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This paper examines the proposition that local congregations within Western Australia provide satisfactory safeguards aimed at limiting opportunities for mismanagement and fraud. A questionnaire survey was administered to a large sample of local congregations of Christian churches. The aim of the survey was to investigate the extent to which accounting controls were applied in the field of cash collections and disbursements and to determine the influence on cash control performance of various socio‐economic and organisational/administrative variables. An index of cash control performance was constructed and regressed against six surrogate indices obtained by factoring the independent variables. Three indices, namely church funding capacity, central/external influences and local administrative arrangements (particularly those pertaining to employment policy) were found to contribute to the variation in the dependent variable, although the overall explanatory power of the determinants was limited, justifying the need for further consideration of contributing factors.

When developing and justifying courses of study in business ethics the designer will be interested in setting benchmarks reflecting his/her understanding or appreciation of the moral views of participating members. Such considerations are often complicated by the fact, relevant in many Australian institutions of higher learning, that most of the cohorts contain overseas students from a variety of Asian countries. If insights into the ethical perceptions of students with differing ethnic origins could be measured in some objective fashion, then curriculum planners might take such matters into account when developing strategies for courses involving business ethics. This paper reports the findings of a questionnaire survey that examined the ethical perceptions of 407 second and third year students completing business courses at two Western Australian universities. Two country groupings, Australian and Malaysian students, were identified and their responses examined to ascertain whether relevant demographic factors relating to age and gender could be used to explain the strong differences in perceptions which were noted with respect to issues involving questionable practices involving consumers. Demographic factors failed to explain observed differences and a subsequent examination of the underlying constructs, using factor and cluster analyses, resulted in the realisation that the two groups demonstrated significantly variant patterns of ethical predisposition.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of a cross‐sectional survey of Chinese auditors that examines their views about independence and client relationship issues associated with the current Code of Professional Conduct. The paper also compares the findings with attitudes about the perceived ethical environment of their workplaces.

During late 2006, 578 useable questionnaires were obtained from members of the Chinese Institute of Public Accountants registered with four regional chapters. The empirical research was exploratory and involved the construction of a scale for measuring attitudes towards independence issues and a modified version of the Corporate Ethical Values scale.

It was found that auditors clearly identify with the importance of codes of practice and indicate that their views are significantly affected by observations about the ethical climates associated with their immediate workplaces. Codes of practice are seen to be relevant the greater the concern about the ethicality of their workplaces, although attitudes were tempered when client relationship matters are considered, suggesting that some degree of cultural tolerance of questionable activities is inevitable, and that tolerance increases with age.

The paper is the first to directly access Chinese practitioners in order to measure attitudes towards western‐based standards of practice in association with their workplace conditions. It is a sizable survey, providing useful insights into how practitioners are coping with the demands of their profession in China.

The paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of ethics courses provided to Malaysian accounting students and their impact on ethical judgement‐making ability.

Third‐year accounting students from six Malaysian universities participated in a pre‐ and post‐ethics course study. The sample consisted of four universities which provide an ethics course (experiment group) and two universities which do not provide an ethics course (control group). Rest's Defining Issues Test instrument was employed and the p‐score was calculated. Univariate tests were used to compare levels of ethical judgement‐making ability.

Students who attended an ethics course improved significantly in their ethical judgement‐making ability compared to students who did not attend the course. Male students, non‐Muslim students and students in private universities benefit more from attending an ethics course compared to their female and Muslim students and those students in public universities.

The findings indicate that providing ethics courses reshapes the ethical thinking of future accountants and thus are likely to improve the local ethical climate amongst professionals in the field. Results indicate significant improvements in cognitive moral development, although many students continue to apply conventional (Stage 4) reasoning skills when dealing with issues. The research provides a positive signal to the accounting faculties indicating that their effort in inculcating ethical values is worthwhile and this endeavour has to continue.

This study involves a controlled field study of a unique group of Malaysian accounting students and applies Kohlberg's theory of moral development to demonstrate the effect of an ethics intervention. Particular attention was given to examining conventional (Stage 4) judgment‐making processes and how this appears to be influenced by religious affiliation and university type. This adds value to the ethics literature as there are only a few studies examining the merits of Stage 4 reasoning. Most importantly, it helps to fill a gap in the literature by providing both cross‐sectional and longitudinal data from multiple samples of ethics classes, using both experiment and control groups.

The object of this paper is to analyze and discuss the form and substance of accounting education in the People's Republic of China during the period 1998‐2003 as observed by an educator during his employment as a foreign expert with a major university in a Special Economic Zone.

The paper discusses education policies in China and applies this knowledge in a descriptive fashion to an explanation of curriculum processes used in a modern regional university. Curriculum content is compared with equivalent Australian courses of study.

Accounting education programs in China are highly regulated. Methods of teaching and assessment are also inadequate and rely on tried and trusted teacher‐centred methods that encourage rote learning and plagiarism. Reforms in education are occurring at an incremental rate, but underlying administrative and curriculum management issues reflect mindsets that appear reticent to change in the short term.

