due now

105

Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, Volume 13, Number 1, 2010

THE CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES OF INCORPORATING ACCOUNTING ETHICS INTO THE ACCOUNTING CURRICULUM

Jan Williams, University of Baltimore Raymond J Elson, Valdosta State University

ABSTRACT

It is critical that accounting educators prepare students to address issues, such as ethics, that they are likely to encounter in their careers. The accounting scandals of the 21st century have caused the public to criticize the ethical standards of the accounting profession. Accounting organizations have called for increased coverage of ethics in accounting curriculums. Yet, research shows that only minimal time is being spent on ethics in accounting courses. Numerous state boards of accountancy have adopted the 150-hour requirement to sit for the CPA exam; therefore making room for additional courses such as a separate accounting ethics course in the accounting curriculum. The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy’s (NASBA) proposal to include a separate accounting course in the curriculum was not adopted by accounting educators. The authors still advocate that a separate accounting course in accounting ethics has merit. This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities surrounding the teaching of accounting ethics as part of the accounting curriculum.

Key Words: Accounting Education, Ethics

INTRODUCTION

The accounting scandals in the early 2000s have had a devastating effect on the reputation of the accounting profession. The public perceives the scandals as a lack of ethics in the profession. Who is to blame for this demise? Russell and Smith (2003) point their fingers at academia. They noted:

If we are looking for a primary contributing cause of corporate malfeasance at firms such as Enron, Equity Funding, WorldCom, Sunbeam, Arthur Andersen, and HealthSouth, we need to look no further than the classrooms of colleges and university accounting programs that have not significantly adapted their methods of

106

Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, Volume 13, Number 1, 2010

instruction or approach to accounting and management education over the last 50- 60 years (p.1).

Since the Bedford Committee report was issued in 1986, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), the American Accounting Association (AAA), the Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC), and the National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting (NCFFR) have all called for increased ethics coverage in the classroom. Yet, even subsequent to the accounting scandals in the early 2000s, meaningful changes have not been made to incorporate ethics into the accounting curriculum (Blanthorne, Fisher & Kovar, 2007).

The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) made a proactive attempt to address the ongoing ethics deficiency in the accounting curriculum in its exposure draft of proposed changes to Rules 5-1 and 5-2 of the Uniform Accountancy Act. This exposure draft once again ignited discussion regarding ethics in the accounting curriculum and sparked much attention within the accounting profession, having received more responses than any other Uniform Accountancy Act exposure draft. A major proposal of the draft suggested that the 150-hour curriculum should emphasize ethical conduct and professional responsibilities of CPAs by requiring three credit hours of business ethics and three credit hours of accounting ethics. As a result of the comments received, the exposure draft was tabled by NASBA’s Board of Directors and a task force was established to revisit alternative measures for consideration regarding the 150-hour education rules and exposure draft. After almost three years of discussion, the three additional hours of accounting ethics was not approved. While the draft received much criticism for imposing cost and restrictions on accounting programs, the cost of not increasing ethics in the accounting program may result in serious consequences for the profession.

Accounting programs should ensure that students have the rudimentary tools they need to succeed in the accounting profession. Accounting curricula, however, are being criticized for not focusing enough on values, ethics and integrity (Albrecht & Sack, 2000). Past incidents of unethical behavior in the accounting profession echo the need for ethics in accounting education. During the first few years of their careers, accountants can expect to face ethical challenges. How will they react if they have not been taught to handle such situations? Chan and Leung (2006) reported that students may have the ability to determine what is ethically right or wrong, but may fail to behave ethically due to an inability to identify ethical issues. Accounting educators must no longer argue that restrictions on programs, costs and the lack of resources prohibit a course in accounting ethics. Clearly, the most severe threat to the accounting profession deserves more attention (Bean & Bernardi, 2005).

Many accountancy programs continue to struggle with how to effectively include ethics into their curriculum. For instance, Blanthorne et al.’s (2007) study of accounting professors and their teaching of ethics reported that 98.1% favor its inclusion in at least some accounting courses. Although the favored approach was integration into other accounting courses, the time spent covering ethics was not optimal since it equated to less than one three-credit hour course (48 hours).

