Ethical Sensitivity of Accountants: An investigation of

influence of religiosity on ethical decision making of Nigerian

Accountants

Mustafa, Murtala Oladimeji Abioye

Taibat. A. Atoyebi
and
Ishaq F. Musa

ABSTRACT

Using survey methodology, we investigated the relationship between religiosity,

ethical problem recognition and ethical behavioural intention in a sample of 204
Nigeria accountants. Results of the study suggest that religiosity is a good
predictor of perception of ethical problem recognition and ethical behavioural
intention. The study also provides evidence on independent relationship between
ethical problem recognition and ethical behavioural intention.. The findings have
implication on curriculum development in Nigeria.

KEY WORDS: Religiosity, Ethical problem recognition, Ethical behavioural

intention, Curriculum development

INTRODUCTION

There is a general assumption that religiously conscious people will eschew

unethical behaviour. This is based on the belief that all revealed religions teach
moral values that form the foundation for ethical behaviour. However, an
incidence of successive high profile financial scandals involving prominent chief
executive officers who are outspoken religious individuals has raised a serious
doubt as to the veracity of this notion (Emerson and Mckinney, 2010). Moreover,
there is no unanimity on the effect of religion on ethical decision-making.
 Many studies did not find strong support for a positive relationship
between religion and ethical decision-making (Clark and Dawson, 1996; Agle and
Buren, 1999; Brammer, Williams and Zinkin, 2006; Kurpis, Beqiri and Helgeson
2008). On the other hand, there are studies that find positive relationship between
religiosity and ethical sensitivity (Terpstra, Rozell and Robinson, 1993; Smith and
Oakley, 1996; Kennedy and Lawton, 1998; Bloodgood, Turnley and Mudrack,
2008; Parboteeah, Hoegl and Cullen, 2008; Conroy and Emerson, 2004; Alteer,
Yahya and Haron, 2013).
1
Emerson T.L. and Mckinney J.A., “Importance of Religious Beliefs to Ethical Attitudes in
Business,” Journal of Religion and Business Ethics. Vol.1 (2010): 1-15.
2
Clark, J. W. and L. E. Dawson, “Personal Religiousness and Ethical Judgments: An Empirical
Analysis,” Journal of Business Ethics 15(3), (1996): 359-372.
3
Bradley R. Agle and Harry J. Van Buren, “God and Mammon: The Modern Relationship,”
Business Ethics Quarterly 9 (1999): 563-82.
4
Brammer, S. J., Geoffrey A. Williams and John Zinkin,“Religion and Attitudes to Corporate
Social Responsibility in a Large Cross-Country Sample,” Journal of Business Ethics 71 43,
(2006): p. 235.
5
Kurpis, L.V , M.S. Beqiri and Helgeson J. G., “The Effects of Commitment to Moral Self-
improvement and Religiosity on Ethics of Business Students,” Journal of Business Ethics 80
(2008): 447–463.
6
Patricia L. Smith and Ellwood F. Oakley, “The Value of Ethics Education in Business School
Curriculum,” College Student Journal 30 (1996): 274-83.
7
Bloodgood, J. M., Turnley, W. H., and Mudrack, P., “The influence of ethics instruction,
religiosity, and intelligence on cheating behaviour,” Journal of Business Ethics, 82(3), (2008): 557
- 571.
8
Parboteeah, K.P, Hoegl, M. and Cullen, J.B., “Ethics and Religion: An Empirical Test of a
Multidimensional Model,” Journal of Business Ethics 80 (2008): 387–398.
9
Stephen J. Conroy and Tisha L. N. Emerson, “Business Ethics and Religion: Religiosity as a
Predictor of Ethical Awareness among Students,” Journal of Business Ethics 50 (2004): 383-96.
10
Alteer, A.M., Sofri Bin Yahya, S and Haron,H., “Religiosity and Auditors' Ethical Sensitivity at
Different Levels of Ethical Climate: A Conceptual Link,” American Journal of Economics, 3(5C)
(2013): 119-124.