China's centrally managed business curricula for university studies provides substantial challenges which, when combined unique administrative practices and cultural differences, presents issues of concern for education researchers and practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to further extend research (Fan et al., 2012a) examining the attitudes of Chinese certified public accountants with respect to independence aspects of their professional codes of conduct and their influence on ethical judgement. These attitudes are compared with those of Australian public accountants Particular attention is given to refining a pre-existing instrument to determine measurement invariance.

A field survey of 81 Australian and 516 Chinese public accountants was conducted including the distribution of a questionnaire. Statistical analysis included confirmatory factor analysis and measurement invariance.

An analysis of data established the existence of a stable model for identifying the dimensions of independence of mind and independence in appearance within the context of the codes of conduct relevant to both cultures. Chinese accountants demonstrated significantly less concern about audit-client relationships affecting independence in appearance compared to their Australian counterparts. Interestingly, independence of mind was found to positively influence ethical judgement for both groups taken together, although Chinese accountants were the significant contributors to this model outcome.

The relatively small sample of Australian accountants drawn from a limited population base could influence the quality of data analysis. This paper provides a further research direction for re-examining the relationship between Australian public accountants’ attitudes towards their code of professional ethics and their ethical judgements in a significantly larger sample.

This paper is particularly useful to the profession in that it will provide members with better insights into how accountants in different cultural settings view audit independence issues and their relationships with audit clients. Second, this study offers a scale for measuring attitudes towards codes of professional ethics for further cross-cultural studies.

An exploratory research exercise that indicates that accounting practitioners in divergent cultures demonstrate similar concerns about independence issues, although it is believed that guanxi is likely to explain why Chinese accountants are less concerned with independence of appearance issues. The research also presents a validated instrument for examining attitudes towards codes of ethics.

The purpose of this study is to determine how Western business practitioners, specifically Australian accounting professionals, identify with the Chinese value concept of guanxi and the impact of their perceptions of guanxi on their ethical decision-making. This objective is predicated by a belief that aspects of guanxi are similar to the Western concepts of social networking and would be identified by practitioners as an organizational process providing positive benefits to those associated with its application. Further, it is anticipated that concepts of guanxi influence the way Australian accountants form ethical judgements and intentions, precursors to acceptable moral behaviour.

A cross-sectional questionnaire based on a survey of 111 usable Australian accounting professionals was completed during 2012. A confirmatory factor analysis was used to validate each construct of guanxi before a path analysis was performed.

Australian accounting professionals associate well with the favour-seeking aspects of guanxi, suggesting an affiliation with Western concepts of social networking. Both groups (i.e. public accountants and private accountants) reject rent-seeking guanxi as clearly unethical. Rent-seeking guanxi is seen to directly influence ethical judgement and intention; however, their favour-seeking guanxi attitudes do not influence ethical judgement or intention, regardless of employment type. Public and private accountants apply guanxi in a differential manner when determining moral intention. Public accountants are viewed as acting spontaneously without adequately considering the consequences (via the judgement phase), which appears to be a function of the nature of their personal association with the case study applied in this research.

The research provides evidence that Australian accounting professionals relate to favour-seeking guanxi as representative of a broader notion of social networking. In this context, the guanxi instrument appears to be amenable to cross-cultural evaluations of group behaviour. Significant differences of opinion exist compared to the prior Chinese studies when unethical practices are considered. The guanxi instrument proves to be a useful tool when examining the group interactions involving Western professionals and also helps establish differences in moral constructions based on employment types.

Confirms the empirical test of Hunt and Vitell’s general theory of marketing ethics by Mayo and Marks across four cultures. Uses path analysis to show the core relationships of the general theory of marketing ethics were successfully replicated using over 1,500 students from seven universities in the USA, Canada, the Netherlands, and Australia. States that tomorrow’s managers appeared to use a more deontological approach to making ethical judgements about personal selling. Extends its original research by confirming the positive relationship between the probability and the desirability of consequences. Concludes that, although the model was originally intended to explain management ethical decision making, the study shows that it may be possible to generalize as to how individuals make ethical life decisions.

SOCIALLY, the two conferences can only be described as a huge success. The local arrangements for the entertainment of delegates were complete, and the receptions, banquets and excursions gave great pleasure to all who took part in them. To most of the English‐speaking delegates the trip to Brussels possessed the additional charm of novelty, and thus the week's proceedings assumed a holiday character. Save those who were suffering from mislaid baggage, and blistered feet caused by the trottoirs économiques de Bruxelles, a general note of gaiety prevailed, particularly among the British and Canadian representatives. Most of the American delegates were ladies, and they were all looking more or less tired, or were tormented by the thought of lost Saratoga trunks, which gave them a serious and detached appearance. The absence of attentive male librarians may also have contributed to the gloomy aspect which so many of them wore. Is it possible that the overwhelming feminine note in American librarianship is the key to the many discrepancies in library policy and work which have been observed by different writers? However that may be, it was distinctly noticeable that in comparison with their English, Dutch, Swedish and Belgian sisters, the American lady librarians were a tired and unhappy company. There were one or two noble exceptions, but the memory of these we prefer to hug in secret as a precious treasure.