107

Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, Volume 13, Number 1, 2010

The concerns raised by accounting educators include who will teach ethics, how it will be taught, what topics should be covered and what teaching resources are available for use. The purpose of this paper is to examine some of the issues surrounding the teaching of ethics in accounting. We will explore who should teach accounting ethics and whether it should be taught as a single course or in multiple courses.

CHALLENGES SURROUNDING THE TEACHING OF ETHICS IN ACCOUNTING

The teaching of ethics in accounting often results in two areas of concerns: (1) Who should teach ethics? and (2) Should ethics be taught as a single course? We will explore these two challenges in this section.

Who Should Teach Ethics?

Questions have been raised by the academic community regarding who should teach ethics to accounting students. One school of thought suggests that accounting ethics be taught by accounting faculty. Callahan (1980) suggests that ethics can be effectively taught to accounting students if the instructor has knowledge of accounting and has personally experienced some of the ethical dilemmas facing accounting practitioners. This school of thought is closely aligned with the National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting (NCFFR), also known as The Treadway Commission (1987), and the American Assembly of Collegiate School of Business’ (AACSB) call for ethics to be taught in all accounting courses. Under the current mandates, all accounting instructors are responsible for covering accounting ethics in their respective accounting courses. AACSB’s standards are flexible and ethics can be incorporated into existing courses or on a stand alone basis.

However, a major concern is whether accounting faculty can effectively teach ethics. Ethics is a subject that involves moral reasoning, moral development and moral issues. It is an area that is intertwined in the human actions of accountants but it is a subject that is very distinct from accounting. However, most accounting faculty who teach ethics in their courses do not have the necessary training to effectively teach this subject.. Additionally, anecdotal evidence suggests that there are only a few accounting faculty members who are interested in teaching accounting ethics. This lack of interest and lack of training among accounting faculty can result in minimal exposure to ethics in the individual accounting courses. Perhaps this is simply because professors are more comfortable focusing on their own areas of technical competence.

Faculty who are not adequately prepared to teach ethics will avoid the topic or only discuss it superficially (Owens, 1983). Cohen and Pant’s (1989) survey of accounting department chairpersons at colleges and universities throughout the United States indicated that the respondents perceived that accounting faculty is relatively well qualified to teach ethics. On the other hand, a survey of accounting practitioners by Carver and King (1986) revealed that 52% of accounting

108

Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, Volume 13, Number 1, 2010

practitioners do not believe that accounting faculty members are capable of addressing the ethical problems facing the accounting profession.

Another school of thought regarding who should teach ethics advocates that philosophers teach ethics to accounting students (Langenderfer and Rockness, 1989; Loeb, 1988; Klein, 1998; Lawson, 2002). Philosophers are trained in the subject matter and are interested in teaching it. The teaching of ethics to accounting students should involve more than just discussing ethical accounting cases and dilemmas. Klein (1998) argues that for any university or college to have anyone other than a philosopher as a “teacher of ethics would be nothing less than fraud” (p. 563). Also, if equal weight is given to the business discipline and to ethics, it would at best justify the need for a business faculty member to team-teach with a philosopher (Klein, 1998).

A team teaching approach would alleviate the weaknesses inherent in the individual disciplinary instruction. Philosophers are equipped to teach moral reasoning to students but not necessarily the ethical dilemmas facing the accounting profession. On the other hand, accounting faculty members are equipped to teach the ethical dilemmas of the accounting profession but not necessarily moral reasoning to the accounting students. This is the point of view of the accounting professors in the study by Blanthorne et al. (2007). In the absence of having faculty with major training in both areas, the most ideal format to use in teaching accounting students ethics is team teaching.

Team teaching would involve accounting students being taught ethics by a faculty member with major training in accounting and one with major training in ethics. This pedagogy broadens topic expertise and provides students with a better depiction of the cross-disciplinary professional environment. Although team teaching has been labeled as time consuming for faculty (May, 1980) and challenging to manage in a traditional university (Callahan, 1980), it has been effective in teaching business students (Ducoffe, Tromley & Tucker, 2006; Helms, Alvis & Willis, 2005; Loeb & Ostas, 2000; Wenger & Hornyak, 1999).

