Critical Review on
the Business Ethics
Curriculum
Hanof MousaAccountancy & Control Thesis 2013/2014
10362193
1
Abstract
Purpose- This paper provides insight in how an ethical course in practice is provided
and how it is perceived by professors and students. The different perceptions, also referred to as information asymmetry provides a better understanding of the contradictory results of prior literature about the effectiveness perceived by students. The different perspectives of
professors and students contribute by existing literature by providing insight into elements which they struggle to educate ethics effectively.
Research design and methodology- In order to address the information asymmetry
an interpretive case study was held at the University of Amsterdam. Interviews were held with four professors who teach ethical elements in their course, two members of the master
management team and eleven fulltime students with (almost) no relevant work experience.
Findings- The professors and students also recognize the importance of ethical
teaching. However students perceive their self superior to their peers and argue that they are already aware of ethical issues. The university makes use of different paradigms, non-scientific articles, case studies and guest speakers to teach ethics. However students still perceive this as too theoretical. Although most students do not have relevant work
experiences, they still think that the course is different in practice. That is also the concern of management team members and professors. They argue that is not possible to simulate real life unethical situations in the classroom. The university admits that it is not possible in a course setting to make students more ethical and that the ethical skills of students are not really tested, however the university acknowledges its role in making students more aware of ethical dilemmas. Society and accreditation committees demand more time and attention for ethical teaching. However, the university has limited time to teach students all skills needed for their profession and it is also not defined what students should be capable of by teaching ethics. Real ethics can only be taught at practice. The university also deals with a lack of coordination, which resulted in a repetitive curriculum and a lack of students’ interest. Professors and students argue that the elements discussed in prior literature may create unethical behaviour, but are not generalizable; ultimately it is a personal choice.
Limitations- This research is not aimed to generalize findings.
Originality- To my knowledge, this is the first paper that provides in-depth
information of the perception of students and professors and to which elements they struggle by educating/learning ethics.
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Index
1. Introduction ... 3
1.1 Background ... 3
1.2 Research contribution and motivation ... 5
2. Literature Review ... 7 2.1 Business ethics ... 7 2.3 Moral development ... 9 2.4 External factors ... 11 3. Methodology ... 15 4. Case context ... 18 5. Findings ... 21
5.1 General attitude towards ethical teaching ... 21
5.2 Current ethical teaching provided ... 22
5.3 Development of ethical skills and knowledge ... 27
5.4 Limitations ... 29
6. Discussion and conclusion ... 33
Reference ... 37
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1. Introduction
1.1 Background
Research that examines effective ways of preventing and detecting fraud is based on the assumption that accountants will accomplish their obligation to detect material
misstatements in the financial reports (Dellaportas, 2013). This stand of research assumes that accountants are not involved with such fraudulent behaviour. Accounting has always been a business (Power, 2003). However, according to Power (2003), audit approaches changed in larger firms and evolved as economics of accounting becomes more sensitive during the 80’s and 90’s.
According to Carry et. al. (2010) there are two different perceptions on accountants. The first perception is that an accountant is reliable and upright, independent and respectable. This description implies that an accountant tries to legitimize with society. The second perception is that an accountant is a professional seeking to please the client. So, accountants are seeking on the other hand for legitimacy with their clients. Carry et. al. (2010) argue that the legitimization of accountant with their client creates serious concerns about the integrity and competence of accounting professionals.
Satava et. al. (2006) state that accountants have abused their position by committing and concealing fraud in practice. Furthermore, they state that after each accounting scandal more rules are applied. However, according to Satava et. al. (2006) it is the accounting rules which make accounting scandals possible by “creative complying” with those rules. At Enron an employee describes the process as: "Say you have a dog, but you need to create a duck on
the financial statements. Fortunately, there are specific accounting rules for what constitutes a duck: yellow feet, white covering, and orange beak. So you take the dog and paint its feet yellow and its fur white and you paste an orange plastic beak on its nose, and then you say to your accountants, 'This is a duck! Do not you agree that it's a duck?' And the accountants say, 'Yes, according to the rules, this is a duck.' Everybody knows that it's a dog, not a duck, but that does not matter because you've met the rules for calling it a duck (Satava et. Al., 2006, p.
273)." According to Satava et. al. (2006) there should be a movement from an accounting-based approach to a more principle-accounting-based approach, where ethics are a central point that should be taught.
4 Research about the effectiveness of an ethical education has provided contradictory results (Satava et. al., 2006; Low et. al., 2008; Mintchik and Farmer, 2009; Thomas, 2012). Some research indicates that a university education has a positive effect on accounting students’ ethical standards, their cognitive moral capability and their moral reasoning
(Thomas, 2012). According to Thomas (2012) an ethical education is effective and results to better moral thinking. The student is able to make an better ethical judgment about a certain situation. This results show that graduates students with an ethical course have better ethical judgment than first-year student who have not had an ethical course yet.
Nevertheless, Mintchik and Farmer (2009) state that results have not been able to show a clear correlation between a higher moral thinking and ethical behaviour. A higher cognitive moral development could not be linked to the ethical course followed by students.
Low et. al. (2008) researched if a business accounting education may succeed to educate graduates to deal with complex ethical situation. In their study they applied a survey to measure the influence of an ethical course. Based on the survey outcome they concluded that an education is not enough. There are several factors which influence the ethical
behaviour of an accountant, such as: corporate transparency, corporate values and behaviour, money culture, vices of a capitalistic society and legalistic culture. Low et. al. (2008)
concluded that an ethical education has only a moderate influence on students. Moreover, they concluded that an ethical course may prepare graduates more for the real world, if the ethical course applied case based studies and invited guest speakers.
Gunz and McCutcgeon (1994) state that the effectiveness of the ethical teaching provided depends on the quality of teachers and commitment they show to ethical standards. Furthermore Gunz and McCutcgeon (1994) state that most teachers are not trained formally in providing ethics courses. They state that few of those teachers have terminal qualifications in ethics and ethics content of doctoral programs is minimal. However literature has been silent on the opinion of teachers about the ethical course provided. It is to my knowledge not researched if there is information asymmetry between the expectation of the teachers, student and the society. This paper aims to provide deeper understanding of the information
asymmetry that may be present. By examining this information asymmetry a better understanding may be provided of the perspectives of students and teachers about the
effectiveness of the ethical teaching. This is important because the effectiveness of an ethical course is depended of students’ believe in their ability to learn from an ethical course
5 According to Kivistö and Hölttä (2008) information is a key resource in all socio-economic and organizational life, because it is a source of power. Information enhances quality. However, according to Kivistö and Hölttä (2008) information is affected by the level of information asymmetry. They define information asymmetry as difference among parties in their information, especially when this information is relevant to determine an efficient plan or to evaluate another party’s performance. Kivistö and Hölttä (2008) state that information is important for creating incentives, quality and effectiveness of a product or production.
