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Ethics education in accounting: moving toward ethical motivation and ethical behavior
Mary Beth Armstronga,*, J. Edward Ketzb, Dwight Owsenc
Accounting Area, College of Business, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407, USA b MBA Oce, Smeal College of Business, 106 Business Administration Building, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802-3000, USA c Department of Accounting, College of Business, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-6304, USA Received 1 January 2001; accepted 1 August 2002
a

Abstract This paper reviews the literature on ethics education in accounting and utilizes Thornes 1998 Integrated Model of Ethical Decision Making to categorize that literature. The review reveals a preponderance of work discussing moral development, which consists of sensitivity and prescriptive reasoning, but a shortage of work addressing virtue, which consists of ethical motivation and ethical behavior. Because of this deciency, the authors explore the potential of exhortation and moral exemplars to increase ethical motivation among accounting students, faculty, and practitioners. # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Ethics education; Moral development

1. Introduction One can hardly pick up a business publication today without noting some reference to an accounting scandal. Enron is only one dishonor to the profession, though perhaps the best known; other recent accounting and auditing failures include WorldCom, Microsoft, Peregrine Systems, Rite Aid, Sunbeam, Tyco, Waste Management, W.R. Grace, and Xerox, among many others. The sheer number of
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-805-756-2084; fax: +1-805-756-1473. E-mail addresses: marmstro@calpoly.edu (M.B. Armstrong), k55@psu.edu (J.E. Ketz). 0748-5751/03/$ - see front matter # 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0748-5751(02)00017-9

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accounting abuses serves as prima facie evidence that something more is needed in terms of accounting ethics.1 What else needs to be done is less clear. The objectives of this paper are twofold: rst, to utilize Thornes (1998) Integrated Model of Ethical Decision Making as a framework to categorize the existing literature in accounting ethics education as a guide to future researchers; second, to draw attention to two elementsexhortation and moral exemplarsas particularly helpful for accounting educators to realize one component of Thornes model, ethical motivation. Application of Thornes model helps identify topics that researchers have pursued and directions for future research eorts. In addition to the two objectives listed above, this paper discusses the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to teaching ethics in accounting (e.g. philosophical approaches, psychological approaches, case studies, codes of conduct, virtue) as an aid to accounting instructors who wish to integrate more ethics into their accounting courses. The next section of this paper explains Thornes model. Sections three and four catalog the accounting literature in ethics education into the major categories of Thornes model, moral development and virtue. Section ve describes implementation issues and provides direction for future research, and the nal section of the paper presents the conclusion.

2. Thornes model of ethical decision making Thorne (1998) proposes a model that integrates James Rests Four-Component Model of ethical behavior with the tenets of virtue ethics theory. The basic idea behind Rests four-component model is that various (four) inner psychological processes together give rise to outwardly observable behavior. The four processes, briey, are as follows (Rest, 1986; Rest, Narvaez, Bebeau, & Thoma, 1999, p. 101): 1. Moral sensitivity: interpreting the situation, role taking how various actions would aect the parties concerned, imagining causeeect chains of events, and being aware that there is a moral problem when it exists. 2. Moral judgment: judging which action would be most justiable in a moral sense. 3. Moral motivation: the degree of commitment to taking the moral course of action, valuing moral values over other values, and taking personal responsibility for moral outcomes. 4. Moral character: persisting in a moral task, having courage, over-coming fatigue and temptation, and implementing subroutines that serve a moral goal.
1 Calls for teaching more ethics in accounting education have come from the American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB, 1988), the American Accounting Association (AAA, 1986), the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA, 1988a), the Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC, 1990), the National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting (NCFFR, 1987), and the white paper jointly written by the largest accounting rms (Arthur Andersen & Co. et al., 1989).