The inconclusive nature of the findings makes further studies in this area
worthwhile. Considering the complexity of the entire global system, the volume
of activities in the financial market and the rate of innovation in the market, it is
inconceivable to rely on only regulation for the control of opportunistic behaviour
in both financial and other markets. It is, therefore, a worthwhile exercise to gain
an in-depth understanding on how religion may influence ethical behaviour in a
market-based economy.
 Despite the importance of the relationship between religion and ethical
decision-making to an economy, ethics researchers in Nigeria are yet to pay a
required attention to it (Ameh and Odusami, 2010; Akadakpo and Enofe, 2013;
Adeyanju, 2014; Akenbor and Tennyson, 2014; Enofe, Ekpulu, Onobun, and
Onyeokweni, 2015; Babayanju, Animasaun, and Sanyaolu, 2017; Arowoshegbe,
Uniamikogbo and Atu, 2017 and Atoyebi, Mustafa and Mobolaji, 2018). In
response to the gap, the current study examines the effect of religiosity on ethical
decision-making of Nigerian accountants.

11
Ameh, J.O and Odusami, K.T., “Nigerian building professionals’ ethical ideology and perceived
ethical judgement,” Australasian Journal of Construction Economics and Building, 10 (3) (2010):
1-13.
12
Akadakpo, B. A. and Enofe, A. O., “Impact of Accounting Ethics on the Practice of Accounting
Profession In Nigeria,” IOSR Journal of Business and Management. Volume 12, Issue 1, (2013):
PP 45-51.
13
Adeyanju, O. D., “Code of Ethics and Professionalism: Implication for Bank Failure in Nigeria,”
Research Journal of Finance and Accounting,” Vol.5, (2014): No.19.
14
Cletus O. Akenbor, C.O and Tennyson, O., “Ethics of Accounting Profession in Nigeria,”
Journal of Business and Economics, Volume 5, No. 8, (2014): pp. 1374-1382.
15
Enofe, A. O., Ekpulu, G. A., Onobun, S. and Onyeokweni, V. O., “Ethical Challenges and
Financial Performance in the Nigerian Banking Sector,” Research Journal of Finance and
Accounting Vol.6, (2015): No.10.
16
Babayanju A.A., Animasaun, R.O. and Sanyaolu, W.A., “Financial Reporting and Ethical
Compliance: The Role of Regulatory Bodies in Nigeria,” Account and Financial Management
Journal, Volume 2 Issue 2, (2017): 600-616.
17
Arowoshegbe, A.O., Uniamikogbo, E. and Atu, G., “Accounting Ethics and Audit Quality in
Nigeria,” Asian Journal of Economics, Business and Accounting 4(2), (2017): 1-15.
18
Atoyebi, T.A. Mustafa, M.O.A. and Mobolaji, M.A., “An Assessment of Ethical Sensitivity of
Professional Accountants in Nigeria,” Business and Management Studies, Vol.4, No1, (2018): Pp
96-104.

A number of components of ethical decision-making have been developed.

Rest (1986) ethical decision-making model comprising of four components is
regarded as widely applied and validated (Lehnert, Park and Singh, 2014). Of all
the components of Rest (model), only links between moral judgement and moral
intent have received reasonable attention of ethics researchers (O'Fallon and
Butterfield, 2005). Impliedly, an insufficient consideration is given to ethical
problem recognition and ethical behaviour. This study also attempts to fill this
gap by investigating the links between ethical problem recognition, ethical
behavioural intention, and religiosity.
 Findings from this study should be useful to capital market regulators,
policy makers in the area of moral education and strategic planning against
corruption in the country. Unlike an independent relationship between
components propounded by Rest (1986), the study provides evidence for a
dependent relationship between problem recognition and behavioural intention.
The use of Nigerian sample, adds to the body of literature on ethical decision-
making because nationality is found to have an impact on ethical sensitivity
(Janet, Christina and Steven, 2008). In addition, the study will create a path for
future research.
The remainder of the study is structured as follows: Section two reviews
relevant literature on descriptive ethics while section three explains the conceptual
framework for the study. Details of methods involved in data collection are
detailed in section four. Results are presented in section five while section six
focuses on the discussion of findings and conclusion.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The review focuses on the theoretical foundation for the study, the relationship
between religiosity, ethical problem recognition and ethical behavioural intention
within the ethical decision-making context with a view to highlighting the
importance of these variables. A review of empirical studies on ethics in Nigeria
is used to establish the research gap in the existing work on ethics in Nigerian.