However, literature has been silent on information asymmetry between teachers and students. Information asymmetry is mostly addressed in agency problems. However the relation
between students and teachers does not fit within the agency problem, because there is no principal-agents relation.
To my knowledge literature about the effect of an ethical education has only been focused on the outcome of ethical teaching (Satava et. al., 2006; Low et. al., 2008; Thomas, 2012), but not on how the ethical teaching is provided. In order to understand the outcome of those papers and their contradictory results, this paper contribute to existing literature by shedding light on how an ethical teaching is provided in practice and the perception of society, teachers and students. This paper will shed light on issues that the university and students struggle with by teaching or learning ethics.
In this paper the following question will be answered: What is the perception of students, professors and society about the ethical teaching provided?
1.2 Research contribution and motivation
The contribution of this study lies both in subject choice and methodological
approach. Most academic research in ethics education is centered on testing the effectiveness of an ethical education by looking at the ethical and moral development of accounting
students. Most of those papers did not provide attention on how the ethical education is provided (Satava et. al., 2006; Low et. al., 2008; Mintchik and Farmer, 2009; Thomas, 2012; Dellaportas, 2013). They are mainly focused on external factors, such as culture and religion. This paper does not aim to test the level of moral development of accounting students or practitioners, nor does it aim to test the effectiveness of an ethical course in practice. This research aims to provide an understanding of how and why the ethical teaching is perceived by teachers and students. This research aims to look at information asymmetry that may be present between students and teachers. Information asymmetry between students and teachers
6 may influence the effectiveness of an ethical course or create a different aim of the course than what the teaching staff and the society expects (Gunz and McCutcgeon, 1994).
This paper aims to reveal both sides of the story in-depth, by offering the views of students and teachers in a case study at University of Amsterdam (UvA). The Uva was chosen by the QS World University Rankings 2013 as best university in the Netherlands. Both
students and professors have different (ethnical) backgrounds. The variety of (ethnical) backgrounds makes the university a good place to conduct a case study, because the moral beliefs are not country specific. The ethical courses are therefore applicable to all students notwithstanding their country orgin.
The views of teachers and students can provide in-depth information about the extent to which they believe that an ethical education will be useful in addressing ethical dilemmas. To my knowledge, this paper is the first to perform a qualitative case study to address
information asymmetry in ethical education. Prior qualitative studies show only the perception of accountants in practice (Dellaportas, 2013), or are survey based (Low et. al., 2008; Thomas, 2012).
Low et. al. (2008) concluded that in teaching accounting ethics there is more emphasis given on theory. However, according to them there should be a movement to an increase of practical knowledge to prepare students for practice. This case study will look at how theory about business ethics at courses should create awareness for accountant students of ethical dilemmas in practice and how students actually perceive this information.
Furthermore, the work of Low et. al (2008) and Dellaportas (2013) in which they provide some critical review on the effectiveness of an ethical education due to external factors, will be used to find out which external factors may effect the ethical behaviour according to teachers and students. This research is not focused to generalize findings.
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2. Literature Review
Ethics is defined as “ the study of morality and the application of reason to educate
specific rules and principles that determine right and wrong for any given situation” (Crane
and Matten, 2004, p.11). Ethics and morality are often used interchangeably. Morality is defined as “ the norms, values, and beliefs embedded in social processes which define right
and wrong for an individual or a community” (Crane and Matten, 2004, p.11).
In particular, this paper is concerned with how business ethics provided at universities. Business ethics are defined as the study of business situations, activities, and decisions where issues of right and wrong are addressed (Crane and Matten, 2004).
According to society the importance of ethics and ethical education is highlighted by of previous accounting scandals (Mintchik and Farmer, 2009; Bayou et. al., 2011). An ethical teaching should prevent fraud, the misuse of laws and rules and create a higher moral
reasoning (Satava et. al., 2006; Mintchik and Farmer, 2009; Thomas, 2012). However there are doubts about the fact that ethical teaching can really change the behaviour of fraudulent accountants ( Low et. al., 2008; Mintchik and Farmer, 2009; Dellaportas, 2013). In order to understand the concern of society, teachers and students, important ethical aspects will be explained in this chapter, such as: business ethics, the position of the student-teacher
relationship, moral development , and external factors influencing ethical behaviour according to prior literature.
2.1 Business ethics
In 1980 Hastings Center Study has identified five goals of an ethical course: stimulation of the moral imagination, recognizing ethical issues, eliciting a sense of moral obligation, developing analytical skills and tolerance and reducing disagreement and
ambiguity (Pamental, 1989). Emphasis was given on creating awareness by students on how they will interact when faced with moral choices in their life and career. They also need to recognize that the moral dilemma will be hard to discern in some situations. Moral choices are sometimes difficult to make. According to Pamental (1989) the lack of this awareness may create a course of an abstract theoretical exercise. It will fail to involve students and will leave them with the impression that the material in the business ethics course covered matters for others, but not for the student personally. According to Pamental (1989) once awareness is
8 created, the students should recognize the requirement of ethical thinking to judge a situation or decision as right or good. In order to judge situations as right or wrong students should be given the skills to use ethical concepts, rules and principles of rationality. Furthermore Pamental (1989) states that students were also taught to accept that there will always be legitimate disagreements in life and that they should know how to argue about those
disagreements. Moreover, students must be familiar enough with their business to determine the best professional moral response in their business.