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According to virtue ethics theory, virtues characterize the decision maker. Possession and exercise of virtues tend to increase the decision makers propensity to exercise sound ethical judgments. Virtues increase the likelihood that one will act in accordance with ones ethical judgments. To use Aristotles wonderfully concise description of personal characterWe are what we repeatedly do (Gough, 1998, p. 5). Thorne observed that the rst two components of Rests model are primarily intellectual in nature, while the last two components are intimately connected with virtue. Thus, the two basic categories of Thornes model are moral development (the cognitive acts of recognizing moral issues and thinking them through) and virtue (the ethical motivation and intention to act morally and the ethical character to bring that intention to fruition). Integrating Rests four-component model and virtue ethics theory leads to Thornes Integrated Model, depicted in Fig. 1 (Thorne, 1998, p. 298). Fig. 1 indicates that moral development and virtue are both required for ethical behavior. Fig. 1 further suggests that moral development comprises sensitivity to the moral content of a situation or dilemma and prescriptive reasoning, or the ability to understand the issues, think them through, and arrive at an ethical judgment. Similarly, virtue comprises ethical motivation, which describes an individuals willingness to place the interests of others ahead of his or her own, and ethical character. According to Pincos (1986, p. 91), moral virtues are those attributes of character that describe an individuals direct concern for others; therefore, Fig. 1 shows ethical motivation as a moral virtue. Pincos (1986, p. 84) also indicates that instrumental virtues make it more probable that a person will be successful in pursuing goals, ends, or objectives. Hence, according to Thorne (1998, p. 299), the integrative perspective suggests that an individuals ethical character is a reection of his or her instrumental virtue. Appropriate cognitive activity, including sensitivity to ethical

Fig. 1. Thornes integrated model of ethical decision making.

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issues and prescriptive reasoning, leads to ethical judgment. Thorne combines this with virtue to result in ethical behavior. But virtue consists of two elements: moral virtue and instrumental virtue. The ethical intention to act on behalf of others is a moral virtue. Instrumental virtue, which includes items such as courage and fortitude, helps enable the individual to achieve his or her intentions. Note that Fig. 1 contains a two-headed arrow between understanding and moral virtue. According to Thorne (1998, p. 299) that arrow is: . . .used to depict the reexive nature of the association between these two concepts. Although not inconsistent with cognitive-development theory, the nature of this association largely reects a virtue-ethics emphasis which accepts that virtuous individuals possess both the understanding of what is good and the desire to be good. . . Hence, the integrated perspective explicitly acknowledges that an individuals prescriptive understanding of an ethical dilemma is integral to his or her desire and ability to act virtuously, and that an individuals ethical character is integral to his or her prescriptive understanding of an ethical dilemma. Thorne categorizes research on auditors ethical decision-making according to her integrated framework. By doing so she can identify which parts of the model researchers have insuciently examined. This paper utilizes a similar approach, categorizing ethics education in accounting and identifying parts of the framework that are less well examined.2 In addition, this paper advocates the use of exhortation and moral exemplars to enhance moral motivation in accounting students.

3. Moral development According to Thornes integrative model, sensitivity and prescriptive reasoning are components of moral development. This paper, therefore, divides the literature review into those two categories. 3.1. Sensitivity The ethical decision process begins when the decision-maker recognizes that a particular situation will aect the welfare of others, and thereby identies the moral content of the issue. Before one can act ethically, one must understand that an ethical issue exists. Fulmer and Cargile (1987) and Armstrong (1993b) illustrate this approach. Fulmer and Cargile (1987) report the results of an empirical study that showed accounting students who had been exposed to the AICPAs Code of Professional
2 Some important works in accounting ethics education do not t well into Thornes model. These include Armstrong (1993a), Armstrong and Mintz (1989), Cohen and Pant (1989), Ingram and Peterson (1989), Karnes and Sterner (1989), Loeb (1988, 1991), and Mintz (1990, 1997).

