The Impact of Accounting Students’ Professional Skepticism on their Ethical Perception of Earnings Management

Abstract

Professional skepticism has been an essential part of every audit. Recently, Hurtt (2010) introduced the concept of trait skepticism (an enduring aspect of an individual's psychology). The current study examines trait professional skepticism using a sample of accounting students and investigates its potential relationship with ethical perception of earnings management actions. Results indicate that more skeptical students viewed earnings management actions as more unethical compared to less skeptical students. More specifically, higher skeptics viewed earnings management actions that benefited the manager and accounting manipulations as more unethical than actions that benefited the firm and were considered normal operating decisions. These results offer guidance to accounting instructors as they emphasize ethical issues in the classroom and are important to Certified Public Accountant (CPA) firms as they train their auditors in professional skepticism.

Citation

Farag, M.S. and Elias, R.Z. (2012), "The Impact of Accounting Students’ Professional Skepticism on their Ethical Perception of Earnings Management", Jeffrey, C. (Ed.) Research on Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accounting (Research on Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accounting, Vol. 16), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 185-200. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1574-0765(2012)0000016010