Does Selection-Socialization
Help to Explain Accountants’
Weak Ethical Reasoning?
Mohammad J. Abdolmohammadi
William J. Read
D. Paul Scarbrough
Article 1
1. Explain the purpose of the article and the research method used
Mohammad J. Abdolmohammadi et al. writes an interesting article that addresses the concerns about accountants’ ethical reasoning in light of corporate accounting scandals. better known as the “selection-socialization effect” and whether or not this phenomenon is responsible for the disproportionate number of accountants in the profession that display lower levels of ethical reasoning whereby those accountants with a Sensing/Thinking (ST) cognitive style are selected. Other schools of thought suggest that a self-selection process occurs where those individuals with the Sensing/Thinking (ST) cognitive style independently select accounting as their career. Because of two outstanding issues these hypotheses were further explored which yielded evidence to suggest that a selection-socialization effect does in face exists in the accounting profession that leads to higher levels of sensing/thinking (ST) cognitive style, which essentially means these individuals have lower levels of ethical reasoning.
The research Method used to prove or disprove the theory of selection socialization was using the Chi-square test to draw any possible correlations between H1 Gender Effects, H2 cognitive Styles, or H3 moral reasoning by cognitive styles on and hiring of accountants with higher levels of Sensing/Thinking (ST) cognitive style. was done via a survey . Additionally a P-scores of various accounting firms who participated in the student were analyzed to account for any possible differences between the participating firms.
2. Explain the major conclusions of the article
This study suggested first that it appears that accounting firms recruit both males and females of similar ethical reasoning, meaning that women recruited to accounting firms...