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 Volume 11 Number 1 January 2002
The teaching of ethics in
management accounting:
progress and prospects
Roberta Bampton and Christopher J. Cowton
Recent research suggests that the teaching of
business ethics has been on the increase in UK
higher education (Cummins 1999, Cowton and
Cummins 2002). Many more undergraduate and
MBA students than was once the case are
required, or have the opportunity, to pay explicit
attention to ethical issues in business and manage-
ment studies. Although the coverage at many
institutions is very limited (perhaps just one
element of a module), elsewhere there is evidence
of required or optional complete modules being
taught, with business ethics itself being a much
more common title in the UK than it was when
Mahoney (1990) conducted his survey of teaching.
Nevertheless, it would be fair to say that the
provision of business ethics teaching is still patchy
and, to the extent that it has grown, has tended to
rely upon the enthusiasm of individual members
of staff who continue to carry teaching responsi-
bilities in mainstream subjects such as marketing
(Cummins 1999).
The picture sketched above is based on research
which was concerned primarily with general
business ethics teaching, but it is possible that it
under-estimates ethics coverage within UK busi-
ness schools and their equivalents to the extent
that it does not capture the coverage of ethical
issues in functional areas of management such as
accounting and marketing, particularly when
these are offered as a separate programme of
study or degree scheme. The presence of ethics in
subject modules might be particularly beneficial:
the integration of business ethics into the core
52
business curriculum is likely to be more effective
than separate provision, although an introductory
course on business ethics might be a good way of
underpinning subsequent integrated coverage.
However, although integrated provision might be
desirable, it does raise the question of how high a
profile ethics might attain within a given course;
integration might represent an acknowledgement
of the centrality of ethics, or it might amount to
little more than subordination and tokenism.
Cummins (1999: 15) is sceptical: A small number
of business schools claimed that business ethics is
in every part of the curriculum. This may be
wishful thinking.
Within schemes of study that are centered on
accounting rather than general business or man-
agement studies, similar issues arise. For example,
how much are accounting students encouraged or
challenged to consider ethical issues? Although he
does not cite any systematic evidence from the
UK, Fleming (1996: 209) remarks where univer-
sities do cover ethics for accountants they do so in
a peremptory manner. Does coverage take place
in a separate module? Does it occur in special
sessions on courses dealing with broad areas (e.g.
financial accounting); or is it an integral (or token)
part of the treatment of topics within those major
areas of accounting? Armstrong (1993) suggests
that accounting ethics should be both integrated
and taught in a separate module, but most of the
empirical research seems to imply incorporation
of some material into an existing module (Gray
et al. 1994, Loeb 1991) rather than coverage in a
# Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2002. 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK
and 350 Main St, Malden, MA 02148, USA.
 Business Ethics: A European Review
separate module (Hiltebeitel and Jones 1992,
Leung and Cooper 1994).
Although much accounting education and train-
ing is concerned with technical issues, in recent
years there have been signs of increased interest in
accounting ethics, which might have been trans-
lated into the university curriculum. For example,
professional bodies have been investing in ethics
codes and mechanisms (Coppage and Sriram
1992, Farrell and Cobbin 2000, Maurice 1996,
Preston et al. 1995) and a scholarly literature has
been developing, including the launch of a special-
ist annual volume by JAI Press (Research on
Accounting Ethics). Some research has addressed
topics from major areas of accounting such as
financial accounting (e.g. Merchant and Rockness
1994, Shah 1996), auditing (e.g. Gunz and
McCutcheon 1991, Preuss 1998) and management
accounting (e.g. Luft 1997), and a significant
stream of empirical research in the US has inves-
tigated various issues associated with the moral
development of students, including the impact of
ethics teaching (e.g. Hiltebeitel and Jones 1992,
Jeffrey 1993, Loeb 1991, Ponemon and Glazer
1990). However, we know very little about the
extent of teaching of ethical issues within major
areas of the accounting curriculum, even in the US.
The authors decided that it would be useful to
investigate current practice by conducting a postal
questionnaire survey of teaching in one of those
areas, management accounting, which the most
widely used management accounting textbook in
Britain describes as concerned with the provision
of information to people within the organization
to help them make better decisions and improve
the efficiency and effectiveness of existing opera-
tions (Drury 2000: 4/5). Management accounting
was selected as the focus because of its significance
within a broader accounting ethics project that the
authors are conducting. Concerned as it is with
decision-making and the internal management of
organisations, it is also more closely aligned with
many of the central concerns of business ethics
than some other areas of accounting.
The aim of this paper is to draw on the findings
of the questionnaire survey in order to assess and
explain the extent to which ethical issues are
currently addressed in the teaching of manage-
# Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2002
ment accounting in higher education in the British
Isles. This might be seen as an issue of interest
only to accountants, but given the importance
of accounting controls, first in British capitalist
