Although auditors engage in considerable social interaction (Gibbins & Mason, 1988; Solomon, 1987), little is known about how social interaction influences an auditor's moral reasoning process. In order to address this gap, this study used an experiment to examine the effect of social influence on 288 auditors' moral reasoning on realistic moral dilemmas. The results of this study indicate that social interaction influences the moral reasoning of auditors. Auditors' level of prescriptive reasoning appears to increase after engaging in discussion of a realistic moral dilemma, particularly for those which discuss dilemmas with others at high levels of moral development, while auditors' level of deliberative reasoning appears to decrease after engaging in discussion of a realistic moral dilemma. At a practical level, these findings suggest that auditors should be encouraged to prescriptively discuss moral dilemmas with others of high levels of moral development as this tends to result in the use of more principled moral reasoning. In contrast, auditors should avoid deliberative discussion of moral dilemmas, as this tends to result in the use of less principled moral reasoning than would be used in the absence of discussion.

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by Tsui Lam Sin Lai, Judy. / Includes questionaire in Chinese. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 248-267). / ABSTRACT --- p.i / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.vi / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.xi / LIST OF TABLES --- p.xiii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS --- p.xv / CHAPTER / Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND / Chapter 1.1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Background --- p.8 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Meaning and Concept of Ethics --- p.8 / Chapter 1.2.2 --- Approaches to Understand Ethical Behaviour in Accounting --- p.10 / Chapter 1.2.3 --- Tenets of Ethical Conduct --- p.19 / Chapter 1.2.4 --- Concept of Independence --- p.21 / Chapter 1.2.5 --- Auditor-Client Conflict --- p.23 / Chapter 1.3 --- Motivation for the Study --- p.26 / Chapter 1.4 --- Objective of the Study --- p.31 / Chapter 1.5 --- Outline of the Study --- p.32 / Chapter 1.6 --- Summary --- p.34 / Chapter II. --- LITERATURE REVIEW / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.36 / Chapter 2.2 --- Accounting Ethics Literature --- p.37 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Situational Variables in Third Party Perceptions --- p.40 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Individual Differences --- p.43 / Chapter 2.2.3 --- Auditor Independence in Fact --- p.45 / Chapter 2.2.4 --- Cognitive Process --- p.47 / Chapter 2.3 --- Business and Marketing Ethics Literature --- p.52 / Chapter 2.4 --- General Decision Making Model --- p.59 / Chapter 2.5 --- Theoretical Model for Auditors' Ethical Decision Making --- p.63 / Chapter 2.5.1 --- Research Questions --- p.67 / Chapter 2.6 --- Summary --- p.68 / Chapter III. --- COGNITIVE MORAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.70 / Chapter 3.2 --- Cognitive Process --- p.71 / Chapter 3.3 --- Kohlberg's Theory of Cognitive Moral Development --- p.77 / Chapter 3.4 --- Criticisms of Kohlberg's Cognitive Moral Development Theory --- p.89 / Chapter 3.5 --- Antecedents of Moral Development --- p.92 / Chapter 3.6 --- Moral Reasoning Levels of Professional Accountants --- p.94 / Chapter 3.7 --- Summary --- p.101 / Chapter IV. --- HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT / Chapter 4.1 --- Introduction --- p.103 / Chapter 4.2 --- Decision Making Task --- p.104 / Chapter 4.3 --- Moral Reasoning and Ethical Behaviour --- p.108 / Chapter 4.4 --- Hypotheses --- p.114 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Moral Reasoning --- p.117 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Individual Differences --- p.119 / Chapter 4.4.2.1 --- Locus of Control --- p.121 / Chapter 4.4.2.2 --- Locus of Control and Moral Reasoning --- p.124 / Chapter 4.4.2.3 --- Cognitive Style --- p.126 / Chapter 4.4.2.4 --- Cognitive Style and Moral Reasoning --- p.129 / Chapter 4.4.3 --- Contextual Factor --- p.130 / Chapter 4.4.3.1 --- Size of Audit Fees --- p.132 / Chapter 4.4.3.2 --- Size of Audit Fees and Moral Reasoning --- p.135 / Chapter 4.4.3.3 --- Size of Audit Fees and Individual Differences --- p.137 / Chapter 4.4.3.4 --- "Moral Reasoning, Individual Differences and Size of Audit Fees" --- p.140 / Chapter 4.5 --- Summary --- p.143 / Chapter V. --- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.144 / Chapter 5.2 --- Field Experiment --- p.145 / Chapter 5.3 --- Measurement of Variables --- p.148 / Chapter 5.3.1 --- Dependent Variable --- p.150 / Chapter 5.3.2 --- Moral Reasoning --- p.151 / Chapter 5.3.3 --- Locus of Control --- p.158 / Chapter 5.3.4 --- Cognitive Style --- p.158 / Chapter 5.3.5 --- Size of Audit Fees --- p.159 / Chapter 5.4 --- Subjects and Sample Size --- p.160 / Chapter 5.5 --- Procedures --- p.170 / Chapter 5.6 --- Research Instruments --- p.172 / Chapter 5.7 --- Scoring Methods of Research Instruments --- p.175 / Chapter 5.8 --- Summary --- p.175 / Chapter VI. --- DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS / Chapter 6.1 --- Introduction --- p.177 / Chapter 6.2 --- Data Analysis Techniques --- p.178 / Chapter 6.3 --- Limitations of the Multiplicative Model --- p.182 / Chapter 6.4 --- Descriptive Statistics of Variables --- p.184 / Chapter 6.5 --- Validity and Internal Reliability of Variables --- p.184 / Chapter 6.6 --- Defining Issues Test: Internal Checks on Subject Reliability --- p.185 / Chapter 6.7 --- Results --- p.187 / Chapter 6.8 --- Summary --- p.200 / Chapter VII. --- DISCUSSION OF RESULTS / Chapter 7.1 --- Introduction --- p.201 / Chapter 7.2 --- Hypotheses with Significant Results --- p.202 / Chapter 7.2.1 --- Test of Null Hypothesis 2 --- p.202 / Chapter 7.2.2 --- Test of Null Hypothesis3 --- p.205 / Chapter 7.2.3 --- Test of Null Hypothesis 8 --- p.216 / Chapter 7.3 --- Hypotheses with Insignificant Results --- p.225 / Chapter 7.4 --- Summary --- p.234 / Chapter VIII. --- CONCLUSION / Chapter 8.1 --- Introduction --- p.236 / Chapter 8.2 --- "Summary of Objective, Research Questions and Hypotheses" --- p.236 / Chapter 8.3 --- Summary of Findings --- p.238 / Chapter 8.4 --- Contributions --- p.240 / Chapter 8.5 --- Implications --- p.241 / Chapter 8.6 --- Limitations --- p.242 / Chapter 8.7 --- Directions for Future Research --- p.244 / Chapter 8.8 --- Summary --- p.247 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.248 / APPENDICES / Appendix I Normative Ethical Theories --- p.268 / Appendix II Fundamental Principles of Ethical Conduct --- p.272 / Appendix III Theoretical Frameworks on Ethical Behaviour --- p.275 / Figure 1 A Contingency Model of Ethical Decision Making in a Marketing Organisation --- p.280 / Figure 2 General Theory of Marketing Ethics --- p.281 / Figure 3 A Behavioural Model of Ethical/Unethical Decision Making --- p.282 / Figure 4 A Model of Ethical Decision Behaviour --- p.283 / Figure 5 Three Types of Causal Relations --- p.284 / Figure 6 Cognitive-Contingency Model for the Study of Ethics in Accounting --- p.285 / Appendix IV The Six Equilibrium Stages of Ethical Cognition --- p.286 / Appendix V Auditors' Decision Making Questionnaire --- p.287 / Appendix VI Debriefing Questionnaire --- p.306 / Appendix VII Social Opinion Survey (Chinese Version) --- p.307 / Appendix VIII Nature of Audit Conflict Cases as Reported by Subjects --- p.312 / Appendix IX A Summary of Subjects' Perceptions of the Purpose of the Experiment --- p.313 / Appendix X Use of Partial Derivatives for Data Analysis --- p.314

by Kan Hee Anthony Tyen. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 367-394). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese.