1, no. 1, pp. 9–18.

Nuzum, C. 2004. “Executives on Trial: Adelphia’s Accounting Magic Fooled Auditors, Witness Says.” Wall Street Journal May 5, pp. C.5–C.5.

O’Rourke, M. 2004. “Parmalat Scandal Highlights Fraud Concerns.” Risk Management 51, no. 3, p. 44.

Ross, S. 1992. “Tax Ethics Education in the United States and Australia.” Australian Tax Forum 9, no. 1, pp. 27–32.

Shafer, W.E. 2015. “Ethical Climate, Social Responsibility, and Earnings Management.” Journal of Business Ethics 126, pp. 43–60.

Sims, R.R., and E. Felton. 2006. “Designing and Delivering Business Ethics Teaching and Learning.” Journal of Business Ethics 63, no. 3, pp. 297–312.

Smith, L.M., P. Charoensukmongkol, A. Elkassabgi, and K. Lee. 2009. “Accounting Codes of Ethics in Canada, Egypt and Japan.” Internal Auditing 24, no. 6, pp. 26–34.

Soltani, B. 2014. “The Anatomy of Corporate Fraud: A Comparative Analysis of High Profile American and European Corporate Scandals.” Journal of Business Ethics 120, pp. 251–274.

The Treadway Commission: Fraudulent Financial Reporting, 1987. Journal of Accountancy 163:5, May, 336.

Van, J. 2002. “WorldCom’s Troubles Top $7 Billion.” Knight Ridder Tribune Business News. August 9, pp. 1–1.

Wallace, R.S.O. 1990. “Survival Strategies of a Global Organization: The Case of the International Accounting Standards Committee.” Accounting Horizons June, pp. 1–22.

Wong-on-Wing, B., and G. Lui. 2013. “Beyond Cultural Values: An Implicit Theory Approach to Cross-Cultural Research in Accounting Ethics.” Behavioral Research in Accounting 25, no. 1, pp. 15–36.

Zakari, M. 2013. “Accounting and Auditing in Developing Countries-Arab Countries.” Journal of Economics and Political Sciences 16, no. 10, pp. 1–27.