Research Paper on Ethical Views of Final Year Accountancy Students in Malaysia

International Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, Vol. 3, No. 5, October 2012

Will Final Year Accountancy Students Whistle Blow? A Malaysian Case
Mazlina Mustapha and Ling Sing Siaw
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Abstract—This paper aims to explore the ethical views of final year accountancy students in Malaysia. Specifically, this study seeks to investigate the final year accountancy students’ perception on whistle blowing and the likelihood of blowing the whistle in relation to seriousness of questionable act, gender, race and academic performance. About 150 questionnaires were distributed to final year accountancy students in a public university in Malaysia; however, only 105 questionnaires were usable and completed to be used in the study. Majority of the respondents are taking a relatively moderate approach towards their willingness to blow the whistle. The regression result reveals that the seriousness of the unethical act has a significant and positive relationship with the probability of blowing the whistle by these students. In addition, the result appears to suggest that high academic achiever have a negative relationship with the probability of blowing the whistle. Index terms—Ethics, final year accountancy students, whistle blowing, Malaysia.

I. INTRODUCTION Following the worldwide corporate scandals in the US and Europe, public scrutiny of accountants decisions have increased. More attention is directed to the ethicality of the accountants’ actions [15]. Ethical conduct has been recognized as an important element in accounting profession and education [1]. It is believed that professionalism and ethics should be upheld. One of the areas of interest relating to ethic is whistle blowing. Whistle blowing is defined as the disclosure by an organization’s member of any illegal, immoral or illegitimate practices under the control of their employers to a person that may be able to affect action [8]. After the Enron case, perception on whistle blowing beginning to change, whistle

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