enterprises (Armstrong 1985, 1987) and then in
the public sector (Power and Laughlin 1992), we
would contend that the progress of management
accounting ethics should be regarded as a matter
of more general concern to all business ethicists.
The paper is structured as follows. First, the
conduct of the survey research is described. The
next three sections outline and discuss the prin-
cipal findings. A discussion section then brings
together the main results and reflects on prospects
for the future. Finally, the conclusion summarises
the contribution of the paper.
Research method
The use of a postal questionnaire is a very com-
mon approach to empirical research in business
ethics (Randall and Gibson 1990). Although
postal questionnaires have limitations in address-
ing the kind of issues that are often of interest in
business ethics (Dalton and Metzger 1992), it was
felt that a self-administered questionnaire would
be suitable in this case because it would not be
probing particularly sensitive issues or posing
questions which were likely to prompt social
desirability response bias (Cowton 1998, Randall
and Fernandes 1991). The general advantages of
postal surveys for certain purposes are well docu-
mented (e.g. Sarantakos 1998, Oppenheim 1992);
for example, more people can be reached, costs are
kept down, and respondents have time to think
about their answers. Moreover, postal question-
naires have been used successfully for similar
research in the past which has sought to investi-
gate the extent of ethics teaching. The question-
naire was devised with reference to those previous
teaching surveys (Cummins 1999, Downer 1981,
Mintz 1990) and textbooks on questionnaire
design (Sudman 1982, Oppenheim 1992), taking
care to avoid some of the problems that have beset
earlier questionnaire surveys in business ethics
(Randall and Gibson 1990). The questionnaire,
which contained a mix of closed and open-ended
53
 Volume 11 Number 1 January 2002
questions, was piloted amongst colleagues and
their advice acted upon where appropriate.
Some of the issues examined in the question-
naire were:
& the extent to which management accounting
ethics is included in undergraduate degree
courses;
& whether it is integrated into existing courses or
taught separately;
& which issues are addressed;
& the adequacy of existing resources to support
teaching and learning; and
& opinions on issues relating to moral develop-
ment.
Not all the questions are drawn upon in equal
measure in this paper. Only those findings that
are relevant to its particular concerns will be
presented and discussed.
The questionnaire was addressed to manage-
ment accounting lecturers in higher education in
the British Isles who were identified from the
British Accounting Review Research Register 2000
(Helliar and Gray 2000). This biennial journal
supplement lists full-time accounting and finance
lecturers by institution. It covers all lecturers, not
just those actively involved in research or mem-
bers of the British Accounting Association (the
academic body with which the Review and the
Research Register are associated). For each person
entered, various items of information are given,
including teaching specialism. Since the popu-
lation of management accounting teachers identi-
fiable in the Research Register was not too large,
a sampling strategy was unnecessary, and 439
questionnaires were mailed to lecturers at 104
different institutions.
It was hoped that the lecturers to whom the
questionnaire was being sent would be supportive
of academic research, thus leading to a good
response rate. In order to increase the response
rate, various devices were used. For example, the
covering letter stated that respondents would be
entered into a prize draw for a copy of The
Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thinkers (Bullock
and Woodings 1983) and attractive commemora-
tive stamps were affixed to the return envelopes.
54
Whatever the reason, an encouraging useable
response rate of 25% was achieved within two
weeks of mailing. A reminder was sent 34 weeks
after the initial mailing. A few minor alterations
were made to the questionnaire for the reminder.
For example, the wording on one of the questions
was altered slightly in order to clarify the meaning.
The most significant change of presentation
rather than content was to enclose two versions
of the questionnaire, clearly differentiated between
subjects who addressed ethical issues and those
who did not. It was thought that this might
encourage a response from lecturers who per-
ceived the original questionnaire to be too long,
particularly if they did not address ethical issues
(thus overcoming a possible bias from the first
mailing). Details of the responses are shown in
Table 1.
The original sample number of 439 was reduced
by 23, mainly because of individuals who no
longer taught management accounting and help-
fully returned their uncompleted questionnaires.
Those respondents who returned the question-
naires completed although they had recently re-
tired (or in one case was now working in practice)
were included as it was felt that their replies were
still current and relevant. In addition, four respon-
dents answered the questionnaire with reference to
professional courses which they taught on, and it
was decided to include these on the same grounds.
The total number of respondents was 198, rep-
resenting a pleasing response rate of 47.6%.
Lecturers who returned one of the shorter, separ-
ate questionnaires were clearly responding to the
reminder, but it is possible that some of those who
................................................................................................
Table 1. Response Details
No. No. %
Total mailed 439
Subsequently disqualified 23
Revised sample 416 100.0
No response 218 52.4
Unified questionnaire 161
Separate questionnaire 37
Useable responses 198 47.6
................................................................................................
# Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2002

