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Journal of Business Ethics (2006) 65: 391404 Springer 2006
DOI 10.1007/s10551-006-0020-7Making a Difference with a DiscreteCourse on Accounting Ethics Steven DellaportasABSTRACT. Calls for the expansion of ethics educationin the business and accounting curricula have resulted in avariety of interventions including additional material onethical cases, the code of conduct, and the developmentof new courses devoted to ethical development [Lampe,J.: 1996]. The issue of whether ethics should be taught hasbeen addressed by many authors [see for example: Hanson, K. O.: 1987; Huss, H. F. and D. M. Patterson: 1993;Jones, T. M.: 19881989; Kerr, D. S. and L. M. Smith:1995; Loeb, S. E.: 1988; McDonald, G. M. and G. D.Donleavy: 1995]. The question addressed in this paper isnot whether ethics should be taught but whetheraccounting students can reason more ethically after anintervention based on a discrete and dedicated course onaccounting ethics. The findings in this paper indicate thata discrete intervention emphasising dilemma discussionhas a positive and significant effect on students moralreasoning and development. The data collected frominterviews suggest that the salient influences on moraljudgement development include: learning theories ofethics particularly Kohlbergs theory of cognitive moralreasoning and development; peer learning; and moraldiscourse. The implications from the findings in this studysuggest that moral reasoning is responsive to particulartypes of ethics intervention and educators should carefullyplan their attempts to foster moral judgement development.KEY WORDS: accounting students, ethics education,ethics interventions, moral discourse, moral reasoning anddevelopment, Kohlberg, DITIntroductionDuring the 1980s the accounting profession suffereda series of setbacks with the financial collapse ofbusiness firms whose financial statements receivedclean opinions from their auditors. Critics claimthat the audits performed in these cases were notsufficiently reliable to indicate to the recipients ofthe audited financial information that the firms wereexperiencing significant financial difficulties (Ashkanasy and Windsor, 1997; Giacomino, 1992;Ponemon, 1995). Two decades later a new wave ofcorporate scandals erupted: HIH and Harris Scarfe inAustralia, Enron and Worldcom in the US, andParmalat in Europe. Such scandals have againquestioned the business and accounting practices ofthese firms and the role played by their auditors. Theimplication for auditors is that they are not performing their tasks to the level expected of professional accountants. Yet, the technical competence ofprofessional accountants is rarely questioned, rather,critics claim a breakdown in the ethical standard andbehaviour of accountants (Gaa, 1994).Failed companies such as those listed above fostereda...