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Teaching, communicating and evaluating CSR

Can we teach ethics and professional deontology? An empirical study regarding the Accounting and Finance degree

Francisco Alegria Carreira, Maria do Amparo Guedes and Maria da Conceição Aleixo

Abstract

Purpose – This paper sets out to analyse the role of ethics and moral values in higher education, as well

as the articulation with two important professions in the financial area, because ethics and professional

deontology play an important role in organizations and society, which have a great concern with

corporate social responsibility.

Design/methodology/approach – The literature review allows one to build a questionnaire used to

evaluate the ethical behaviour and rules of ethics in a sample of higher education students of the third

year of an Accounting and Finance course in the Business Administration College of the Setúbal

Polytechnic Institute. The same questionnaire was applied to those students wishing to become

chartered accounts and statutory auditors. Finally an exploratory analysis was carried out that

summarises the questionnaire, categorising in several clusters as result of cluster analysis, according to

the variables that had higher scores.

Findings – The concept of ethics is not a consensual one among the different investigators: for some it

means a set of rules, principles and values that may be mistaken for morality from a broader point of

view. Some authors consider ethics as a judging reflection upon morality. Concerning the cognitive

dimension of attitude towards ethics, the subject of ethics and professional deontology strengthened the

answers to the questions with lower scores. Concerning the affective/assessing attitude of ethics, the

subject of ethics and professional deontology strengthened the students’ convictions about the

importance of the existence of a deontological code, of ethical principles and of accounting information,

as well as the question with the lowest score (the entity’s interest is more important).

Practical implications – The results of this research confirm the initial hypothesis that higher education

students of the third year of an Accounting and Finance course in the Business Administration College of

the Setúbal Polytechnic Institute do not know the limitations of ethical behaviour.

Originality/value – This paper provides valuable empirical evidence in the role of ethics and moral

values in higher education, because teaching ethics and professional deontology is an essential need of

society and is inherent to teaching activity that must be promoted by policy makers.

Keywords Ethics, Higher education, Accounting, Portugal

Paper type Research paper

1. Introduction

Life in society demands sociability, so that standardised behaviours based on moral and

ethical rules are crucial to minimize possible conflicts. Morals and ethics show up as

synonyms: a set of principles or behavioural patterns. This notion is shared by several

philosophers and has to do with the fact that both words have the same etymological basis

(‘‘ethos’’ from the Greek and ‘‘mores’’ from Latin). Morals have been associated with a set of

DOI 10.1108/17471110810856866 VOL. 4 NO. 1/2 2008, pp. 89-103, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1747-1117 j SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNAL j PAGE 89

Francisco Alegria Carreira

is Professor Coordenador,

Maria do Amparo Guedes is

Professor Adjunta and

Maria da Conceição Aleixo

is Assistente, all at the

Ecola Superior Ciências

Empresariais do Ipsetúbal,

Setúbal, Portugal.

The authors are grateful for the many helpful comments made by David Crowther, Rute Abreu and from participants at the 5th Corporate Social Responsibility Conference, Edirne, April, 2006. Ideas expressed in the article are those of the authors and should not be attributed to any organization.

ruling and dogmatic principles based on the distinction between good and bad, whereas

ethics is assumed as a behavioural science.

Argandoña (1997, p. 64) sees ethics as:

. . . the science that studies Man’s behaviour in order to help him reach his goals. It is a science,

not a belief or the result of a political consensus; it is a knowledge that can be learnt by means of

reasoning or experimenting. It is a practical science: we don’t study it to have knowledge but to

be able to act. It is a normative science: it doesn’t tell us how most of the people act – that is up to

sociology –, but how we all should act.

When formalised, normative ethics is translated in deontological and behavioural codes that

have as a their main goal to draw basic concepts of law and duty set by a group for the

performance of their profession. According to Mercier (2003, p. 63), the ‘‘deontological

dimension assumes beforehand a reflection on the rules and translates the will to make the

members join those rules and the organisation norms’’. The relationship with behavioural

practice that one expects to be observed when performing any profession, aiming at the

wellbeing of society and assuring the correct procedure of its members within and without

the profession, is essential for stockholders’ confidence. The social and ethical responsibility

of enterprises has to do with the internalization of these rules by the managers, chartered

accountants or TOCs responsible for the accounting information, and by the auditor

accountants or ROCs who provide credibility to that information.