According to Mintchik and Farmer (2009) major accounting scandals (such as World-come, Enron) brought attention to the important role of ethics in corporate decision-making and highlighted the failure of accountants as safeguards of social welfare. In order to restore the reputation of the accounting profession the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) proposed new accreditation rules for CPA exam candidates that is based on the assumption that "the inclusion and emphasis of ethical conduct and professional responsibility throughout the curriculum" in 2005 (Mintchik and Farmer, 2009, p. 259). At the beginning NASBA insisted on the inclusion of two stand-alone courses in ethics; one related to general business dilemmas and the other focused on specific accounting topics. However, in 2007, NASBA changed this requirement into one course in business ethics with the option to deliver this course through integration into other courses. According to Mintchik and Farmer (2009) NASBA changed its requirements due to critique by accounting academics who demanded empirical proof that standalone courses in ethics really increase ethical judgment in accounting context. They argue that empirical evidence demonstrated a positive impact of moral reasoning on the desired professional behavior in accounting settings, but did not link improved moral reasoning to coursework. Furthermore, Mintchik and Farmer (2009) state that it is still unclear which features of individual experience contribute to a personal moral development and whether this level of development may be increased through the education process at all. According to Mintchik and Farmer (2009) two points should be demonstrated in order to justify empirically the value of the stand-alone ethics courses in accounting education: (1) moral reasoning can be taught and enhanced; and (2) development of moral reasoning requires different pedagogical approaches than analytical thinking and problem-solving abilities are typically emphasized through accounting education.
Moreover, according to Gunz and McCutcgeon (1994) an ethical course can also be influenced by teaching staff who do not show commitment to ethical issues or with less teaching quality. Moreover these authors state that an ethical course may also be influenced by literature that is used. They state that mainstream accounting literature is dominant.
9 However, Gunz and McCutcgeon (1994) do not provide an opinion of the influence that the use of mainly mainstream literature may have.
2.2 Relationship teachers and students
For this paper the assumptions of Buzzelli and Johnston (2001) will be used for the position of teachers and students. Buzzelli and Johnston (2001) positioned the teachers and their power based on a set of basic assumptions which they believe are a “general agreement” which is prevalent between students. According to Buzzeli and Johnston (2001) teachers involve in moral action, where the teacher itself is a moral agent. The education as a whole including interaction of students in the classroom is essentially and unavoidable moral in nature. Furthermore Buzzelli and Johnston (2001) state that the teachers have an authority in the classroom and are being an authority. Which means that they have the ability to direct the students but they also have the knowledge and authority which translates into power.
According to Buzzelli and Johnston (2001) being in power and being an agent of morality has conflicts, because there are tensions between power and morality. It is up to the teacher to use their power for moral decisions. Furthermore Buzzelli and Johnston (2001) conclude that there is no one best way of being a moral agent and the usage of their power. This paper assumes that the same implies for teaching ethics itself. It is up to the teacher to use its power and knowledge to influence the perception of students about business ethics.
According to Cheng et. al. (2012) teachers have also the ability to translate theory in practical wisdom. Kessels and Korthagen (1996) explain the difference between theory and practice based on Artistotle’s concepts of episteme and phronesis. It is connected to the scientific understanding of a problem. Episteme knowledge consists of general concepts, which can be implemented in a variety of situations of a particular problem. It is related to practical wisdom. Phronesis knowledge looks at a problem in a particular situation. Actions to solve the problem are based on the awareness and knowledge of a particular person.
2.3 Moral development
Lewis and Unerman (1999) argue that moral values can differ between societies and in time. So, what is now considered right or wrong may be seen differently in the future or in another society. Furthermore, Lewis and Unerman (1999) sate that values are unlikely to have objective meanings. They argue that even if some very general moral values are
10 different societies aimed at fulfilling these general universal values are likely to vary relative to culture specific beliefs, conditions and practices.
Lewis and Unerman (1999) argue that more developed and reasoned forms of
subjectivism and relativism are more plausible to conduct. Reasoned forms of subjectivism do not hold all views and behaviour to be equally moral acceptable, but only those views and behaviour which result from a process of reasonable thinking.
An important theory about moral reasoning and moral development is the theory of Kohlberg (Baxter and Rarick, 1987). The Kohlberg moral development theory explains the cognitive framework underlying individual behaviour in an ethical dilemma (Kohlberg, 1969). The moral development theory is not about which decision is right or wrong. The objective of the moral development theory of Kohlberg is to understand the cognitive reasoning process an individual follows in resolving an ethical situation. According to
Kohlberg (Kohlberg, 1969), there are three levels of individual cognitive moral development: preconvention, conventional, and principled or post conventional. Each level consists of two stages. The second stage is a more developed form of the general perspective. So, in total there are six stages. The levels represent a hierarchical order, where level three represents the most advanced degree of moral reasoning. The levels and stages of Kohlberg theory are summarized in table one. At the preconvention morality level a person is guided by self interest. A person behaves ethically to avoid punishment or be rewarded.
At the conventional morality, the moral reasoning is depended of the social group it belongs to. An individual wants to meet expectation of the majority of a group at stage three. A person wants to be seen as a good person. An individual is authority orientated to hold the social order at stage four. The laws are at this stage fixed.
At the post conventional morality level an individual is leaded by universally accepted principles and his personal ethical conscience. There is emphasis on the importance of human rights at stage five. Laws and regulation are in this stage also important, but they may be changed if they improve human rights. So rules are at stage five not fixed. Universal principles of justice function as focal points at stage six. Ethical behaviour is not forced by rules or social groups, but are part of an individual’s beliefs and rationality.
11 Table 1: Kohlberg stages of moral development
Source: Baxter and Rarick (1987, p. 244)
According to Sweeney and Roberts (1997) the in dependent behaviour of accountants is affected by their level of cognitive moral development. Consistent with the moral
development theory they found out that the higher an auditor’s level of development, the less likely an auditor deals with an independence dilemma.
According to Reiter (1997) the level of moral development is difficult to measure with the Kohlberg theory model. To measure the level of moral development you need to organize lengthy structured interviews which must be interpreted by trained experts. According to Reiter (1997) the Rest’s Defining Issues Test (DIT) is easier and more used in business ethics research. Reiter (1997) states that the DIT does not measure the production of moral
reasoning, but it measures the recognition of moral reasoning. DIT also indicates relative levels of cognitive moral development. According to Reiter moral reasoning increases with age and a formal education. Prior studies have shown that the moral reasoning level of accounting students increase during their study (Thomas, 2012; Trevino, 1992). Trevino (1992) indicates also that older managers have a lower level of moral reasoning. Thereby, it is not obvious that moral reasoning increase with age.
2.4 External factors
Dellaportas (2013) researched which factors influence accountants to commit fraud. The main goal of Dellaportas (2013) was to develop an understanding of how fraud occurs. According to Dellaportas (2013) the leading factors in the occurrence of fraud are: pressure, opportunity and rationalization (also known as the fraud triangle theory).
