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Are There Gender Differences When Professional Accountants Evaluate Moral Intensity for Earnings Management?

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Abstract

Gender differences in ethical evaluations may vary across types of behaviors. This controlled experiment explores gender differences in ethical evaluations, moral judgment, moral intentions, and moral intensity evaluations by surveying a group of professional accountants to elicit their views on a common earnings management technique. We find that there are no significant differences between male and female professional accountants when they make an ethical evaluation involving earnings management by shipping product early to meet a quarterly bonus. Both male and female professional accountants made a similar moral judgment that this action should not be completed and indicated similar moral intentions to report this type of behavior. Further, we find that male and female professional accountants made similar moral intensity evaluations when product is shipped early to meet a quarterly bonus.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their time and suggestions that improved this manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. McGowan School of Business, King’s College, 133 North River Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA, 18711, USA

    Tara J. Shawver

  2. Florida Southern College, 111 Lake Hollingsworth Drive, Lakeland, FL, 33801, USA

    Lynn H. Clements

Authors
  1. Tara J. Shawver
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  2. Lynn H. Clements
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tara J. Shawver.

Appendix

Appendix

Vignette A manager realizes that the projected quarterly sales figures have not been met, and thus the manager will not receive a bonus. However, there is a customer order which if shipped before the customer needs it will ensure the quarterly bonus but will have no effect on the annual sales figures. Action: the manager ships the order to ensure earning the quarterly sales bonus. Please rate the action of the manager using the following items:

The situation above involves an ethical problem. (reverse-coded)

 Strongly agree

1

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6

7

Strongly disagree

The manager should not do the proposed action

 Strongly agree

1

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5

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7

Strongly disagree

The overall harm (if any) done as a result of shipping the order would be small

 Strongly agree

1

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3

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5

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7

Strongly disagree

Most people would agree that approving the shipment is wrong. (reverse-coded)

 Strongly agree

1

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5

6

7

Strongly disagree

There is a very small likelihood that approving the shipment will cause any harm

 Strongly agree

1

2

3

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5

6

7

Strongly disagree

Approving the shipment will not cause any harm in the immediate future

 Strongly agree

1

2

3

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5

6

7

Strongly disagree

If the manager is a personal friend, approving the shipment is wrong. (reverse-coded)

 Strongly agree

1

2

3

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7

Strongly disagree

Approving the shipment will harm very few people if any.

 Strongly agree

1

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7

Strongly disagree

Indicate the likelihood that your peers would report the manager’s actions under the following conditions:

Your peers are guaranteed anonymity (reverse-coded)

High

1

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5

6

7

Low

Your peers are guaranteed their job (reverse-coded)

High

1

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Low

Your peers are offered a cash reward (reverse-coded)

High

1

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Low

Indicate the likelihood your peers would report the this action to an internal manager (reverse-coded)

High

1

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7

Low

Indicate the likelihood your peers would report the this action to an external party (reverse-coded)

High

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Low

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Shawver, T.J., Clements, L.H. Are There Gender Differences When Professional Accountants Evaluate Moral Intensity for Earnings Management?. J Bus Ethics 131, 557–566 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2293-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2293-6

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