Furthermore, Lawson (2002) reported that 92.1% of the business faculty surveyed believed that ethics should be taught by a joint venture of schools and business. An effective teaching team would result in students not only being exposed to ethical situations facing accounting professionals but also obtaining moral reasoning skills to address these situations. Given the limited number of accounting faculty interested in teaching ethics, team teaching should be considered as a viable technique for teaching ethics to accounting students (Loeb, 1988). The university could provide monetary or other incentives to the team teachers to indicate its support for their efforts.

Should Ethics be taught as a Single Course?

Another controversy surrounding the teaching of ethics is whether it should be taught as a single course. This issue has long been debated. Over forty years ago, Grimstad (1964) questioned whether there was space to teach a separate course in accounting in a four-year curriculum. In the past, however, many educators were reluctant to expand ethics coverage due to lack of materials and

109

Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, Volume 13, Number 1, 2010

a lack of space in an already full curriculum (Cohen & Pant, 1989; McNair & Milam, 1993; Tan & Chua, 2000).

Although the AACSB requires that ethics be covered in all accounting courses and the NCFFR Treadway Commission and the AAA Bedford Report have called for increased ethics in accounting curriculums, research shows that ethics coverage in accounting courses is minimal. Karnes and Sterner’s (1988) survey of 281 accounting chairpersons revealed that only 8.5% of the schools realized the significant value of accounting ethics and had a separate course in accounting ethics. The remaining schools agreed that too little time was being spent on teaching accounting ethics in their programs but did not believe that a separate course in accounting ethics was needed.

Armstrong and Mintz’s (1989) survey of 137 AACSB-accredited schools indicated that ten (7.3%) institutions had a separate course in accounting ethics. Nine of the institutions offered the course at the graduate level and the other institution offered the course to graduate and undergraduate accounting students. These results confirmed the prior study performed by Karnes and Sterner (1988)

Cohen and Pant’s (1989) survey of 145 accounting department chairpersons revealed that only 40 percent of their schools offered a course in business ethics; only 18 percent of their schools required accounting students to take an ethics course; and among the schools that offered ethics as an elective, only 19 percent of the accounting majors chose to take the course.

Madison’s (2001) survey of the 42 colleges and universities in the state of Ohio revealed how little time is being spent on teaching ethics. The researcher’s findings ranged from a low of 0.90 average hours being spent on ethics in advanced financial accounting courses to a high of 2.24 average hours being spent on ethics in auditing courses. In total, students were exposed to an average of 9.55 hours of ethics in their entire undergraduate accounting program. This reveals that the time spent covering ethics in existing courses in the state of Ohio is insignificant.

A survey by Madison and Schmidt (2006) of 122 department chairpersons at the largest North American accountancy programs reveals that while ethics education has increased in the accounting curriculum, the chairpersons ideally want to apportion more time to ethics education. They further reported that more public institutions required a stand alone ethics course for accounting majors than private institutions (13.9% vs. 9.4%), and more non-accredited institutions required a stand alone ethics course than AACSB-accredited institutions (16.67 vs. 8.1%). A more recent study by Blanthorne et al. (2007) of accounting professors noted that while a large majority (95%) favored the inclusion of ethics in at least some standard accounting courses, only a minority (22.6%) favored a stand alone accounting ethics course. Furthermore, only a small minority (5%) actually teach such a stand alone accounting ethics course. Clearly, the opportunity exists to further increase the amount of accounting ethics coverage in colleges and universities especially in a stand alone ethics course.

A stand alone accounting ethics course in the accounting curriculum can have multiple benefits. It will ensure that a substantial amount of time is spent on accounting ethics. Also, it will expose students to a deeper conceptual framework of moral reasoning and potential ethical situations

110

Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, Volume 13, Number 1, 2010

in accounting. As noted in Fisher et al. (2007), the accounting ethics course should deliver a common body of knowledge consistent with the university’s mission; ensure that students have the opportunity to use the language of ethics, are sensitive to ethical issues and improve ethical reasoning skills. The course should also prepare them for the moral terrain of the practical workplace realities.

Lawson (2002) reports that faculty in five New York colleges and universities believe that teaching ethics will have a positive impact on students’ ability to perceive ethical issues when making business decisions. Teaching accounting ethics, therefore, can benefit students, the accounting profession and society. Furthermore, it will ensure that accounting programs are not educating technically proficient but shallow graduates, a concern articulated in Low et al. (2008).

