Business Commons^™

Post-Scandal Organizational (Dis)Order: A Grounded-Theory Approach Shifting From Murphy’S Law To Safer Regulatory Environments, Jesus R. Jimenez-Andrade, Timothy J. Fogarty, Richard J. Boland

Accounting Faculty Publications

The literature shows that, in the wake of negative media exposition, organizations’ self-regulation tends to be strengthened. We investigate such motivation from the perspective of the psychosocial consequences in executives’ and organizational self-confidence. A grounded-theory approach supports findings from 27 different events described by top-level executives from major publicly traded organizations. Their testimonies document that scandalous episodes, when they occur, leave a trauma footprint within the organizational and individual consciousness because of the perceived post-event humiliation, remorse, guilt, and fear. The paradigm of reliance and trust in the designed structures is severely altered. In turn, a climate of excessive self-regulation …

Living Up To Your Codes? Corporate Codes Of Ethics And The Cost Of Equity Capital, Hong Kim Duong, Marco Fasan, Giorgio Gotti

Accounting Faculty Publications

Purpose-

Previous literature provides mixed evidence about the effectiveness of a code of ethics in limiting managerial opportunism. While some studies find that code of ethics is merely window-dressing, others find that they do influence managers' behavior. The present study investigates whether the quality of a code of ethics decreases the cost of equity by limiting managerial opportunism.

Design/methodology/approach-

In order to test the hypothesis, the authors perform an empirical analysis on a sample of US companies in the 2004–2012 period. The results are robust to a battery of robustness analyses that the authors performed in order to take care …

The Effect Of Professional Identity Salience And Leadership Climate On Accountants' Ethical Decisions, Yin Xu, Karl J. Wang, Doug Ziegenfuss

Accounting Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of contextual factors in organizations on accountants’ ethical decisions. Specifically, the study investigated whether professional identity salience and ethical leadership climate affected accountants’ ethical judgments and intentions to act more ethically. A study is conducted, in a 2 x 2 between-factorial design, by using certified public accountants (N=375) as participants. The findings show that accountants made more ethical judgments when professional identity salience was increased by highlighting the professional code of ethics. Accountants intended to act more ethically only when the leadership climate was positive. The results suggest that a …