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Conduct perceived ethical issues more frequently than other business students in a given scenario. Even though the accounting students perceived ethical issues more frequently, there were no signicant dierences in the actions chosen by accounting students and other business students. Simple exposure to ethical issues may be necessary, but not sucient, to change students ethical behavior (the basic tenant of Rests four-component model). Armstrong (1993b) reports the results of an intervention in ethics and professionalism (E&P). She nds a statistically signicant dierence in changes in DIT P3 scores among students who took the E&P course over those in a control course in intermediate accounting. She also reports an interactive eect that indicates the E&P course combined with previous classes in ethics is particularly eective in predicting moral-reasoning maturation. Consequently, Armstrong advocates a sandwich approach that consists of a general course in ethics, followed by a variety of accounting courses in which case studies and homework problems help students spot ethical issues and reinforce good ethical reasoning. A capstone course in ethics and professionalism taught by accounting faculty would complete the sandwich. The Armstrong study ts in both components one and two of Thornes model because of the emphasis on using the sandwich approach to increase students awareness of ethical issues and to increase their moral reasoning ability. 3.2. Prescriptive reasoning The second component of Thornes model, prescriptive reasoning, leads to ethical judgment and is the critical-thinking component of the model and the component that has received the most attention by academic accountants. Several approaches to teaching prescriptive reasoning have been advocated in the literature: the psychology of moral development, classical philosophical theories, case analyses, codes of conduct, and virtue. We make a distinction between normative ethics (what one should do) and descriptive ethics (how people, in fact, make moral decisions). For centuries, philosophers have investigated questions of good and bad, right and wrong, so their theories are typically normative. Kohlberg (1984), Rest (1986) and Gilligan (1982), all developmental psychologists, are more concerned with nding out how people actually make moral choices than with philosophical issues, such as what one should do. Their work is empirical and descriptive; hence, their work is more relevant to accounting researchers than to accounting educators.4 Several textbooks in accounting ethics (Armstrong, 1993a; Epstein and Spalding, 1993; Mintz, 1992) present classical normative ethical theories to construct a foundation for applying ethics to accounting. Typically included are the theories of egoism, utilitarianism, and deontology. Understanding these theories can be benecial
Rests Dening Issues Test (DIT) results in a P score which measures the percentage of time respondents utilize stage 5 or 6 reasoning (principled reasoning) in choosing solutions to given scenarios. 4 Some authors (Rest, 1986, pp. 8186; Armstrong, 1993a, pp. 7981) advocate teaching the theories of moral development to students, while others disagree (Rest et al., 1999, pp. 932; Shaub, 1994b, pp. 129143).
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to students because they encounter the theories in their business courses without necessarily realizing it. For example, students are exposed to the theories of Adam Smith in their economics classes. Students may erroneously conclude from such classes that always acting in ones own self interest is not only allowed, but preferable because doing so ultimately works to maximize societys interests. A discussion of egoism should point out that Adam Smiths assumption that people act in their own self interest is just that-a model assumption. He made neither a normative statement (e.g. people should act in their own self interest) nor an empirical statement (e.g. people do act in their own self interest). Similarly, teachers may expose students to utilitarian concepts without students realizing it. For example, accountants frequently invoke cost/benet methods into their discussions and evaluations of various topics. Utilitarianism rests on the idea that the ends justify the means, but this is logically equivalent to the notion that one should engage in projects in which the benets exceed the costs. Deontology, on the other hand, focuses on moral obligation, rights and duties, and examines the act itself, not just the consequences of the act. Students are introduced to deontological concepts in accounting courses, because emphasis in accounting is on principles (e.g. matching and revenue recognition) and the right way to do it, regardless of the consequences. The danger of teaching these classical ethical theories is that students may be left with the impression that they are equally appropriate or always morally justiable. Worse, students may adopt an air of theoretical agnosticism and conclude that each theory is as irrelevant as the next. If instructors nonetheless teach these theories to students, the instructors should explain the strengths and weaknesses of each. For example, some argue that egoism is not a moral concept since it denies a premise that most consider essential to all moral concepts, that self-sacricing behavior (when warranted) is required. Utilitarianism, which seeks to bring about the greatest good for the greatest number has no way of protecting minority interests; thus, for example, a logical utilitarian argument could be constructed for slavery. Langenderfer and Rockness (1989) propose the use of short cases, using an eightstep model as the tool for analysis. They further advocate integrating these cases throughout the accounting curriculum. Langenderfer and Rockness emphasize that such an approach does not replace ethics classes, but augments them. Armstrong (1990) critiques Langenderfer and Rocknesss eight-step method because the model attempts to blend deontological considerations with utilitarian considerations (a strength), but ultimately consequences (utilitarian considerations) dominate the choice (a weakness). While the role of individual cases to instruct students in accounting ethics appears essential, thought must be given to the selection of the paradigmatic cases that serve to best illustrate the ethical principles (e.g. integrity, objectivity) that the community of accountants has chosen as essential to moral practice. Several authors have advocated teaching professional guidance such as the AICPA (2002) Code of Professional Conduct and the AICPA (2000) Statements on Standards for Tax Services. The danger exists that instructors might teach this material as an end in itself, rather than as a means of understanding professional

