| The influence of the work of well known researchers on the topic of moral judgment and moral development has been felt thorough the years. In the 20 th century, the work of Piaget and Kohlberg has contributed to the awakening of empirical research in this area. James R. Rest, who studied Kohlberg's stages of moral development, designed an instrument, the Defining Issues Test (DIT), for testing moral maturity which has been used in over 1,000 studies.; This particular research describes the studies that have been conducted recently by various individuals. Yet the main essence of this research is to illustrate the ethical reaction of undergraduate and graduate accounting students from two higher educational institutions to internal auditing dilemmas. The DIT-2 was used for analyzing the moral maturity of the sample subjects; and internal auditing situations were presented for determining their ethical behavior or reaction.; The results of this study give a better understanding to employers and educators in the area of an individual's moral development. This study thus provides a basis to assist them in finding ways to enhance their recruitment process into the internal auditing area. |
