Personal, Professional, and Corporate Codes of Behavior: Certified Management Accountants and the Potential for Conflict

Abstract

Primary sources of ethical concepts cited by Certified Management Accountants were personal experience 40%, religious training 30%, education or firm training 7%, and other 18%, with only 5% indicating the professional code of conduct. The strength of these influences can be seen in the results wherein subjects often violated company policy in dealing with ethical situations.

Organizational Influences on Approaches to Ethical Decisions by Professionals: The Case of Public Accountants

“…A group of 147 social workers, when presented with a series of six vignettes describing ethical dilemmas, chose their ethical code from a list of six possible sources of influence an average of 38% of the time (Dolgoff & Skolnik, 1996). In a survey of 137 Certified Management Accountants, only 5% of the 124 who indicated that they had a single primary source of ethical concepts cited that source as their professional code of conduct (Ward, Wilson, & Ward, 1995).…”

“…Lawyers, too, are clearly included in the advice set (Table 2), with an indication that large-firm accountants are marginally more likely to consult them (Kendall's tau-b = .22, p = .07). Studies investigating sources of information used by professionals when faced with ethical dilemmas have typically ignored the possibility that professionals might consult colleagues (Dolgoff & Skolnik, 1996), or the fact that their respondents failed to cite colleagues as a source (Ward et al, 1995). However, there is evidence from work on other occupations to suggest that peer groups play an important role in ethical decision-making (Vallerand et al, 1992).…”