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responsibilities. For example, the rules section of the AICPA Code is a bit problematic. To focus on the rules is to invite a rigid understanding of professional responsibilities, devoid of professional judgment and available for loopholing and hair splitting. At the same time, the profession as a whole suers irreparable damage when the public learns about an excess of 8000 violations of independence rules committed by one large accounting rm (SEC, 1998b). Professionals who understand ethical principles, such as independence, without appreciating a need to understand the rules on independence as well, can lead to wide-spread violations, even assuming well-intentioned individuals. An alternative approach to teaching detailed rules, such as independence rules, might be as follows: after a careful analysis of the need for independence, the independence concept and certain key cases involving independence, an instructor might assign a few scenarios involving independence and ask the students to form small groups to discuss the scenarios and determine whether or not, in each case, independence was impaired. As a follow-up, teachers could assign students to research the answers in an electronic data base of independence rules (AICPA or SEC), then write a short paper discussing the dierences between their group judgments about independence in given cases and the guidance they found in ocial sources. Such an assignment combines group work, research skills, critical thinking skills, writing, and ethics. It treats the rules as something that the students should be able to research, because compliance is important to the profession, but does not treat the rules as answers or ends in themselves. Some recent authors have advocated teaching students about virtue, as opposed to attempts to increase virtue, which the paper discusses in the next section. For example, one might teach Pincos (1986) classications of virtues, or the fact that MacIntyre (1984) considers virtue to be the means of achieving excellence in a profession. Teaching Pinco s theories or MacIntyres theories about virtue would be cognitive exercises, but are not necessarily intended to increase virtue in students. Rather, such teaching is intended to increase students understanding of virtue. Dobson and Armstrong (1995, pp. 189190) advocate the use of virtue ethics theory in accounting ethics education and describe four basic attributes of the theory: generally accepted virtues, an active community, sound moral judgment, and moral exemplars or role models. Mintz (1995) describes virtue theory, especially as understood by Pincos (1986), and then discusses the virtues in accounting and pedagogical considerations related to virtue ethics. In addition to advocating pedagogies that might increase virtue, Mintz (1995, p. 260) analyzes the virtues in accounting that he believes are linked to requirements of professional codes of conduct, namely trustworthiness, benevolence, altruism, honesty, integrity, impartiality, open-mindedness, reliability, dependability, and faithfulness. In a later paper, Mintz (1996) again addresses the role of virtue in accounting education. He explains the concept of virtue, relying more heavily on MacIntyre (1984) than Pincos (1986), as he did in 1995, and the role of virtue in the accounting profession. Mintz then gives a case study of how he incorporates virtue considerations into an introductory nancial accounting course. He also provides guidelines that

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may be useful in determining whether accounting students are successfully learning about virtue.5