Rest Model of Moral Behaviour

The theoretical foundation of this study is Rest’s (1986) model. It is undeniably
one of the most used ethical models in research on business ethics (Lehnert, Park
19
Rest, J. R., “Moral Development: Advances in Research and Theory” (1986):(New York:
Praeger).
20
Lehnert, K. Park, Y. and Singh, N., “Research Note and Review of the Empirical Ethical
Decision –Making Literature: Boundary Conditions and Extensions,” Journal of Business Ethics.
129. (2014): 195-219.
& Singh, 2014). According to Rest, moral behaviour comprises of four
independent components or steps: moral awareness, making moral judgement,
establishing moral intent and engaging in moral behaviour. The fact that moral
awareness and ethical sensitivity, which is defined as ability to recognize the
ethical nature of a decision, are often used interchangeably (Shaub, 1993). Hence,
moral awareness, which is the first step in Rest (1986) model, and ethical
sensitivity are used interchangeably in this paper.
 Renewed interest in spirituality and religion in workplace, in the last two
decades, (Kim, Fisher and McCalman, 2009) has led to a large number of studies
on religion and business ethics. For example, Business Ethics Quarterly devoted a
special issue to the subject of religion and business ethics in 1997 while journal of
management, spirituality, and religion dedicated a significant volume to
investigate the links between religion and business affairs (Emerson and
Mckinney, 2010).

Despite the avalanche of studies on the influence of religion on ethics, findings

are mixed (Hood, Spilka, Hunsberger and Gorsuch, 1996; Weaver and Agle,
2002). The role of religion as a determinant of ethical decision process is,
therefore, revisited in this study. More specifically, this study is based on the
work of Singhapakdi, Marta, Rallapalli and Rao (2000). That is, it investigates the
influence of religion on both ethical problem recognition and ethical behavioural
intention. This is consistent with the call, by O’Fallon and Butterfield (2005), for
more research on the background variables to the components in Rest’s (1986)
model. It also examines the links between the components in the model.

Ethical Problem Recognition on Ethical Behavioural Intention

In the Rest’s (1986) model of ethical decision-making, the first step in the ethical
decision processes is ethical awareness. This step is critical in the ethical
21
Kim, D., Fisher, D. and McCalman, D. J., “Modernism, Christianity, and Business Ethics: A
Worldview Perspective,” Journal of Business Ethics. 90 (2009): 115.
22
Emerson, T.L. and Mckinney, J.A., “Importance of Religious Beliefs to Ethical Attitudes in
Business, Journal of Religion and Business Ethics. Vol. 1, (2). (2010): 1-15.
22
Hood, R. W., B. Spilka, B. Hunsberger and R. Gorsuch, “The Psychology of Religion: An
Empirical Approach” (Guildford Press, New York). (1996)
23
Weaver, G and Agle, B., “Religiosity and ethical behaviour in organizations: A symbolic
interactionist perspective,” Academy of Management Review, Vol. 27, No.1, (2002)
24
Singhapakdi, A., J. K. Marta, K. C. Rallapalli and C. P. Rao., ‘Toward and Understanding of
Religiousness and Marketing Ethics: An Empirical Study,” Journal of Business Ethics 27(4), 305–
319.
25
O’Fallon, M. J., and Butterfield, K. D., “A review of the empirical ethical decision making
literature: 1996–2003. Journal of Business Ethics. 59(4), (2005): 375–413.

decision-making process because an individual should be able to perceive the

existence of an ethical dilemma before he or she will engage in a process such as
ethical judgement. Indeed, if the individual does not perceive an existence of
ethical issue in a situation, subsequent components of the ethical decision-making
model will not come into play (Hunt and Vitell, 1986).
 Ethical problem recognition has been defined differently in literature. For
instance, Butterfield et al (2000) define it as “a person’s recognition that potential
action could affect the welfare or expectation of the self or other in a fashion that
may conflict with one or more ethical standards”. Bebeau et al (1985) assert that it
involves awareness that something one might do or is doing can affect the welfare
of someone else by violating a general practice of commonly held social
standards. Shaub, et al. (1993) define it as the “ability to recognize the ethical
nature of a decision”.

