Making Ethics a Pervasive Component of

Accounting Education
By Esmond-Kiger, Connie

Publication: Management Accounting Quarterly

Date: Thursday, July 1 2004

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HEADNOTE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Is it possible to make our students exude ethics? As Theodore
Roosevelt once said, "To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace
to society." Though it may sound like a "pie in the sky"

goal, instilling a maximum level of ethical values and sensitivity in our students is what
accounting educators should be striving for. Even if we fall short, the progress we make can
only enhance the ethical orientation of our accounting graduates. This article presents several
ideas for self-reflective assignments that can be used in the classroom to enhance the ethical
awareness and sensitivity of students. Many of these assignments incorporate news articles,
trying to take the bad press accountants have suffered in recent years and get something
positive from it. Based on comments taken from student essays and the results of a survey
administered to students in the "pre-Enron" era versus the current "post-Enron" era, this
reflective approach to raising the ethical awareness among students appears to be working.
"THERE IS MUCH WORK TO BE DONE TO PREPARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF
MANAGERS AND ACCOUNTANTS SO THAT THEY DON'T REPEAT THE
TRANSGRESSIONS OF THEIR PREDECESSORS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Is it possible to make our students exude ethics? As Theodore

Roosevelt once said, "To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace
to society." Though it may sound like a "pie in the sky"

goal, instilling a maximum level of ethical values and sensitivity in our students is what
accounting educators should be striving for. Even if we fall short, the progress we make can
only enhance the ethical orientation of our accounting graduates. This article presents several
ideas for self-reflective assignments that can be used in the classroom to enhance the ethical
awareness and sensitivity of students. Many of these assignments incorporate news articles,
trying to take the bad press accountants have suffered in recent years and get something
positive from it. Based on comments taken from student essays and the results of a survey
administered to students in the "pre-Enron" era versus the current "post-Enron" era, this
reflective approach to raising the ethical awareness among students appears to be working.
"THERE IS MUCH WORK TO BE DONE TO PREPARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF
MANAGERS AND ACCOUNTANTS SO THAT THEY DON'T REPEAT THE
TRANSGRESSIONS OF THEIR PREDECESSORS."-PAUL B. MILLER & PAUL R.
BAHNSON

Historically, there have been many calls for increasing the level of ethics education in the
accounting curriculum. These calls turned to screams in the wake of the corporate scandals
of the past few years. Many of these screams are coming from accounting professors who are
increasingly frustrated with the behavior of some accounting professionals. In his opening
statement in testimony before Congress, L. Murphy Smith stated that the leadership of the
accounting profession, in practice and in academe, has a responsibility to inculcate ethical
behavior and personal integrity in practitioners and students. He also believes there is no
classroom that does not offer opportunities to foster and teach ethical behavior and integrity
as well as the consequences of their absence.1 Paul B. Miller and Paul R. Bahnson voice
concern that professors are failing to generate from their students any commitment to our
profession's long-standing duty to do what is right for the capital markets and the greater
economy.2 G. Peter Wilson, former president of the American Accounting Association, said
that educators need to increasingly emphasize within the classroom the two values that have
long been the mainstay of the accountant's reputation: integrity and professional skepticism.3

The first organized push to incorporate ethics into the business curriculum came in 1979,
when the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) made ethics
education a requirement for students in business education programs.4 A more specific focus
on ethics in accounting education came from the Bedford Committee, which stated,
"Professional accounting education must not only emphasize the needed skills and
knowledge, it must also instill the ethical standards and the commitment of a professional." 5
Shortly thereafter, the Treadway Commission and the AICPA added their voices to the
demand for ethics to become an integral part of accounting education.6 In 1989, the AACSB
increased the emphasis on ethics by requiring ethics to be taught within the major area of
study in business programs.7

goal, instilling a maximum level of ethical values and sensitivity in our students is what
accounting educators should be striving for. Even if we fall short, the progress we make can
only enhance the ethical orientation of our accounting graduates. This article presents several
ideas for self-reflective assignments that can be used in the classroom to enhance the ethical
awareness and sensitivity of students. Many of these assignments incorporate news articles,
trying to take the bad press accountants have suffered in recent years and get something
positive from it. Based on comments taken from student essays and the results of a survey
administered to students in the "pre-Enron" era versus the current "post-Enron" era, this
reflective approach to raising the ethical awareness among students appears to be working.
"THERE IS MUCH WORK TO BE DONE TO PREPARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF
MANAGERS AND ACCOUNTANTS SO THAT THEY DON'T REPEAT THE
TRANSGRESSIONS OF THEIR PREDECESSORS."-PAUL B. MILLER & PAUL R.
BAHNSON

Historically, there have been many calls for increasing the level of ethics education in the
accounting curriculum. These calls turned to screams in the wake of the corporate scandals
of the past few years. Many of these screams are coming from accounting professors who are
increasingly frustrated with the behavior of some accounting professionals. In his opening
statement in testimony before Congress, L. Murphy Smith stated that the leadership of the
accounting profession, in practice and in academe, has a responsibility to inculcate ethical
behavior and personal integrity in practitioners and students. He also believes there is no
classroom that does not offer opportunities to foster and teach ethical behavior and integrity
as well as the consequences of their absence.1 Paul B. Miller and Paul R. Bahnson voice
concern that professors are failing to generate from their students any commitment to our
profession's long-standing duty to do what is right for the capital markets and the greater
economy.2 G. Peter Wilson, former president of the American Accounting Association, said
that educators need to increasingly emphasize within the classroom the two values that have
long been the mainstay of the accountant's reputation: integrity and professional skepticism.3

The first organized push to incorporate ethics into the business curriculum came in 1979,
when the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) made ethics
education a requirement for students in business education programs.4 A more specific focus
on ethics in accounting education came from the Bedford Committee, which stated,
"Professional accounting education must not only emphasize the needed skills and
knowledge, it must also instill the ethical standards and the commitment of a professional." 5
Shortly thereafter, the Treadway Commission and the AICPA added their voices to the
demand for ethics to become an integral part of accounting education.6 In 1989, the AACSB
increased the emphasis on ethics by requiring ethics to be taught within the major area of
study in business programs.7

In response to these calls, educators have incorporated ethics into their curricula in a number
of ways, often by using textbook cases, case problems, video presentations, and articles from
various publications.8 We've also seen a debate arise about whether ethics can be taught
once students reach college age and arrive at our classroom door. Many believe that a
person's ethical beliefs are formed at an early age and may be hard to change. H.Q.
Langenderfer and J.W. Rockness, however, consider this notion to be unwarranted, noting
that education literature supports the idea that people develop their ethics throughout life.9
This notion of continuing ethical development may be good news, but it also may explain how
even the most ethical person engulfed in an unethical corporate culture may find it difficult to
distinguish between what is proper behavior and what is questionable behavior in the eyes of
an outsider. As we attempt to teach ethics to our students, therefore, we need to consider
that, because people develop their ethical values throughout life, an individual's ethics are
subject to change negatively as well as positively, depending on the environment. For
example, Barbara Toffler, a business ethics consultant and author of Final Accounting:
Ambition, Greed, and the Fall of Arthur Andersen, made the following statement in an
interview with WNET-TV concerning the time she spent as a consultant with Arthur Andersen:

I don't want to say that I forgot everything that I was raised with, but you know, when you
spend time working in an organization, particularly one that has a strong culture, you find
yourself being drawn into that culture and beginning to behave the same way the people
around you do.10

This statement, made by someone considered to be an ethics expert, suggests that our
efforts in the classroom should not be focused entirely on teaching ethics in terms of
academic subject matter. There is also a need to stress the importance of developing an
ethical sensitivity in our students in order to provide them with a keen, internalized awareness
of the ethical status of their current academic environment and, subsequently, the corporate
environments they encounter.

