The Ethics Perception of Undegraduate Accounting Students

Abstract

Today's society is undergoing a moral crisis that is reported daily by the media in the form of violence, corruption and fraud, among others. In this context, the use of the word moral has been trivial, often with some weak semantics. It is therefore necessary to rehabilitate the exact meaning of the term, as well as its study, that is object of interest of ethics. Thus, the aim was to map the perception of practical and theoretical moral profile of accountants in moral education process. Thereunto, was carried out a quantitative research with accounting undergraduates in a higher education institution through questionnaires,with 232 students, from the perspective of Kantian ethics. The results indicate that students have moral judgments consistent with the expected pattern of future professionals.Those nearer the end of the course show higher learning. However, they show gaps in their education, by not understanding clearly the concept of ethics as well as not knowing the Code of Professional Ethics of Accounting, although they consider it important. The results indicate a tendency to act in accordance with inclinations, injuring the principle of Kant's categorical imperative.