MORAL FRAMING

THE ETHICS OF ACCOUNTANTS AND OTHER PROFESSIONALS

Characteristics of the accountancy profession
Studies suggest first that both qualified accountants and accounting students tend to view the everyday practice
of accounting as an amoral activity and second, that accounting education may be a contributing factor in the
inculcation of such predispositions. The accounting profession may attract individuals with a particular kind of
cognitive style, one that is associated with lower levels of ethical maturity. Abdolmohammadi and Barker,
contend that rules-based systems may be associated with lower levels of moral reasoning.
Lane (1988), Mayer (1988), McCabe and colleagues (1991) and Gray and colleagues (1994) all suggest that
business and accounting education has a negative effect on students ethical development. Mayer (1988) in
particular found that business students dont recognize the broader social responsibility issues associated with
professionalism. Borkowski and Ugras (1992) hint that this immaturity in ethical awareness may be related to
an apparent shift in ethical orientation from a justice based perspective towards a utilitarian viewpoint. Loeb
(1991) goes as far as to suggest that students have been indoctrinated into believing simply that the role of
business in society is to produce goods and services at a profit (McCabe et al., quoted in Loeb 1991) and that
ethics and social responsibility are unimportant considerations in corporate decision-making unless they have a
direct impact on production or profits (Friedman 1970, in Jensen and Wygant 1990). Merritt (1991) implies that
the propagation of these kinds of ideas has tainted students by making them mercenary in their approach to
their craft. He contends there is a clear indication that business degrees are associated with lower ethical
standards and he concludes that business schools have not done an adequate job of preparing students to
respond ethically to the complex issues that arise in the work environment Fleming (1996; see also Bebbington
and Helliar 2004), for example, concludes that the tendency of the evidence is to suggest, if anything, that
accountants either occupy the middle ground or lean towards an amoral ethical position.

Some studies suggest that the accounting profession may attract individuals with a particular kind of cognitive
style, one that is associated with lower levels of ethical maturity. Abdolmohammadi and Barker (2006; see also
Radtke 2008), for example, contend that rules based systems may be associated with lower levels of moral
reasoning.

Moral Development Models

Kohlbergs model of Cognitive Moral Development

The theory holds that moral reasoning, the basis for ethical behavior, has six identifiable developmental
stages routinely used to gauge an individuals moral maturity based on their responses to a series of
hypothetical dilemmas.
LEVEL STAGES
Pre-conventional 1. Avoid Punishment
-Common to children and also adults wherein -focus on direct punishment
morality of an act is judged by direct consequences 2. Self-interest is the primary motivation
it gives. - whats in it for me?

CHED-ADZU NGECCT 2.0 TRAINING MAY 8-26 2017 Page 1

 Conventional 3. Conforming to group norms
- More present at teens and adults. This is when -in terms of persons relationships
morality is judged by comparing them to societys 4. Informed by societys laws
views and expectations -morality based on following the law
5. Impartial with a concern for everyones
Post-Conventional
interest
- a.k.a. Principled Level. Individuals at this level
-mutually respected perspectives
elevate their own moral evaluation of a situation
6. Based on universal moral principles
over social conventions
-action as an end

Gilligans Ethics of Care

Also called care ethics, feminist philosophical perspective that uses a relational and context-bound approach
toward morality and decision making. Gilligan contended that because girls understand and define
themselves more in terms of their relationships and responsibilities to others, they hold different traits as
morally valuable.
STAGE GOAL
1st/ Pre-conventional PERSON CARES FOR HIMSELF

Transition 1: From selfishness to responsibility to others

2nd/ Conventional MORE CARE FOR OTHERS
Transition 2: is from god ness to truth that she is a person too
PRINCIPLE FOR CARE OF SELF AND OTHERS IS
3rd/ Post-conventional
ACCEPTED

Gilligans claim centers that female psychology and values -- including how women come to define morality --
differ from those of men. Kohlbergs model of moral development centered around the ability to make
decisions based on universal, abstract principles of justice, duty and the use of impartial reason and logic.

Individual attributes and ethical behavior: The effect of age and gender
Kohlbergs model has also been used to explore the impact of personal characteristics on ethical decisions.
Stanga and Turpens work does not support the existence of gender differences. Arlow, Meising and Preble, and
Borkowski and Ugras are all contend that females are more ethical than males. David and colleagues also
suggest that women have different kinds of attitudes towards ethics and codes of ethics in particular. In fact
some people have even suggested that one way to resolve the ethical problems in large accounting firms is to
employ more women while other studies also employ the idea of gender in a broader sense to refer to more
general masculine and feminine personality traits as opposed to biological gender. There is some evidence
within this literature to suggest that accounting education may promote the development of masculine character
traits within students in general.
Moral reasoning is also affected by age evidenced by Cognitive moral development research.
There is a link between age and ethical judgements. It is said that people tend to become more ethical as they
grow old and younger people render stricter ethical judgements than older people. But despite these

CHED-ADZU NGECCT 2.0 TRAINING MAY 8-26 2017 Page 2

inconsistencies, the theoretical consensus appears to support that age improves ones ability to apply relevant
ethical standards, which promotes more disapproving views of ethical lapses.

