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Ethics Education and Accounting Students’ Level of Moral Development: Experimental Design in Tunisian Audit Context

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Abstract

This study explores the influence of ethics education on accounting students’ level of ethical reasoning in Tunisia. Based on cognitive developmental theory, we tested the effectiveness of an ethics intervention before and after ethics education with a control group. A triangulated research design was incorporated. Experimental and qualitative methods were used to control for experimental bias. This study revealed that the progress of moral development was not significant between the pre-test and the post-test. Data analysis revealed the primary challenges in teaching ethics in the Tunisian audit context. Through a confirmatory qualitative survey, stating “the consequences of unethical behaviour in the long term” demonstrates that the intervention meets the primary interest of this study, and it may influence auditors’ decisions and their perceptions of the potential consequences of their decisions.

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Notes

  1. Le rapport de la Banque africaine de développement (African Development Bank report, 2009 ): « Tunisie: Défis Économiques et Sociaux Post – Révolution ».

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  2. To preserve author anonymity evaluation during the review process.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. ISCAE, Manouba, Tunisia

    Feten Arfaoui & Asma Bouchekoua

  2. IHEC, Carthage, Tunisia

    Salma Damak-Ayadi

  3. ISSHT, Tunis, Tunisia

    Raouf Ghram

Authors
  1. Feten Arfaoui
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  2. Salma Damak-Ayadi
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  3. Raouf Ghram
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  4. Asma Bouchekoua
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Feten Arfaoui.

Appendix

Appendix

See Table 10.

Table 10 Summary of pre- and post-DIT results
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Arfaoui, F., Damak-Ayadi, S., Ghram, R. et al. Ethics Education and Accounting Students’ Level of Moral Development: Experimental Design in Tunisian Audit Context. J Bus Ethics 138, 161–173 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2643-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2643-z

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