12 The fraud triangle theory from origin embedded in the study of psychology and is developed by Cressey in 1971 (Dellaportas, 2013). Cressey (1971) stated that white collar crimes occur because of a ‘non-shareable problem’. A non-shareable problem is a problem or a personal crisis, which can not be shared with friends or colleagues, because of shame for the behaviour and fear for the consequential effects such as legal or social sanctions when the behaviour is discovered. A non-shareable problem may occur when an individual deals with factors such as financial distress, loss of status, admission of fault or poor judgments and tries to resolve it by stealing to avoid losing face. The fraud triangle theory argues that pressure, or motivation, provides the incentive to commit fraud. Furthermore, the fraud triangle theory assumes that the presence of an opportunity to commit fraud grants the offender the
possibility to fulfill his intention. Furthermore, the fraud triangle theory assumes that
rationalization helps the offender to deal with the cognitive feeling of guilt that is associated with this unacceptable/illegal behavior.
Dellaportas (2013) researched the presence of those elements in committed accountant scandals. He found out that the three elements of the fraud triangle were present in the
committed accounting scandals undertaken by the offenders. The motives he found in his research can be broadly classified into financial (failed business and investments, greed) and non-financial motives (revenge, vices and greed). According to Dellaportas (2013) the opportunities that made committing fraud possible were trust relationships with clients and the absence of proper business administration. The offenders rationalized their crime by displacing blame, the perception that no-one was hurt, and believing that the stolen money would one day be repaid/ was just borrowed. Dellaportas (2013) argued that evidence
provided in his study suggest that professional accountants relied on their position to mislead others when they were confronted with a special crisis that resulted in criminal behaviour. See figure 1 for more information about the fraud triangle.
13 Figure 1: The fraud triangle
Source: Dellaportas fraud triangle (2013, p. 31)
Low et. al. (2008) identified the occurrence of fraud through other factors: corporate transparency, corporate values and behaviour, money culture, vices of a capitalistic society and legalistic culture.
They argued that accounting scandals will occur because of the lack of corporate transparency and therefore there will always be irregularities in financial reports which result in accounting scandals. The irregularities make the financial reports unreliable and not sufficient to use for making decisions. Low et. al. (2008) stated that accounting practices are widespread. They argued that this may have an effect on the corporate values, culture and behaviour.
Furthermore, Low et. al. (2008) argued that corporate values and behaviour are not absolute truth. This means that the behaviour can only improves the outcome. According to Low et. al. (2008), accounting rules could be interpreted and implemented in different ways. They argued that this leads to confusion on how rules should be applied, what matters most: ethical values or money and power. Low et. al. (2008) stated that norms of society contribute to corporate values and behavior, individuals put material desires first.
According to Low et. al. (2008) we are told that money makes the world go round. They stated that we are taught that money is needed to have a comfortable life. They argued that the only purpose taught in life is to acquire money. Furthermore they stated that money is
14 associated with pleasure and that we live in an age where money talks and people listen. They argued that profit maximizing behavior ignores the demands of morality. Concluding that is why we live in a money culture according to Low et. al (2008).
Low et. al. (2008) also argued that the vices of a capitalistic society contribute to corporate accounting scandals. They argued that desire is a leader in what society considers important. In corporate social responsibility issues, such as: pride, envy, greed, avarice, and lust are the strongest incentives to all economic enterprises. Low et. al. (2008) stated that in this society love and humility are considered to be bad for business. They argued that maximization of returns irrespective of the cost is all what matters to society.
Furthermore they argued that society is being confronted with a legalistic culture that exists in corporations. They stated that companies see the law as something that should be interpreted in their own interest. As long as the company’s interpretation does not break the law, they will continue with their action. It does not matter for companies what the
consequences are for society. Low et. al. also argued (2008) that companies who know how to get around the law are becoming more aggressive over transactions not covered by specific accounting rules.
However, Low et. al (2008) concluded that most students find themselves superior to their peers. According to Low et. al. (2008) most students stated that they would not commit fraud with the presence of those elements, but their peers would.
The academic literature illustrates that discussions of the aims and demands of an ethical education exist from the early 80’s (pamental,1989, Gunz and McCutcgeon, 1994; Mintchik and Farner, 2009; Cheng et. al., 2012). However, ethical teaching is highlighted by previous accounting scandals. Academic literature puts a lot of emphasis on moral
development and testing this matter ( Kohlber, 1969; Trevino, 1992; Reiter, 1997; Roberts, 1997; Thomas, 2012) . In This case study illustrates how an university provides and tests the ethical skills of students. Furthermore it emphasizes on the importance of an ethics course. The academic literature also illustrated external factors that may influence the ethical
behaviour of individuals (Low et. al., 2008; Dellaportas, 2013). This is used in this case study to create an understanding of the influencing factors according to professors and students, furthermore it investigates whether the influencing factors are included in current ethics teaching.
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3. Methodology
The objective of this paper is to obtain an in-depth understanding of how ethical teaching is provided and how it is perceived by teachers and students. This paper seeks for information asymmetry between the perception of teachers and students. By doing so it contributes to existing literature by creating an understanding of why results of the
effectiveness perceived by students and professors may differ. This study takes into account that there is not just one reality to be discovered ( Robson, 2002). The nature of this paper makes an interpretive qualitative research a logical choice. According to Yin (2009) an interpretive qualitative research makes it possible to answer how and why questions in more details. This qualitative approach offers also a better understanding and a holistic view of the perception of students and teachers about the ethical teaching provided (Bogdan and Biklen, 2007). As stated by Bryman (2008, p.366) in interpretive qualitative research “the stress is on the understanding of the social world through an examination of the interpretation of that world by its participants”.
The semi-structured interviews also make an in-depth understanding possible and provide an opportunity to follow-up, explain and ask more in-depth questions and follow the thoughts of the participants (Robson, 2002; Punch, 2005). The thoughts and perception of the participants are perceived as meaningful and informative (Punch, 2005).
The case study was performed at the UvA (University of Amsterdam). Access was granted by following the Master of Science Accountancy & Control program at the same university. This provided also the opportunity to observe the ethical teaching provided in each course. Of the five professors who claimed (partly) to teach business ethics four were
interviewed. One professor could not be interviewed because of medical conditions. Furthermore the two members of the master management team were interviewed. The members of the master management team consist of the director of the Master of Science. Accountancy & Control program and the head of the Accounting section. Moreover eleven fulltime students are interviewed for this research.
This paper combines theory and prior literature to sketch the perspective of society, as well as semi-structured interviews to examine in-depth the perspective of teachers as well as students. First of all, based on the syllabus (study guideline) there was an examination of the course content. If the course contains ethical elements in line with the definition of business
16 ethics a small survey is send to the professor who provided the course to verify that they teach ethics in their course. The aim of the small survey is also to obtain facts about how the ethical teaching is provided and evaluated. Furthermore an appointment for an interview is made.