HEADNOTE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Is it possible to make our students exude ethics? As Theodore
Roosevelt once said, "To educate a person in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace
to society." Though it may sound like a "pie in the sky"

goal, instilling a maximum level of ethical values and sensitivity in our students is what
accounting educators should be striving for. Even if we fall short, the progress we make can
only enhance the ethical orientation of our accounting graduates. This article presents several
ideas for self-reflective assignments that can be used in the classroom to enhance the ethical
awareness and sensitivity of students. Many of these assignments incorporate news articles,
trying to take the bad press accountants have suffered in recent years and get something
positive from it. Based on comments taken from student essays and the results of a survey
administered to students in the "pre-Enron" era versus the current "post-Enron" era, this
reflective approach to raising the ethical awareness among students appears to be working.
"THERE IS MUCH WORK TO BE DONE TO PREPARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF
MANAGERS AND ACCOUNTANTS SO THAT THEY DON'T REPEAT THE
TRANSGRESSIONS OF THEIR PREDECESSORS."-PAUL B. MILLER & PAUL R.
BAHNSON

Historically, there have been many calls for increasing the level of ethics education in the
accounting curriculum. These calls turned to screams in the wake of the corporate scandals
of the past few years. Many of these screams are coming from accounting professors who are
increasingly frustrated with the behavior of some accounting professionals. In his opening
statement in testimony before Congress, L. Murphy Smith stated that the leadership of the
accounting profession, in practice and in academe, has a responsibility to inculcate ethical
behavior and personal integrity in practitioners and students. He also believes there is no
classroom that does not offer opportunities to foster and teach ethical behavior and integrity
as well as the consequences of their absence.1 Paul B. Miller and Paul R. Bahnson voice
concern that professors are failing to generate from their students any commitment to our
profession's long-standing duty to do what is right for the capital markets and the greater
economy.2 G. Peter Wilson, former president of the American Accounting Association, said
that educators need to increasingly emphasize within the classroom the two values that have
long been the mainstay of the accountant's reputation: integrity and professional skepticism.3

The first organized push to incorporate ethics into the business curriculum came in 1979,
when the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) made ethics
education a requirement for students in business education programs.4 A more specific focus
on ethics in accounting education came from the Bedford Committee, which stated,
"Professional accounting education must not only emphasize the needed skills and
knowledge, it must also instill the ethical standards and the commitment of a professional." 5
Shortly thereafter, the Treadway Commission and the AICPA added their voices to the
demand for ethics to become an integral part of accounting education.6 In 1989, the AACSB
increased the emphasis on ethics by requiring ethics to be taught within the major area of
study in business programs.7

In response to these calls, educators have incorporated ethics into their curricula in a number
of ways, often by using textbook cases, case problems, video presentations, and articles from
various publications.8 We've also seen a debate arise about whether ethics can be taught
once students reach college age and arrive at our classroom door. Many believe that a
person's ethical beliefs are formed at an early age and may be hard to change. H.Q.
Langenderfer and J.W. Rockness, however, consider this notion to be unwarranted, noting
that education literature supports the idea that people develop their ethics throughout life.9
This notion of continuing ethical development may be good news, but it also may explain how
even the most ethical person engulfed in an unethical corporate culture may find it difficult to
distinguish between what is proper behavior and what is questionable behavior in the eyes of
an outsider. As we attempt to teach ethics to our students, therefore, we need to consider
that, because people develop their ethical values throughout life, an individual's ethics are
subject to change negatively as well as positively, depending on the environment. For
example, Barbara Toffler, a business ethics consultant and author of Final Accounting:
Ambition, Greed, and the Fall of Arthur Andersen, made the following statement in an
interview with WNET-TV concerning the time she spent as a consultant with Arthur Andersen:

I don't want to say that I forgot everything that I was raised with, but you know, when you
spend time working in an organization, particularly one that has a strong culture, you find
yourself being drawn into that culture and beginning to behave the same way the people
around you do.10

This statement, made by someone considered to be an ethics expert, suggests that our
efforts in the classroom should not be focused entirely on teaching ethics in terms of
academic subject matter. There is also a need to stress the importance of developing an
ethical sensitivity in our students in order to provide them with a keen, internalized awareness
of the ethical status of their current academic environment and, subsequently, the corporate
environments they encounter.

This article provides several ideas for assignments that can be used in the classroom to
enhance the ethical awareness and sensitivity of students. Examples of comments written by
students are included to show the depth of thought and concern these assignments generate.
Also presented are the results of a survey administered to accounting students enrolled in
college during the "pre-Enron" era and to students currently enrolled. The results indicate that
students conducting a job search in the present day view a company's ethical environment as
a more important consideration than did students in the pre-Enron days. Thus, accounting
students currently enrolled at my university appear to be more aware and concerned about
ethics and the environment in which they will begin their accounting careers than students in
previous years.

THE ASSIGNMENTS

The three assignments described here require students to write self-reflective essays about
personal experiences related to ethics. This method ensures that all students are involved in
the learning process instead of passively listening to lectures on ethics-a method that does
not even guarantee that all the students in the class are paying attention. Self-reflection is
considered to be the primary determinant of self-knowledge.11 Completing these
assignments, therefore, will likely increase the probability that students will internalize and
absorb the ethics lesson.

The first assignment, presented in Table 1A, is given to students on the first day of class of
Intermediate Accounting II. They are required to read the provided negative and positive news
articles related to ethical behavior and then write a reflective ethics essay that addresses
questions included in the assignment. Comments from student essays for this assignment are
included in Table 1B. The follow-up assignment, in Table 2A, is distributed during the last
week of the same class and is intended to have students reflect on their ethical behavior and
that of their peers over the course of the academic quarter. Student reflections taken from this
assignment are included in Table 2B. The assignment used in my Intermediate III class is
shown in Table 3A. This project emphasizes values, requires some research, and has
students write their own values mission statement. Examples of the mission statements
written by students are shown in Table 3B. The student reflections presented in Tables 1B,
2B, and 3B demonstrate how seriously students take these assignments, with many pouring
their hearts and souls into their papers.

goal, instilling a maximum level of ethical values and sensitivity in our students is what
accounting educators should be striving for. Even if we fall short, the progress we make can
only enhance the ethical orientation of our accounting graduates. This article presents several
ideas for self-reflective assignments that can be used in the classroom to enhance the ethical
awareness and sensitivity of students. Many of these assignments incorporate news articles,
trying to take the bad press accountants have suffered in recent years and get something
positive from it. Based on comments taken from student essays and the results of a survey
administered to students in the "pre-Enron" era versus the current "post-Enron" era, this
reflective approach to raising the ethical awareness among students appears to be working.
"THERE IS MUCH WORK TO BE DONE TO PREPARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF
MANAGERS AND ACCOUNTANTS SO THAT THEY DON'T REPEAT THE
TRANSGRESSIONS OF THEIR PREDECESSORS."-PAUL B. MILLER & PAUL R.
BAHNSON

Historically, there have been many calls for increasing the level of ethics education in the
accounting curriculum. These calls turned to screams in the wake of the corporate scandals
of the past few years. Many of these screams are coming from accounting professors who are
increasingly frustrated with the behavior of some accounting professionals. In his opening
statement in testimony before Congress, L. Murphy Smith stated that the leadership of the
accounting profession, in practice and in academe, has a responsibility to inculcate ethical
behavior and personal integrity in practitioners and students. He also believes there is no
classroom that does not offer opportunities to foster and teach ethical behavior and integrity
as well as the consequences of their absence.1 Paul B. Miller and Paul R. Bahnson voice
concern that professors are failing to generate from their students any commitment to our
profession's long-standing duty to do what is right for the capital markets and the greater
economy.2 G. Peter Wilson, former president of the American Accounting Association, said
that educators need to increasingly emphasize within the classroom the two values that have
long been the mainstay of the accountant's reputation: integrity and professional skepticism.3

The first organized push to incorporate ethics into the business curriculum came in 1979,
when the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) made ethics
education a requirement for students in business education programs.4 A more specific focus
on ethics in accounting education came from the Bedford Committee, which stated,
"Professional accounting education must not only emphasize the needed skills and
knowledge, it must also instill the ethical standards and the commitment of a professional." 5
Shortly thereafter, the Treadway Commission and the AICPA added their voices to the
demand for ethics to become an integral part of accounting education.6 In 1989, the AACSB
increased the emphasis on ethics by requiring ethics to be taught within the major area of
study in business programs.7