sent back the unified questionnaire were similarly
prompted, for example if they had already begun
to complete it; several original questionnaires were
returned some time after the reminder was mailed.
Having explained the nature of the research
method, the principal findings of relevance to this
paper will be outlined and discussed in three
sections extent of provision, trends and pros-
pects, and non-coverage of ethics.
Extent of provision
A fundamental aim of the research was to build up
a picture of the existing coverage of ethical issues
in management accounting. Although the explora-
tory nature of the survey meant that there were no
explicit a priori hypotheses, based on the findings
of the review of research and textbook literature
it was thought that there might be little ethical
content in the teaching of management accounting
although an earlier US study (Mintz 1990) had
found that 52.6% of lecturers included ethics in
their management accounting courses. Table 2
summarises responses to the current survey.
As Table 2 indicates, over a third of respondents
stated that they do include an ethical element
in their teaching of at least one management
accounting module. Whether this can be general-
ised to the whole population is a moot point.
Although it might be thought that lecturers who
incorporate ethical issues might be more likely to
respond to the survey, there was no shortage of
negative responses and no evidence of non-
response bias, so the proportions reported might
be fair estimates.1 And even if there were an
................................................................................................
Table 2. Summary of Ethics Coverage
Explicit and implicit
Explicit only
Implicit only
Not stated
Ethics addressed
No coverage
Total
................................................................................................
# Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2002
Business Ethics: A European Review
extreme form of non-response bias, in the sense
that no non-respondents address ethics, we would
at least know that 17.6% (73/416) of the sample of
lecturers do include it.
In order to address the possibility, referred to in
the introduction, that some lecturers might claim
to cover ethics without actually programming
explicit coverage into the module (e.g. a specific
lecture), the questionnaire offered respondents more
than just a simple yes/no choice. Without compli-
cating such a basic early question too much, the
options presented included boxes for explicit and
implicit coverage. It can be seen from Table 2 that
slightly more than half of the lecturers who
address ethical issues do so implicitly rather than
explicitly (some indicated both). As noted, earlier,
implicit coverage, while offering the prospect of
integration into module topics, risks the neglect of
a foundation on which to base ethical discussion
when the opportunity arises. It is also possible
that, in practice, ethics fails to be covered at all.
However, given that so many respondents were
willing to admit to no coverage in this survey, we
will include implicit coverage as a positive re-
sponse, although we will distinguish between the
two types of respondent where appropriate (im-
plicits and explicits). Where respondents have
said that they deal with ethics both explicitly and
implicitly, we will treat them as the former because
it suggests a timetabled commitment to the cover-
age of ethical issues.
Respondents who said that the ethical content
was explicit were asked to specify the number of
hours devoted to ethics within the module. Of
those who gave an answer none stated more than
5 hours, 11 said they taught it for 2 hours or less
and 7 said they taught it for 35 hours. Although
these figures are not high, one interesting finding
is that this teaching tends not to be optional for
No. % the students; well over half the modules which
include ethics are core, not optional.
13
Time spent on ethics is one measure of coverage.
20
36 Another indication of how seriously ethics is taken
4 by lecturers and students is whether or not it is
73 36.9 included in module assessment. As Cummins
125 63.1 (1999: 15) commented when contemplating busi-
198 100.0 ness schools which claimed to include ethics in
every part of the curriculum: If we could find no
55
 Volume 11 Number 1 January 2002

