Factors influencing ethical ideology among accounting students and practitioners

Several studies have established ethical ideology as one of the important factors to determine whether an individual is inclined to be involved in unethical behaviour. This study aims to explore if there are any differences in the ethical ideology between accounting practitioners and accounting students and to ascertain whether gender and age will affect the ethical ideology of the respective respondents. The results reveal that there is no significant difference in ethical ideology between accounting practitioners and accounting students. There is however a significant difference in the ethical ideology between genders. Males are more relativistic than females, while females are more idealistic than males. Additionally, the results also indicate that there is no significant difference in ethical ideology of the respondents in different age groups. The findings from this study will serve to help in determining the ethical ideology of an individual and would provide valuable information that can explain the differences among individuals when making ethical judgements.