In response to these calls, educators have incorporated ethics into their curricula in a number
of ways, often by using textbook cases, case problems, video presentations, and articles from
various publications.8 We've also seen a debate arise about whether ethics can be taught
once students reach college age and arrive at our classroom door. Many believe that a
person's ethical beliefs are formed at an early age and may be hard to change. H.Q.
Langenderfer and J.W. Rockness, however, consider this notion to be unwarranted, noting
that education literature supports the idea that people develop their ethics throughout life.9
This notion of continuing ethical development may be good news, but it also may explain how
even the most ethical person engulfed in an unethical corporate culture may find it difficult to
distinguish between what is proper behavior and what is questionable behavior in the eyes of
an outsider. As we attempt to teach ethics to our students, therefore, we need to consider
that, because people develop their ethical values throughout life, an individual's ethics are
subject to change negatively as well as positively, depending on the environment. For
example, Barbara Toffler, a business ethics consultant and author of Final Accounting:
Ambition, Greed, and the Fall of Arthur Andersen, made the following statement in an
interview with WNET-TV concerning the time she spent as a consultant with Arthur Andersen:

I don't want to say that I forgot everything that I was raised with, but you know, when you
spend time working in an organization, particularly one that has a strong culture, you find
yourself being drawn into that culture and beginning to behave the same way the people
around you do.10

This statement, made by someone considered to be an ethics expert, suggests that our
efforts in the classroom should not be focused entirely on teaching ethics in terms of
academic subject matter. There is also a need to stress the importance of developing an
ethical sensitivity in our students in order to provide them with a keen, internalized awareness
of the ethical status of their current academic environment and, subsequently, the corporate
environments they encounter.

This article provides several ideas for assignments that can be used in the classroom to
enhance the ethical awareness and sensitivity of students. Examples of comments written by
students are included to show the depth of thought and concern these assignments generate.
Also presented are the results of a survey administered to accounting students enrolled in
college during the "pre-Enron" era and to students currently enrolled. The results indicate that
students conducting a job search in the present day view a company's ethical environment as
a more important consideration than did students in the pre-Enron days. Thus, accounting
students currently enrolled at my university appear to be more aware and concerned about
ethics and the environment in which they will begin their accounting careers than students in
previous years.

THE ASSIGNMENTS

The three assignments described here require students to write self-reflective essays about
personal experiences related to ethics. This method ensures that all students are involved in
the learning process instead of passively listening to lectures on ethics-a method that does
not even guarantee that all the students in the class are paying attention. Self-reflection is
considered to be the primary determinant of self-knowledge.11 Completing these
assignments, therefore, will likely increase the probability that students will internalize and
absorb the ethics lesson.

The first assignment, presented in Table 1A, is given to students on the first day of class of
Intermediate Accounting II. They are required to read the provided negative and positive news
articles related to ethical behavior and then write a reflective ethics essay that addresses
questions included in the assignment. Comments from student essays for this assignment are
included in Table 1B. The follow-up assignment, in Table 2A, is distributed during the last
week of the same class and is intended to have students reflect on their ethical behavior and
that of their peers over the course of the academic quarter. Student reflections taken from this
assignment are included in Table 2B. The assignment used in my Intermediate III class is
shown in Table 3A. This project emphasizes values, requires some research, and has
students write their own values mission statement. Examples of the mission statements
written by students are shown in Table 3B. The student reflections presented in Tables 1B,
2B, and 3B demonstrate how seriously students take these assignments, with many pouring
their hearts and souls into their papers.

In addition to these assignments, I incorporate ethics into much of what we do in class. I

frequently hand out relevant articles on ethics in the corporate world and the accounting
profession and remind students of the importance of maintaining an awareness of the positive
and negative stories relating to ethics and corporate governance. Recently, I also started to
include ethics as part of the evaluation criteria required in team contracts written by students
for their group projects. Students in the intermediate accounting classes have six different
group projects and must agree on and submit a team contract for each of the final three
groups they work in. One interesting comment from the evaluations shows how students
become more attuned to their ethical sensitivity:

[Rosemary] has improved her ethical behavior greatly since the last time I was in her group,
but overall I think everyone in the class has.

This is encouraging news that I believe shows it may be possible to influence students' ethical
behavior simply by letting them know that their peers are watching what they do. The hope is
that this is a team strategy they will carry into their careers.

Another method used to impart ethical thinking within students is by explaining the importance
of client confidentiality once they begin their accounting career, then relating this to the need
to ensure that project solutions from the class do not get passed on to the next incoming
class, as well as the importance of not telling their peers about any information that appears
on exams if they take the exam earlier than others.

I also provide them with a thought for the day that often is related to ethics. One of my
favorites is "Who are you when no one is looking?" Thus, in addition to incorporating the
formal ethics assignments presented, I have inundated my students with ethics tidbits as a
form of ethics socialization. My hope is that when students are confronted with ethical
dilemmas in their future, just one of these experiences will pop into their head and lead them
to do the right thing, regardless of what those around them are
goal, instilling a maximum level of ethical values and sensitivity in our students is what
accounting educators should be striving for. Even if we fall short, the progress we make can
only enhance the ethical orientation of our accounting graduates. This article presents several
ideas for self-reflective assignments that can be used in the classroom to enhance the ethical
awareness and sensitivity of students. Many of these assignments incorporate news articles,
trying to take the bad press accountants have suffered in recent years and get something
positive from it. Based on comments taken from student essays and the results of a survey
administered to students in the "pre-Enron" era versus the current "post-Enron" era, this
reflective approach to raising the ethical awareness among students appears to be working.
"THERE IS MUCH WORK TO BE DONE TO PREPARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF
MANAGERS AND ACCOUNTANTS SO THAT THEY DON'T REPEAT THE
TRANSGRESSIONS OF THEIR PREDECESSORS."-PAUL B. MILLER & PAUL R.
BAHNSON

Historically, there have been many calls for increasing the level of ethics education in the
accounting curriculum. These calls turned to screams in the wake of the corporate scandals
of the past few years. Many of these screams are coming from accounting professors who are
increasingly frustrated with the behavior of some accounting professionals. In his opening
statement in testimony before Congress, L. Murphy Smith stated that the leadership of the
accounting profession, in practice and in academe, has a responsibility to inculcate ethical
behavior and personal integrity in practitioners and students. He also believes there is no
classroom that does not offer opportunities to foster and teach ethical behavior and integrity
as well as the consequences of their absence.1 Paul B. Miller and Paul R. Bahnson voice
concern that professors are failing to generate from their students any commitment to our
profession's long-standing duty to do what is right for the capital markets and the greater
economy.2 G. Peter Wilson, former president of the American Accounting Association, said
that educators need to increasingly emphasize within the classroom the two values that have
long been the mainstay of the accountant's reputation: integrity and professional skepticism.3

The first organized push to incorporate ethics into the business curriculum came in 1979,
when the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) made ethics
education a requirement for students in business education programs.4 A more specific focus
on ethics in accounting education came from the Bedford Committee, which stated,
"Professional accounting education must not only emphasize the needed skills and
knowledge, it must also instill the ethical standards and the commitment of a professional." 5
Shortly thereafter, the Treadway Commission and the AICPA added their voices to the
demand for ethics to become an integral part of accounting education.6 In 1989, the AACSB
increased the emphasis on ethics by requiring ethics to be taught within the major area of
study in business programs.7

In response to these calls, educators have incorporated ethics into their curricula in a number
of ways, often by using textbook cases, case problems, video presentations, and articles from
various publications.8 We've also seen a debate arise about whether ethics can be taught
once students reach college age and arrive at our classroom door. Many believe that a
person's ethical beliefs are formed at an early age and may be hard to change. H.Q.
Langenderfer and J.W. Rockness, however, consider this notion to be unwarranted, noting
that education literature supports the idea that people develop their ethics throughout life.9
This notion of continuing ethical development may be good news, but it also may explain how
even the most ethical person engulfed in an unethical corporate culture may find it difficult to
distinguish between what is proper behavior and what is questionable behavior in the eyes of
an outsider. As we attempt to teach ethics to our students, therefore, we need to consider
that, because people develop their ethical values throughout life, an individual's ethics are
subject to change negatively as well as positively, depending on the environment. For
example, Barbara Toffler, a business ethics consultant and author of Final Accounting:
Ambition, Greed, and the Fall of Arthur Andersen, made the following statement in an
interview with WNET-TV concerning the time she spent as a consultant with Arthur Andersen:

I don't want to say that I forgot everything that I was raised with, but you know, when you
spend time working in an organization, particularly one that has a strong culture, you find
yourself being drawn into that culture and beginning to behave the same way the people
around you do.10

This statement, made by someone considered to be an ethics expert, suggests that our
efforts in the classroom should not be focused entirely on teaching ethics in terms of
academic subject matter. There is also a need to stress the importance of developing an
ethical sensitivity in our students in order to provide them with a keen, internalized awareness
of the ethical status of their current academic environment and, subsequently, the corporate
environments they encounter.

