The Nature of Monetary Ethics and Accounting Student's Ethical Perception: The Role of Individual Characteristics

Integrity is the foundational basis of the accounting profession. Recently, corporate scandals exposed the accounting profession to great pressure of regulators and public. Understanding the ethical values of accounting students is very crucial for improving the integrity of accounting profession. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between ethical perception and monetary ethics of accounting students. In order to answer the research question, three hypotheses were examined. Information required to measure ethical perception and monetary ethics was gathered through Forsyth’s Ethical Position Questionnaire (1980) and Tang’s Money Ethic Scale (1992) respectively. The sample was consisted of 375 students majoring in Accounting that were examined in 2015. The findings showed that the student's ethical perception was independent of their monetary ethics. Furthermore, age and educational level of students were not associated with their monetary ethics and ethical perception. Additionally, the results revealed that the student's gender was related to their monetary ethics, while no relation with their ethical perceptions was found.