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This paper aims to investigate the role of affect and tolerance of ambiguity on ethical decision-making of management and accounting students.

Weisbrod’s (2009) questionnaire on ethical decision-making in individual and organizational situations, McDonald’s (1970)16-factor questionnaire on tolerance of ambiguity and Watson et al.’s (1988) Positive and Negative Affect Schedule were used to study the students’ views toward research hypotheses. The population used in this study includes graduate and PhD students of accounting and management during the academic year 2014-2015. The number of samples is 398 and sample members selected using simple random sampling method. Hypotheses test using structural equation modeling in the AMOS software version 18.

Results of hypotheses shows that individual characteristics of positive and negative affect and tolerance of ambiguity have no effect on accounting students’ ethical decision-making, but there is a significant positive relationship between management students’ negative affect and ethical decision-making, and a significant negative relationship between management students’ increased level of tolerance of ambiguity and ethical decision-making. The findings also show that affect (positive and negative) and tolerance of ambiguity have no interactive effect on accounting students’ ethical decision-making, whereas among students of management, there is a significant relationship between interactive effect of negative affect and tolerance of ambiguity on ethical decision-making. The results show that there is a significant difference between students of management and accounting based on negative effects and tolerance of ambiguity on ethical decision-making.

The current paper is almost the first paper which was conducted in developing countries.

The aim of the research is to examine potential differences in the levels of ambiguity tolerance between Australian and Chinese accountants at the national, rather than individual, level.

Ambiguity tolerance levels of final year accounting students (proxying for entry level accountants) and first year accounting students from Australia and China were measured using the MacDonald AT‐20 Ambiguity Tolerance Index. Comparisons were made across the four subject pools with a view to identifying national level differences suggested by the cultural, sociological, historical, and contemporary issues impacting on the accounting profession in the two countries.

Entry level accountants in China are less tolerant of ambiguity than their Australian counterparts. There are, however, no statistically significant differences in the levels of ambiguity tolerance between first year accounting students in China and Australia.

The research employed final year accounting students as surrogates for entry level accountants. Future research could usefully extend this research to practicing accountants at different ranks.

Given the central role of ambiguity in contemporary accounting practice, the potential implications are broad. This is particularly the case with regard to the harmonization of accounting practices in that accountants with different tolerances for ambiguity might make different decisions in the face of similar accounting standards and circumstances. Interestingly, the results from the research suggest that differences in ambiguity tolerance are attributable to events occurring while students are studying.

This research examines ambiguity tolerance at the national level (rather than the individual level), thereby allowing practical implications to be prescribed.

With the changing business environment, skills rather than familiarity with rules are more important to accountants’ success. In response to mounting criticisms of accounting education and supported by calls from the Accounting Education Change Commission, efforts have been made by some accounting educators to adapt accounting education to this changing environment. However, there is little research to date about the individual characteristics that can be leveraged to improve the outcome of accounting education. We investigate three individual characteristics: anti-intellectualism, tolerance for ambiguity, and internal locus of control. The results show that all three variables may impact performance in accounting education and that the structure of an accounting program may reward characteristics that are not in line with skills required by the profession. Fortunately, the design of an accounting program may help students alter their skills to be more in line with professional requirements.

The aim of the research is to investigate the influence of emotional attitudes towards change on managers' tolerance of ambiguity.

A total of 70 CEOs of Greek IT firms completed questionnaires examining tolerance of ambiguity, emotional attitudes towards change ambiguity and job satisfaction. Principal components analysis and ordinary regression analyses were used to explore the hypotheses.

The paper finds that three factors characterize managers' emotional attitudes towards change, namely dominance, arousal, and pleasure. Furthermore, it indicates that job satisfaction can be taken as a critical intervention variable that “energizes” managers' arousal (i.e. stimulation, excitement and frenzy) which, in turn, influences their tolerance of ambiguity.

Deeper and broader level of research is necessary in Greek IT industry regarding the influence of emotional attitudes on tolerance of ambiguity. Likewise, this research should be expanded to other industries.

The findings provide further support on the significance of emotional attitudes during change and the paper suggests policies to enhance managers' tolerance of ambiguity.

The originality of this study lies in the finding that job satisfaction energizes the arousal factor, which, in turn, influences significantly managers' tolerance of ambiguity. Another important contributing factor is that the study is carried out in Greece, where few studies have been conducted in this area.

This chapter traces the evolution of personality trait research in the behavioral accounting literature and offers suggestions for past and future trends. These personality traits include, among others, those measured by the Myers-Briggs Type and Five Factor models (FFMs), Type A/B, tolerance for ambiguity, locus of control, authoritarianism, and the Dark Triad components of narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. In a broad spectrum analysis of accounting journals without regard to timing or geographics, we attempt to capture the major phases of personality trait research and provide suggestions as to the surrounding environment for such progressions in the literature. In addition to more established research streams, this chapter also discusses other personality traits that have only been marginally investigated in the accounting literature, and possible directions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the possible relationship between novice vs experienced EFLs teachers’ Big Five personality traits, ambiguity tolerance and risk taking. To this purpose, 30 teachers of TEFL courses were randomly selected, and three instruments of NEO Five-Factor Inventory, Ambiguity Tolerance Scale and Risk-taking Propensity Measure were employed to measure their Big Five personality traits, their ambiguity tolerance and risk taking, respectively.