This article provides several ideas for assignments that can be used in the classroom to
enhance the ethical awareness and sensitivity of students. Examples of comments written by
students are included to show the depth of thought and concern these assignments generate.
Also presented are the results of a survey administered to accounting students enrolled in
college during the "pre-Enron" era and to students currently enrolled. The results indicate that
students conducting a job search in the present day view a company's ethical environment as
a more important consideration than did students in the pre-Enron days. Thus, accounting
students currently enrolled at my university appear to be more aware and concerned about
ethics and the environment in which they will begin their accounting careers than students in
previous years.

THE ASSIGNMENTS

The three assignments described here require students to write self-reflective essays about
personal experiences related to ethics. This method ensures that all students are involved in
the learning process instead of passively listening to lectures on ethics-a method that does
not even guarantee that all the students in the class are paying attention. Self-reflection is
considered to be the primary determinant of self-knowledge.11 Completing these
assignments, therefore, will likely increase the probability that students will internalize and
absorb the ethics lesson.

The first assignment, presented in Table 1A, is given to students on the first day of class of
Intermediate Accounting II. They are required to read the provided negative and positive news
articles related to ethical behavior and then write a reflective ethics essay that addresses
questions included in the assignment. Comments from student essays for this assignment are
included in Table 1B. The follow-up assignment, in Table 2A, is distributed during the last
week of the same class and is intended to have students reflect on their ethical behavior and
that of their peers over the course of the academic quarter. Student reflections taken from this
assignment are included in Table 2B. The assignment used in my Intermediate III class is
shown in Table 3A. This project emphasizes values, requires some research, and has
students write their own values mission statement. Examples of the mission statements
written by students are shown in Table 3B. The student reflections presented in Tables 1B,
2B, and 3B demonstrate how seriously students take these assignments, with many pouring
their hearts and souls into their papers.

In addition to these assignments, I incorporate ethics into much of what we do in class. I

frequently hand out relevant articles on ethics in the corporate world and the accounting
profession and remind students of the importance of maintaining an awareness of the positive
and negative stories relating to ethics and corporate governance. Recently, I also started to
include ethics as part of the evaluation criteria required in team contracts written by students
for their group projects. Students in the intermediate accounting classes have six different
group projects and must agree on and submit a team contract for each of the final three
groups they work in. One interesting comment from the evaluations shows how students
become more attuned to their ethical sensitivity:
[Rosemary] has improved her ethical behavior greatly since the last time I was in her group,
but overall I think everyone in the class has.

This is encouraging news that I believe shows it may be possible to influence students' ethical
behavior simply by letting them know that their peers are watching what they do. The hope is
that this is a team strategy they will carry into their careers.

Another method used to impart ethical thinking within students is by explaining the importance
of client confidentiality once they begin their accounting career, then relating this to the need
to ensure that project solutions from the class do not get passed on to the next incoming
class, as well as the importance of not telling their peers about any information that appears
on exams if they take the exam earlier than others.

I also provide them with a thought for the day that often is related to ethics. One of my
favorites is "Who are you when no one is looking?" Thus, in addition to incorporating the
formal ethics assignments presented, I have inundated my students with ethics tidbits as a
form of ethics socialization. My hope is that when students are confronted with ethical
dilemmas in their future, just one of these experiences will pop into their head and lead them
to do the right thing, regardless of what those around them are doing.

SURVEY RESULTS

During the Spring 2000 academic quarter, junior and senior accounting majors at my
university completed a survey about their job-search criteria and career-path preferences.
Several of the items that students responded to dealt with ethics and the ethical environment
of future employers. Having collected these data prior to the downfall of Enron and others, I
administered the survey to students enrolled during the Spring 2003 academic quarter to
determine if their responses to these ethics issues were different from those of the pre-Enron
students. Both groups of students completed the survey instrument voluntarily and
anonymously.

The survey instructed students to rank 10 job-search criteria in order of importance. Table 4
shows the results from both groups of students. For students who completed the survey in
2000, their top five criteria, in order of importance, were: (1) salary level, (2) potential for
advancement, (3) benefits package, (4) type of accounting work, and (5) ethical environment
of the company. The rank order of ethical environment of the company moved up significantly
for students who completed the survey during 2003 (Mann-Whitney U, 2-tailed sig.= .001).
This group's rankings were: (1) potential for advancement first, (2) salary level, and (3) ethical
environment. The move from fifth-highest to third-highest in importance implies that post-
Enron students are more concerned about the ethical corporate culture they will be working
in. It also suggests that these students are more attuned to and cognizant of the effects
ethical and unethical behavior will have throughout their careers.

Students were also asked to respond to questions regarding their willingness to leave a job
due to unethical occurrences and their willingness to report unethical behavior on the part of a
supervisor or a peer. In each case, students in 2003 were more willing to leave a job or report
a supervisor or peer than were the students in 2000. The increase in willingness, however,
was not significant for any of the three questions. See Table 5 for the questions and results.

INCREASING ETHICS AWARENESS

goal, instilling a maximum level of ethical values and sensitivity in our students is what
accounting educators should be striving for. Even if we fall short, the progress we make can
only enhance the ethical orientation of our accounting graduates. This article presents several
ideas for self-reflective assignments that can be used in the classroom to enhance the ethical
awareness and sensitivity of students. Many of these assignments incorporate news articles,
trying to take the bad press accountants have suffered in recent years and get something
positive from it. Based on comments taken from student essays and the results of a survey
administered to students in the "pre-Enron" era versus the current "post-Enron" era, this
reflective approach to raising the ethical awareness among students appears to be working.
"THERE IS MUCH WORK TO BE DONE TO PREPARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF
MANAGERS AND ACCOUNTANTS SO THAT THEY DON'T REPEAT THE
TRANSGRESSIONS OF THEIR PREDECESSORS."-PAUL B. MILLER & PAUL R.
BAHNSON

Historically, there have been many calls for increasing the level of ethics education in the
accounting curriculum. These calls turned to screams in the wake of the corporate scandals
of the past few years. Many of these screams are coming from accounting professors who are
increasingly frustrated with the behavior of some accounting professionals. In his opening
statement in testimony before Congress, L. Murphy Smith stated that the leadership of the
accounting profession, in practice and in academe, has a responsibility to inculcate ethical
behavior and personal integrity in practitioners and students. He also believes there is no
classroom that does not offer opportunities to foster and teach ethical behavior and integrity
as well as the consequences of their absence.1 Paul B. Miller and Paul R. Bahnson voice
concern that professors are failing to generate from their students any commitment to our
profession's long-standing duty to do what is right for the capital markets and the greater
economy.2 G. Peter Wilson, former president of the American Accounting Association, said
that educators need to increasingly emphasize within the classroom the two values that have
long been the mainstay of the accountant's reputation: integrity and professional skepticism.3

The first organized push to incorporate ethics into the business curriculum came in 1979,
when the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) made ethics
education a requirement for students in business education programs.4 A more specific focus
on ethics in accounting education came from the Bedford Committee, which stated,
"Professional accounting education must not only emphasize the needed skills and
knowledge, it must also instill the ethical standards and the commitment of a professional." 5
Shortly thereafter, the Treadway Commission and the AICPA added their voices to the
demand for ethics to become an integral part of accounting education.6 In 1989, the AACSB
increased the emphasis on ethics by requiring ethics to be taught within the major area of
study in business programs.7

In response to these calls, educators have incorporated ethics into their curricula in a number
of ways, often by using textbook cases, case problems, video presentations, and articles from
various publications.8 We've also seen a debate arise about whether ethics can be taught
once students reach college age and arrive at our classroom door. Many believe that a
person's ethical beliefs are formed at an early age and may be hard to change. H.Q.
Langenderfer and J.W. Rockness, however, consider this notion to be unwarranted, noting
that education literature supports the idea that people develop their ethics throughout life.9
This notion of continuing ethical development may be good news, but it also may explain how
even the most ethical person engulfed in an unethical corporate culture may find it difficult to
distinguish between what is proper behavior and what is questionable behavior in the eyes of
an outsider. As we attempt to teach ethics to our students, therefore, we need to consider
that, because people develop their ethical values throughout life, an individual's ethics are
subject to change negatively as well as positively, depending on the environment. For
example, Barbara Toffler, a business ethics consultant and author of Final Accounting:
Ambition, Greed, and the Fall of Arthur Andersen, made the following statement in an
interview with WNET-TV concerning the time she spent as a consultant with Arthur Andersen:

I don't want to say that I forgot everything that I was raised with, but you know, when you
spend time working in an organization, particularly one that has a strong culture, you find
yourself being drawn into that culture and beginning to behave the same way the people
around you do.10

This statement, made by someone considered to be an ethics expert, suggests that our
efforts in the classroom should not be focused entirely on teaching ethics in terms of
academic subject matter. There is also a need to stress the importance of developing an
ethical sensitivity in our students in order to provide them with a keen, internalized awareness
of the ethical status of their current academic environment and, subsequently, the corporate
environments they encounter.

