Matching Items (12)
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- All Subjects: Culture
- All Subjects: ethics
- Creators: School of Accountancy
Description
An ethical dilemma is not a matter of “right” versus “wrong,” but rather it is a situation of conflicting values. A common ethical dilemma is that of honesty versus loyalty—is it better to tell the truth, or remain loyal to the company? In the Japanese culture, truth is circumstantial and can vary with different situations. In a way, the Japanese idea of honesty reflects how highly they value loyalty. This overlap of values results in the lack of an ethical dilemma for the Japanese, which creates a new risk for fraud. Without this struggle, a Japanese employee does not have strong justification against committing fraud if it aligns with his values of honesty and loyalty.
This paper looks at the Japanese values relating to honesty and loyalty to show how much these ideas overlap. The lack of a conflict of values creates a risk for fraud, which will be shown through an analysis of the scandals of two Japanese companies, Toshiba and Olympus. These scandals shine light on the complexity of the ethical dilemma for the Japanese employees; since their sense of circumstantial honesty encourages them to lie if it maintains the harmony of the group, there is little stopping them from committing the fraud that their superiors asked them to commit.
In a global economy, understanding the ways that values impact business and decisions is important for both interacting with others and anticipating potential conflicts, including those that may result in or indicate potential red flags for fraud.
This paper looks at the Japanese values relating to honesty and loyalty to show how much these ideas overlap. The lack of a conflict of values creates a risk for fraud, which will be shown through an analysis of the scandals of two Japanese companies, Toshiba and Olympus. These scandals shine light on the complexity of the ethical dilemma for the Japanese employees; since their sense of circumstantial honesty encourages them to lie if it maintains the harmony of the group, there is little stopping them from committing the fraud that their superiors asked them to commit.
In a global economy, understanding the ways that values impact business and decisions is important for both interacting with others and anticipating potential conflicts, including those that may result in or indicate potential red flags for fraud.
ContributorsTabar, Kelly Ann (Author) / Samuelson, Melissa (Thesis director) / Goldman, Alan (Committee member) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
Financial statements are one of the most important, if not the most important, documents for investors. These statements are prepared quarterly and yearly by the company accounting department, and are then audited in detail by a large external accounting firm. Investors use these documents to determine the value of the company, and trust that the company was truthful in its statements, and the auditing firm correctly audited the company's financial statements for any mistakes in their books and balances. Mistakes on a company's financial statements can be costly. However, financial fraud on the statements can be outright disastrous. Penalties for accounting fraud can include individual lifetime prison sentences, as well as company fines for billions of dollars. As students in the accounting major, it is our responsibility to ensure that financial statements are accurate and truthful to protect ourselves, other stakeholders, and the companies we work for. This ethics game takes the stories of Enron, WorldCom, and Lehman Brothers and uses them to help students identify financial fraud and how it can be prevented, as well as the consequences behind unethical decisions in financial reporting. The Enron scandal involved CEO Kenneth Lay and his predecessor Jeffery Skilling hiding losses in their financial statements with the help of their auditing firm, Arthur Andersen. Enron collapsed in 2002, and Lay was sentenced to 45 years in prison with his conspirator Skilling sentenced to 24 years in prison. In the WorldCom scandal, CEO Bernard "Bernie" Ebbers booked line costs as capital expenses (overstating WorldCom's assets), and created fraudulent accounts to inflate revenue and WorldCom's profit. Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison and lost his title as WorldCom's Chief Executive Officer. Lehman Brothers took advantage of a loophole in accounting procedure Repo 105, that let the firm hide $50 billion in profits. No one at Lehman Brothers was sentenced to jail since the transaction was technically considered legal, but Lehman was the largest investment bank to fail and the only large financial institution that was not bailed out by the U.S. government.