It is then crucial to keep thinking, reflecting and building. The Business Administration

College of the Setúbal Polytechnic Institute, in its Accounting and Finance degree – which

aims to create technicians in the areas of accounting, auditing, taxing, finance and

enterprise management – is conscious that the ethical education of the youngest

generations has to do with a transversal perspective of the students’ education, dealing with

the several different influences of society so that they can be free and autonomous to think

and judge. In that perspective, the authors thought it interesting to assess the students’

attitudes before and after attending the subject of ethics and professional deontology that is

taught in the Accounting and Finance degree as an optional subject.

2. Ethics, morals and education

Moral and ethical values are related to the values of good and bad of justice. The values are

defined by a two opposed pole scale and can be faced as subjective criteria present in the

individual or as an attribute of objects, beings and situations. Ethics is linked to general

principles of good and bad, whereas morals are linked to patterns of duty and concrete

practice. Morals are a system of norms, principles and values, according to which the

mutual relationships among individuals or between individuals and the community are

regulated. These norms have a historic and social character accepted freely and

conscientiously by a subjective conviction. Many authors define ethics as a judging study of

morality, as it is a reflection on our moral behaviour. However, other authors have a different

approach when distinguishing ethics and morals, such as in the way expressed in Table I.

According to Lisboa (1997, p. 26):

. . . the central problem for ethics has been the double work of analysing the meaning and nature

of the moral normative element in the human behaviour, in thought and in language as well as

assessing the meaning and nature of the human behaviour, showing the criteria to justify the rules

and the judgements of what is morally correct or wrong, good or bad.

Table I Approaches to distringuishing ethics and morals

Ethics Moral

Set of principles Specific behaviour aspects Permanent In time Universal Cultural Rule Rule of conduct Theory Practice

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Ethics can be understood from the point of view of different dimensions. This idea comes

from Mercier (2003), who distinguishes three different dimensions as shown in Table II.

Reflecting upon rules is what is called ‘‘deontology’’, which comes from the conjugation of

the Greek words ‘‘déon, déontos’’, which mean duty, and ‘‘lógos’’, that means speech or

treaty. Under this perspective, deontology would be the treaty of the duty or the set of duties,

principles and norms adopted by a specific professional group. It is a normative subject that

deals with the duties that must be followed in specific social circumstances within a specific

profession. Deontology is therefore the science that sets the guiding norms of professional

activities under the sign of morality and honesty. Professional deontology systematically

elaborates the ideals and the norms that should guide professional activity.

Deontological codes are based on the great universal declarations that translate this ethical

feeling and that adapt to the peculiarities of each country and each professional group. Also,

these codes propose sanctions, according to explicit principles and procedures, to

transgressors. According to Lisboa (1997, p. 58) the deontological code ‘‘may be understood

as a relationship of behavioural practices that are expected in the performance of a

profession. The code norms aim at the society’s well being, in order to assure the honesty of

procedure from its members within and without the institution’’. Under this perspective it is

important that schools take an active part in the divulgation and sensitization of ethical rules

since students who attend university, and who may have a moral and ethical maturity, may not

know the deontological codes that rule the different professions. Therefore it is essential to

provide them with a subject that explains the impact of their future profession upon society and

that makes them conscious of the norms of the ethical conduct that must always be present in

their work and that make them familiar with the deontological codes that rule their profession.