The structured interviews with teachers are hold face-to-face. The semi-structured interviews with students are virtual held because of their flexibility (in time). According to Crump et. al. (2011) a virtual environment results also to a more honest view of students. Furthermore as stated by Crump et. al. (2011, p 2411) “the positive impact of
intermediated communication is not limited to shy students”. There were constraints in time
tracking of virtual interviews, due to interruption of interviews which were continued at a later time.
table 2: view interviewees
Interviewee selection Type
interview
Track Background
I1 Professor (teaches voluntary included ethical elements in his course)
Taped (37 minutes)
Control track (not applicable)
I2 Professor (main ethical course for all Accountancy & Control) students
Taped (38 minutes)
Both tracks (not applicable)
I3 Professor (teaches voluntary included ethical elements in his course)
Taped (32 minutes)
Both tracks (not applicable)
I4 Professor (teaches voluntary included ethical elements in his course)
Taped (35 minutes)
Both tracks (not applicable)
I5 Master management team member Taped (41 minutes)
Both tracks (not applicable)
I6 Master management team member Taped (31 minutes)
Both tracks (not applicable)
I7 Student Written Both tracks Dutch (Chinese)
I8 Student Written Accountancy track Dutch
(Suriname)
I9 Student Written Both tracks Dutch
I10 Student Written Accountancy track Suriname
I11 Student Written Both tracks Dutch
I12 Student Written Accountancy track Dutch (Turkey)
I13 Student Written Both tracks Dutch
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I14 Student Written Accountancy track Dutch (Indian)
I15 Student Written Both tracks Dutch and
Polish
I16 Student Written Accountancy track Dutch (Chinese)
I17 Student Written Control track Dutch
The students volunteer to be interviewees and were not chosen. Separate interviews guides were used for professors who teach business ethics, the master management team and students, which can be found in Appendix two, three and four. The first survey verifying that a professor teaches business ethics can be found in Appendix one.
All face to face interviews were tape recorded and transcribed in a later stage. The virtual interviews did not need to be transcribed (the answers are typed by the interviewees in the virtual chat). The interviews resulted in a total of 110 pages of transcribed interview data, The transcripts were coded in a Word document by adding comments. In order to code the transcripts, first all transcripts were quickly browsed through as a whole, then notes were made about the first impressions of the qualitative data. Second all transcripts were read again very carefully, line by line. All words, phrases, sentences, or sections which were coded if they are inline or contrary with prior literature. Words, phrases, sentences, or sections were also coded if they were repeated or outlined by an interviewee as important. A small summary was made of each interview.
After coding the transcripts, a view was made in Excel of recurring codes and possible relations between codes. After coding the transcripts, the codes were divided into themes. See appendix five for the themes and codes used. The quotes were provided with a selection of comment numbers (of the Word document) in order to find quotes easily.
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4. Case context
The case study was performed at the UvA (University of Amsterdam) at the Master of Science Accountancy & Control program. The course content of the Master of Science Accountancy & Control program has an international focus. It also consists out of a diverse group of internationally renowned researchers and teachers. The Professors come from different (ethnical) backgrounds, such as the Netherlands, Ireland, Greece, Portugal, Germany. The professors have worked on several papers which were published in international top journals such as: The Accounting Review, Contemporary Accounting Research, Accounting, Organizations & Society, and Journal of Business Ethics. The professors have done research projects with academics from across the globe, such as:
University of Michigan, Emory University, University of Wisconsin (Madison), University of Manchester, University of Seville, University of Queensland etcetera. In the academic year 2013/2014 the Master of Science Accountancy & Control program has a total of 135 students, with about 45 international students.
The Master of Science Accountancy & Control program is an academic education. The program prepares students for a financial position in: accounting, consulting, industry, bank, and government. The program consists of two tracks: Accountancy and Control.
The accountancy track is designed for students with a general and analytical interest in financial information flows between and within organizations and in providing information services to senior managers and other stakeholders. The control track focuses on the role of accounting information in organizations’ financial management.
Some courses are obligatory for both tracks and others only for a specific track. Both tracks consists out of the courses: Management Control (MC), International Financial Reporting Standards 1 (IFRS1), Sustainability, Accountability and Ethics (SAE), Internal Control and Accounting Information Systems (ICAIS), Research Seminar Accountancy and Control (RSAC), and Corporate Governance and Risk Management (CGRM).
The SAE and CGRM course claimed to teach ethics. The SAE course is obligated to include ethical content in course subjects. The SAE course is aimed to provide students with an understanding of the concept of ethics and the importance of ethics in accounting. The broader aim is to ensure students gain a more holistic knowledge of the accounting discipline. One lecture of two hours and one seminar of two hours are spent specifically on ethics.
19 Students have to read book chapters on ethics in accounting and read and discuss two
academic papers on the topic. The issue is however discussed throughout the other lectures and seminar as well. The course makes use of theory, case studies and examples of practice One out of six exam questions focuses specifically on ethics in accounting. However, according to the professor the concept is important and relevant throughout the other questions as well. The exam weighs sixteen percent of the final grade.
The CGRM course is focused on the relation between ethics and corporate governance issues. This course is mainly related to fraudulent financial reporting and misconduct of top management. The course makes use of theory, case studies and examples of practice. Ethics is not discussed as a separate course, it is incorporated in more than one issue. One till three hours are devoted to topics related to ethics. The exam consists of open questions, but with no implicit questions about ethics. Ethics is considered as a related topic. About five till ten percent of exam questions are related to ethics. CGRM is taught by three professors who covered the same course subjects. However, one professor claimed to not teach ethics. He stated that the ethical issue is part of the course subjects and covered by the broader concept corporate governance. Furthermore he stated that his course mainly deals with fraud,
accounting scandals, SOX Act and ethical financial reporting. However, he does not think that he is teaching (partly) ethics and refused to be interviewed. So, he did recognize that his course contains ethical issues, but did not recognize it as ethical teaching.
The accountancy track consists of three additional courses: Assurance, Financial Accounting Research (FAR), and International Financial Reporting Standards 2 (IFRS2). From personal observations it seemed like Assurance also (partly) teaches ethics. However the teacher claimed not to teach ethics. He discussed in his course previous accounting
scandals, because he found this important. Nevertheless, according to him this can not be seen as ethical teaching. So the accountancy track has no additional courses that claimed to teach ethics.
