A SURVEY OF MALE AND FEMALE ACCOUNTING PROGRAM CHAIRS EXAMINES
Do Male and Female Accountancy Chairs Perceive Ethics and Communication the Same?
B Y J A C Q U E L I N E J . S C H M I D T , P H . D . , A N D R O L A N D L . M A D I S O N , P H . D .
A SURVEY OF MALE AND FEMALE ACCOUNTING PROGRAM CHAIRS EXAMINES
THE EFFECTS THAT THEIR GENDER HAS ON THREE ISSUES : THE PERCEPTION OF THE NEED
TO STUDY ETHICS AND COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN THE BUSINESS AND ACCOUNTING
CURRICULA , THE PERCEIVED AMOUNT OF ACTUAL CLASS TIME SPENT AND THE
IDEAL CLASS TIME THAT SHOULD BE SPENT ON THESE CONCEPTS , AND WHERE ETHICS
SHOULD BE TAUGHT IN THE ACCOUNTING CURRICULUM .
he question of whether men and women in female deans increased from 2.6% to 14.6%. In 2004, the accounting profession view ethics and women held 24.5% of all tenure-track accounting facul- communication differently has been raised ty positions at the institutions surveyed, while the ratio before, but the importance of these skills to of women to men in the accounting practice or account-
1
the profession combined with the changing ing students in the classroom was closer to 50%. If demographic profile of the profession make it time to there is a difference in how male or female accounting
T
reexamine the issue. In their 2006 article, “Gender faculty and department chairs perceive or apply ethics Imbalance in Accounting Academia,” Charles Jordan, and communication in their teaching, it will soon begin Gwen Pate, and Stanley Clark found that the propor- to affect the profession. tion of female accounting administrators and deans had Professional organizations have stressed that both increased significantly between 1994 and 2004. The ethics and communication are critical to accounting. For percentage of female accounting program administrators example, a recent article in Management Accounting Quar- increased from 7.1% to 16.7 %, and the percentage of terly provided practitioners with an instrument to help measure and improve ethical perceptions in their orga- nizations.
2 AACSB International (Association to
Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) strongly rec- ommends that accredited schools include ethics educa- tion in the business curriculum, and the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) advanced a proposal in 2005 to require a separate course in ethics within the accounting curriculum in addition to the one required in the business curriculum. Although the proposal was later withdrawn, it indicates the increasing concern for including ethics instruction in accounting education. Going back to 1989, the then Big Eight accounting firms published a paper that emphasized the importance of communication skills within both the business and accountancy curriculum.
11 In communication, women are recognized as display-
3 Finally, in its Vision Statement for 1998, the American
Survey respondents were asked to rate the impor- tance of including instruction on ethics and communi- cation skills (speaking, writing, listening, interpersonal communication, and technological communication) within accounting and business curricula. They were also asked the percentage of actual class time that was spent on these areas in individual accounting classes,
We set out to discover if these differences in the per- ception and practice of ethics and communication occur within the academic environment as well as in profes- sional practice. To do so, we surveyed the chairs of the 530 largest accountancy programs in North America. (Programs chosen had five or more faculty members.) A total of 122 usable responses were received, a response rate of 23%, and the results were subjected to statistical analysis to determine if there were significant differ- ences in the responses based on gender.
14 T H E S U R V E Y
than men at decoding nonverbal communication signals.
13 Women are also better
proaches lead to differences in interpersonal communi- cation and listening styles. Women are more apt to recognize problems in relationships before men do. Women also give more listening cues and listen more to men than men listen to women.
12 These ap-
Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) included communication as one of the seven personal core competencies required of entry-level accountants.
ing a higher awareness of interpersonal and listening skills compared to men. Women view conversation as relationship building, while men view conversation as a means to gain respect and knowledge.
found significant differences in the value systems of male and female accounting alumni: Women were more oriented to serving others (vs. serving self) and using more moral (vs. competence) means than men.
10 Don Giacomino and Tim Eaton
Jeffrey Cohen, Laurie Pant, and David Sharp found that women had consistently different ethical evalua- tions, intention, and orientation than men and were more likely than males to view questionable behavior as more unethical.