In many European and North American universities the teaching of ethics is part of the

curriculum. Portugal follows that tendency and offers the study of ethics as a compulsory or

optional subject in some degrees and postgraduate courses. This is the case of the

Business Administration College of the Setúbal Polytechnic Institute, which provides the

optional subject of Ethics and Professional Deontology in the Accounting and Finance

degree, which aims at presenting and framing the concepts of ethics and deontology in the

professions of Tecnico oficial de contas (TOC) and Revisores oficials de contas (ROC) and

analysing the role of these professionals in the enterprise and in society. These professionals

have the responsibility to spread the economical and financial data of organisations subject

to social responsibility rules built upon behavioural codes, namely the Deontological Code of

Chartered Accounts (CDTOC), the Code of Ethics and Professional Deontology of Auditor

Accounts (CEDPROC) in the Portuguese context. As the school is a space of relationships

where the students can discuss the ethical values, it becomes fundamental to reflect upon or

to make them conscious of a set of behavioural rules aiming at defining intra-professional

procedures.

3. The importance of ethics within the profession

This research deals with the subject of ethics and professional deontology in the Accounting

and Finance degree, which aims to train technicians in the financial field. Thus the authors

have essentially approached the professions of TOC and ROC, as they are the only

professions that are organized within a Chamber and an Order of professionals and that

have elaborated codes that represent the existing consensus at a specific moment of the

behavioural norms that each member must follow.

Table II Three different dimensions of ethics

Axiological ethics Reflection upon values Deontological ethics Reflection upon rules Theological ethics Reflection upon the values of sacred,

transcendental, divine and profane

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The public nature of the TOC and ROC professions implies responsibilities from a social

perspective, once that it is identified with the collective wellbeing of the community, the

people and the institutions for which they work. The social responsibility of these technicians

is based on the social responsibility of the enterprise, which has the duty to inform with

quality all those related to it. As accounting is above all an information system without which

it would not be possible to produce information of a trustworthy economical/financial

character, and which enables its users to use it for decision-making, it becomes imperative

that enterprises become conscious of the issue of social responsibility, which has been

progressively introduced into the rules and conceptual structures of accounting and into the

rules that should be followed by the professionals that work within it.

The professions related to accounting and auditing (TOC and ROC), legally recognised

under the Statutes that created them, have produced behavioural codes aiming at

encouraging mutual respect, justice, dialogue and solidarity. The Industry Rates Code of

1963 created the Technician of Accounts. For the first time accounting was recognised as a

privileged information system both for management and for taxing. The responsibilities of

Technicians of Accounts had to do with the accounting organisation and execution as well as

the filling in of tax forms. The Technician of Accounts as such has disappeared with the

taxing reform of the 1980s when the first Code of the Collective Income Tax (IRC) was

published, which did not need a Technician of Accounts, only a person responsible for the

accounting. Only in 1995 with Act no. 265/95, October 17, was the Chartered Accountants

Association created, which regularized the profession of chartered accountants. In 1999,

with the Act no. 452/99, November 5, the statutes were changed and became the Chamber

of Chartered Accountants. In 2000, the Deontological Code of Chartered Accountants was

created (CDTOC), which came into force on 1 January of the same year and which sets in

place the third article – the general deontological principles that the TOC should follow in his

profession, which are based on several articles of the Code and of the Statutes as presented

in Table III.

Since 1969, the ROC has been responsible for checking on the accounting of limited

companies. The profession of Auditor of Accounts was regularized only in 1972 under Act

No. 1/72, January 3, although it was only in 1979 that the profession effectively began under

Act No. 519-L2/79, December 29. In 1993, after the publication of Act No. 422-A/93,

December 30, the new legal statute that regularizes the profession of Auditor of Accounts

was promulgated. Later, in 1999, after the publication of Act No. 487/99, November 16, a

new Statute of the Auditor of Accounts was instituted. The Ethical Code and Professional

Deontology of the Auditor of Accounts (CEDPROC) was published on December 26, 2001

and established the principles that the ROC must follow in their profession, in the second

article. These principles are defined in specific articles according to Table IV.

Of all the principles referenced in CDTOC, only the principle of equity is not defined in

CEDPROC, although it is implicit in other articles. Concerning the principle of loyalty,

although it is not defined in the second article, it is referred to in article 10, which is about the

duties of the ROC towards his colleagues (Table V).