4. Virtue The second category in Thornes 1998 model is virtue, which consists of two components: ethical motivation/intention and ethical character/behavior. The paper next examines each of these components. 4.1. Ethical motivation/intention Pincos (1986) denes moral virtue as the positive attribute of character that describes an individuals direct concern for the interest of others despite personal risks (Thorne, 1998, p. 298). According to Rest (1986), ethical motivation is the degree of commitment to taking the moral course of action, placing moral values over other values, and taking personal responsibility for moral outcomes (Thorne, 1998, p. 298). Thorne (1998, p. 298) blends the two as follows: An integrated view suggests that an individuals ethical motivation is a reection on his or her moral virtue. This, in turn, suggests that individuals which are morally virtuous are more motivated in their intention to act ethically than less morally virtuous individuals. Gough (1998, p. 142), a professor of ethics and philosophy, exhorts his students and readers to take charge of personal ethics in their everyday lives and to develop virtuous character traits, which will ultimately lead to personal fulllment and mastery of ones own destiny. His formula for achieving ethical excellence is as follows: Thoughts ! Act ! Habit ! Character ! Destiny Gough distinguishes between character (ones ethical self) and personality (ones psychological self). He concedes that psychologists may be correct when asserting that ones personality changes little in life, but dismisses this fact when it comes to ethics because ones character is malleable. He then develops four main points (1998, p. 10): (1) You, like all human beings have the capacity to determine who you are or what you want to beor should beover and above what you are by nature. (2) What you are in your essence has an inescapable ethical dimension. (3) You have the innate ability to choose to be good. (4) In sum, when it comes to the kind of person you are, you and you alone ultimately determine your own destiny.
Additional articles and books devoted to the prescriptive reasoning component of Thornes model are Albrecht (1992), Armstrong (1987), Brooks (1995, 2000), Epstein and Spalding (1993), Hiltebeitel and Jones (1991), Huss and Patterson (1993), Lampe and Finn (1994), Loeb (1990), Magill and Previts (1991), Ponemon (1993), Ponemon and Glazer (1990), Shaub (1994a, 1994b), Sisaye (1997), and Windal (1991).
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Gough proceeds to amplify these claims in his book through various arguments and anecdotes, the focus pivoting on the idea that we become better individuals by acting in an ethical manner. Gough encourages his readers and his students to practice good behavior. Because virtues are good habits, the repeated doing of good actions leads to advances in moral character. Following Gough, accounting educators should attempt consciously to instill in students a sense of pride in the accounting profession and a desire to live up to the highest ideals embodied in the notion of professionalism. While Gough animates his readers and students to achieve virtues necessary to lead the good life, accounting faculty could exhort students to acquire the virtues necessary for excellence in the practice of accounting (e.g. objectivity, integrity, truth-telling, professional skepticism). Stewart (1997) urges the use of narrative to enhance moral motivation and encourages accounting faculty to relate professional responsibilities to such works as Robert Penn Warrens All the Kings Men, Harper Lees To Kill a Mockingbird, and John Grishams The Firm. Example is another (silent) means of exhortation. As Dobson and Armstrong (1995, p. 199) point out: This pursuit of personal excellence is only possible within a polis6: a community that nurtures such pursuit. Often the accounting students rst encounter with the accounting profession consists of interaction with its academic branch. The academic accounting community becomes the polis necessary for the virtues to ourish, and the professors lead the students in that polis. Students observe what their instructors do and how they comport themselves. If students perceive that their teachers care about others and live honestly and forthrightly, they will comprehend the tacit lesson to live in the same way. If students notice instructors succeeding by backstabbing, by not keeping promises, by mistreating others (including students), or by not conscientiously fullling their teaching responsibilities, they will denigrate ethics, regardless of what the professor may say. Dobson and Armstrong (1995, p. 192) also describe the essential role played by moral exemplars, or role models, or white-hat accountants. They point out that: The role of exemplars is critical for the application of virtue ethics because it is from these individuals that the virtues are disseminated throughout the profession. One could utilize dilemmas in the rst two components of Thornes model to help increase students moral sensitivity and reasoning skills. An educator also might employ accounting horror stories, or actual cases where the accountant in practice did the wrong thing. These horror stories also might provide students with the motivation to avoid these errors in their own ethical situations. For example, one might illustrate the unethical behavior by accountants in the Phar Mor fraud (SEC, 1996), the Sensormatic Electronics case (SEC, 1998a; Ketz and Miller, 1998), and others found in the nancial press, and thus enhance students ability to reason eectively or spot ethical issues more eectively. On the other hand, positive examples will enhance students pride in the heroes of the profession and increase their motivation to emulate them. As DeMarco points out (1996, pp. 1314), it is insucient to eliminate vice, and so one must also cultivate virtue.
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Originally signied an ancient Greek city-state. Used here to signify any community of people.