OPPORTUNITIES TO INCREASE THE TEACHING OF ETHICS IN ACCOUNTING

The accounting scandals in the early 2000s and the current financial crisis should serve as the catalyst for change in the teaching of ethics in the accounting curriculum. In addition, the implementation of the 150-hour requirement for membership by the AICPA clearly provides the opportunity for colleges and universities to add additional courses, such as a separate accounting ethics course, to the curriculum. Currently the 150-hour rule is in effect in forty-four states (including Washington D.C.) and becomes effective in three additional states at future dates. The AICPA has not established any course requirements but has suggested that accounting educators use these additional hours to prepare students with the core competencies needed to become qualified practitioners. These core competencies include non technical skills (such as ethics), knowledge and technology.

As a result of the need for increased ethics following the accounting scandals of the early 2000s, the AICPA and the AAA called for increased instructional materials in accounting ethics. Accordingly, the AAA and others have published collections of ethical accounting cases. The American Accounting Association’s Professionalism and Ethics Committee has developed forums to enhance instructors’ teaching skills and course materials to encourage the teaching of accounting ethics. Also, publishing companies have increased the ethics coverage in textbooks and ethics videos have been created for classroom viewing and discussion. To assist educators who are developing a separate accounting ethics course, Thomas (2004) presents an annotated bibliography of resources available for teaching accounting ethics in a post-Enron era. The listing of materials includes an arsenal of books, academic and professional articles, essays and websites.

Opportunities also exist for accounting organizations to emphasis the importance of ethics in the curriculum. Armstrong and Mintz (1989) suggested that if governing accounting organizations are serious about the need for increased ethics in the classroom, they should consider changing the current CPA exam and/or state ethics exams to force schools to recognize the significance of ethics. During the past years, very little ethics has been included on the CPA exams.

111

Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, Volume 13, Number 1, 2010

While 35 state accountancy boards require an ethics exam before licensing, these exams are take- home exams that are given separate from the CPA Exam.

Governing agencies should continue to stress the importance of this topic and accounting curriculums must be restructured in order to meet the needs of the profession. In order to do this, additional time needs to be devoted to teaching accounting ethics. The best way to devote more time to the subject is to make it the focus of a separate course in accounting. Of course, AACSB could assist in this matter by strengthening its standards to encourage (not mandate) the teaching of ethics in a stand alone course.

Armstrong (1993) argued that asking whether ethics should be taught as a separate course or integrated into existing courses is synonymous with asking whether writing skills should be taught in a separate course or integrated into existing courses. The researcher responded that the answer should not be ‘either/or’ but rather ‘both/ and.’ Armstrong’s (1993) study of 26 senior accounting students taking a separate course in accounting ethics at a state supported university revealed that the course may be effective in raising the level of moral development in students beyond the natural level of expectancy.

Ethics must no longer be seen as a subject that can be taught by anyone and in any accounting subject. Yes, it should be covered in every accounting course but it should also have its own place and focus in the accounting curriculum. A separate ethics course will equip accounting students with the knowledge, skills and expertise they need to be successful in today’s business environment. Accounting educators can no longer afford to educate technically proficient but shallow graduates since this would be a disservice to society (Low et al., 2008). Also, students need to be introduced to in-depth ethical situations before they enter the profession so that the profession can continue to meet society’s expectations in the most professional and ethical way (Helps, 1994).

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT

An educational reform is needed in accounting. The concern about the level of unethical behavior in the accounting profession reflects the need for accounting programs to effectively prepare accounting students to handle ethical dilemmas in their accounting careers.

So what can be done to address accounting ethics education? Clearly, any decision on teaching accounting ethics and its placement in the accounting curriculum must be made by business school deans and/or accounting department heads. In the meantime, the authors propose two solutions to fill this vacuum.

First, we believe that accounting ethics should be taught as a stand-alone course. The effectiveness of a separate accounting ethics course was confirmed by Klimek and Wenell (2009). The researchers’ study revealed that accounting students who took a separate ethics course scored higher on a Defining Issues Test-2 than students who did not take a separate ethics course.

As noted earlier in the paper, the movement of most states to the 150 hour educational requirement provides an opportunity for universities to add a stand alone accounting ethics course

112

Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, Volume 13, Number 1, 2010

into the curriculum. This will provide accounting students with the opportunity to further discuss ethics prior to sitting for the CPA exam or before applying for their CPA licensure (depending on the individual state’s educational and licensing requirement).