Many of these principles are common to any ethical code and can be downsized to, among

others, the following:

Table III General deontological principles that TOCs should follow

General deontological principles References

Integrity Art. 3.8 CDTOC – Honesty Art. 3.8 CDTOC N8 2 Art. 52.8 ETOC Independency Art. 3.8 CDTOC Art. 4.8 CDTOC Responsibility Art. 3.8 CDTOC Art. 5.8 CDTOC Competence Art. 3.8 CDTOC Art. 6.8 CDTOC Confidentiality Art. 3.8 CDTOC Art. 10.8 CDTOC Equity Art. 3.8 CDTOC – Loyalty Art. 3.8 CDTOC Art. 17.8 CDTOC

PAGE 92jSOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNALj VOL. 4 NO. 1/2 2008

B be faithful to the institution and the boss who oversees the work;

B respect colleagues and avoid dishonest competition;

B have up-to-date and developed knowledge as well as technical skills;

B keep professional secrecy; and

B do not use privileged information to manipulate or blackmail others.

4. Empirical research

The authors aimed to assess, firstly, how the conscientiousness of ethics remains

unchanged and how much it changes in relation to the teaching of a subject such as ethics

and professional deontology to students of a double-phase degree in Accounting and

Finance (corresponding to the period between October 2005 and January 2006, three hours

a week, for a total of 45 hours), in the Business Administration College (ESCE) of the Setúbal

Institute Polytechnic (IPS). Thus, the authors built a questionnaire divided into three sections:

1. characterisation of the sample collaborator;

2. cognitive dimension towards ethics; and

3. affective/assessing dimension of attitude.

In the first section – characterization of the sample collaborator – the authors identified age,

sex, qualifications and professional experience, as well as the duration of that experience.

The second section – cognitive dimension towards ethics – translated the student’s

sensitivity towards issues like ethics and is measured in terms of agreeing/disagreeing,

want/don’t want, like/don’t like. This section is comosed of 21 questions assessed on a scale

from 1 to 7, where 1 corresponds to ‘‘I totally disagree’’ and 7 to ‘‘I totally agree’’. The third

section – affective/assessing dimension of attitude – measures the students’ receptivity

about ethics, in 15 questions assessed on a scale between 1 and 7, where 1 corresponds to

‘‘not at all important’’ and 7 to ‘‘very important’’.

4.1 Sample characterisation

The sample is composed of the students of the double-phased degree in Accounting and

Finance, corresponding to the school year 2005/2006, first semester, which lasted a total of

45 hours. In total there were 104 students, of which 71 were analysed (68 percent of the

Table IV Fundamental principles of CEDPROC

Fundamental principles References

Independency Art. 3.8 CEDPROC Responsibility Art. 4.8 CEDPROC Competence Art. 5.8 CEDPROC Urbanity Art. 6.8 CEDPROC Legality Art. 7.8 CEDPROC Professional secrecy Art. 8.8 CEDPROC

Table V Duties of TOCs an ROCs

TOC ROC

Integrity Urbanity Honesty Legality Independency Independency Responsibility Responsibility Competence Competence Confidentiality Professional secrecy Equity – Loyalty –

VOL. 4 NO. 1/2 2008 jSOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNALj PAGE 93

sample), who answered the same questionnaire twice: the first time before attending the

subject of ethics and professional deontology (October 2005) and the second time after the

terminus of that subject (at the end of January 2006). There was a direct correspondence

between both questionnaires, as only in this way could they could be compared. The sample

characterisation consisted of the analysis of age, sex, qualifications, professional

experience and the duration of that experience.

The average age of the sample was 22: the youngest student was 19 and the oldest was 48,

which corresponds to a variation of 23. Most students of the sample of the degree in

Accounting and Finance in the ESCE of the IPS are between 19 and 25 years old (90 per

cent), while 10 per cent are aged between 27 and 48. Most of the students are female, about

66 percent against 34 percent male. The students hold no superior education and the

majority (about 70 percent) have never had any professional experience. The rest (about 39

percent) have a professional activity divided over several different areas and their

experience varies between one and 33 years in duration. Professional experience is

essentially in the finance area (accounting, filing or administrative), corresponding to 17

percent, other activities correspond to 9 percent (namely sales, logistics, hotels, telephone

operator and cashier) and activities without a defined area to about 4 percent.