The study was a quantitative ex post facto study. The first phase of the study was to investigate the relationship among variables of the study. On the other hand, the second phase of the study examined the impact of experience of teachers on their risk taking and ambiguity tolerance.

The results showed that the more experienced the teachers are, the less risk they take and the more ambiguity tolerant they are. On the other hand, the less experienced the teachers are, the more risk they will take and the less they can tolerate ambiguity. The findings of this research can have useful implications for teacher training programs as well as teaching practices.

This study can add to the circle of knowledge and enhance theoretical assumptions of the field. Moreover, considering the Iranian context, a few studies have focused on the importance of uncovering relationship between five big personality traits and teachers’ personality factors. Therefore, this study is an attempt to investigate the relationship between the Big Five personality traits of teachers and their ambiguity tolerance and risk taking.

The aim of this research is to investigate the influence of hybrid knowledge management in workers' productivity and tolerance of ambiguity.

The research was conducted before and after the implementation of the Communication and Knowledge Motivator (CKM) model in Hellenic Railways Organization (2004 and 2008). Survey data were collected from 352 workers. In the first phase (2004), workers' productivity, ambiguity tolerance and demographical characteristics were examined. In the second phase (2008), the same measurements were performed. Ordinary regressions (enter and stepwise) were used to explore the research hypotheses.

The paper finds that workers' productivity and tolerance of ambiguity is positively affected by the CKM model. Further, it confirms the significant influence of workers' ambiguity tolerance in their productivity, before and after the implementation of the CKM model.

Workers' productivity might be influenced by the Hawthorne effect or by other emotional/cognitive attitudes. There is no such earlier measurement in Greece to compare and appraise the research findings and overall, the CKM model. Further research needs to be conducted in the Greek public sector.

The research findings suggest that the CKM model affects positively workers' productivity and ambiguity tolerance. Additionally, they note that workers' tolerance of ambiguity affects significantly their productivity.

The originality of this study lies in the CKM model that may influence positively workers' productivity and ambiguity tolerance. The study was carried out in Greece where few relevant studies have been conducted.

Polychronicity is the extent to which people prefer to be engaged in two or more tasks simultaneously. Relationships between polychronicity and four variables were examined in data from four samples totaling 1,173 participants. Only one statistically significant relationship occurred between polychronicity and propensity for creativity after controlling for other variables. Consistent significant relationships were found, however, between polychronicity and orientation to change (positive), tolerance for ambiguity (positive), and organizational attractiveness (positive or negative depending on whether the organization demonstrated a high or low level of polychronicity, respectively). Concatenated replications reproduced each of these three relationships in at least two samples.

The purpose of this paper is to determine relationships between financial risk tolerance and the personality traits of sensation-seeking, locus of control, ambiguity tolerance, and financial dishonesty.

A pretested questionnaire was used to gather information from 255 respondents. With risk tolerance as a criterion variable and the four personality traits as predictor variables, a regression procedure was performed to determine which variables contributed to the variability of the criterion variable and the extent of such contribution. An analysis was also done to find out whether gender, age, GPA, and academic standing had an influence on each personality trait’s contribution to risk tolerance.

Risk tolerance is directly related to sensation-seeking and the link is so strong that it is not mitigated by the effects of gender, age, GPA, and college academic standings. As for locus of control, the more one believes one has control over one’s outcome, the higher risk one can tolerate. Surprisingly, there is no relationship between risk and ambiguity tolerances. Dishonesty also does not affect risk tolerance behavior. However, the relationship is found to exist among younger individuals and those with lower GPA, possibly due to not having reached an adequate level of matured or critical reasoning yet.

The relationship between risk tolerance and sensation-seeking is an established fact but whether the relationship still holds across several demographic groups is part of this study’s focus. Although much has been done on risk tolerance, very little has been done on its relationship to locus of control, ambiguity tolerance, and financial dishonesty.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the effect of “usefulness” and “incentives” on the joint decision to share and use knowledge objects.

Using an experimental design, the authors explore the effects of different incentive systems, the effect of the usefulness of a knowledge management system on intent to contribute and intent to use knowledge, the effect of personal characteristics, specifically an individual's tolerance of ambiguity, and joint endogeneity of contribution and use along with potential complementarity of usefulness and incentives.

For ambiguity tolerant individuals, an incentive mechanism that rewards the contributor for shared knowledge used by a knowledge user, and the knowledge user for the act of reuse, is more effective than a simpler incentive scheme that merely rewards knowledge sharing when usefulness level is low. Ambiguity intolerant individuals react equally to both types of incentive schemes regardless of usefulness. Ambiguity tolerant individuals display weakly complementary levels of sharing in response to coordinated increases in incentives and usefulness levels. This has powerful implications for practice as both incentives and usefulness need not be increased in a concerted manner in order to promote use.

This is an experimental study with the use of student subjects and the usual caveats apply.

The contributions of this paper are deriving practitioner implications for the sharing/use of knowledge, the explicit consideration of ambiguity tolerance, and inclusion of both knowledge contribution and use in one comprehensive model.