This article provides several ideas for assignments that can be used in the classroom to
enhance the ethical awareness and sensitivity of students. Examples of comments written by
students are included to show the depth of thought and concern these assignments generate.
Also presented are the results of a survey administered to accounting students enrolled in
college during the "pre-Enron" era and to students currently enrolled. The results indicate that
students conducting a job search in the present day view a company's ethical environment as
a more important consideration than did students in the pre-Enron days. Thus, accounting
students currently enrolled at my university appear to be more aware and concerned about
ethics and the environment in which they will begin their accounting careers than students in
previous years.

THE ASSIGNMENTS

The three assignments described here require students to write self-reflective essays about
personal experiences related to ethics. This method ensures that all students are involved in
the learning process instead of passively listening to lectures on ethics-a method that does
not even guarantee that all the students in the class are paying attention. Self-reflection is
considered to be the primary determinant of self-knowledge.11 Completing these
assignments, therefore, will likely increase the probability that students will internalize and
absorb the ethics lesson.

The first assignment, presented in Table 1A, is given to students on the first day of class of
Intermediate Accounting II. They are required to read the provided negative and positive news
articles related to ethical behavior and then write a reflective ethics essay that addresses
questions included in the assignment. Comments from student essays for this assignment are
included in Table 1B. The follow-up assignment, in Table 2A, is distributed during the last
week of the same class and is intended to have students reflect on their ethical behavior and
that of their peers over the course of the academic quarter. Student reflections taken from this
assignment are included in Table 2B. The assignment used in my Intermediate III class is
shown in Table 3A. This project emphasizes values, requires some research, and has
students write their own values mission statement. Examples of the mission statements
written by students are shown in Table 3B. The student reflections presented in Tables 1B,
2B, and 3B demonstrate how seriously students take these assignments, with many pouring
their hearts and souls into their papers.

In addition to these assignments, I incorporate ethics into much of what we do in class. I

frequently hand out relevant articles on ethics in the corporate world and the accounting
profession and remind students of the importance of maintaining an awareness of the positive
and negative stories relating to ethics and corporate governance. Recently, I also started to
include ethics as part of the evaluation criteria required in team contracts written by students
for their group projects. Students in the intermediate accounting classes have six different
group projects and must agree on and submit a team contract for each of the final three
groups they work in. One interesting comment from the evaluations shows how students
become more attuned to their ethical sensitivity:

[Rosemary] has improved her ethical behavior greatly since the last time I was in her group,
but overall I think everyone in the class has.

This is encouraging news that I believe shows it may be possible to influence students' ethical
behavior simply by letting them know that their peers are watching what they do. The hope is
that this is a team strategy they will carry into their careers.

Another method used to impart ethical thinking within students is by explaining the importance
of client confidentiality once they begin their accounting career, then relating this to the need
to ensure that project solutions from the class do not get passed on to the next incoming
class, as well as the importance of not telling their peers about any information that appears
on exams if they take the exam earlier than others.

I also provide them with a thought for the day that often is related to ethics. One of my
favorites is "Who are you when no one is looking?" Thus, in addition to incorporating the
formal ethics assignments presented, I have inundated my students with ethics tidbits as a
form of ethics socialization. My hope is that when students are confronted with ethical
dilemmas in their future, just one of these experiences will pop into their head and lead them
to do the right thing, regardless of what those around them are doing.

SURVEY RESULTS

During the Spring 2000 academic quarter, junior and senior accounting majors at my
university completed a survey about their job-search criteria and career-path preferences.
Several of the items that students responded to dealt with ethics and the ethical environment
of future employers. Having collected these data prior to the downfall of Enron and others, I
administered the survey to students enrolled during the Spring 2003 academic quarter to
determine if their responses to these ethics issues were different from those of the pre-Enron
students. Both groups of students completed the survey instrument voluntarily and
anonymously.

The survey instructed students to rank 10 job-search criteria in order of importance. Table 4
shows the results from both groups of students. For students who completed the survey in
2000, their top five criteria, in order of importance, were: (1) salary level, (2) potential for
advancement, (3) benefits package, (4) type of accounting work, and (5) ethical environment
of the company. The rank order of ethical environment of the company moved up significantly
for students who completed the survey during 2003 (Mann-Whitney U, 2-tailed sig.= .001).
This group's rankings were: (1) potential for advancement first, (2) salary level, and (3) ethical
environment. The move from fifth-highest to third-highest in importance implies that post-
Enron students are more concerned about the ethical corporate culture they will be working
in. It also suggests that these students are more attuned to and cognizant of the effects
ethical and unethical behavior will have throughout their careers.

Students were also asked to respond to questions regarding their willingness to leave a job
due to unethical occurrences and their willingness to report unethical behavior on the part of a
supervisor or a peer. In each case, students in 2003 were more willing to leave a job or report
a supervisor or peer than were the students in 2000. The increase in willingness, however,
was not significant for any of the three questions. See Table 5 for the questions and results.

INCREASING ETHICS AWARENESS

The feedback from the self-reflective ethics assignments suggests that, as intended, the
students are internalizing an appreciation for the importance of ethical behavior in their
coursework, their future careers, and their life in general. In addition, the student comments
and survey results indicate that accounting students at my university are quite concerned
about the ethical environment of their future employers. Student comments show an
increasing awareness that they may have to deal with ethical pressures in their future work
environments. Additionally, many of the comments also demonstrate that the students put a
lot of thought into the appropriate actions to take when faced with hard decisions under
questionable circumstances. Other comments reveal disappointment that outsiders perceive
the accounting profession as a whole as having a negative ethical culture. Despite their
frustration with this current state of affairs, the students seem to be committed to pursuing an
accounting career. Several appear to have gone so far as to internalize a sense of
responsibility toward improving the ethical tenor of the accounting profession. Finally, several
comments attribute an increased personal focus on ethical issues to the exercises they have
completed in my class. This feedback leads me to believe that by enhancing the self-
knowledge of students' values and ethical beliefs while increasing their awareness of potential
ethical traps that may be encountered, it is possible to increase the ethical sensitivity of our
students.

As a result of the exposure to ethics issues and the self-reflection assignments they are
required to complete, I believe my students have a better chance of quickly recognizing when
they are being asked to do something unethical. I am hopeful that when these young
professionals do confront an ethical dilemma in practice, their automatic response will be to
do the right thing despite any pressure to act otherwise. I am optimistic that the positive
ethical actions of a few can influence others to behave ethically. According to several student
comments, this has occurred already in my class. The cascading result of actions such as
these would be a first step toward demonstrating that the accounting profession will once
again exude ethics and integrity-in both perception and reality.

goal, instilling a maximum level of ethical values and sensitivity in our students is what
accounting educators should be striving for. Even if we fall short, the progress we make can
only enhance the ethical orientation of our accounting graduates. This article presents several
ideas for self-reflective assignments that can be used in the classroom to enhance the ethical
awareness and sensitivity of students. Many of these assignments incorporate news articles,
trying to take the bad press accountants have suffered in recent years and get something
positive from it. Based on comments taken from student essays and the results of a survey
administered to students in the "pre-Enron" era versus the current "post-Enron" era, this
reflective approach to raising the ethical awareness among students appears to be working.
"THERE IS MUCH WORK TO BE DONE TO PREPARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF
MANAGERS AND ACCOUNTANTS SO THAT THEY DON'T REPEAT THE
TRANSGRESSIONS OF THEIR PREDECESSORS."-PAUL B. MILLER & PAUL R.
BAHNSON