Ideally, educational tools should be developed to assist accounting educators in developing the course content for stand alone ethics courses. The proposed course suggested in Williams and Elson (2009) could serve as a springboard for other educational tools. Also, the Big Four accounting firms have developed ethics cases and other resources for use by faculty interested in expanding the teaching of ethics to accounting majors

Second, we believe that team teaching should be adopted to effectively teach accounting ethics. Team teaching has pitfalls since universities might be challenged to find educators who are willing and experienced to use this teaching method. Also, many universities have budgetary challenges and educators are working at capacity and cannot take on additional responsibilities. This is certainly the case at the authors’ universities. However, since team teaching will increase educators’ teaching loads, universities could offer financial and other incentives to educators willing to experiment with this approach. Research has shown (Ducoffe et al, 2006; Helms et al, 2005, among others) that team teaching is a very effective approach for teaching business students. There are many subject matter experts within the university environment such as business law, accounting and philosophy professors. This gives universities a talented and cross discipline field from which to select educators to team teach the accounting ethics course.

CONCLUSION AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR FUTURE RESEARCH

This paper reviewed the literature surrounding the amount of ethics coverage in accounting curricula and identified some of the controversies surrounding the teaching of ethics in accounting. Based on the literature, we have also discussed the need for increased coverage of accounting ethics and offered a few solutions for improving the teaching of accounting ethics in the accounting curriculum.

In an attempt to mitigate unethical behavior in the accounting profession, Alder (2002) noted that academia must restore and strengthen required ethics courses that have been slowly disappearing from many business school programs. Instead of arguing about whether to have a separate ethics course or to integrate ethics discussion into every course, do both! Undoubtedly, when ethics is integrated into existing courses, it inevitably gets lost in other accounting material. If accounting ethics is important to the accounting profession, then it should also be the focus of a separate course.

Clearly future empirical research is needed in accounting ethics to confirm some of the authors’ positions. Future research should include surveys of the pedagogical methods used by universities to teach ethics in accounting. Research should also solicit feedback from graduating accounting students, entry-level accountants and managers to evaluate their preparation in dealing with ethical issues in the workplace. Empirical testing should also be performed on the

113

Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, Volume 13, Number 1, 2010

effectiveness of teaching ethics as a separate course and the effectiveness of using a team teacher approach.

The business world has changed; the role of the accountant has changed; and accounting curricula must also change in order to prepare students for their future careers in accounting. The accounting profession has emphasized a need for ethics in accounting education. Accordingly, academia has a responsibility to meet the changing needs of the accounting profession, just as the accounting profession has a responsibility to meet the changing needs of society. Accounting educators must face the realities of the professional world and seek to improve them. Gray et al, (1994) sums it all up by noting that if there are ethical failures in accounting practice it is therefore probable that at least some of the responsibility must be laid at the door of the educators.

REFERENCES

Albrecht, W. S. & R. J. Sack (2000). Accounting education: Charting the course through a perilous future. American Accounting Association.

Alder, P. (2002). Corporate scandals: It’s time for reflection in business schools. Academy of Management Executive 16 (3): 148-149.

Armstrong, M. B. & S. M. Mintz (1989). Ethics education in accounting: Present status and policy applications. Association of Government Accountants’ Journal (Summer): 71-76.

Armstrong, M. B. (1993). Ethics and professionalism in accounting education: A sample course. Journal of Accounting Education 11: 77-92.

Bean, D. F. & R. A. Bernardi (2005). Accounting ethics courses: A professional necessity. The CPA Journal 75 (12): 64-65.

Blanthorne, C., S. E. Kovar & D.G. Fisher (2007). Accounting educators' opinions about ethics in the curriculum. Issues in Accounting Education 22 (3): 355-390.

Callahan, D. (1980). Goals in the teaching of ethics. In D. Callahan and S. Bok (Eds.), Ethics in Higher Education. New York, NY: Plenum Press.

Carver, R. M., Jr. & T. E. King (1986). Attitudes of accounting practitioners towards accounting faculty and accounting education. Journal of Accounting Education (Spring): 31-43.

Chan, S. Y. S. & P. Leung (2006). The effects of accounting students’ ethical reasoning and personal factors on their ethical sensitivity. Managerial Auditing Journal 21(1): 436-457.