...........................................................................................................................................................................................................
Table 3. Assessment of Ethics Element

Always Sometimes Never Not Stated

Explicit and implicit 5 7 1 0
Explicit only 6 12 2 0
11 19 3 0
Implicit only 5 24 6 1
Not stated 0 2 1 1
Total 16 45 10 2
...........................................................................................................................................................................................................

evidence of a means of assessment . . . we con- Trends and prospects

cluded that this represented aspiration rather than
reality, and that business ethics was not taught as In addition to obtaining a snapshot of ethics
a serious topic. Table 3 summarises the respon- coverage, an attempt was made to gain an
dents answers on the question of assessment. impression of its trajectory over time. Respon-
Most lecturers said that they do include ethics in dents were asked in which year it was introduced
the assessment in some way at least sometimes, into the module. Unfortunately, the wording of
which suggests that they are treating it with a this question caused a degree of confusion, with
reasonable degree of seriousness although 14.1% some respondents giving a year number (e.g. 3)
(10/71) said that they never do so. Table 3 pro- rather than a date (e.g. 1998). Of those who
vides only a crude categorisation of the frequency answered the question as it was intended, 35.7%
of assessment, but it is interesting to observe that (15/42) had introduced an ethical element into
lecturers who cover ethics explicitly are much their module relatively recently, that is, within the
more likely (33.3% = 11/33) always to assess the last three years. Respondents were also asked
ethics element of the module than those who treat about the trend in the amount of coverage since
it only implicitly (14.3% = 5/35). Lecturers who ethics had been introduced into the module. Of
cover ethics both explicitly and implicitly are the the 61 respondents who gave details, 36.1% (22)
most likely (38.5% = 5/13) always to assess the said it had increased and 63.9% (39) said it had
ethics element of their module. There thus appears remained the same; none reported a decline.
to be a correlation perhaps expected, but now Given how recently ethics has been introduced
confirmed between the treatment of ethics as an into a sizeable proportion of modules, it is perhaps
explicit element of a management accounting not surprising that some stability in the amount
module and the coverage of ethical issues in of coverage is reported. However, the excess of
student assessment. Explicit coverage appears to increase over decline, together with the recent
be more serious than implicit coverage. introductions, gives tentative grounds for believ-
To summarise the impression gained on the ing that ethics is making some progress in finding
extent of provision, there is evidence that some a place in the teaching of management accounting.
management accounting lecturers cover ethical Whether any such growth is likely to continue
issues in at least some of their teaching, but such depends, at least in part, on the reasons why ethics
lecturers are in the minority though a substantial has appeared in some modules already. Table 4
one. Even then, coverage is probably on a limited provides some explanation.
scale, being implicit or where explicit Most lecturers who cover ethics think it is
timetabled for relatively few hours. There is a important. Perhaps that is not surprising, but it is
reasonable chance, though, that ethics will feature interesting that a higher proportion of explicits
in the assessment for the module, particularly if than implicits cite a personal interest in the
has been covered explicitly. subject. Hinting at higher motivation on the part