Unlike ethical problem recognition, Singhapakdi et al. (2000) define

ethical behavioural intention as the likelihood that any particular alternative will
be chosen. It differs from the second step (which is the analyzing of the ethical
issue, by an individual, using his or her cognitive abilities to make a moral
judgment whether a proposed action is ethical or not. Ethical behavioural
intention involves consideration of various factors such as organisational pressure
or the opinions of significant others before intention is established. Singhapakdi et
al. (2000) are the first to investigate the relationship among religion, ethical
problem recognition and ethical behavioural intention (Kurpis, Beqiri and
Helgeson, 2007). They found positive relationship between religion, ethical
problem recognition and ethical behavioural intention.

A Review of Empirical Studies on Ethics in Nigeria

Although most studies on descriptive ethics were based on theoretical models
developed in mid 1980s, a reasonable proportion of studies on ethics in Nigeria
focused on ethical ideologies of professionals and impact of professional codes of
ethics on practices. (Ameh and Odusami, 2010; Adeyemi and Fagbemi, 2011;
26
Kurpis, L.V , M.S. Beqiri and .J. G. Helgeson., “The Effects of Commitment to Moral Self-
improvement and Religiosity on Ethics of Business Students,” Journal of Business Ethics. 80
(2007): 447–46
26
Butterfield K. D.,Trevino, L.K. and Weaver, G.R., “Moral Awareness in Business
Organizations: Influences of Issue-Related And Social Context Factors' Human Relations” 53(7),
(2000): 981-1018.
27
Bebeau M. J., Rest, J.R. and Yamoor, C.M., “Measuring dental students' ethical sensitivity,”
Journal of Dental Education. 49, (1985): pp. 225-235
28
Adeyemi S. B. and Fagbemi, T.O., “The perception of ethics in auditing profession in Nigeria,”
Journal of Accounting and Taxation. Vol. 5(7), (2011): pp. 146-157.

Akadakpo and Enofe, 2013; David, 2014; Akenbor and Tennyson, 2014; Enofe,
Ekpulu, Onobun and Onyeokweni, 2015; Babayanju, Animasaun; Sanyaolu, 2017
and Atoyebi, Mustafa and Mobolaji, 2018).
 Ameh and Odusami (2010) examined ethical ideologies of building
professionals using ethical position questionnaires (EPQ). They discovered
situationism as dominant ethical ideology of professionals in the building sector.
Adeyemi and Fagbemi (2011) examined the perception of ethics in the Nigerian
auditing profession. Their findings indicate that there is no difference in the
perception among professionals as to ethical standards and the need to shape the
views of new entrants into the profession. The effect of ethical values on the
practice of accounting profession was examined by Akadakpo and Enofe (2013).
They found that policies and rules in individual company affect practices while
religion has a low influence on the ethical practices of accountants. Using survey
method, David (2014) investigated banks’ failures. They found that the majority
of the failures were due to factors such as an insider abuse on lending, economic
instability and lending to high risk customers.
Akenbor and Tennyson (2014), on the other hand, examined the degree of
the adoption of ethics in accounting among Nigerian accountants and also
explored the factors influencing the adoption. They found the adoption of ethical
standards to be low, and attributed the low level of adoption to greediness,
pressure from employers, price of ethical behaviour, poor societal value, lack of
complete information and self deception.
Babayanju, Animasaun and Sanyaolu (2017) investigated the role of
regulatory bodies in relation to financial reporting and ethical compliance in
Nigeria. Unlike other studies, Atoyebi, Mustafa and Mobolaji, (2018) investigated
the impact of professional commitment, organisational commitment, idealistic and
relativist ethical orientation on ethical sensitivity of Nigerian Accountants. From
the review, it is clear that Nigerian ethics researchers are yet to pay the desired
attention to evaluation of the usability of Rest’s framework to gain insight into
ethical decision-making studies.