4.2 Cognitive dimension towards an ethical attitude

4.2.1 General characterization. Scores for questions about the cognitive dimension towards

ethics before attending the subject of ethics and professional deontology the authors came

to the conclusions presented in Tables VI and VII. Scores for questions regarding the

cognitive dimension of the attitude towards ethics after attending the subject of ethics and

professional deontology are presented in Tables VIII and IX. It should be highlighted that the

answers with a higher score and those with a lower score registered smaller and larger

variations, respectively.

4.2.2 Cluster analysis. The authors have analysed the process of the students’ positioning

towards the questions asked by researching groups with equal attitudes and afterwards the

authors tried to identify the reason for this before and after attending the subject of Ethics

and Professional Deontology. Thus, the authors used the Statistical Package for the Social

Sciences (SPSS) in order to build clusters, that is, to create homogeneous groups of

students according to their similar attitudes in such a way that students ‘‘belonging to the

Table VI Cognitive dimension towards ethics before attending the subject of ethics and

professional deontology: four answers with highest scores

Questions Score

1. An ethical attitude from the TOC/ROC allows a higher degree of transparency in business 6.4 10. A deontological code must be based upon strong ethical principles 6.16 12. A deontological code defines the ethical norms of a specific profession 5.44 2. Ethics must be normative 5.23

Note: Scores greater than 5 on a scale of 1 to 7

Table VII Cognitive dimension towards ethics before attending the subject of ethics and

professional deontology: four answers with lowest scores

Questions Score

17. Professional secrecy is incompatible with an accusation of public crime 3.12 18. The existence of a deontological code limits professional action 3.26 13. If a specific knowledge diminishes the accounting result but not the taxing result, its

recognition is dispensable 3.36 15. The existence of a deontological code eliminates the ethical dilemma 3.42

Note: Scores less than 4 on a scale of 1 to 7

PAGE 94jSOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNALj VOL. 4 NO. 1/2 2008

same group are as similar as possible and always more similar to elements of the same

group than to the elements of the other groups’’ (Reis, 1997, p. 290). In order to do this the

authors went through the following four steps:

1. Variable selection – the four variables (questions) with a higher score were considered

and they correspond to questions 1, 2, 10 and 12 (see Table V).

2. Definition of a similar measure – this is the process used to measure the distance

between the values of the variables that constitute the groups, and the square Euclidean

distance was chosen. At the same time the answers were standardized, which means that

the scale of the answers is uniform and that every variable has the same score in

determining the groups or clusters.

3. Aggregation criterion choice – the authors sought to assess how the groups kept stable

or reliable, since ‘‘there is no such thing as the best criterion of (dis)aggregation in the

analysed cases of clusters. It is common practice to use several different criteria and to

compare the results. If they are similar it is possible that we have obtained results with a

high stability degree and which are therefore reliable’’ (Reis, 1997, p. 310). As a method

the authors adopted the average linkage between groups, seeking to clearly separate the

distances among all the pairs of answers among the groups.

4. Results validation – the results obtained were treated (see below) with the other

alternative processes, which did not clearly highlight the groups.

Thus, based on steps 1 (variable selection), 2 (similarities measure) and 3 (aggregation

criterion), the authors identified that there were, before the course, three distinct groups

according to the dendogram represented in Figure 1, and which are gathered thus:

B Cluster 1, composed of six students;

B Cluster 2, Group A, composed of 22 students; and

B Cluster 2, Group B, composed of 43 students.