The Control track also consists of three additional courses: Management Control Research (MCR), Corporate Financial Management (CFM), and Management Accounting (MA). MCR claimed to teach ethics. MCR’s last week topic discusses “Management Control Systems, Accountability and Governance”. During the course there is a critical review and discussion about the role that MCS (and accountability and governance) has in organizations. This is perceived by the professor as a quite practical approach, because he makes use of a Harvard Business School case study (e.g. Enron, WorldCom) to discuss what happened at those organizations and the role MCS played (or not). The idea is that “what happen is not the
20 result of a dysfunctional use of the ideal of profit maximization. Instead it is intrinsic to the assumption about the rationality of economic agents which, even in its bounded version, modern theories of accounting and finance share” (Macintosh and Quattrone, 2010, p.334). Ethics is perceived as a key topic but within the MCS area. MCR devoted a two hours lecture and two hours case discussion to ethical teaching. The case study report and discussion account for 15% of the students final grade.
The accountancy and control track was provided to fulltime students and part-time students. Fulltime students, also referred to as day students were obligated to attend the courses during the working days. Most of those students have no job or only a part-time job. Part-time students were students who are already working in the finance sector and were only attending the courses at Friday. This paper will only focus on the perspectives of fulltime students. Part-time students were also approached to participate, however a low response was received. Most part time students claimed not to have the time to be interviewed.
The University has to comply with Accreditation committee Commisie Eindtermen Accountantsopleiding (CEA). One of the demands of CEA is that students should be able to recognize ethical aspects in specific tasks and be able to solve those issues. The university is free to choose whether to teach ethics in one specific course or in different courses.
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5. Findings
5.1 General attitude towards ethical teaching
Inconsistent with the expectation of Gunz and McCutcgeon (1994) all professors do recognize the importance of ethical teaching due to the role that the accountant has to fulfill in society and previous scandals. Ethics is seen as a topic that is integrated in the current course subject or relevant because the course subject is related to fraud.
“I would say that is more related to fraud and then ethics becomes an issue that is important because it is related.” (I1, professor)
“I am not teaching ethics besides my current course subject. Ethics is an integrated subject of Corporate Governance.” (I4, professor)
“I think that you’re not going to meet someone who is going to say: no, that (ethics) is actually not important.” (I3, Professor)
Beside their own opinion it is also obligatory to teach ethics for accreditation committees. They also recognize it as a need of society, which is also argued in prior
literature (Satava et. al., 2006; Low et. al., 2008; Mintchik and Farmer, 2009; Thomas, 2012). In order to fulfill that need, the university has introduced one course where it is obligatory to teach ethics. The professor has the freedom to decide how he is going to teach the course within some general guidelines stated by the accreditation committees.
“Yes, ethics is absolutely important for everyone and especially for accountancy & control students. Beside, society is really asking it [ethical teaching] from us at this moment, that we should educate that [ethics] to our students. So, we should give it [ethics] attention, that is what the society in general says. If you look at newspapers on the behaviour of accountants, but also financial institutions, there has been much talk about this subject. Accreditation committees also find it important when they visit us to look at the quality of our education.”
(I6, Master management team)
Students see ethical teaching also as an essential course due to the role of an
22 personally need an ethical course. It is important for other students, because they already are conscious of ethical issues due to their upbringing. This is consistent with the findings of Low et. al (2008), that students perceive there self superior to other students.
“I really find it important to get educated in business ethics at master level, because ethics are not inborn in people and you can teach it to people till a certain level for sure. However it stays a difficult issue in practice.” (I8, student)
“It is of course very important, mainly for students of separated parents or families with problems. It is difficult for them to create their own character. That is why education has an important role in ethics and logical thinking.” (I12, student)
5.2 Current ethical teaching provided
The current ethical teaching at the university has no coordination (at detail level) and it is up to the professors to shape the course. The courses who voluntary teach ethics have no coordination at master level at all for the ethical content in their course. These courses are not obligatory to teach ethics, as ethics is already introduced in one course. This has led to a small ethical discussion in different courses, because the professors perceive it as relevant or
important. This has led to more emphasis on ethics in the control track, which has been perceived by professors as unwanted. The accountancy students should get also more
emphasis on ethics. All professors recognized the need to teach ethics in different courses in order to create that awareness. However different courses were not coordinated and there is also no coordination between the courses. So the knowledge about which course teaches additional ethics and how is taught is not available.
There is a lack of literature availability regarding the consequences of the lack of coordination in ethical teaching. Professors think that coordination of courses may benefit the university. This is also perceived by the master management team. According to the master management team the absence of coordination is an improvement point. Their main focus was now to include an ethical course in each master. The university tries to match the interest and research area of the professor with the course subject, because the professors are up to date with the last developments in the course subjects.
“No, there is not [coordination], as far as I know, at least I was never asked to cover any particularly topic in terms of the ethics. So it was basically my decision,… we are involved in
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the limitation and finishing of the content and structure of the master and the content of the courses.” (I1, professor)
“No [no coordination], and that is not good. There should be more [coordination], but it is an attention point that we are struggling with… We trying at least to put it [ethical course] in each master program and to let it [ethical teaching] return in different courses. However we do not coordinate it at detail level. That should happen and that is also the next step. In any event it is important that is being taught in each program.” (I6, Master management team)
“A weak point is maybe that I have no idea what is further being taught [on ethical area] in other courses.” (I4, professor)
Due to the fact that there is no coordination professors see teaching ethics to students as their duty. Some professors do not think that they are really teaching ethics, but show ethics as an important related course subject which should receive more attention. They argue that the limited time they spend is too short to really state that they are teaching ethics. The main goal that the professors have is: create awareness of unethical situations that may occur in practice, create a broad perspective of the role of an accountant, create awareness of different perspectives and challenge the students to think about (ethical) issues they take for granted. They try to achieve this by discussing the theory behind the practice which is in contrast to academic literature where the emphasis is on developing students’ moral thinking. Beside the theory, the professors discuss real life examples from newspapers, case studies and ethical dilemmas to let the student think about ethical questions. This is consistent with the recommendations of Low et. al. (2008) to include more real life examples in ethical courses. The professors perceive that as important for fulltime students, because they have no relevant work experience which enables them to link the theory with practice like part time students.
