Professional Accountants' Ethical Intent - The Impact Of Job Role Beliefs And Professional Identity

Abstract

Two propositions about the impact of accountants' professional self on decision-making were investigated. The first concerned the impact of job role beliefs on moral intent and the second concerned the relationship between the strenght of professional identity and moral intent. Statistical analysis of survey responses from accounting consultants in Sweden revealed that job role beliefs were significantly related to moral intent but there was no relationship between identity salience and moral intent. The data in the current study indicates that accounting consultants develop tehir own private interpretations of their professional role. Furthermore, they have only weak identification with the profession with low levels on the salience measure of professional identity. There is indication in the data that the accounting consultants believe that they must sometimes deviate from professional obligations as a response to clients' demands.