ContributorsPanikkar, Manoj Madhuraj (Author) / Samuelson, Melissa (Thesis director) / Ahmad, Altaf (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The purpose of this thesis is to explore if any correlation exists between the proposed components of happiness with overall self-perceived happiness. This thesis also explores how introversion and extraversion, gender, and working status affects the proposed components of happiness for college students and how their happiness influences engagement, motivation, preference of organizational culture, and the activities that they engage in. This research was gathered from secondary sources and a survey that was given to undergraduate students at Arizona State University. We found that well-being, gratitude, achievement, psychological empowerment, and affection contribute to both extraverts and introverts' happiness. In addition, we found that extraverts reported higher means than introverts in each factor; including happiness in general and what contributes to it. Contrary to popular belief, our research shows that autonomy either had no correlation or negatively correlates with happiness. In addition, we found that both extraverts and introverts participate in social and nonsocial activities rather than solely on their expected type of activity. Our research also shows that females reported higher means than males on gratitude, achievement, and autonomy. One significant implication of this study is that it can help individuals to better understand themselves and people they interact with.
ContributorsVasquez, Delia (Co-author) / Lopez, Miguel (Co-author) / LePine, Marcie (Thesis director) / Arce, Alma (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Supply Chain Management (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor)
Created2014-12
Description
Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit substance in the United States with over two million pounds seized annually and with a usage rate estimated at 19.8 million people in 2013 (SAMSHA, 2014). Currently there is a nationwide movement for the legalization of recreational marijuana via referendum at the state level. Three states and the District of Columbia have already adopted amendments legalizing marijuana and over a dozen more currently have pending ballots. This report explores what would be the impact of legalizing marijuana in Arizona through the examination of data from Colorado and other governmental sources. Using a benefit/cost analysis the data is used to determine what the effect the legalization of marijuana would have in Arizona. I next examined the moral arguments for legalization. Finally I propose a recommendation for how the issue of the legalization of recreational marijuana should be approached in Arizona.
ContributorsDiPietro, Samuel Miles (Author) / Kalika, Dale (Thesis director) / Lynk, Myles (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
The purpose of this honors thesis project is to educate and excite French students on the subject of French films, as well as any person who might be interested in immersing himself/herself in the world of French cinema. This project aims to provide an introduction to French culture through film, and thereby inspire a love of Francophone culture and movies. To accomplish this goal, this honors project will first introduce the differences between French and American films and explain how those differences are based on the underlying culture of the two regions. These differences, in addition to the language barrier, can cause cultural misunderstandings. As a result, these misunderstandings often prevent many Americans from ever experiencing French cinema. The varying history, pacing, writing styles, and gender roles of French and American films can be analyzed to discover each culture's norms and values. Though films often come from a place of imagination, they can also give clues about the life of the society that creates and watches them. After first exploring the history and evolution of cinema in France and America, the project will also analyze the major cinematic differences between the two. Finally, the project contains advice for the reader on film-watching strategies to maximize his/her understanding and enjoyment. Films can serve as a unique and educational lens where viewers can observe cultures in an entertaining environment. When watching foreign films, viewers can hope to gain more insight into the people and the norms of different cultures, and hopefully they will become excited to learn more.
ContributorsSelman, Kaitlyn Michelle (Author) / Poteet, Lesley (Thesis director) / Bahtchevanova, Marianna (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
Description
As an accounting major entering the field of financial auditing, I have learned how important the understanding and knowledge of ethics are. I have also learned how often there are grey areas that can cause a generally honest and ethical person to make a not-so-ethical choice. Due to the prevalence and difficulty of such situations involving ethical matters in the workplace, legislation has been put in place such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the Whistleblower Protection Act. I believe the knowledge of such legislation combined with a knowledge of ethical skepticism can not only better the accounting industry, but better the business industry as a whole. This belief led to conducting this study, which aims to identify the impact of whistleblowing and ethics education on undergraduate business students and their likelihood to blow the whistle and analyze ethically ambiguous scenarios with greater skepticism. Through a survey including true or false questions and ethically ambiguous scenarios to be rated on a Likert scale, data was gathered for analysis. Data was divided into three groups for response comparison: accountancy students with Accounting 360: Ethics for Professional Accountants (ACC 360) complete, accounting students with ACC 360 incomplete, and non-accountancy students without ACC 360. The analysis provided some statistically significant responses where students who had completed an accounting ethics course were more likely to blow the whistle and rate a scenario as unethical over students who had not completed the course. However, following survey analysis and research on prior studies, further research is needed to determine more definitively the impact of such education. The data analysis and overall research collected allowed me to form conclusions on whistleblowing and ethics education in undergraduate studies. With the prevalence of ethical dilemmas and fraudulent behavior in the workplace, such a constructive ethical framework and whistleblowing behavior can be taught to improve the likelihood of blowing the whistle and determining ethical dilemmas as unethical. This leads to the proposal that all business students, not just accountancy students, be required to complete a business ethics course for the betterment of our professional careers.