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Trying to become virtuous merely by excluding vice. . . is as unrealistic as trying to cultivate roses solely by eliminating weeds. After clearing the garden of weeds, one must still plant seeds or cuttings and nurture their growth; otherwise, the weeds simply return. The best way to exclude vices is to crowd them out with the presence of strong virtues. Knapp, Louwers, and Weber (1998) published an article titled Celebrating Accounting Heroes: An Alternative Approach to Teaching Ethics. Discussion of individuals who carried out ethically sound actions provides good examples to students and might encourage them to act similarly when they face ethical challenges.7 4.2. Ethical character/behavior The fourth component of Thornes model is ethical character, which leads to ethical behavior. Thorne (1998, pp. 298299) notes, According to the cognitive-developmental perspective, an individuals ethical character aects his or her willingness and ability to act in accordance with his or her ethical intention. According to virtue ethics theory, the property of character critical to an individuals ability to implement his or her ethical intention is instrumental virtue. Hence the integrative perspective suggests that an individuals ethical character is a reection of his or her instrumental virtue. Rest et al. point out (1999, p. 101) that courage is an essential virtue in component four. Courage enables one to go from ethical intention to ethical behavior. MacIntyre (1984, p. 191) identies courage as essential for all practices, stating that, We have to be prepared to take whatever self-endangering risks are demanded along the way [to excellence]. Other instrumental virtues for example, perseverance, might also be needed to cause ethical intentions to result in ethical behavior. Loeb (1988) discusses the goals of ethics education in accounting, including one to set the stage for a change in ethical behavior. He does not go so far as to imply accounting educators have the power to bring about good or bad behavior on the part of students. Indeed, this fourth component is probably beyond accounting educators abilities. Educators set the stage for ethical behavior by increasing moral sensitivity, moral reasoning and moral motivation, but students must take that last step themselves. To do so, they must acquire the necessary instrumental virtues (e.g. courage, fortitude, perseverance), and such virtues are acquired through practice and repetition, while the individual is sustained and encouraged in a nurturing community. Whatever accounting educators can do to provide such a nurturing community is helpful, but eventually academia will turn the students over to the larger accounting community to continue the work begun at the collegiate level.
7 Additional articles relating to Thornes third component are Douglas, Barker, and Schwartz (1995) and Mintz (1995).

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Dirsmith and Ketz (1987) describe how they engaged students in a discussion of integrity. Dirsmith and Ketz gave students an intermediate accounting exam and arbitrarily added ten points or decreased by 10 points students scores, while leaving some scores unchanged. The authors nd that most students with 10 fewer points than they deserved asked for an adjustment, while none of the students who had 10 undeserved points reported the error. When the students learned of this behavior, they were particularly energized to debate the issue of integrity in a concrete, immediate, and relevant setting.

5. Directions for future research Thornes model of ethical decision-making encapsulates moral development and virtue. Within the model, moral sensitivity and moral judgment compose moral development, while virtue comprises moral motivation and moral character. The literature review indicates that accounting education researchers have primarily focused on ethical judgments and the prescriptive reasoning process. The primary inference of this paper is that accounting education researchers should place greater emphasis on the other three aspects of ethical decision-making (sensitivity, motivation, and character), for they might provide avenues for improvements in ethical decision-making. In terms of moral sensitivity, there is a need to identify cues that accounting professionals and students employ to help them spot the ethical content in issues they face. What societal and institutional factors help or hinder the development of moral sensitivity? What psychological traits lead to greater moral sensitivity and can students learn these traits? How can educators help enhance students moral sensitivity? Perhaps there are even greater research opportunities to investigating ethical motivation and ethical character. Empirical researchers can examine variables that inuence motivation and lead to ethical behavior. While this facet may be dicult to study, especially with respect to dierentiating empirically the four components in Thornes model, such research would assist educators and others in the profession to improve ethical decision making. These studies would include testing the ecacy of exhortation, exemplars, faculty, and professional mentors. This paper has identied some implementation issues for accounting faculty throughout the body of the paper and many of those issues are highlighted here:  Increasing moral sensitivity is a necessary but insucient ingredient for increasing moral behavior (Fulmer & Cargile, 1987).  Armstrongs (1993b) education intervention was successful in increasing prescriptive reasoning and the greatest increases took place among students with prior exposure to ethics classes. Hence, she advocates a sandwich approach whereby ethics cases are integrated throughout the accounting curriculum and students take a general ethics course early in their academic careers as well as a capstone course in accounting ethics.