Cluster 1 is characterised by showing a high score in question 1 (An ethical attitude from the

TOC/ROC allows a higher degree of transparency in business), with 6.67 points – and in the

other questions there were values inferior to the other groups under analysis with a score of

Table VIII Cognitive dimension towards ethics after attending the subject of ethics and

professional deontology: four answers with the highest scores

Questions Score

1. An ethical attitude from the TOC/ROC allows a higher degree of transparency in business 6.09 10. A deontological code must be based upon strong ethical principles 5.81 12. A deontological code defines the ethical norms of a specific profession 5.21 2. Ethics must be normative 5.09

Note: Scores greater than 5 on a scale of 1 to 7

Table IX Cognitive dimension towards ethics after attending the subject of ethics and

professional deontology: four answers with lowest scores

Questions Score

18. The existence of a deontological code limits professional action 3.35 13. If a specific knowledge diminishes the accounting result but not the taxing one, its

recognition is dispensable 3.38 14. The TOC/ROC depends on the enterprise’s perspective towards ethics 3.51 17. Professional secrecy is incompatible with accusation of public crime 3.63

Note: Scores less than 4 on a scale of 1 to 7

VOL. 4 NO. 1/2 2008 jSOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNALj PAGE 95

2.50 points in question 12 (A deontological code defines the ethical norms of a specific

profession).

Group A from Cluster 2 shows a score that is always inferior to Group B from the same cluster

in the four questions under analysis (questions 1, 2, 10 and 12). Still, Group A gave more

meaning to questions 1 and 10 (An ethical attitude from the TOC/ROC allows a higher

degree of transparency in business, and A deontological code must be based on strong

Figure 1 Clusters before attending the Ethics and Professional Deontology subject

PAGE 96jSOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNALj VOL. 4 NO. 1/2 2008

ethical principles) with a score of 5.59 in both questions. Question 12 also has a score of 5,09

points and the question with the lowest score was question 2 (ethics must be normative),

with 4.64 points. On the other hand, Group B from Cluster 2 gives particular relevance to

question 1 (An ethical attitude from the TOC/ROC allows a higher degree of transparency in

business; 6.60 points), and to question 10 (A deontological code must be based upon

strong ethical principles; 6.48 points), while the other scores for questions 12 and 2 were

6.03 and 5.70 points, respectively.

After the course, four distinct groups were noted, according to the dendogram shown in

Figure 2, which are gathered as follows:

B Cluster 1, composed of only one student;

B Cluster 2, Group A, composed of five students;

B Cluster 2, Group B, Subgroup B1, composed of two students; and

B Cluster 2, Group B, Subgroup B2, composed of 63 students.

Cluster 1 is characterised by having the maximum score in question 2, a high score in

question 1 with 6.00, and a reduced score in question 12 (A deontological code defines the

ethical norms of a specific profession; with 2.00 points), which makes this an insignificant

group due to its size.

Cluster 2 includes the other 70 students that are gathered in two distinct groups: Group A

shows a higher score, about 5.80 in question 10, and low scores in the other questions when

compared to Group B. Thus, it is important to highlight the scores of question 12 (i.e. 2.80)

and question 2 (3.20). On the other hand, Group B shows higher scores in the answers to

questions 1, 2 and 12 (A deontological code defines the ethical norms of a specific

profession), with 6.58, 6.03 and 5.83, respectively. We can clearly identify two subgroups in

Cluster B, which keep the distinct characteristic of Group A but with close patterns to the

scores of the answers given to questions 1, 2 and 12 and more distinct in question 10, i.e.:

B Subgroup B1: scores for questions 1, 2, 10 and 12 were 6.50, 6.35 and 5.50 respectively; and

B Subgroup B2: scores for questions 1, 2, 10 and 12 were 6,67, 6,06, 6,61 and 6,17

respectively.

4.3 Affective/assessing dimension of attitude

After analysing the questions about the affective/assessing dimension of attitude towards

ethics before attending the subject of Ethics and Professional Deontology, we now discuss our

conclusions. The four answers with the highest score (greater than 5 on a scale of 1 to 7) are

presented in Table X. The answer with the lowest score (less than 4 on a scale from 1 to 7) was

to question 3 (the entity’s interest is more important), with 3.83. On the other hand the

questions about the affective/assessing dimension towards the ethical attitude after attending

the same subject allowed us to draw the following conclusions. The four answers with the

highest scores (greater than 5 on a scale of 1 to 7) are presented in Table XI. The answer with

the lowest score (less than 4 on a scale of 1 to 7) was question 3 (the entity’s interest is more

important, with 4.50). It is important to highlight that the answers to the questions with higher

scores and with lower scores registered a smaller and a bigger variation respectively.