56 # Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2002

 Business Ethics: A European Review

..........................................................................................................................................................................
Table 4. Reasons for Inclusion of Ethics

Implicit Explicit
No. % No. %
Personal interest 16 44.4 22 66.7
Acquired from predecessor 3 8.3 2 6.1
Covered in text 4 11.1 3 9.1
Ethics important 28 77.8 26 78.8
Other 4 11.1 11 33.3
n=36 n=33
..........................................................................................................................................................................

of the average explicit, this fits with the earlier respondent considering that the subject required a
suggestion that explicit coverage probably repre- dedicated module in order to do it justice. Other
sents a greater commitment to ethics. The reasons given included: little point in going too
explicits also gave more other reasons than far at undergraduate level; curriculum limits set
the implicits, which is again consistent with the by professional bodies; and it already seemed to
proposition that they have a greater engagement be the right amount. One respondent commented
with ethics. (Mean number of reasons for im- that there seemed to be little demand or interest
plicits = 1.53, but 1.94 for explicits.) Textbooks from students; although in response to another
do not come through as influential, presumably question respondents in general rated students
because most contain little or no material by way receptivity and willingness reasonably highly.
of ethical discussion. For example, Drurys text- To summarise the findings on trends, it seems
book, which is the most widely used in the British that some coverage of ethics is of relatively recent
Isles, has introduced a very little material on ethics origin and some increase might be looked for over
only in the most recent edition (Drury 2000). the coming years, but there is some inertia, or
Respondents were also asked what they thought there exist impediments to further growth, within
would happen to ethics coverage in their module the modules in which ethics already appears.
over the next five years. Only 2.9% of the 69 who Moreover, if ethics is to grow significantly in
answered this question thought that ethics cov- the teaching of management accounting, it is a
erage would decrease, which is in line with the question not only of flourishing where it is already
2.9% reported by Cummins (1999) in his survey established, but also of taking root where it is
of business ethics teaching. However, in other currently ignored. The answers of respondents
respects management accounting lecturers were (the majority) who said that they do not currently
less optimistic than Cummins respondents; only address ethical issues are therefore of some
47.8% anticipated an increase, compared with significance. They are outlined and discussed in
76% in the business ethics survey. In answering an the next section.
open-ended follow-up question, several reasons
were given by those who were anticipating an in-
crease, including one respondent who commented Non-coverage of ethics
that the department is now recognising the im-
portance of ethics in accounting. The most Although they were not asked as many questions,
common reason cited for the amount of ethics respondents who did not claim to address ethical
remaining the same was that there was too little issues were asked to give some background
time or space in the curriculum for the topic to explanation of their position. A large majority
have anything but brief consideration, with one (88.8%) reported that ethics had never been

# Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2002 57

 Volume 11 Number 1 January 2002
................................................................................................
Table 5. Reasons for Non-Inclusion
No major ethical issues
Covered elsewhere
Not enough time
Students not interested
Would have no impact on students
Lack of staff interest
Lack of necessary skills
Shortage of support materials
Better covered in professional training
Other
n = 125
................................................................................................
formally considered for inclusion in any of their
teaching. Table 5 summarises the reasons given for
not including ethical issues.
The demands on time in the curriculum stand
out, again, as the most important reason for the
non-inclusion of ethics. Mintz (1990) also found
that curriculum constraints were given as the most
common reason (38.8%). In contrast, Cummins
(1999) found that the most common reason for
not teaching business ethics was a lack of qualified
teachers. The lack of necessary skills was still of
some significance in the current survey, but it was
ticked by only a fifth of the relevant respondents.
It is interesting to note that lack of staff interest
features more strongly as an inhibiting factor
than does lack of student interest. This might
derive from an aversion amongst accountants to
soft topics such as ethics, or it might reflect a
more widespread problem in business schools
of a technical, scientifically-inspired regimen
(Donaldson 1994: 4) in pursuit of academic re-
spectability (Cowton 1998).
The only factor cited more frequently than lack
of necessary skills in the current survey was that
respondents considered that ethics was covered in
other modules. This might give some cause for
optimism when compared with the figures in
Table 2, since it seems that students are being
exposed to ethics in their studies, even if a par-
ticular management accounting lecturer does not
cover ethics him- or herself. However, respondents
58
were asked to specify where this occurred, and
the modules cited included accounting modules
No. % such as auditing and financial reporting which,
11 8.8 although of some relevance, do not address man-
38 30.4 agement accounting issues. Furthermore, many
69 55.2 were business ethics or similarly titled modules,
13 10.4 which students might find difficult to relate to
2 1.6 many aspects of management accounting, par-
21 16.8 ticularly if the management accounting lecturer
25 20.0 does not make any room even for implicit treat-
22 17.6 ment of ethics.
22 17.6 On a more positive note, at least these re-
14 11.2 spondents generally did not blame lack of student
interest for the neglect of ethics. Most of the
lecturers did not even think that there were no
major issues in management accounting but that
might leave one wondering why they do not then
cover ethics. Perhaps they will in the future.
Although the majority of these respondents had
not formally considered including ethics in their
teaching, when asked if they would consider
including an ethical element in the future almost
half (45.4%) said that they would (28.1% said that
they would not, 26.5% said that they didnt know).
Those respondents who stated that they would
consider doing so were then asked, by means of an
open-ended question, what would need to happen
for them to include ethics. Several factors were
cited, the most common of which were: revision of
syllabus/module content (17), more teaching time
(11), ethics required for accreditation (10), and
improved support materials (6). The latter reason
is an interesting one because, of the academic
journal literature relating to accounting ethics, a
surprisingly small proportion deals with manage-
ment accounting, and management accounting
textbooks devote little or no space to ethical
issues.2
Some of the factors mentioned by the negative
respondents echo those raised by lecturers who do
cover ethics particularly the issue of time. It is
also striking that most of the respondents dis-
cussed in this section had been involved in no
formal consideration of the possibility of intro-
ducing an ethical element into the teaching of
management accounting, but many were open to
doing so. Perhaps the questionnaire survey itself
will act as a prompt to putting ethics on the
# Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2002
 Business Ethics: A European Review
agenda: one respondent said that formerly they
had not considered it important, will think about
it now; and another stated that they had never
considered including ethical issues as a specific
topic in a management accounting course this
survey makes me think about this a little more.
Discussion
The picture that emerges from the questionnaire
survey is one of limited coverage of ethics in
management accounting modules. Only a minor-
ity of lecturers claim to deal with ethics in their
teaching of management accounting, some expli-
citly, some only implicitly. Although some re-
spondents who do not cover ethics thought that it
was covered elsewhere, it seems unlikely that those
modules deal specifically with management ac-
counting issues such as those identified by Fisher
and Lovell (2000) though a general business
ethics course or some treatment in another area of
accounting might be of some use. The omission of
ethical issues from most management accounting
modules is likely to reinforce the view that it is
merely a neutral, technical activity in the control
of enterprises (Burchell et al. 1980), which is
particularly worrying given its importance in the
control of British organisations, not only in the
private sector (Armstrong 1985, 1987) but in-
