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To succeed in today’s dynamic and unpredictable business world, businesses are increasingly required to gain the trust of and inform the society in which they operate about the social and environmental consequences of their actions. Corporations’ claims regarding the responsibility and ethicality of their actions, however, have been shown to be contradictory to some degree. We define corporations’ deceitful implementation of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) policies as pseudo-CSR. We argue that it is the moral characteristics of individuals, i.e. employees, managers and other decision-makers who ignore the CSR policies, which produce pseudo-CSR.

This is a conceptual paper.

The authors conceptualize the gap between true CSR and pseudo-CSR on a cognitive individual level as “moral laxity,” resulting from organization-induced lack of effort concerning individual moral development through ethical discourse, ethical sensemaking and subjectification processes. The absence of these processes prohibits individuals in organizations from constructing ethical identities to inhibit pseudo-CSR activities.

This paper contributes to the literature on CSR by augmenting corporate-level responsibility with the hitherto mostly neglected, yet significant, role of the individual in bridging this gap.

This chapter explores the role of ethics in shaping, underpinning and sustaining authentic leadership. Viewing ethics as a system of moral principles that govern individual behaviour and conduct, Mould discusses the basis of ethics for authentic leadership, recognising that it has multiple overlapping and conflicting sources. Recognising the multiple ‘moral’ pressures and dilemmas that leaders face, Mould asks how they can construct and live by coherent ethics in a globally minded, interconnected, culturally diverse and often incoherent world. He suggests tools that may assist in searching for ethics that support authentic leadership. The author concludes that examining the interplay between ethics and leadership practices challenges theories of authentic leadership.

This chapter explores the vital connection between ethics and community development, underlining the fundamental role of ethical considerations in shaping fair, just, and sustainable communities. It begins by emphasizing that community development is inherently ethical and delves into the concept of ethics, examining ethical theories like consequentialism, deontology, and virtue ethics in the context of community development. Real-world case studies from diverse countries, such as South Africa, Australia, and India, are interwoven throughout the chapter to provide practical insights. These case studies illustrate the complexities of ethical implementation in community development, from navigating power dynamics to addressing conflicts of interest and balancing immediate needs with long-term sustainability. The chapter also explores macro-level considerations, highlighting the need for systemic change to create a more just and equitable society. It guides practitioners on integrating ethics into their work, establishing a strong moral framework for community development. Continuous learning, reflective practice, and adaptability are underscored as essential in responding to evolving societal contexts, norms, and challenges.

The widespread usage of artificial intelligence (AI) is prompting a number of ethical issues, including those involving concerns for fairness, surveillance, transparency, neutrality and human rights. The purpose of this manuscript is to explore possibility of developing cognitive morality in AI systems.

This is explorative research. The manuscript investigates the likelihood of cognitive moral development in AI systems as well as potential pathways for such development. Concurrently, it proposes a novel idea for the characterization and development of ethically conscious and artificially intelligent robotic machines.

This manuscript explores the possibility of categorizing AI machines according to the level of cognitive morality they embody, and while doing so, it makes use of Lawrence Kohlberg's study related to cognitive moral development in humans. The manuscript further suggests that by providing appropriate inputs to AI machines in accordance with the proposed concept, humans may assist in the development of an ideal AI creature that would be morally more responsible and act as moral agents, capable of meeting the demands of morality.

This manuscript has some restrictions because it focuses exclusively on Kohlberg's perspective. This theory is not flawless. Carol Gilligan, one of Kohlberg's former doctoral students, said that Kohlberg's proposal was unfair and sexist because it didn't take into account the views and experiences of women. Even if one follows the law, they may still be engaging in immoral behaviour, as Kohlberg argues, because laws and social norms are not perfect. This study makes it easier for future research in the field to look at how the ideas of people like Joao Freire and Carl Rogers can be used in AI systems.

It is an original research that derives inspiration from the cognitive moral development theory of American Professor named Lawrence Kohlberg. The authors present a fresh way of thinking about how to classify AI systems, which should make it easier to give robots cognitive morality.

The study was conducted to understand how the moral identity of employees mediates the relationship between servant leadership and the moral disengagement of employees. Additionally, the study explores whether servant leadership's ability to build the moral identity of employees is contingent upon employees' perception of organizational politics.

The data were collected from 500 service sector-employed knowledge workers. Data analysis was done through structural equation modeling.

The study found servant leadership to be related to the moral identity of employees. Additionally, moral identity and moral disengagement were found to be negatively related. Moral identity was found to mediate the relationship between servant leadership and moral disengagement. Finally, the study found that the relationship between servant leadership and employees' moral identity was contingent upon their perception of organizational politics.

The study explored the previously unexplored mediating role of moral identity linking servant leadership to the moral disengagement of employees. The study also explained how the relationship between servant leadership and the moral identity of employees was contingent upon employees' perception of organizational politics.

This study aims to investigate the association between cognitive moral development (CMD) and unethical pro-organizational behaviour (UPB) by taking purchasing employees as research subjects. The moderating effect of perceived leader’s UPB is also explored.

Data were collected through a two-stage questionnaire survey on purchasing employees in companies across a spectrum of industries in Taiwan, and 492 purchasing employees were analysed in the study.

Research findings reveal that employees at the conventional level of CMD are more likely to conduct UPB than those at the pre-conventional and post-conventional levels. Perceived leader’s UPB will moderate the association between CMD and UPB. Employees’ UPB is strongly associated with their CMD when they perceive their leaders as being likely to perform UPB.

Although a variety of factors influencing UPB have been proposed in the literature, none of them have analysed the association between CMD and UPB. However, CMD is one important factor affecting ethical decision-making. The present study can promote further understanding of the role of CMD in UPB and contribute to a growing body of research on CMD and UPB.

