ETHICS TRAINING APPROACHES IN ACCOUNTANTS’ CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION

Abstract

Accountants perform a critical social function of engendering public trust in corporate reporting. As such, ethical misconduct committed by accountants tends to have a broader impact. Mandated continuing ethics education underscores the import of accountants’ ethical behavior; however, there exists uncertainty as to how best to conduct ethics education so that it enhances ethical capability. Our research evaluates the effectiveness of two ethics training approaches adopted in accounting continuing professional education workshops. Results indicate participants who underwent the action-oriented training are significantly more likely to refuse to concede to the client in a questionable and pressured setting than individuals who participated in the traditional training. As far as we are aware, this is the first study that compares two pedagogical approaches to ethics education in continuing professional education, the primary mechanism the profession uses to enhance ethical action.