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The ethics of the business, community have been under microscopic scrutiny to determine whether business organizations and the people running them are complying with ethical standards. As with any segment of society, there are bound to be businesses and people who "cross the line" and engage in practices that are considered questionable or downright unethical in nature. But how prevalent and widespread is unethical behavior or the pressure to act unethically?
Some evidence suggests that unethical behavior and the pressure to act unethically may be quite widespread. The business scandals being reported regularly in the media suggest the potential universality of unethical behavior. On a more analytical level, the ethics literature indicates that those who engage in unethical behavior often justify their actions with one or more of the following reasons: (1) The organization expects unethical behavior, (2) everyone else is unethical, and/or (3) behaving unethically is the only way one can get ahead.(1,2) All three reasons reinforce the perspective that both unethical behavior and the pressure to act unethically are widespread.
Other evidence suggests that unethical behavior and the pressures to engage in such behavior are diminishing. For instance, more and more businesses are developing codes of ethics 1 to provide guidance in managing relationships with employees, customers, suppliers, etc.(3)
Unfortunately, however, the diminution in unethical behavior which is signaled by the increasingly widespread adoption of ethical codes may be mitigated by another related force. Specifically, too many of the businesses that adopt ethical codes do not back them up with appropriate support structures such as realistic performance and reward plans, ethical leadership, ethics committees, appropriate whistle-blowing mechanisms, etc.(4,5,6)
With mixed evidence like that cited above, the basic issue still remains: How prevalent and widespread is unethical behavior or the pressure to act in an unethical manner? This study sought to examine this issue with respect to people who work in management accounting. In particular, this study focused on two questions which derive from the basic issue:
* To what extent do pressures to act unethically exist for people working in management accounting?
* What individual and organization characteristics, if any, are associated with pressures to behave in an unethical manner?
THE SURVEY AND SAMPLE
This study was based upon the annual salary survey(7)...