Historically, there have been many calls for increasing the level of ethics education in the
accounting curriculum. These calls turned to screams in the wake of the corporate scandals
of the past few years. Many of these screams are coming from accounting professors who are
increasingly frustrated with the behavior of some accounting professionals. In his opening
statement in testimony before Congress, L. Murphy Smith stated that the leadership of the
accounting profession, in practice and in academe, has a responsibility to inculcate ethical
behavior and personal integrity in practitioners and students. He also believes there is no
classroom that does not offer opportunities to foster and teach ethical behavior and integrity
as well as the consequences of their absence.1 Paul B. Miller and Paul R. Bahnson voice
concern that professors are failing to generate from their students any commitment to our
profession's long-standing duty to do what is right for the capital markets and the greater
economy.2 G. Peter Wilson, former president of the American Accounting Association, said
that educators need to increasingly emphasize within the classroom the two values that have
long been the mainstay of the accountant's reputation: integrity and professional skepticism.3

The first organized push to incorporate ethics into the business curriculum came in 1979,
when the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) made ethics
education a requirement for students in business education programs.4 A more specific focus
on ethics in accounting education came from the Bedford Committee, which stated,
"Professional accounting education must not only emphasize the needed skills and
knowledge, it must also instill the ethical standards and the commitment of a professional." 5
Shortly thereafter, the Treadway Commission and the AICPA added their voices to the
demand for ethics to become an integral part of accounting education.6 In 1989, the AACSB
increased the emphasis on ethics by requiring ethics to be taught within the major area of
study in business programs.7

In response to these calls, educators have incorporated ethics into their curricula in a number
of ways, often by using textbook cases, case problems, video presentations, and articles from
various publications.8 We've also seen a debate arise about whether ethics can be taught
once students reach college age and arrive at our classroom door. Many believe that a
person's ethical beliefs are formed at an early age and may be hard to change. H.Q.
Langenderfer and J.W. Rockness, however, consider this notion to be unwarranted, noting
that education literature supports the idea that people develop their ethics throughout life.9
This notion of continuing ethical development may be good news, but it also may explain how
even the most ethical person engulfed in an unethical corporate culture may find it difficult to
distinguish between what is proper behavior and what is questionable behavior in the eyes of
an outsider. As we attempt to teach ethics to our students, therefore, we need to consider
that, because people develop their ethical values throughout life, an individual's ethics are
subject to change negatively as well as positively, depending on the environment. For
example, Barbara Toffler, a business ethics consultant and author of Final Accounting:
Ambition, Greed, and the Fall of Arthur Andersen, made the following statement in an
interview with WNET-TV concerning the time she spent as a consultant with Arthur Andersen:

I don't want to say that I forgot everything that I was raised with, but you know, when you
spend time working in an organization, particularly one that has a strong culture, you find
yourself being drawn into that culture and beginning to behave the same way the people
around you do.10
This statement, made by someone considered to be an ethics expert, suggests that our
efforts in the classroom should not be focused entirely on teaching ethics in terms of
academic subject matter. There is also a need to stress the importance of developing an
ethical sensitivity in our students in order to provide them with a keen, internalized awareness
of the ethical status of their current academic environment and, subsequently, the corporate
environments they encounter.

This article provides several ideas for assignments that can be used in the classroom to
enhance the ethical awareness and sensitivity of students. Examples of comments written by
students are included to show the depth of thought and concern these assignments generate.
Also presented are the results of a survey administered to accounting students enrolled in
college during the "pre-Enron" era and to students currently enrolled. The results indicate that
students conducting a job search in the present day view a company's ethical environment as
a more important consideration than did students in the pre-Enron days. Thus, accounting
students currently enrolled at my university appear to be more aware and concerned about
ethics and the environment in which they will begin their accounting careers than students in
previous years.

THE ASSIGNMENTS

The three assignments described here require students to write self-reflective essays about
personal experiences related to ethics. This method ensures that all students are involved in
the learning process instead of passively listening to lectures on ethics-a method that does
not even guarantee that all the students in the class are paying attention. Self-reflection is
considered to be the primary determinant of self-knowledge.11 Completing these
assignments, therefore, will likely increase the probability that students will internalize and
absorb the ethics lesson.

The first assignment, presented in Table 1A, is given to students on the first day of class of
Intermediate Accounting II. They are required to read the provided negative and positive news
articles related to ethical behavior and then write a reflective ethics essay that addresses
questions included in the assignment. Comments from student essays for this assignment are
included in Table 1B. The follow-up assignment, in Table 2A, is distributed during the last
week of the same class and is intended to have students reflect on their ethical behavior and
that of their peers over the course of the academic quarter. Student reflections taken from this
assignment are included in Table 2B. The assignment used in my Intermediate III class is
shown in Table 3A. This project emphasizes values, requires some research, and has
students write their own values mission statement. Examples of the mission statements
written by students are shown in Table 3B. The student reflections presented in Tables 1B,
2B, and 3B demonstrate how seriously students take these assignments, with many pouring
their hearts and souls into their papers.

In addition to these assignments, I incorporate ethics into much of what we do in class. I

frequently hand out relevant articles on ethics in the corporate world and the accounting
profession and remind students of the importance of maintaining an awareness of the positive
and negative stories relating to ethics and corporate governance. Recently, I also started to
include ethics as part of the evaluation criteria required in team contracts written by students
for their group projects. Students in the intermediate accounting classes have six different
group projects and must agree on and submit a team contract for each of the final three
groups they work in. One interesting comment from the evaluations shows how students
become more attuned to their ethical sensitivity:

[Rosemary] has improved her ethical behavior greatly since the last time I was in her group,
but overall I think everyone in the class has.

This is encouraging news that I believe shows it may be possible to influence students' ethical
behavior simply by letting them know that their peers are watching what they do. The hope is
that this is a team strategy they will carry into their careers.

Another method used to impart ethical thinking within students is by explaining the importance
of client confidentiality once they begin their accounting career, then relating this to the need
to ensure that project solutions from the class do not get passed on to the next incoming
class, as well as the importance of not telling their peers about any information that appears
on exams if they take the exam earlier than others.

I also provide them with a thought for the day that often is related to ethics. One of my
favorites is "Who are you when no one is looking?" Thus, in addition to incorporating the
formal ethics assignments presented, I have inundated my students with ethics tidbits as a
form of ethics socialization. My hope is that when students are confronted with ethical
dilemmas in their future, just one of these experiences will pop into their head and lead them
to do the right thing, regardless of what those around them are doing.

SURVEY RESULTS

During the Spring 2000 academic quarter, junior and senior accounting majors at my
university completed a survey about their job-search criteria and career-path preferences.
Several of the items that students responded to dealt with ethics and the ethical environment
of future employers. Having collected these data prior to the downfall of Enron and others, I
administered the survey to students enrolled during the Spring 2003 academic quarter to
determine if their responses to these ethics issues were different from those of the pre-Enron
students. Both groups of students completed the survey instrument voluntarily and
anonymously.

The survey instructed students to rank 10 job-search criteria in order of importance. Table 4
shows the results from both groups of students. For students who completed the survey in
2000, their top five criteria, in order of importance, were: (1) salary level, (2) potential for
advancement, (3) benefits package, (4) type of accounting work, and (5) ethical environment
of the company. The rank order of ethical environment of the company moved up significantly
for students who completed the survey during 2003 (Mann-Whitney U, 2-tailed sig.= .001).
This group's rankings were: (1) potential for advancement first, (2) salary level, and (3) ethical
environment. The move from fifth-highest to third-highest in importance implies that post-
Enron students are more concerned about the ethical corporate culture they will be working
in. It also suggests that these students are more attuned to and cognizant of the effects
ethical and unethical behavior will have throughout their careers.

Students were also asked to respond to questions regarding their willingness to leave a job
due to unethical occurrences and their willingness to report unethical behavior on the part of a
supervisor or a peer. In each case, students in 2003 were more willing to leave a job or report
a supervisor or peer than were the students in 2000. The increase in willingness, however,
was not significant for any of the three questions. See Table 5 for the questions and results.

