Does organizational ethical climate influence auditors in perceiving ethical problems and forming ethical judgments? / Maheran Zakaria, Hasnah Haron and Ishak Ismail

The increasing cases of unethical behavior among auditors have led the public to distrust the credibility of this profession. The public accused that most of auditors with unethical behaviors are due to their motivation by revenue generation. Ironically, in the pursuits of generating revenue, some...

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Main Authors: Zakaria, Maheran, Haron, Hasnah, Ismail, Ishak
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Research Management Institute (RMI) 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/13076/2/13076.pdf
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author Zakaria, Maheran
Haron, Hasnah
Ismail, Ishak
author_facet Zakaria, Maheran
Haron, Hasnah
Ismail, Ishak
author_sort Zakaria, Maheran
collection UITM
description The increasing cases of unethical behavior among auditors have led the public to distrust the credibility of this profession. The public accused that most of auditors with unethical behaviors are due to their motivation by revenue generation. Ironically, in the pursuits of generating revenue, some of auditors are willing to go beyond acceptable ethical standards, resulting to increase the probability of unethical judgments. As such, this triggers expectation that audit firms to strictly govern their members’ behavior within the ethical manner. Hence, this paper attempts to examine the influence of organizational ethical climate on auditors’ perceived ethical problems and ethical judgments. A total of 940 questionnaires were sent to auditors throughout Malaysia. However, an approximate of 250 questionnaires was returned but only 224 were usable. By using path analysis, of AMOS 16.0, the study found that organizational ethical climate influences auditors in perceiving ethical problems, while perceived ethical problems does influence ethical judgments. Finally, perceived ethical problems were found to mediate the relationship between organizational ethical climate and ethical judgments. Hence, these findings will be useful to those in auditing industry in their effort to improve auditors’ ethical perceptions and ethical judgments.
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spelling oai:ir.uitm.edu.my:130762023-04-10T05:20:31Z https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/13076/ Does organizational ethical climate influence auditors in perceiving ethical problems and forming ethical judgments? / Maheran Zakaria, Hasnah Haron and Ishak Ismail smrj Zakaria, Maheran Haron, Hasnah Ismail, Ishak Auditing. Auditors The increasing cases of unethical behavior among auditors have led the public to distrust the credibility of this profession. The public accused that most of auditors with unethical behaviors are due to their motivation by revenue generation. Ironically, in the pursuits of generating revenue, some of auditors are willing to go beyond acceptable ethical standards, resulting to increase the probability of unethical judgments. As such, this triggers expectation that audit firms to strictly govern their members’ behavior within the ethical manner. Hence, this paper attempts to examine the influence of organizational ethical climate on auditors’ perceived ethical problems and ethical judgments. A total of 940 questionnaires were sent to auditors throughout Malaysia. However, an approximate of 250 questionnaires was returned but only 224 were usable. By using path analysis, of AMOS 16.0, the study found that organizational ethical climate influences auditors in perceiving ethical problems, while perceived ethical problems does influence ethical judgments. Finally, perceived ethical problems were found to mediate the relationship between organizational ethical climate and ethical judgments. Hence, these findings will be useful to those in auditing industry in their effort to improve auditors’ ethical perceptions and ethical judgments. Research Management Institute (RMI) 2009 Article PeerReviewed text en https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/13076/2/13076.pdf Does organizational ethical climate influence auditors in perceiving ethical problems and forming ethical judgments? / Maheran Zakaria, Hasnah Haron and Ishak Ismail. (2009) Social and Management Research Journal (SMRJ) <https://ir.uitm.edu.my/view/publication/Social_and_Management_Research_Journal_=28SMRJ=29/>, 6 (2). pp. 1-31. ISSN 1675-7017 https://smrj.uitm.edu.my/
spellingShingle Auditing. Auditors
Zakaria, Maheran
Haron, Hasnah
Ismail, Ishak
Does organizational ethical climate influence auditors in perceiving ethical problems and forming ethical judgments? / Maheran Zakaria, Hasnah Haron and Ishak Ismail
title Does organizational ethical climate influence auditors in perceiving ethical problems and forming ethical judgments? / Maheran Zakaria, Hasnah Haron and Ishak Ismail
title_full Does organizational ethical climate influence auditors in perceiving ethical problems and forming ethical judgments? / Maheran Zakaria, Hasnah Haron and Ishak Ismail
title_fullStr Does organizational ethical climate influence auditors in perceiving ethical problems and forming ethical judgments? / Maheran Zakaria, Hasnah Haron and Ishak Ismail
title_full_unstemmed Does organizational ethical climate influence auditors in perceiving ethical problems and forming ethical judgments? / Maheran Zakaria, Hasnah Haron and Ishak Ismail
title_short Does organizational ethical climate influence auditors in perceiving ethical problems and forming ethical judgments? / Maheran Zakaria, Hasnah Haron and Ishak Ismail
title_sort does organizational ethical climate influence auditors in perceiving ethical problems and forming ethical judgments maheran zakaria hasnah haron and ishak ismail
topic Auditing. Auditors
url https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/13076/2/13076.pdf
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