Furthermore, there has been no evidence of a study that investigated

Rest’s model in its entirety (O’Fallon and Butterfield, 2005). Majority of the
studies that have examined the link between two or more of the components have
concentrated on moral judgement and moral intent (O’Fallon and Butterfield,
2005). In their review of literature, O’Fallon and Butterfield (2005) observed that

ethical problem recognition and ethical behavioural intention were considered to

have respectively received the least and moderate attention of researchers out of
the four components proposed by Rest (1986). Although there appears to be a
reasonable response to the call made by O’Fallon and Butterfield (2005), none of
the studies was carried out in Nigeria (Craft, 2013; Lehnert, et,al, 2014). This
study is to bridge the gap in the ethical literature.
HYPOTHESES DEVELOPMENT
Intuitively, ethics and religion are related. Religion is generally considered as a
determinant of the moral values that lay foundation for ethical standards
(Singhapakdi, Hoegl and Cullen, 2007). Most of majority world revealed religions
teach that an omniscient God observes human actions and holds people
accountable for their actions. It is logical to assume that followers of these
religions would not tolerate unethical behaviour. A number of studies have found
support for the positive influence of religion on ethical problem recognition and
behavioural intention (Hunt and Vitell, 1993; Singhapakdi et al., 2000; Weaver
and Agle, 2002; Kurpis et al. 2007). Hunt and Vitell (1993) stated that a
marketer’s ethical perceptions will be influenced by his or her religiousness.
According to Weaver and Agle, religion influences ethical sensitivity and action
through religious self identity. Although evidence may exist that the importance
people ascribe to their religious identity often differs, people who attach
extremely high importance to their religious identity are likely to favour ethical
behaviour because of the likely emotional discomfort they may suffer if they do
otherwise.

Similarly, despite the observation by Allport and Ross (1967) on the

differences in motive behind people’s action and their classification of religious
people into intrinsic (people who see their religion as central to their existence
and attempt to set framework for all areas of their lives even when adherence to
the tenets of the religion may involve costs) and extrinsic (persons who tend to
look at religion in terms of its usefulness in making social contacts, material
benefits and security). Persons with intrinsic orientation are expected to uphold,
more strictly, the ethical standards arising out of their religion. Based on the
above, the first and second hypotheses are proposed thus:
29
Craft J.I., “A Review of the Empirical Ethical Decision-Making Literature: 2004 - 2011,”
Journal of Business Ethics. (117) (2013): 221–259.
30
Singhapakdi K.P. Hoegl, M. and Cullen, J.B., “Ethics and Religion: An Empirical Test of a
Multidimensional Model,” Journal of Business Ethics 80 (2007):387–398

H1 There is a positive relationship between religiosity and ethical

problem recognition
H2 There is a positive relationship between religiosity and ethical
behavioural intention
Although Rest (1986) proposed a model of moral action and asserted that the four
components were independent, research findings have suggested a possible
relationship among the components. For example, in his synthesis of models of
ethical decision-making, Jones (1991) came up with a model that proposed ethical
intention as moderator between ethical judgement and ethical behavioural
intention. Similarly, Barnett, Bass and Brown (1996) found a positive link
between ethical problem recognition and behavioural intention. In the light of the
above, the third hypothesis is proposed thus:
H3 There is a positive relationship between ethical problem
recognition and ethical behavioural intention.

METHODOLOGY
Participants
A total of 250 experienced accountants were purposely selected. Of the 250 tested
questionnaires administered, only 211 of them were considered useful. Since the
importance of experience on ethical behaviour has been emphasized (Ford and
Richardson, 1994)., the sample used was limited to working class students and
staff of the University where the study was conducted. In terms of sample
demographics, 35.1% were male. 69.2% of the respondents were between 31 and
40 years old. Based on religious orientation, the respondents were respectively
grouped into 49.8% Muslims and 50.2% Christians.