To build public trust in the accounting profession, previous research studies have stressed the need for ethics education. This present research aims to investigate the effects of teaching ethics using the ethics education toolkit (EET) developed by the International Accounting Education Standards Board on accounting students’ moral judgment.

An experimental design was used to determine the effects of teaching ethics using the EET on moral judgment. Data were obtained using the multidimensional ethics scale questionnaire and analysed with multiple linear regression. Factor analysis was performed to obtain the four moral philosophies defined in the literature.

The results confirm that use of the EET improves the moral judgment of accounting students. The influence of utilitarianism and relativism on moral judgment was reduced, while the students’ ability to recognise violating an unwritten contract as an unethical act was improved. Contrary to expectations, the influence of justice on moral judgment decreased.

The study may benefit academics by showing positive outcomes of EET use. The EET is a well-developed teaching tool, also suitable for educators insufficiently qualified to develop their own ethics courses or facing time constraints.

The EET was developed to support implementation of ethics education in programmes for professional accountants. By investigating the applicability and effects of the tool in higher education, this study aims to develop moral judgment in accounting students before they enter the accounting profession.

This study aims to examine the relationship between selfishness, moral justification and intention to fraud among accounting certified professionals. It focuses on the role of moral justification in explaining the link between selfishness and intention to fraud.

Data were collected with the help of a structured questionnaire. The final sample includes 240 accounting certified professionals. To test the hypothesized model in this study, IBM AMOS ver26 was used to perform the structural equation modeling.

The results of this study show that selfishness has no direct impact on the intention to commit fraud. However, selfishness does have a positive impact on moral justification. Furthermore, the study found that moral justification mediates the relationship between selfishness and fraud intention.

This study provides important implications for accounting firms and other organizations and recommends that they implement the necessary practices to reduce the fraudulent intentions of certified accounting professionals while simultaneously reducing selfishness and moral justification.

This research is among the few studies in the accounting field that address the mediating role of moral justification in the relationship between selfishness and fraud intention among certified accounting professionals.

The study aims to introduce The Compass Project (TCP), designed to determine whether strengthening morality and practicing emotion management can reduce youth antisocial attitudes and behaviours and increase prosocial attitudes and behaviours.The programme activities are informed by the existing evidence base and incorporate theoretical explanations of the mechanisms that link psychological moral and emotional traits and behaviour.

This paper will offer a description of the programme design and content, TCP 2022 pilot study and crucially, discuss the utility of delivering programmes like TCP in wider settings (schools, youth offending teams and other youth organisations). TCP is currently being delivered in UK schools as a multi-site, longitudinal, RCT design.

Participant feedback from TCP 2022 pilot study is used to illustrate the potential impact of TCP for young people in future. The authors identify five challenges faced by researchers conducting youth intervention studies: access, recruitment, continued attendance, nature of participation (enthusiasm, engagement and task-focus) and full participant completion of data measures.

This pioneering study offers a novel methodology to increase law-abiding moral attitudes and behaviours in young people. This paper adopts a forward-thinking and scientific approach to identify practical solutions to key challenges faced when delivering youth interventions and is relevant for youth practitioners and academics worldwide.

TCP seeks to achieve improved youth attitudinal outcomes (such as law-aligned morality, empathy for others, measured decision-making and consideration of the consequences of action) and improved youth behavioural outcomes (such as improved quality of relationships with others, increased helping and prosocial behaviours, reduced antisocial behaviour and delinquency and reduced contact with criminal justice system-related organisations).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, an evidence-based morality strengthening and emotion programme of this kind, closely aligned with a moral theory of rule-breaking, has not been developed before.

This paper aims to provide an objective and comprehensive evaluation of the understanding of the professional code of ethics of Indian Professional Management Accountants in Business (PMAIBs). It further delves into their individual, job and organizational characteristics as determinants of their understanding of the code.

This study relies on data from 247 responses to a survey-based questionnaire. Overall scores and sub-scores of the level of understanding of the code were calculated based on questions grounded in IESBA Code and ethical dilemmas. The drivers of these scores were then examined using one-way ANOVA, OLS, Probit and ordered probit regressions.

This study found considerable heterogeneity in Indian PMAIBs' understanding of their professional code of ethics and substantial scope for improvements. PMAIBs were stronger in Application, Resolution and Threats but weaker in Theory and Principles. Further, PMAIBs who had ranked themselves higher on code-familiarity, had higher moral maturity, hailed from western India and worked for foreign-listed, foreign-owned firms were found to have a higher level of understanding of the code. Highly educated elderly professionals and professionals with more responsibility areas exhibited a lower level of understanding of the code.

Insights from the study can help professional bodies, employers and academics identify and segment PMAIBs based on their ethics-training needs and customize interventions, which can benefit businesses and society through reduced corporate ethical failures. Considering the risk implications of Indian PMAIBs' inadequacies in understanding their code of ethics, the Indian professional accounting organization (ICAI-CMA) should mandate ethics in continuing professional development and expedite its long pending convergence with the IESBA code, a global benchmark for professional accountants.

This paper assesses the understanding of the professional code of ethics of PMAIBs, which is crucial yet amiss in the accounting ethics literature. While ethical decision-making is extensively researched, how well the professionals understand their code is yet unexplored. Research on PMAIBs, despite their unique ethical vulnerabilities and increasingly vital role in organizations, is still dormant. This study aims to fill these gaps by examining PMAIBs from India, an emerging economy under-represented in accounting ethics literature. India offers an important and rich setting for the study due to its large size, fast growth, deep integration with the global economy, high perceived corruption levels and poor ethical behavior of its firms.