9 Using business ethics vignettes rather than the DIT,
8 Yet other studies did not find differences based on gender.
and Donald Arnold concurred, finding that female man- agers in five large public accounting firms had a higher level of moral development than male managers.
4 The critical issue that remains for the accounting
auditors from large, midsize, and small auditing firms, John Sweeney found that the females in senior and management auditor roles also had higher moral devel- opment than their male counterparts.
Previous studies on gender differences have had mixed results. Much of the research has used the defining issues test (DIT) to assess moral development. Michael Shaub found that female auditors in senior and manage- ment roles had higher moral development scores than male auditors in the same positions.
R E L AT I O N S H I P O F G E N D E R T O E T H I C S A N D C O M M U N I C AT I O N
will examine what effect, if any, an accounting chair’s gender has on his or her perceptions of ethics and com- munication and how these skills are taught in account- ing and general business programs.
profession is whether these concerns have been imple- mented within accounting education programs and how uniform the implementation has been from institution to institution. In a previous study, we examined whether accreditation (AACSB or non-AACSB) or insti- tutional charter (private or public) affected how pro- gram chairs perceived the importance of ethics education and its implementation.
5 In this article, we
6 Using a sample of
7 Richard Bernardi
Table 1: The Importance of Ethics and Communication Instruction in Accounting and Business Curricula
Accounting Curriculum Business Curriculum Male Female Male Female
Ethics
4.25
4.42
4.10
4.29 Speaking
4.17
4.11
4.24
4.30 Writing
4.38
4.37
4.33
4.37 Listening
4.17
3.96
4.10
3.81 Interpersonal
4.22
4.04
4.16
4.04 Technological
4.30
4.19
4.06
4.11 Scale: 1=no importance, 5=maximum importance and what they felt would be the ideal percentage of accounting classes, as well as what they considered the class time to devote to the study of these areas. Finally, ideal percentage of class time that should be spent on chairs were asked where in the accounting curriculum ethics in these classes (see Table 2). In 13 of the 14
15
ethics should be taught. accounting classes listed, female chairs perceive spend- ing more actual time on ethics than male chairs do.
The Importance of Ethics and Communication (The lone exception is International Accounting.)
The survey revealed that there are no gender-based dif- These differences are statistically significant for seven ferences in the perceived importance of ethics for either of the 14 courses (50%). the accounting or business curricula (see Table 1). Both When looking at the ideal amounts of time chairs felt male and female chairs believe the inclusion of ethics in the accounting and general business curricula is
Table 2: Actual Percentage of Class Time
important. All means for ethics are over 4.0 (“of great importance”) on a five-point scale. Regardless of gen-
Spent on Ethics in Accounting
der, ethics is perceived as more important in the
Courses
accounting curriculum than in the business curricu-
Male Female lum (p<0.01), a statistically significant difference.
Introductory Accounting
5.61
5.96 There are no significant gender differences in the Intermediate Accounting
6.86
7.31 perceived importance of communication skills Advanced Financial 5.66 8.43**
(speaking, writing, listening, interpersonal communi- Cost Accounting
6.11
6.72 cation, and technological communication) in either Governmental/Not for Profit 5.52 7.94* the accounting or general business curricula. Both Individual Income Taxes 6.84 9.50* male and female chairs believe these skills are impor- Advanced Income Taxes
6.26
8.77 tant. The means for both sexes are over 4.0 for all Auditing 13.66 19.17** areas except listening. Regardless of gender, speaking Advanced Auditing
12.91
15.77 is considered more important in the business curricu- Accounting Information Systems 6.00 8.15* lum (p<0.05), and listening (p<0.05) and technologi- Advanced Cost/Managerial
6.29
7.33 cal (p<0.01) communication are perceived as more Internal/Operational Auditing 9.80 18.11** important in the accounting curriculum. International Accounting
6.70
6.33 Forensic (Fraud) Accounting 20.07 32.78*
Class Time Spent on Ethics and Communication
- Difference by gender is significant at 0.05
Respondents were asked the percentage of actual
- Difference by gender is significant at 0.01
class time that is spent on ethics in 14 identified should be spent on these topics, the mean scores of Where in the Curriculum female chairs is higher than those of male chairs for all Respondents were asked to choose from six options classes (see Table 3). These differences are statistically related to where they believed ethics education should significant for 10 of the 14 classes (71%). be taught: (1) integrated throughout the accounting cur-