“Basically what I try is to make them develop critical awareness of things. Things should be questioned and are not necessary as they are told. In this particularly case I am not talking about critical in same sentence when I am saying critical paradigm. I am talking about students develop sense and be able to discuss things. See there are advantages and
disadvantages in different thing and have a broad holistic view of issues... I do not hope they have the same beliefs [as me]. I hope they can question their own beliefs. That is more what I hope then. I do not want to bring students to think like me. I want basically to open doors to allow them to think differently.” (I1, professor)
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“What I see is that creating awareness is the most important and realistic goal. Also the theoretical foundation behind it is important.” (I2, professor)
“Part time students see more the relation between what you do in the course and the practical influence of it. That has one simple reason: they already have seen it [elements taught] in practice for several years. They can easy relate to it [ethics and practice].” (I4, Professor)
According to professors is not possible to really change students, which is consistent with the findings of Low et. al. (2008). All professors argue that is not possible to simulate real-life unethical situations in the classroom. They partly agree with the findings of Low et. al. (2008) and Dellaportas (2013) about external factors influencing the ethical behaviour, however they think that it is hard to educate students to deal with those factors. It is not possible to create elements of the fraud triangle for example in the classroom. The students do not feel the pressure that they may feel in practice. Making students more ethical is not also their goal. The professors claim that is not possible to change a student’s mind in a short time, while it is believed that it can foster the development in moral reasoning in a later stage. However according to professors a higher moral reasoning does not automatically lead to a more ethical person. It depends on the student’s ability to dare to really take actions. That would mean that the findings of Sweeney and Roberts (1997) and Thomas (2012) which implies that ethical teaching results to a higher moral thinking, would have no effect on how students really behave in practice. Professors also argue that the students are not really examined to measure their ethical skills or their moral thinking. There is no direct relation between the exam grade and students ethical skills. That is also recognized as an improvement point. So the moral reasoning abilities are not tested, neither with Kohlberg stages of moral development nor with Rest’s Defining Issues Test (DIT) or any other methods.
“So, I see my role in that [ethical teaching] mainly as kind of creating awareness, I think. I can not imagine that I can really influence the behaviour of people in practice, especially of part-time students. I do not think that they directly would change their behaviour, but it is so that awareness may create interest. What I now see in students is that I receive sometimes pieces of internal newspapers and internal communication of organizations where they are working. This shows that it [ethical education] has an effect on them. They are more interested and recognize it more as something that is maybe not ethical accountable.” (I2, professor)
25 “I think that those [practical knowledge and what is been tested at the course] are two
separate things. They [the students] have indeed understood the exam question. If they are strong and confident enough to do something with ethics later, when they are working, I do not know…If you can expect that people will be really ethical in the future, I do not think that you can say that, no. Then you should measure that in more detail… I think it is a separate issue how they will function. What we do not exam is your real skills and abilities to solve an ethical dilemma. We do not test that. You get a grade for: what is ethics, what the content is, where the issue is. It’s about knowledge. It is not about -and that is actually the main issue- your skills. We do not test that… That is maybe something that should happen, but it costs more time.” (I3, professor)
“Well, further they have in any event a greater awareness in the field of ethics I think. Yes, I do not believe also that you can educate someone in such a way that he is going to behave or not behave ethically. That is nonsense, because someone has a certain level of ethics, yes or no. And providing education at that point is not going to change that in a positive or negative way.” (I4, professor)
That is also the concern of the master management team. They argue that ethics is difficult to teach, due to those other elements influencing in practice and the fact that ethics is not well defined. The master management team argues also that ethics is defined differently by several parties. One party argues that ethics is about acting efficient within the rules. Other parties argue that being ethical is not only complying with law, but also being accountable for all actions even if they are in line with the law. The master management team argues that society demands from universities to spend time and attention to teach students ethics. However it is not clear what the objective should be, how this should be achieved and who should teach the students. According to them it is a continuous struggle to find the benefits of spending more time in ethical educations. They argue that it is partly true about the fact that the universities spend too little time to teach ethics. However, they argue that the university deals with pressure of time to teach students all competence and knowledge they have to have in order to get graduate. According to the master management team it is difficult to make more time free because students would not be happy if courses with good technical knowledge will be replaced with ethics.
“Maybe strange, but ethics is difficult to teach. It is not really clear defined what we should accomplish [with ethical teaching]. So, we should give it [ethical subject] attention. That is
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what now is being said. But on what we exactly should provide emphasis, there is no demand for that from the outside world, the stakeholder…That means also, who is going to provide the courses? Should it be indeed professors with practical knowledge or not… There is little said about that.” (I6, Master management team)
“It is a continuous struggle in a program to find space for ethics. We are not allowed to say that from the outside world, but we have limited space in our program. We have to educate you [students] so many things, as well as technical knowledge, practical knowledge as methodology. And then you have to find space for ethics. It is difficult, it is also an issue and I am not allowed to say that from my manager…, but students are not expecting that either. If we for example tell the students that we are going to take a course with technical knowledge of book-keeping or good control knowledge and we will change that by half with ethics, as a general outcome the students will be unsatisfied. So, it is really difficult to find a balance.”
(I6, Master management team)
To the question why the master management team does not follow the
recommendation of NASBA guidelines to include ethical content in different courses instead of one, they showed their doubts about this method. It may have a better effect, but it may also become too repetitive same story, resulting in a loss of attention for the topic. However they state business ethics is an ongoing process which is a relative new area that is going through changes. They are disguising the ability to include it in different courses also at an earlier stage (not only at the master level).
“I know from discussions we had at business school level with the directors of other programs that we are trying to introduce elements of ethics in most of the programs. So this is an ongoing process, and it is being developed.” (I5, Master management team)
Professors also argue that their course deals with time issues. They state that the ethical course may be more effective if it is provided for a longer period where students have the time to reflect and get used to participate at class. Professors argue also that ethical
teaching would create a greater awareness if it is provided in different courses to challenge the students to reflect about the ethical elements and it creates a broader ethical perspective in different areas. They think that it may already be taught in different courses, however they are not informed about who is teaching ethics and how. They argue that different courses should work together to achieve a greater effort of the ethical teaching. Consequently, they do agree
27 with the NASBA guidelines which argues that providing more attention on ethics in different courses would have a greater impact on students.
5.3 Development of ethical skills and knowledge
Most students state that they have developed their ethical skills and judgment during their upbringing by their parents, environment and school. They do not think that ethical teaching at this age will have effect on them. It may have effect on other students that did not had the upbringing they had by their parents. It may only have increased their awareness of ethical issues that may arise in their work field.