4.3.2 Cluster analysis. In order to perform the cluster analysis, the authors developed the

following four steps:

1. Variable selection – The four variables (questions) with the highest scores (1, 7, 8 and 14)

were considered (The existence of a deontological code, Accusation of a public crime

and Accounting information) respectively, in each moment.

2. Definition of a similarity measure.

3. Aggregation criterion choice.

4. Results validation (see section 4.2.2).

VOL. 4 NO. 1/2 2008 jSOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNALj PAGE 97

Thus, based on steps 1 (variable selection), 2 (similarities measure) and 3 (aggregation

criterion) the authors identified: three distinct groups before the course according to the

dendogram shown in Figure 3, gathered as follows:

B Cluster 1, composed of only one student;

B Cluster 2, Group A, composed of six students;

Figure 2 Clusters after attending the Ethics and Professional Deontology subject

PAGE 98jSOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNALj VOL. 4 NO. 1/2 2008

B Cluster 2, Group B, Subgroup B1, composed of two students; and

B Cluster 2, Group B, Subgroup B2, including 62 students.

Cluster 1, with little meaning as it concerns only one student, shows the maximum score of

answers to questions 1, 7 and 8 (The existence of a deontological code, Professional secrecy

and Accusation of a public crime), respectively and 5 in question 14 (Accounting information).

Cluster 2 has an opposite result: i.e. it has the highest score in the answer to question 14

(with 6.22 points) and the lowest in the answer to question 1 (with 4.98 points), where the

authors can identify two groups that divide themselves into three sub-clusters:

1. The first sub-cluster, Group A, has an intermediate score in relation to the other two

sub-clusters (Groups B1 and B2) concerning the four questions.

2. Subgroup B1 has answers with a higher score for questions 8 and 14, with 7.00 and 6.50

respectively, and lower scores for questions 1 and 7, with 5.00 and 4.00 respectively,

when compared either with Subgroup B2 or Group A.

3. Sub-group B2 has an opposite result: i.e. it has higher scores for questions 7 and 1, with

6.52 and 6.10, respectively, and lower scores for questions 8 and 14, with 6.26 and 6.07,

respectively.

After the course, four distinct groups were identified according to the dendogram shown in

Figure 4, which are gathered as follows:

1. Cluster 1 – composed of only one student. Cluster 1, although representing only one student,

has a higher score than Cluster 2 for questions 7, 8 and 14, and a lower score for question 1.

2. Cluster 2, subdivided by Group A (composed of five students) and Group B (composed

of 37 students).

In Cluster 2 the two groups reflect different intensities about subjects on ethics, namely:

B Group A always has the lowest scores when compared to Group B, yet it has high scores

of about 5 points and the highest score in question 14 with 5.60 points and the lowest in

question 7 with 4.60 points.

B Group B gives particular relevance to question 7 with 6.57, points even though the other

questions have high scores – 6.18 points in the question about accusation of a public

crime and 6.14 in the questions about the existence of a deontological code and

accounting information.

Table X Affective/assessing dimension of attitude towards ethics before attending the

subject of ethics and professional deontology: four answers with highest scores

Questions Score

7. Professional secrecy; 8. Accusation of public crime 6.42 1. The existence of a deontological code; 14 Accounting information 6.09

Note: Scores greater than 5 on a scale of 1 to 7

Table XI Affective/assessing dimension of attitude towards ethics after attending the

subject of ethics and professional deontology: four answers with highest scores

Questions Score

7. Professional secrecy; 8. Accusation of a public crime 6.40 11. An ethical TOC 6.23 1. The existence of a deontological code 6.19 6. The ethical principles 6.10

