Real-World Ethical Dilemmas in Introductory Accounting

Ethical reasoning skills in accountants are essential to the honesty and integrity of the accounting profession. However, future accountants struggle to effectively apply the ethical knowledge gained in higher education to the practical world. With the rise of financial scandals in the business environment, more research needs to be conducted regarding the ethical reasoning skills in future accountants and whether exposure to ethical dilemma examples in introductory accounting classes contributes to higher ethical reasoning skills compared to students without exposure to real-world ethical quandaries.;The purpose of the research study was to examine the relationship between ethical reasoning skills of accounting students and ethics exposure in introductory accounting courses. The study was a between-subjects paired-sample analysis utilizing a quasi-experimental quantitative research design. The researcher used the Accounting Ethical Dilemmas Instrument (AEDI) to measure ethical reasoning skills of introductory accounting students at an AACSB accredited in accounting university located in the state of Texas. The researcher employed a convenience sample and distributed four introductory accounting courses into two treatment groups and two control groups. The researcher exposed the treatment groups to two ethical dilemma examples via group and class discussions to measure if this manipulation increased ethical reasoning skills compared to the control groups receiving no exposure to ethical dilemmas examples.;Utilizing the Mann-Whitney U test, the researcher concluded that the AEDI scores in the treatment group were not statistically significant different than the control group (U = 278, p = .909). Additionally, the researcher concluded that the AEDI scores of female participants were not statistically higher than male participants (U = 285, p = .950). In conclusion, the researcher determined that real-world ethics exposure in an introductory accounting course did not improve students' ethical reasoning skills, and that female participants did not exhibit higher ethical reasoning skills than male participants.;Future research in measuring various instructional methods, the range of exposure to ethical dilemmas in the classroom, and further development of research instruments measuring undergraduates' ethical reasoning skills could contribute to the research literature. Additionally, a longitudinal study could also measure the development of individuals' ethical reasoning skills throughout one's career.