creasingly also in the public sector (Power and
Laughlin 1992).
Lecturers who include ethics in their teaching of
management accounting particularly those who
do so explicitly appear to be a pioneering
minority, expressing a personal interest in the
subject. The pattern of findings points towards the
role of enthusiasm on the part of individual
academics, which Cummins (1999) identifies as
important for the recent spread of business ethics
teaching.3 Whether such enthusiasm, or even just
willingness, is more widespread is likely to affect
the potential for ethics to become more common
in the teaching of management accounting.
Some lecturers who do address ethics thought
that they would do so more within the next five
years. Furthermore, the survey also tentatively
identified some openness to the inclusion of ethics
# Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2002
on the part of lecturers who do not currently
provide any coverage. However, if the explicit
teaching of ethics in management accounting were
to become more widespread, at least two things
would help greatly.
First, lecturers would benefit from improved
support material, in particular in the textbooks on
the subject, most of which provide insufficient
material on which to base a session on ethics.
Adequate coverage in popular textbooks would
provide lecturers with material and ideas, thus
increasing their confidence to address ethical
issues. The inclusion of such sections might also
act as a prompt to include ethics in the first place,
particularly for those lecturers who follow a text-
book relatively closely in planning their teaching.
Second, space needs to be found in the
curriculum/timetable. Rightly or wrongly, many
respondents claim to be under such pressure, with
so much other material to cover, that little or no
time can be devoted to ethics. This is likely to be
more of a problem in accounting than in many
other areas of business and management studies
because of the influence of course accreditation by
professional bodies upon the content of degree
programmes.
However, if the professional bodies require-
ments for accreditation are a significant negative
influence on the time available for ethics at
present, that also opens up the prospect of a route
for promoting ethics in management accounting
teaching in the future. Based on his empirical
survey work, Cummins (1999) judged that pro-
fessional bodies (not just accountants) were gener-
ally not doing a very good job at educating their
students and members in ethics, notwithstanding
the contents of their formal mission statements
and the promulgation of codes of conduct. How-
ever, if the accounting profession were to take
significant steps to promote ethics education and
training for its students, perhaps in response to the
wider business ethics movement currently gaining
ground in the business world, the situation in
universities might be transformed quite quickly
through the accreditation link, stimulating the
production of appropriate support materials. This
might seem like an infringement of academic free-
dom or university autonomy, but it would merely
59
 Volume 11 Number 1 January 2002
be adding an ethical dimension to the current pre-
scriptions of the profession for the accreditation of
degrees. Without such a powerful disturbance it is
difficult to imagine ethics in management account-
ing remaining anything other than a marginal issue
addressed by a minority of lecturers.
Conclusion
The research drawn upon in this paper represents
the first comprehensive survey of the coverage of
ethics in management accounting teaching in
universities and similar institutions in the British
Isles.4 In describing the extent of such coverage
which was found to be very limited the current
paper complements other research which has
investigated the amount of general business ethics
teaching in business schools and equivalent
departments. The paper also explores some of the
factors surrounding the current state and possible
future development of management accounting
ethics teaching. It is suggested that two issues of
particular significance are the pressure on time
available to teach ethics, especially given the per-
ceived influence of professional accounting bodies,
and the availability of published resources to sup-
port lecturers and students.
In addition to its own substantive contribution
to the emerging picture of business ethics teaching,
broadly construed, we hope that this paper might
stimulate further research which investigates the
inclusion of ethical issues in specialist subject areas
within business and management studies.
Notes
1. Chi-square tests on early and late responses found
no statistically significant differences. Similarly,
comparison of respondent characteristics with
known sample characteristics and with the demo-
graphic details of the average UK accounting
academic as described by Gray and Helliar (1994)
indicated no cause for concern over non-response
bias. Details are available from the first-named
author.
2. These points are based on a review of the academic
literature on accounting ethics, which cannot be
60
covered here for reasons of space. Details are
available from the first-named author.
3. The authors intend to analyse these pioneers in
greater depth in a subsequent paper, using the
responses to some of the other questions in the
questionnaire, supplemented with interview data.
4. It is also one of the few worldwide: the only
comparable survey we are aware of is Mintz (1990).
A future paper will focus on more detailed issues
likely to be of interest to a specialist accounting
audience.
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