In addition to ethics, respondents were asked the per- riculum, (2) as a separate class required for all account- centage of actual time spent on the communication ing students, (3) as both a separate class required of skills (speaking, writing, interpersonal skills, listening, accounting students and integrated throughout the and technology) in the accounting and general business accounting curriculum, (4) not required for undergradu- curricula. They were also asked what would be the ideal ate accounting majors, (5) as a requirement in the gen- percentage of class time to spend on each of these skills. eral business core, or (6) not required for the general
There are no statistically significant differences by business core. gender for the percentage of actual or ideal amount of There were no gender differences on where ethics time that should be spent on these skills in the account- should be taught. Most chairs (66.7% of female chairs, ing curriculum. In the general business curriculum, how- 65.9% of male chairs) felt that ethics should be integrat- ever, statistically significant differences by gender were ed throughout the accounting curriculum. Several chairs found for both the actual and ideal percentage of class (26.7% of female chairs, 30.6% of male chairs) felt that time spent on listening (p<0.01) and interpersonal skills ethics should be a separate course for accounting majors (p<0.05). Compared to their male counterparts, female as well as integrated throughout the curriculum. chairs perceive spending more actual time in these areas
S U R V E Y
I M P L I C AT I O N S
and feel that a higher percentage of time should ideally be spent on listening and interpersonal skills. The findings of this study have several implications for the field. Although there are no gender differences in the perception of how important ethics and communi- cation skills are for the accounting and business cur-
Table 3: Ideal Percentage of Class Time Spent
riculum, there are statistically significant differences
on Ethics in Accounting Courses
related to how these topics should be implemented throughout the curricula. Female chairs perceive
Male Female
spending significantly more actual time on ethics and Introductory Accounting 7.86 10.25* communication in 50% of the identified accounting Intermediate Accounting 8.82 12.54** courses, and more female chairs than male chairs feel a Advanced Financial 7.89 12.90** higher percentage of class time should be spent on Cost Accounting
7.86
9.52 ethics. Compared to male chairs, female chairs also Governmental/Not for Profit 7.98 11.17* perceive that statistically significant more actual time is Individual Income Taxes 9.23 13.25* spent—and ideally a higher percentage of class time is Advanced Income Taxes 8.48 13.32** needed—in teaching the communication skills of lis- Auditing 15.95 22.08** tening and interpersonal communication in the general Advanced Auditing
14.92
19.62 business curriculum. Accounting Information Systems 8.02 12.05*
Most chairs agree that ethics instruction should be Advanced Cost/Managerial
7.93
10.40 integrated into the accounting curriculum rather than Internal/Operational Auditing 12.63 20.33** having a stand-alone ethics course. The differences in International Accounting
8.74
11.33 the perception of the ideal time that should be spent on Forensic (Fraud) Accounting 21.53 34.44* these topics is particularly critical because the notion of
- Difference by gender is significant at 0.05
ideal time represents how the various chairs want to
- Difference by gender is significant at 0.01
implement these concepts within their curricula. With these differences in perception, implementation could vary between programs. Certainly students in programs with female chairs have a greater chance of receiving more instruction in ethics than those in programs with male chairs.
Second, these findings reinforce the need for profes- sional organizations such as AACSB International and NASBA to consider establishing minimum standards regarding the percentage of class time and/or hours of instruction that accounting programs devote to ethics and communication. This will help ensure that all stu- dents receive adequate instruction in ethics and com- munication skills. It is no longer enough for these professional organizations to continue stating that ethics and communication skills instruction are simply “important.” The results of this survey show that inter- pretations of importance can and do vary. There is a need for these professional organizations to quantify what they mean by “important” in terms of hours and standards.
8 Richard A. Bernardi and Donald F. Arnold, Sr., “An Examina- tion of Moral Development within Public Accounting by Gen- der, Staff Level, and Firm,” Contemporary Accounting Research, Winter 1997, pp. 653-658.