INCREASING ETHICS AWARENESS

The feedback from the self-reflective ethics assignments suggests that, as intended, the
students are internalizing an appreciation for the importance of ethical behavior in their
coursework, their future careers, and their life in general. In addition, the student comments
and survey results indicate that accounting students at my university are quite concerned
about the ethical environment of their future employers. Student comments show an
increasing awareness that they may have to deal with ethical pressures in their future work
environments. Additionally, many of the comments also demonstrate that the students put a
lot of thought into the appropriate actions to take when faced with hard decisions under
questionable circumstances. Other comments reveal disappointment that outsiders perceive
the accounting profession as a whole as having a negative ethical culture. Despite their
frustration with this current state of affairs, the students seem to be committed to pursuing an
accounting career. Several appear to have gone so far as to internalize a sense of
responsibility toward improving the ethical tenor of the accounting profession. Finally, several
comments attribute an increased personal focus on ethical issues to the exercises they have
completed in my class. This feedback leads me to believe that by enhancing the self-
knowledge of students' values and ethical beliefs while increasing their awareness of potential
ethical traps that may be encountered, it is possible to increase the ethical sensitivity of our
students.

As a result of the exposure to ethics issues and the self-reflection assignments they are
required to complete, I believe my students have a better chance of quickly recognizing when
they are being asked to do something unethical. I am hopeful that when these young
professionals do confront an ethical dilemma in practice, their automatic response will be to
do the right thing despite any pressure to act otherwise. I am optimistic that the positive
ethical actions of a few can influence others to behave ethically. According to several student
comments, this has occurred already in my class. The cascading result of actions such as
these would be a first step toward demonstrating that the accounting profession will once
again exude ethics and integrity-in both perception and reality.

SIDEBAR
Table 1A: Self-Reflective Ethics Assignment

Required: Write a two- to three-page typed, double-spaced essay. Your paper is due at the
beginning of class on Tuesday, April 8, 2003.

About WHAT? Your assignment is to read the attached newspaper, etc., stories about liars,
cheaters, thieves, and embezzlers, many of whom UNFORTUNATELY are connected with the
accounting profession. The packet also includes an article that addresses an inclusion issue,
which is very much a part of ethics, and three very positive stories.

Then, respond in essay form to the following thoughts-in other words, don't just give me a list
of answers to these questions, statements, etc., and don't necessarily address them
specifically or in the order they appear. Also, you do not have to address every question
specifically, except for #5.

1. You have chosen accounting as your major field of study and as your career. The
accounting profession has a professional code of ethics and has held itself out to be one of
the most ethical professions in existence. Can you live up to those expectations?

2. What impact do these articles have on you personally? What impact will they have on your
academic endeavors? Your professional endeavors?

3. What ramifications do these articles have for the accounting profession?

4. Who is your ethics mentor? In other words, who in your life abides by the ethical standards
that you (hopefully) are striving to achieve?

5. Read the "Cheating" paragraph in your syllabus. Include a statement in your essay that
addresses this paragraph.

6. Accounting is difficult. Why have you chosen to major in accountancy? Who is responsible
for your success or failure in this class, in the accounting program, in the business world?

goal, instilling a maximum level of ethical values and sensitivity in our students is what
accounting educators should be striving for. Even if we fall short, the progress we make can
only enhance the ethical orientation of our accounting graduates. This article presents several
ideas for self-reflective assignments that can be used in the classroom to enhance the ethical
awareness and sensitivity of students. Many of these assignments incorporate news articles,
trying to take the bad press accountants have suffered in recent years and get something
positive from it. Based on comments taken from student essays and the results of a survey
administered to students in the "pre-Enron" era versus the current "post-Enron" era, this
reflective approach to raising the ethical awareness among students appears to be working.
"THERE IS MUCH WORK TO BE DONE TO PREPARE THE NEXT GENERATION OF
MANAGERS AND ACCOUNTANTS SO THAT THEY DON'T REPEAT THE
TRANSGRESSIONS OF THEIR PREDECESSORS."-PAUL B. MILLER & PAUL R.
BAHNSON

Historically, there have been many calls for increasing the level of ethics education in the
accounting curriculum. These calls turned to screams in the wake of the corporate scandals
of the past few years. Many of these screams are coming from accounting professors who are
increasingly frustrated with the behavior of some accounting professionals. In his opening
statement in testimony before Congress, L. Murphy Smith stated that the leadership of the
accounting profession, in practice and in academe, has a responsibility to inculcate ethical
behavior and personal integrity in practitioners and students. He also believes there is no
classroom that does not offer opportunities to foster and teach ethical behavior and integrity
as well as the consequences of their absence.1 Paul B. Miller and Paul R. Bahnson voice
concern that professors are failing to generate from their students any commitment to our
profession's long-standing duty to do what is right for the capital markets and the greater
economy.2 G. Peter Wilson, former president of the American Accounting Association, said
that educators need to increasingly emphasize within the classroom the two values that have
long been the mainstay of the accountant's reputation: integrity and professional skepticism.3
The first organized push to incorporate ethics into the business curriculum came in 1979,
when the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) made ethics
education a requirement for students in business education programs.4 A more specific focus
on ethics in accounting education came from the Bedford Committee, which stated,
"Professional accounting education must not only emphasize the needed skills and
knowledge, it must also instill the ethical standards and the commitment of a professional." 5
Shortly thereafter, the Treadway Commission and the AICPA added their voices to the
demand for ethics to become an integral part of accounting education.6 In 1989, the AACSB
increased the emphasis on ethics by requiring ethics to be taught within the major area of
study in business programs.7

In response to these calls, educators have incorporated ethics into their curricula in a number
of ways, often by using textbook cases, case problems, video presentations, and articles from
various publications.8 We've also seen a debate arise about whether ethics can be taught
once students reach college age and arrive at our classroom door. Many believe that a
person's ethical beliefs are formed at an early age and may be hard to change. H.Q.
Langenderfer and J.W. Rockness, however, consider this notion to be unwarranted, noting
that education literature supports the idea that people develop their ethics throughout life.9
This notion of continuing ethical development may be good news, but it also may explain how
even the most ethical person engulfed in an unethical corporate culture may find it difficult to
distinguish between what is proper behavior and what is questionable behavior in the eyes of
an outsider. As we attempt to teach ethics to our students, therefore, we need to consider
that, because people develop their ethical values throughout life, an individual's ethics are
subject to change negatively as well as positively, depending on the environment. For
example, Barbara Toffler, a business ethics consultant and author of Final Accounting:
Ambition, Greed, and the Fall of Arthur Andersen, made the following statement in an
interview with WNET-TV concerning the time she spent as a consultant with Arthur Andersen:

I don't want to say that I forgot everything that I was raised with, but you know, when you
spend time working in an organization, particularly one that has a strong culture, you find
yourself being drawn into that culture and beginning to behave the same way the people
around you do.10

This statement, made by someone considered to be an ethics expert, suggests that our
efforts in the classroom should not be focused entirely on teaching ethics in terms of
academic subject matter. There is also a need to stress the importance of developing an
ethical sensitivity in our students in order to provide them with a keen, internalized awareness
of the ethical status of their current academic environment and, subsequently, the corporate
environments they encounter.

This article provides several ideas for assignments that can be used in the classroom to
enhance the ethical awareness and sensitivity of students. Examples of comments written by
students are included to show the depth of thought and concern these assignments generate.
Also presented are the results of a survey administered to accounting students enrolled in
college during the "pre-Enron" era and to students currently enrolled. The results indicate that
students conducting a job search in the present day view a company's ethical environment as
a more important consideration than did students in the pre-Enron days. Thus, accounting
students currently enrolled at my university appear to be more aware and concerned about
ethics and the environment in which they will begin their accounting careers than students in
previous years.

THE ASSIGNMENTS

The three assignments described here require students to write self-reflective essays about
personal experiences related to ethics. This method ensures that all students are involved in
the learning process instead of passively listening to lectures on ethics-a method that does
not even guarantee that all the students in the class are paying attention. Self-reflection is
considered to be the primary determinant of self-knowledge.11 Completing these
assignments, therefore, will likely increase the probability that students will internalize and
absorb the ethics lesson.