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 Exposing students to ethical theories might help students recognize the theories when they encounter those theories, often as underlying assumptions, in their coursework  The paper discusses the need to develop paradigmatic cases to best illustrate ethical principles in accounting, such as the public interest, independence, integrity, and objectivity.  Usage of exemplars, both good and bad, might contextualize the issues for students and provide role models to emulate (or villains not to follow). Unfortunately, few papers explore personalities within accounting; thus, there is a need to research and publish biographies of accountants and those who use or misuse accounting.  Another issue within the university setting is for faculty to model good professional behavior.8 Such modeling is an example of silent exhortation. Because accounting faculty are often the rst accounting professionals to whom students are exposed, the university provides a natural setting for students to observe and to imitate the faculty and thereby model professional behavior.  Research studies might examine how faculty members make ethical decisions and the extent to which students reproduce their behaviors.  Exhortation ought not be limited to role modeling. Urging students to aspire to professional ideals and a life well lived, as Gough (1998) does, can be achieved through direct exhortation or use of novels, case studies (especially cases involving virtuous accountants), or other creative means. An interesting issue for both teaching and research is whether certain teaching methods are better suited for particular areas of ethics content in accounting (e.g. ethical theories or content of codes of conduct) or for teaching any particular component in Thornes model. For example, do case studies, role-playing exercises, or guest lectures by accounting professionals increase moral motivation? Which teaching methods best convey ethical content? One also can extend this explication into an investigation of the nexus among ethics content, method, and course, given that educators can teach ethics in stand-alone non-accounting and accounting ethics courses, within a variety of accounting course, in a capstone course, or in some combination.

6. Conclusion This paper has examined the literature pertaining to ethics education in accounting and has categorized it according to Thornes Integrated Model of Ethical DecisionMaking. Table 1 summarizes that categorization and reveals that the majority of the literature reviewed pertains to the rst category of Thornes model, moral development,
8 If faculty make unethical decisions and serve as poor role models, then academia unwittingly may be contributing to the accounting and auditing failures that are reported in the business and popular press.

M.B. Armstrong et al. / J. of Acc. Ed. 21 (2003) 116 Table 1 Literature review of ethics in accounting education Component of decision Moral development Sensitivity Ethical process ! Identication of dilemma Research studies and texts Armstrong (1993b); Dirsmith & Ketz (1987); Fulmer & Cargile (1987)

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Prescriptive Reasoning ! Ethical Judgment Albrecht (1992); Armstrong (1987, 1990, 1993a, 1993b); Brooks (1995, 2000); Dobson & Armstrong (1995); Epstein & Spalding (1993); Hiltebeitel & Jones (1991); Huss & Patterson (1993); Lampe & Finn (1994); Langenderfer & Rockness (1989); Loeb (1990); Magill & Previts (1991); Mintz (1990, 1995, 1996, 1997); Ponemon (1993); Ponemon & Glazer (1990); Shaub (1994a, 1994b); Sisaye (1997); Windal (1991) Virtue Ethical Motivation

! Ethical Intention Dirsmith & Ketz (1987); Dobson & Armstrong (1995); Douglas, Barker, & Schwartz (1995); Knapp, Louwers, & Weber (1998); Mintz (1995); Stewart (1997) ! Ethical Behavior Dirsmith & Ketz (1987); Ponemon (1993)

Ethical Character

but not as much emphasis is given to virtue, the second category of the model. Even within the rst category, the two components are not equally addressed. Accounting researchers should explore ways to enhance sensitivity of accounting students, perhaps utilizing models such as Bebeaus (1994) in dentistry. The preponderance of research is found to be in the second component of Thornes model, prescriptive reasoning. The paper emphasizes a need to further explore ways of enhancing moral motivation, component three of Thornes model. To increase accounting students moral motivation, the paper recommends exhorting students to good behavior, pointing out that they, indeed, are masters of their moral selves, and encouraging them to take pride in their profession. The paper also advocates the use of accounting exemplars to help instill moral virtues in accounting students. Finally, the paper urges all accounting faculty to recognize that they also play an important part in their students moral maturation. Accounting faculty are the leaders of that branch of the accounting community to which students are rst exposed, the academic accounting community. As such, they are responsible for setting the moral tone of the community and providing a nurturing environment in which ethical motivation and ethical behavior can ourish. As explained in the paper, directly enhancing students ethical behavior is probably beyond the scope of academic accountants. Finally, the paper addresses implementation issues and directions for future research.

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