A. Friedley, Communication and Gender, 4th ed., Allyn & Bacon, Boston, Mass., 2003.
14 Lea P. Stewart, Pamela J. Cooper, Alan D. Stewart, and Sheryl
13 Joseph A. DeVito, The Interpersonal Communication Book, 11th edition, Allyn & Bacon, Boston, Mass., 2007.
12 Deborah Tannen, You Just Don’t Understand, Harper Collins, New York, N.Y., 1990.
11 Don E. Giacomino and Tim V. Eaton, “Personal Values of Accounting Alumni: An Empirical Examination of Differences by Gender and Age,” Journal of Managerial Issues, Fall 2003, pp. 369-382.
10 Jeffrey Cohen, Laurie W. Pant, and David J. Sharp, “The Effect of Gender and Academic Discipline Diversity on the Ethical Evaluations, Ethical Intentions, and Ethical Orienta- tion of Potential Public Accounting Recruits,” Accounting Horizons, September 1998, pp. 250-270.
9 Lawrence A. Ponemon and David R.L. Gabhart, Ethical Rea- soning in Accounting and Auditing, Research Monograph No. 21, CGA-Canada Research Foundation, Vancouver, Canada, 1993; and Judy S. Tsui, “Auditors’ Ethical Reasoning: Some Audit Conflict and Cross Cultural Evidence,” International Journal of Accounting, volume 31, issue 1, 1996, pp. 121-133.
7 John T. Sweeney, “The Moral Expertise of Auditors: An Exploratory Analysis,” Research on Accounting Ethics, volume 1, Marc J. Epstein, John Gardner, and Lawrence A. Ponemon, eds., Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 1995, pp. 213-234.
Finally, this study demonstrates that the gender dif- ferences in the perception of ethics and communication skills evident in the field also occur in accounting edu- cation. As more women continue to enter the academic accounting profession and professional practice, these differences will become more pronounced and should continue to be studied. ■
6 Michael K. Shaub, “An Analysis of the Association of Tradi- tional Demographic Variables with Moral Reasoning of Audit- ing Students and Auditors,” Journal of Accounting Education, Winter 1994, pp. 1-26.
5 Roland L. Madison and Jacqueline J. Schmidt, “Survey of Time Devoted to Ethics in Accountancy Programs in North American Colleges and Universities,” Issues in Accounting Edu- cation, May 2006, pp. 99-109.
4 American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, “Focus on the Horizon: CPA Vision—2011 and Beyond,” Journal of Accountancy, December 1998 Special Insert, pp. 25-72.
3 D.R Kullberg (Arthur Andersen & Co.), W.L. Gladstone (Arthur Young), P.R. Scanlon (Coopers & Lybrand), J.M. Cook (Deloitte Haskins & Sells), R.J. Groves (Ernst & Whinney), L.D. Horner (Peat Marwick & Co.), S.F. O’Malley (Price Waterhouse), and E.A. Kangas (Touche Ross), “Perspectives on Education: Capabilities for Success in the Accounting Pro- fession,” American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, New York, N.Y., 1989.
2 Sandra B. Richtermeyer, Martin M. Greller, and Sean R. Valen- tine, “Organizational Ethics: Measuring Performance on This Critical Dimension,” Management Accounting Quarterly, Spring 2006, pp. 23-30.
1 Charles Jordan, Gwen Pate, and Stanley Clark, “Gender Imbalance in Accounting Academia: Past and Present,” Journal of Education for Business, January/February 2006, pp. 165-169.
E N D N O T E S
Jacqueline J. Schmidt, Ph.D., is a professor of communica- tion at John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio. You can contact her at [email protected]. Roland L. Madison, Ph.D., is a professor of accountancy at John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio. You can contact him at [email protected].
15 SPSS 13.0 was used to run all statistical analyses. All designs involving gender and area of instruction were analysis of vari- ance with one independent factor—gender—and one repeated-measures factor—type of program, accounting or business. Simple effects were computed in cases of significant interactions. In the question that addressed if gender affects the belief as to where ethics should be taught, a Chi-square test of homogeneity of proportions was conducted. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.