In general, the respondents appear to be highly educated, with 53.1% having a

minimum of second degree. More than 78% of the respondents have more than
5years of working experience. The demographic profile of the participants is
presented in Table I.
Measure and Questionnaire Development
The measures used in this research were adapted from a prior studies to suit the
particular study objectives and context. Multiple items were drafted for each
construct based on an extensive review of the relevant literature. A brief
description of the operationalized constructs is given as follow:
31
Barnett T., Bass, K and Brown, “Religiosity, ethical ideology, and intentions to report a peer's
wrongdoing,” Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 15, Issue 11, (1996): pp 1161–1174.
32
Ford R. and W. Richardson., “Ethical Decision Making: A Review of the Empirical Literature,”
Journal of Business Ethics 13, (1994): 205–221
Measures
Three variables, religiosity, ethical problem recognition and ethical behavioural
intention, were tested in this study. For religiosity, the scale used by Skarmeas,
and Shabbir (2011) was adapted while scales used by Singhapakdi et al. (2000)
were adapted for ethical problem recognition and ethical behavioural intention.
Table 1
Demographic characteristics of respondents (n = 211)
Characteristics Percentages
Gender
Male 35.1%
Female 64.9%
Age
20-30yrs 16.1%
31-40yrs 69..2%
Above40yrs 14.7%
Religious Orientation
Muslim 49.8%
Christian 50,2%
Qualification
First Degree 46.9%
Second Degree 37.9%
Above Second Degree 15.2%
Work Experience
Below 5yrs 21.8%
5yrs 6.6%
Above 5yrs 71.6%

Religiosity
Many of the earlier research viewed religiosity as a one dimensional concept,
measured by church attendance and membership. Later researchers have,
however, observed a serious limitation in such a conceptualisation of religiosity.
They see religion as a multidimensional construct. (Allport, 1967; Benson, 1981;
Wilkes, Burnett and Howell 1986; Singhapakdi et al., 2000; Skarmeas, and
Shabbir, 2011).This study adapted the scale used by Skarmeas, and Shabbir
(2011) for religiosity. As a refinement to earlier scale, regularity in religious
meetings was dropped for “strong belief in reward and punishment because
33
Skarmeas, D. and Shabbir, H. A., “Relationship quality and giving behaviour in the UK
fundraising sector: Exploring the antecedent roles of religiosity and self-construal,” European
Journal of Marketing, vol. 45, issue 5. (2011): 720-738.
Benson (1981) concludes that one can go to church and still be a hypocrite. Also,
Islam and Christianity teach adherents that an omniscient God observes human
actions and will reward them for their actions (Emerson and Mckinney 2010).
More specifically, the dimension used to measure religiosity in this study included
belief in existence of God, importance of value of belief in God, strong belief in
reward and punishment and regularity of worship. This scale was considered more
appropriate because of the religious mix of the respondents. Each of these
dimensions was measured using one item on a six-point Likert scale. Items used
to measure these dimensions are: “I strongly belief in the existence of God”;
“The world will be a better place if everybody believes in the existence of God”;
“I worship God regularly”; “ I strongly believe in reward and punishment after
death”. A reliability analysis of religiosity scale suggests that the scale is reliable
with coefficient alpha value of 0.93.

Ethical problem recognition and ethical behavioural intention

These constructs were operationalized in line with the views of Vitell and Hunt
(1990) and Singhapakdi and Vitell (1990). For ethical problem recognition,
respondents were asked if each scenario has any ethical content. In line with
Kurpis et.al (2007), they were specifically asked to express a degree of agreement
with the following statement “Generally speaking, the situation described {in the
scenario} involves an ethical problem”. The responses were measured on a six-
point Likert scale, where 1 = Strongly Disagree, 2=Moderately Disagree,
3=Slightly Disagree, 4= Slightly Agree, 5= Moderately Agree and 6 = Strongly
Agree. A high score, therefore, indicates perception of an ethical problem.
Although, the adapted scales were used for professional marketers, they were
considered applicable for this study because the respondents were experienced
accountants.
Respondents’ ethical intentions were measured using the same scenarios, to which
they responded by registering their degree of likelihood regarding the statement,
“I would act in the same manner as [the actor] did in the above scenario.” The
scenarios are examples of behaviours that are considered unethical (e.g.,
misrepresentation, withholding of vital information), so likelihood to act in same

34
Benson, M. (1981). Skeptical Essays, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
35
Wilkes, R. E., John B and Howell R.D., “On the Meaning and Measurement of Religiosity in
Consumer Research,” Journal of Academy of Marketing Science 14 (1986): (Spring): 47–55.
36
Vitell, Scott J. and Shelby D. Hunt: (1990), “The General Theory of Marketing Ethics: A Partial
Test of the Model’, in Jagdish N. Sheth (ed.),” Research in Marketing, Vol. 10 (JAI Press,
Greenwich, CT), (1986): pp. 237–265.

way indicates low ethical intentions. Consistent with Singhapakdi and Vitell
(1990), this research measures ethical intention on a six-point Likert scale (1 =
Extremely unlikely , 2= Moderately unlikely, 3=Slightly unlikely,4= Slightly
likely,5= Moderately likely and 6 = Extremely likely), so a high score indicates
unethical intention. According to the Hunt and Vitell model (1986), ethical
intention is the last construct before behaviour.
RESULTS
Correlation among variables:
Table II presents the result of the correlation analysis. The result indicates a
positive correlation between religiosity and ethical problem recognition as well as
ethical behavioural intention. It also indicates a correlation between ethical
problem recognition and ethical behavioural intention.

TABLE II
Correlation
RELGSTY ETHPROB EBINT
RELGSTY: Pearson
1 .561 .853
Correlation
.000 .000
Sig. (2- tailed)
211 211 211
N
ETHPROB: Pearson .586
561 1
Correlation .000
.000 .000
Sig. (2- tailed) 211
211 211
N
EBINT: Pearson .853 586 1
Correlation .000 .000 .000
Sig. (2- tailed) 211 211 211
N
RELGSTY: Religiosity
ETHPROB: Ethical Problem Recognition
EBINT: Ethical Behavioural Intention

Religiosity and ethical problem recognition

Multiple regression analysis was used to test the first hypothesis. (H 1). Although
Kurpis et al (2007) used simple regression in their study, the inclusion of
demographic variables by (Singhapakdi et al., 2000) in their model to account for
the differences due to the personal attributes was considered more appropriate.
Therefore, two demographic variables (gender and religious orientation) were
included in the model used for this study. The regression results in Table III
reveal that religiosity is a significant predictor of ethical problem recognition (p<
0.001). The beta coefficient suggests that religiosity positively influences ethical
problem recognition. Therefore, H1 is supported. Religiosity explains 32.8% of
variation in ethical problem recognition. Although gender is significant at p<
0.01, the influence is very low. The religious orientation, on the other hand, is
insignificant. The results indicate that a highly religious accountant will tend to
recognise ethical issues in business situations.
TABLE III
Ethical problem recognition as dependent Variable
F= Significant F <
Adjusted R2 = 0.328
33.74 0.001
Variables Beta t P
Religiosity 0.578 9.994 0.000
Gender 0.107 1.841 0.067
Religious orientation 0.064 1.119 0.264
Gender: Male=1, Female=0
Religious orientation: Muslims =1, Christian =0

Religiosity and ethical behavioural intention

Multiple regression was used to test the second hypothesis (H 2). The regression
results in Table IV show that religiosity is a significant predictor of ethical
behavioural intention (p<0.001). Given the beta coefficient of 0.848, religiosity
appears to have a very strong influence on ethical behavioural intention. Indeed, it
explains 72.8% of variation in ethical behavioural intention. Therefore, H2 is
supported. It is noteworthy to say that the positive beta coefficient was due to
recoding of the responses. The result actually shows that accountants with a high
intrinsic religious orientation have low willingness to act unethically. Gender and
religious orientations have no significant influence on ethical behavioural
intention.
TABLE IV
Ethical behavioural intention as dependent Variable
Significant F <
Adjusted R2 = 0.728 F = 184.70
0.001
Variables Beta t P
Religiosity 0.848 23.061 0.000
Gender -0.023 -0.631 0.529
Religious orientation 0.020 0.538 0.591
TABLE V
Ethical behavioural intention as dependent Variable
F= Significant F <
Adjusted R2 = 0.364
40.983 0.001
Variables Beta t P
Ethical problem recognition 0.587 10.643 0.000
Gender -0.172 -3.110 0.002
 Religious orientation -0.016 0.282 0.778

