Investigating the Effect of the Components of Ethical Programs of Companies on Reducing the Unethical Behaviors of Accountants

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of the components of ethical programs of companies on reducing the unethical behavior of accountants. Therefore, the impact of the components of punishment, monitoring, internal reporting, code of ethics, ethics support service and ethics training on the unethical behavior of accountants was investigated. The statistical population of this research is accountants and financial employees of manufacturing companies in Isfahan province in 2022, and the data collection tool is questionnaire. Structural equation method with partial least squares approach was used to test research hypotheses and SmartPLS 3 software was used for data analysis. The results show that the components of monitoring, punishment, code of ethics, ethics support service and ethics training have negative and significant effect on reducing the unethical behavior of accountants, and the effect of the internal reporting component on reducing the unethical behavior of accountants is negative but insignificant. Also, the difference between the components of ethical programs of companies on reducing the unethical behavior among subgroups of female and male accountants was investigated, indicating a significant difference in the relationship between ethics support service and unethical behavior between female and male accountants. The results of this research show that in general, companies can reduce unethical behavior in accountants by implementing ethical programs.