Professional ethics code conflict situations: Ethical and value orientation of collegiate accounting students

Public accounting in the United States is generally guided by the Code of Professional Conduct of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). It has been suggested that education in understanding and accepting their ethical code would increase accountants' adherence and ethicality. This study was designed to examine the level of consensus to AICPA ethical standards by accounting students (ethical orientation). Situation ethics provided the theoretical rationale for this study. The data were gathered by contacting colleges in the New York Metropolitan Area who offered curriculums which were Education Department of New Certified Public Accountancy preparation. The final sampling units for this study consisted of 306 beginning accounting students and 294 advanced accounting students. Included in the secondary sampling units were both private and public colleges, secular and non-secular colleges, and American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) and non AACSB-accredited colleges. Three instruments were used to collect data for this study: a student demographic questionnaire; the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS); and a researcher-adapted questionnaire, the Index of Ethical Congruence (IEC) which measured the level of consensus to the AICPA Code of Conduct (ethical orientation).