“I think I learned it from my parents, grandmother and granddad. They taught me whether something is good or bad at an early age. For example, they taught me stealing is bad and helping people is good. But with regard to the accounting profession, I have obtained my knowledge from the SAE [Sustainability, Accountability and Ethics] course.” (I16, student)
Furthermore students argue that just one course of ethics, where just one week is divided to implicitly teach ethics is not sufficient. Furthermore they argue that the course was too theoretical, with too much time spent on scientific papers. The issues discussed were too obvious, which they already know or are able to conclude. According to them due to how the course is given (too much emphasis on papers) it would have no or just a short-term effect. The theory will be soon forgotten. This believe is consistent with the findings of Low et. al. (2008) which argues that ethical teaching is perceived by students as too theoretical.
Professors are aware of the fact that students perceive the course as too theoretical. The master management team struggles with the fact the university has to deliver an academic degree, so it has to be theoretical.
“The strong points are: the Enron movie, the discussion after presentations in the SAE course and the exercises with real-life dilemmas. The improvement points are: pointless theory and philosophy: the papers. It would also help if an ethical education is more integrated in the normal courses [other that the Sustainability, Accountability & Ethics course].” (I11, student)
“In fact we showed a video “Enron the smartest guys in the room" therefor another
opportunity to discuss. More informal, more based on the case, rather than theoretical. In particular the balance [ in terms of ethical topics] is quite well in the course. I think the course is perceived by students as too theoretical.” (I1, professor)
28 Most students have zero till one year of work experience, however they think that the difference of what is been taught and practice is too big. They can not perceive the link between the theory discussed in ethical courses and in real life situations. They think that learning how to deal with real unethical situations is an activity that you only can learn at practice. They argue that ethical teaching did not make them more ethical or improved their skills at all. However most students state that the ethical course did succeed with making them more aware of the occurrence of ethical situations in practice. It also provided them with a broader view of the role of an accountant and different perspectives to an ethical dilemma. This awareness arises according to students when ethical dilemmas were discussed. Even students that claim that an ethical course has no effect, claimed to still remember those ethical dilemmas as being discussed. Most students claimed involvement with the course subjects and challenged to think about discussions of ethical dilemmas held at the course.
“I remember a lecture about ethical behaviour and dilemmas, but gaining ethical knowledge is a big statement. I do not think that the lecture about ethics have attributed me much.” (I6,
student)
The courses which claimed to teach ethics voluntarily were not recognized by most students as courses that partly teaches ethics or covered ethical elements. Some students did recognize one course of the control track attributing to their ethical awareness. The course discussed the critical paradigm first, followed by the Enron movie and a discussion of the Enron case. The use of the critical paradigm was perceived by some students as an eye opener. The use of different paradigms made the students according to them aware that there were different perspectives which they never thought of before. They state that the professor has convinced them thanks to his different approach in teaching.
“MCR [Management Control Research] did engage me to think about it [ethical elements]. The articles of critical accounting research have an added value. Also the discussions of the Enron case were interesting and stayed in your mind.” (I9, student)
Consistent with Gunz and McCutcgeon (1994) the role of a professor is perceived as very important. According to the students the professor is able to convince them that the course is important, by providing the course with enthusiasm, in a modern way and by
29 showing them that he is not only teaching ethics because he has to. The role that a professor has to fulfill is also important, due the fact that the university does not coordinate the courses at a detail level.
“The professor is able to makes it [the ethical teaching] boring or to bring it with enthusiasm. Enthusiasm or a different style, like O’dwyer stays longer in mind. Then you realize again how important the subject is.” (I12, student)
“I think that the role of an professor is essential. If the teacher can not pass the message very clearly students will not learn something from the course.” (I13, student)
5.4 Limitations
Professors and students admit that ethical teaching at the university is too limited because the difference between theory and practice can not be simulated. Both students and professors admit that the courses are too theoretical. However the master management team struggles with the fact that the university delivers an academic degree where theory is an important part.
“In general one of the things that we often hear from students that the degree is too academic. Of course this is a university setting so you try to create knowledge and you try to teach the students how to make use of this knowledge… So we are trying to have a balance between academic work, research oriented work that you also should be aware of because this is an academic degree and it advertizes an academic degree.” (I5, Master
management team)
Students found the conclusions of the academic papers too obvious with no added value. Students suggest as improvement for the ethical course the use of more real life situations and dilemmas. They would like to see the effect of unethical behaviour more instead of theoretical papers, this is consistent with the recommendations of Low et. al. (2008). Students suggest the use of case studies instead of academic papers. According to the most interviewed students the evaluation did not measure their ethical skills and should also be based on case studies. They think that the current method does not measure their ethical knowledge, but their academic knowledge of papers.
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“We had to write two papers (both for 10% of the final grade) and we had an examination at the end of the semester (80%). I do not think you can really “evaluate” someone’s ethical knowledge, you can only question students about their knowledge of certain concepts etcetera. I suggest that to really evaluate someone’s ethical knowledge, students should be provided with a case very close to reality with ethical considerations and asked about what is the right thing to do according to them.” (I13, student)
Most courses covered discussed the Enron scandal, however students found that too far from home. The repetitive nature of the discussed topics is an effect of the lack of coordination, consequently it has resulted in a lack of students’ interest. One student stated that the first time the Enron scandal was discussed it got her thinking how it is possible that such scandal could occur. However with time the effect got weaker. Students recommend using more real life cases closer to their environment.
“The professor should make it relevant, and "closer to home" as close as to a personal level.”
(I7, student)
“I understand what the professor means with his lecture, but each time it is the same story. Each course is about Enron again. Tell something about the present. Is the situation in the industry after Enron better? Or is it [the situation] the same and that is why the case was repeated several times?” (I11, student)
One of the interviewed students also recommended the use of critical paradigm with the use of a case discussion like one professor did during his course. According to the student this has opened his eyes for issues he did not think of before. The student
perceived the knowledge of different perspectives and paradigms as an important skill for accountancy and control students. That was also the goal of the course according to the professor. His goal was to provide the students with a broader perspective and challenge the students to think about issues they took for granted before.
“It should be part of the Accountancy & Control education, … how Management Control Research organized it [ethical teaching] in the critical research paradigm and in a case, originally about Control System, the Enron case. And there were also more and more in-depth discussions during Management Control Research [course]. The new perspectives give you a broader perspective and knowledge. And that is maybe the most relevant things for your career, to be able to understand different sides of the story or to be able to think about it. I think that those are relevant skills.” (I9, student)