The first assignment, presented in Table 1A, is given to students on the first day of class of
Intermediate Accounting II. They are required to read the provided negative and positive news
articles related to ethical behavior and then write a reflective ethics essay that addresses
questions included in the assignment. Comments from student essays for this assignment are
included in Table 1B. The follow-up assignment, in Table 2A, is distributed during the last
week of the same class and is intended to have students reflect on their ethical behavior and
that of their peers over the course of the academic quarter. Student reflections taken from this
assignment are included in Table 2B. The assignment used in my Intermediate III class is
shown in Table 3A. This project emphasizes values, requires some research, and has
students write their own values mission statement. Examples of the mission statements
written by students are shown in Table 3B. The student reflections presented in Tables 1B,
2B, and 3B demonstrate how seriously students take these assignments, with many pouring
their hearts and souls into their papers.
In addition to these assignments, I incorporate ethics into much of what we do in class. I
frequently hand out relevant articles on ethics in the corporate world and the accounting
profession and remind students of the importance of maintaining an awareness of the positive
and negative stories relating to ethics and corporate governance. Recently, I also started to
include ethics as part of the evaluation criteria required in team contracts written by students
for their group projects. Students in the intermediate accounting classes have six different
group projects and must agree on and submit a team contract for each of the final three
groups they work in. One interesting comment from the evaluations shows how students
become more attuned to their ethical sensitivity:

[Rosemary] has improved her ethical behavior greatly since the last time I was in her group,
but overall I think everyone in the class has.

This is encouraging news that I believe shows it may be possible to influence students' ethical
behavior simply by letting them know that their peers are watching what they do. The hope is
that this is a team strategy they will carry into their careers.

Another method used to impart ethical thinking within students is by explaining the importance
of client confidentiality once they begin their accounting career, then relating this to the need
to ensure that project solutions from the class do not get passed on to the next incoming
class, as well as the importance of not telling their peers about any information that appears
on exams if they take the exam earlier than others.

I also provide them with a thought for the day that often is related to ethics. One of my
favorites is "Who are you when no one is looking?" Thus, in addition to incorporating the
formal ethics assignments presented, I have inundated my students with ethics tidbits as a
form of ethics socialization. My hope is that when students are confronted with ethical
dilemmas in their future, just one of these experiences will pop into their head and lead them
to do the right thing, regardless of what those around them are doing.

SURVEY RESULTS

During the Spring 2000 academic quarter, junior and senior accounting majors at my
university completed a survey about their job-search criteria and career-path preferences.
Several of the items that students responded to dealt with ethics and the ethical environment
of future employers. Having collected these data prior to the downfall of Enron and others, I
administered the survey to students enrolled during the Spring 2003 academic quarter to
determine if their responses to these ethics issues were different from those of the pre-Enron
students. Both groups of students completed the survey instrument voluntarily and
anonymously.
The survey instructed students to rank 10 job-search criteria in order of importance. Table 4
shows the results from both groups of students. For students who completed the survey in
2000, their top five criteria, in order of importance, were: (1) salary level, (2) potential for
advancement, (3) benefits package, (4) type of accounting work, and (5) ethical environment
of the company. The rank order of ethical environment of the company moved up significantly
for students who completed the survey during 2003 (Mann-Whitney U, 2-tailed sig.= .001).
This group's rankings were: (1) potential for advancement first, (2) salary level, and (3) ethical
environment. The move from fifth-highest to third-highest in importance implies that post-
Enron students are more concerned about the ethical corporate culture they will be working
in. It also suggests that these students are more attuned to and cognizant of the effects
ethical and unethical behavior will have throughout their careers.

Students were also asked to respond to questions regarding their willingness to leave a job
due to unethical occurrences and their willingness to report unethical behavior on the part of a
supervisor or a peer. In each case, students in 2003 were more willing to leave a job or report
a supervisor or peer than were the students in 2000. The increase in willingness, however,
was not significant for any of the three questions. See Table 5 for the questions and results.

INCREASING ETHICS AWARENESS

The feedback from the self-reflective ethics assignments suggests that, as intended, the
students are internalizing an appreciation for the importance of ethical behavior in their
coursework, their future careers, and their life in general. In addition, the student comments
and survey results indicate that accounting students at my university are quite concerned
about the ethical environment of their future employers. Student comments show an
increasing awareness that they may have to deal with ethical pressures in their future work
environments. Additionally, many of the comments also demonstrate that the students put a
lot of thought into the appropriate actions to take when faced with hard decisions under
questionable circumstances. Other comments reveal disappointment that outsiders perceive
the accounting profession as a whole as having a negative ethical culture. Despite their
frustration with this current state of affairs, the students seem to be committed to pursuing an
accounting career. Several appear to have gone so far as to internalize a sense of
responsibility toward improving the ethical tenor of the accounting profession. Finally, several
comments attribute an increased personal focus on ethical issues to the exercises they have
completed in my class. This feedback leads me to believe that by enhancing the self-
knowledge of students' values and ethical beliefs while increasing their awareness of potential
ethical traps that may be encountered, it is possible to increase the ethical sensitivity of our
students.
As a result of the exposure to ethics issues and the self-reflection assignments they are
required to complete, I believe my students have a better chance of quickly recognizing when
they are being asked to do something unethical. I am hopeful that when these young
professionals do confront an ethical dilemma in practice, their automatic response will be to
do the right thing despite any pressure to act otherwise. I am optimistic that the positive
ethical actions of a few can influence others to behave ethically. According to several student
comments, this has occurred already in my class. The cascading result of actions such as
these would be a first step toward demonstrating that the accounting profession will once
again exude ethics and integrity-in both perception and reality.

SIDEBAR
Table 1A: Self-Reflective Ethics Assignment

Required: Write a two- to three-page typed, double-spaced essay. Your paper is due at the
beginning of class on Tuesday, April 8, 2003.

About WHAT? Your assignment is to read the attached newspaper, etc., stories about liars,
cheaters, thieves, and embezzlers, many of whom UNFORTUNATELY are connected with the
accounting profession. The packet also includes an article that addresses an inclusion issue,
which is very much a part of ethics, and three very positive stories.

Then, respond in essay form to the following thoughts-in other words, don't just give me a list
of answers to these questions, statements, etc., and don't necessarily address them
specifically or in the order they appear. Also, you do not have to address every question
specifically, except for #5.

1. You have chosen accounting as your major field of study and as your career. The
accounting profession has a professional code of ethics and has held itself out to be one of
the most ethical professions in existence. Can you live up to those expectations?

2. What impact do these articles have on you personally? What impact will they have on your
academic endeavors? Your professional endeavors?

3. What ramifications do these articles have for the accounting profession?

4. Who is your ethics mentor? In other words, who in your life abides by the ethical standards
that you (hopefully) are striving to achieve?

5. Read the "Cheating" paragraph in your syllabus. Include a statement in your essay that
addresses this paragraph.
6. Accounting is difficult. Why have you chosen to major in accountancy? Who is responsible
for your success or failure in this class, in the accounting program, in the business world?

SIDEBAR
Table 2A: Ethics Follow-Up Assignment

Please read the ethics paper you wrote at the beginning of the quarter and respond to the
following ideas. Limit your thoughts to a one-page, double-spaced paper to be handed in by
Thursday, June 12, 2003, at 4:00 p.m.

1. Have any of your ideas changed over the course of the quarter (i.e., are your feelings about
this topic the same, stronger, weaker, different)?

2. Have you been influenced by incidents that you have become aware of over the course of
the quarter?

3. Have you lived up to your own ethical expectations over the quarter?

4. Have you been subjected to any peer pressure that is not consistent with your ethical
beliefs?

Table 3A: Ethics and Me: An Ongoing Conversation with Yourself

Required: Write a double-spaced, five- to seven-page paper and include all of the following
(not necessarily in the order shown) in an organized, thoughtful essay:

1. Talk briefly about an ethical dilemma you experienced or witnessed during the summer or
in the last few months.

2. Rank the "Values" listed on the back of this page in order of importance for yourself, and
briefly discuss why you selected the values you chose as your top four most important and
why you selected the four values you chose for the least important. Come up with your own
"mission statement" regarding your values.

3. Choose and read three articles relating to ethics from three different 2003 business
publications. Discuss and critique these articles (two pages max for this part-NOT per article).
Be sure to reference these articles properly according to the APA Style Manual-you can find
this on the library website.

4. Define social responsibility and economic responsibility. Compare and contrast these two
things, and explain how you think they relate to each other (could be positive and/or negative
relationship).

5. Relate your value structure, based on the values