Note: Scores greater than 5 on a scale of 1 to 7

VOL. 4 NO. 1/2 2008 jSOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNALj PAGE 99

5. Discussion and limitations

This paper has considered the appearance of deontology with its corresponding codes in

different professions. This research deals with the deontological codes of TOC and ROC, as

they are the professions most closely related to the Accounting and Finance degree (which

includes the subject of Ethics and Professional Deontology) and are properly regulated. The

Figure 3 Clusters before attending the Ethics and Professional Deontology subject

PAGE 100jSOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNALj VOL. 4 NO. 1/2 2008

concept of ethics is not a consensual one among different investigators: for some it means a

set of rules, principles and values that may be mistaken for morals from a broader point of

view. However, in this research the authors share the idea of some authors that consider

ethics as a judging reflection upon morals.

After analysis, the authors have verified that there is a similarity between both codes, which

is to be expected as these two professions belong to the same scientific or technical area

Figure 4 Clusters after attending the Ethics and Professional Deontology subject

VOL. 4 NO. 1/2 2008 jSOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY JOURNALj PAGE 101

and are based on an identical normative work – accounting plans and norms. Comparing

the CDTOC with the CEDPROC elaborated by CTOC and OROC, respectively, the authors

verified the existence of the common deontological principles outlined below.

From the empirical research carried out in the classes of the Accounting and Finance degree

of the ESCE of the IPS in 2005/2006, the authors can conclude that:

B Concerning the cognitive dimension of attitude towards ethics, the subject of Ethics and

Professional Deontology strengthened the answers to the questions with lower scores. At

the same time the authors could register a stronger Cluster 2, Subcluster B in particular,

which changed from 43 to 63 students in a total of 71 students (which represents 89 per

cent of the initial sample); This homogeneous group highlighted mainly questions 1 (An

ethical attitude from the TOC/ROC allows a higher transparency in business, with a score

of 6.58 points), 2 (Ethics must be normative, with 6.03 points) and 12 (A deontological

code defines the ethical norms concerning a profession, with 5.58 points), in a reference

scale that varies from 1 to 7 points.

B Concerning the affective/assessing attitude of ethics, the subject of Ethics and

Professional Deontology strengthened the students’ convictions about the importance of

the existence of a deontological code, of ethical principles and of accounting information,

as well as the question with the lowest score (the entity’s interest is more important).

The authors could register a consolidation of Cluster 2 after the aforementioned subject by

the number of students that compose it (initially subdivided into to sub-clusters with two and

62 students that changed into one cluster of 65 students, who represent 92 per cent of the

sample), who consider professional secrecy (with 6.57 points), the accusation of public

crime (6.18 points) and accounting information (with 6.14 points) extremely relevant. Since in

previous school years this questionnaire – or any other equivalent one – was used not used,

there are no elements of comparison to confirm in a stronger way the importance of a subject

such as Ethics and Professional Deontology for students of the Accounting and Finance

subject in the ESCE of IPS. It is our intention to examine this theme more thoroughly.

In summary, the authors teach Ethics and Professional Deontology as an essential need of

society and as inherent to teaching activity: this must be promoted by policy makers. All

these examples will have left an indelible impression that all is not well with the teaching

world and that there are problems which need to be addressed (Crowther and

Rayman-Bacchus, 2004).

References

Argandoña, A. (1997), ‘‘La importancia de la ética en la empresa’’, Ética Empresarial e Económica, Vida

Económica, Porto.

Crowther, D. and Rayman-Bacchus, L. (2004), ‘‘Perspectives on corporate social responsibility’’, in

Crowther, D. and Rayman-Bacchus, L. (Eds), Perspectives on Corporate Social Responsibility, Ashgate

Publishing, Aldershot.

Lisboa, L. (1997), Ética Geral e Profissional em Contabilidade, Editora Atlas, São Paulo.

Mercier, S. (2003), A Ética nas Empresas, Edições Afrontamento, Lisboa.

Reis, E. (1997), Estatı́stica Multivariada, Edições Sı́labo, Lisboa.