Cohen, J. R. & L.W. Pant (1989). Accounting educators’ perceptions of ethics in the curriculum. Issues in Accounting Education 4(1): 70-81.

114

Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, Volume 13, Number 1, 2010

Ducoffe, S. J., C. L. Tromley & M. Tucker (2004). Interdisciplinary, team-taught, undergraduate business courses: The impact of integration. Journal of Management Education 30(2): 276-294.

Fisher, D., D. Swanson & J. Schmidt (2007). Accounting education lags CPE ethics requirements: Implications for the profession and a call to action. Accounting Education: An International Journal 16(4): 345-363.

Gray, R., J. Bebbington & K. McPhail (1994). Teaching ethics in accounting and the ethics of accounting teaching: Educating for immorality and a possible case for social and environmental accounting education. Accounting Education 3(1): 51-75.

Grimstad, C. R. (1964). Teaching the ethics of accountancy. The Journal of Accountancy (July): 82-85.

Helms, M. M., J.M. Alvis & M. Willis (2005). Planning and implementing shared teaching: An MBA team-teaching case study. Journal of Education for Business 81(1): 29-34.

Helps, L. (1994). Should we teach ethics in accounting education? Management Accounting: Magazine for Chartered Management Accountants 72 (6): 46.

Karnes, A. & J. Sterner (1988). The role of ethics in accounting education. The Accounting Educators’ Journal (Fall): 18-31.

Klein, E. R. (1998). The one necessary condition for a successful business ethics course: The teacher must be a philosopher. Business Ethics Quarterly 8(3): 561-574.

Klimek, J. & K. Wenell (2009) Ethics and professionalism in Accounting: Can ethics be taught? Working Paper, University of Central Missouri.

Langenderfer, H. Q. & J.W. Rockness (1989). Integrating ethics into the accounting curriculum: Issues, problems and solutions. Issues in Accounting Education 4: 58-69.

Lawson, R. (2002). The inclusion of business ethics in the curriculum. Research on Accounting Ethics 8: 59-71.

Loeb, S. E. (1988). Teaching students accounting ethics: Some crucial issues. Issues in Accounting Education 13(2): 316-329.

Loeb, S. E. & D. T. Ostas (2000). The team teaching of business ethics in a weekly semester long format. Teaching Business Ethics 4(3): 225- 238.

Low, M., H. Davey & K. Hooper (2008). Accounting scandals, ethical dilemmas and educational challenges. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 19: 222-254.

Madison, R. L. (2001). To what extent is ethics taught in the accounting programs in Ohio’s colleges and universities? Ohio CPA Journal 60 (2): 39-42.

Madison, R. L. & J. J. Schmidt (2006) Survey of time devoted to ethics in accountancy programs in North American colleges and universities. Issues in Accounting Education 21(2): 99-110.

115

Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues, Volume 13, Number 1, 2010

May, W. F. (1980). Professional ethics: Setting, terrain, and teacher. In D. Callahan & S. Bok, (Eds.), Ethics Teaching in Higher Education. New York, NY: Plenum Press.

McNair, F. & E. Milan (1993). Ethics in accounting education: What is really being? done? Journal of Business Ethics 12(10): 797-809.

National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting (NCFFR). 1987. Report of the National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting. New York: AICPA.

Owens, J. (1983). Business ethics in the college classroom. Journal of Business Education (April): 258-262.

Russell, K. A. & C. S. Smith (2003). It’s time for a new curriculum. Strategic Finance 85(6): 1-5.

Tan, L. M. & F. Chua (2000). Tax ethics in New Zealand tertiary institutions: A preliminary study. Accounting Education 9(3): 259-279.

Thomas, C. W. (2004). An inventory of support materials for teaching ethics in the post-Enron era. Issues in Accounting Education 19(1): 27-52.

Wenger, M. S. & M. J. Hornyak (1999) Team teaching for higher level learning: A framework for professional collaboration. Journal of Management Education 23(3): 311-327.

Williams, J. & R. Elson (2009). Improving ethical education in the accounting program: A conceptual course. Proceedings of the Academy of Educational Leadership, 14(1), 50-54

Copyright of Journal of Legal, Ethical & Regulatory Issues is the property of Dreamcatchers Group, LLC and

its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's

express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.