Ethics and structural characteristics

Culture
Differing cultures and levels of economic development are likely to cause professionals in many countries
to find some part of international guidelines irrelevant to their needs, and even for some, antithetical to the
social and economic environment in which they work.

Organizations and groups of individuals

Studies regarding this suggest that there is a complex interrelationship between individual ethical thinking
and the national and organizational contexts within which individual accountants are embedded. Two issues
here that contribute towards understanding the ethical behaviour of individual accountants: (1) Groupthink, and
(2) Organizational culture.
Research suggests that an individuals ethical decision-making may change when they become part of a
more formal grouping or even a large crowd. Groupthink is a phenomenon wherein characteristics and
dynamics of the groups to which accountants belong may therefore affect the way in which individual
accountants encounter and resolve ethical dilemmas.

Categorization: ethics and the roles accountants play

It goes without saying that accountants are also members of many different kinds of groups outside work,
for example sports club and family. Some studies start by thinking about the way human beings process
information. The study of the way information is encoded in memory is a central issue in both learning theory
and cognitive psychology.
It has been conceptualized in both cases using the notion of categorization that according to prevailing
learning theory, the process of categorization involves learning to ascribe specific properties to particular
groups of objects. Categorizations are thus seen to play a primary role in developing an individuals
understanding of the world and identifying appropriate ways of behaving within it. Learning theorists suggest
that the resulting connections are organized and stored in cognitive memory structures called schema.
ETHICS AND THE NATURE OF THE DILEMMA:
SITUATIONAL ETHICS
The main premise of this model is that both the nature of ethical issues, and an individuals response to
them, will be influenced by the context within which the issue is encountered.

Moral intensity
Moral intensity is the degree that people see an issue as an ethical one. The nature of the consequences
relates to the magnitude of the outcome of ones actions. Social consensus refers to the general social attitude
towards the particular issue. The possibility of effect relates to the probability that a particular set of
consequences will ensue from an individuals action. Temporal immediacy relates to the speed with which the
consequences are likely to come into effect, whereas proximity refers to the nearness to individuals who are

CHED-ADZU NGECCT 2.0 TRAINING MAY 8-26 2017 Page 3

likely to be affected by ones actions. The final element, concentration of effect, relates to the number of
people likely to be affected by a particular action (Jones 1991). While it may be difficult to isolate the specific
impact of any one of these factors, the literature suggests that the interrelationship between them will have a
significant influence on the way an individual will engage with a particular ethical issue.
Moral framing
The associated issue of moral framing suggests that individuals respond to ethical dilemmas in different
ways depending on the framework within which they are experienced. Two strands of research elaborate on this
premise. First, linguistic research suggests that individuals may respond to issues differently depending on the
linguistic frames within which issues are discussed. The words (and numbers) used to frame the issue can quite
literally affect our moral thinking about those issues.
A second strand of research explores the spatial influences in ethical thinking. While Jones, for example,
discusses the potential impact of proximity, this emerging strand of research explores the influence of location
and place more generally on an individuals ethical thinking.

What factors influence the way accountants respond to ethical dilemmas?

When an individual faces an ethical dilemma, there are a number of factors which contributes to an
accountants response. His response is not merely based on himself but there are also other contributing factors
to it which is best summarized in the diagram above. First, there are the individual attributes. The individual
attributes includes moral maturity (explained by the Kohlbergs model of Cognitive Moral Development and
Giligans ethics of Care), age, gender, and nationality. These attributes are embedded on himself which
constitutes or makes-up who he is thus his responses to ethical dilemmas are solely based on these. Second, the
contextual attributes. The contextual attributes includes national culture, organizational culture, group and role,
and linguistic framing and place (moral framing). The accountants responses are influenced based on the
context or the place and situation he is in. His decisions now are not based on himself rather to what the context
of the situation depicts of him. Lastly, the issue attribute which consists of the moral intensity. Moral
intensity is the degree that people see an issue as an ethical one. Influences on moral intensity include
magnitude of consequences, social consequence, concentration of effect, and temporal immediacy and

CHED-ADZU NGECCT 2.0 TRAINING MAY 8-26 2017 Page 4

proximity. The response of the accountant here depends on how he sees the impact of the decision hell make.
Influences are not based on himself nor the context his in but rather to the degree of the issue his weighing in.

Accounting and Business Ethics:An introduction Pages 17-43

Ken McPhail and Diane Walters
First published 2009
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2009 Ken McPhail and Diane Walters

CHED-ADZU NGECCT 2.0 TRAINING MAY 8-26 2017 Page 5