Ethical problem recognition and ethical behavioural intention

Multiple regression was used to test this hypothesis (H3). It predicts a significant
influence of perception of ethical problem recognition on perception of ethical
behavioural intention. Given the beta coefficient of 0.587, as shown in Table V, it
reveals that perception of ethical problem recognition is a significant predictor of
perception of ethical behavioural intention (p<0.001). It explains 36.4% of
variation in ethical behavioural intention. Therefore, H3 is supported. This result is
contrary to the proposition made by Rest (1986) that the four ethical processes in
his model are independent. Although the effect of gender is significant (p<0.002),
the influence is very low. The impact of religious orientation on ethical
behavioural intention, on the other hand, is insignificant.

Discussion and conclusions

The results of this study reveal that religiosity is positively related to respondents’
ability to recognise ethical problem and to establish ethical intention as
hypothesized. This suggests that accountants who are committed to their religious
teachings are more likely to identify ethical issues in business transactions easily
and may be unfavourably disposed to unethical business activities. These results
agree with findings from a section of previous studies (for instance, Terpstra,
Rozell and Robinson, 1993; Smith and Oakley, 1996; Kennedy and Lawton,
1998; Bloodgood, Turnley and Mudrack, 2008; Parboteeah, Hoegl and Cullen,
2008;Conroy and Emerson, 2004; Alteer, Yahya and Haron, 2013).

Weaver and Agle (2002) gave an insightful rationale for the influence of
religion on ethical decision making. According to them, religion can have an
influence on the decision- making stages in Rest (1986) model. The moral
teachings of a religion help believers to inculcate role expectation in line with the
religious teachings. When role expectation has developed into a person’s religious
self identity, it works to influence all stages of ethical decision- making.

Although the influence of religion on ethical decision processes in this

paper is high, the result should be taken with caution since people differ in the
importance they ascribe to their religious identity. Persons who attach high
importance to religious identity are likely to suffer emotional discomfort if they
depart from the ethical teachings of their religion and are likely to adhere more
strictly to ethical standards. This may not be the case for those who attach low
importance to their religious identity.
 Like religiosity, the influence of ethical problem recognition on ethical
behavioural intention is positive and significant. In effect, the ability of the
respondents to recognise ethical problem has an effect on their ability to establish
ethical intention. This finding is inconsistent with the proposition of Rest (1986)
in his model. According to him, each stage in the decision- making steps is
independent of the other.

The current results that establish linkages between religiosity, ethical

problem recognition and ethical behavioural intentions of accountants have many
implications. Given the positive relationship between religiousness and different
components of ethicality in accounting and auditing contexts as revealed in this
research, one may project that as religious awareness and practices increase in a
society, ethicality of behaviours of accountants is likely to increase too.

Implied from the results, accountants’ ethics depends on individual

religiousness. This extension raises a serious concern in a country like Nigeria
which ranks very low in corruption index despite the level of people’s outward
religious activities at homes and at work places. It may appear that Nigeria has
more extrinsic religious people who engage in religious practices for material
benefits alone (Allport and Ross, 1967).

Potential limitations to this study include, first, the use of marketing

scenarios which can be criticized on the grounds that they may not perfectly
represent accounting real life situations. Future studies may use insiders’ abuse,
creative accounting and similar cases in the scenarios. Second, the use of
perception may be criticized as lower representation of lived experiences. Future
study may limit the respondents to people who have experienced ethical dilemma
in their offices. Third, the study only examined two components in Rest Model.
Future research may test links between three or all the components. While most
studies are quantitative in nature, qualitative study will provide a deeper insight
into our understanding of ethical sensitivity.