ContributorsIkuma, Olivia R. (Author) / Call, Andrew (Thesis director) / Cassidy, Nancy (Committee member) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-05
Description
This study examined if Hofstede's cultural dimensions are able to predict the scheme used to commit fraud and the frequency of the scheme. All six of Hofstede's cultural dimensions were applied to 9 different countries across the world. These countries were selected based on the number of fraud cases that were reported in the 2016 Report to the Nations published by the Association for Certified Fraud Examiners. The theory was that Hofstede's Cultural dimensions would be able to predict the scheme that would be used to commit fraud. The results however do not support this hypothesis. There were some significant relationships between some of the schemes and Hofstede's cultural dimensions. However there were some of the schemes that had no significant relationships which could be due to the limitations of this study.
ContributorsGutierrez, Diana (Author) / Dawson, Greg (Thesis director) / Samuelson, Melissa (Committee member) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
At a time when the national and world community is viewing collegiate business programs as complicit in many recent business scandals rooted in ethical violations and breaches of trust, improving ethics education is a high priority. Review of current research on techniques for effectively teaching ethics highlights the importance of incorporating conversational learning, decision models, and relevant, personalized case discussions into undergraduate ethics lessons. Focusing exclusively on ethics education in the first-year business seminar WPC 101, we evaluated the current ethics/academic integrity module and found it to be lacking many research-supported techniques. To develop an updated curriculum, we first used the EthicsGame Ethical Lens Inventory in a survey of 114 W. P. Carey students to explore whether a connection between students' majors and primary ethical lenses would demonstrate the effectiveness of designing different, tailored ethics curricula for students in each major. Regression analysis of the survey responses indicated that this research was inconclusive for every major except for Accountancy, which already has a specific (upper-division) ethics course. This initial research stage led to the creation of a universally applicable ethics curriculum based on the Baird Decision Model. Incorporating techniques from the literature review, the new WPC 101 Academic Honesty & Ethics curriculum includes a presentation on the Baird Decision Model, a small-group discussion of a relevant ethical dilemma, and a class role play. The curriculum additionally includes detailed Facilitator Guidelines for educators. The curriculum was piloted in WPC 101 classes during Spring 2016, and we present student and facilitator feedback as well as suggestions for further research and improvement. Use of this research-backed curriculum and further study into its impact on student decision making will allow W. P. Carey to continue advancing in pursuit of training students to be effective ethical leaders.
ContributorsMcClelland, Allison (Co-author) / Mayper, Rebecca (Co-author) / Samuelson, Melissa (Thesis director) / Parker, John (Committee member) / Department of Information Systems (Contributor) / Department of Management (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The music genre of hair metal serves as a fascinating portrait of the 1980s. I found in hair metal a set of very concerning beliefs about masculinity, freedom, and consumption that reflect the essential values, beliefs, and mores of the 80s. Functioning as a response to changing gender roles and a shifting economic environment, hair asserts masculine liberty and helps its listeners assuage any fears they may have about threats to the status quo or their way of life.
ContributorsUnsworth, Erik (Author) / Voorhees, Matthew (Thesis director) / Carrasco, Clare (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor)
Created2024-05
Description
Soccer is a global phenomenon that is played, watched, and enjoyed all over the world. Players and fans are quick to point out that soccer is an international language that unites people of all ethnicities and backgrounds together. However, there has been little research done to find out why, how, or if this is true. In this paper I will demonstrate how soccer is an effective means of communication when barriers of culture, geography, and language exist. To do this I conducted a survey, ultimately across 147 regular soccer players, and took field notes on one on one conversations to gather experiences and opinions regarding how soccer has helped people connect when other means of communication were not viable. By surveying and speaking with regular players, I was able to determine just how effective and in what ways soccer facilitates communication and brings people together. This research is a viable starting point into exploring how a global society can learn from soccer players to break down communication barriers and cooperate better with one another.
ContributorsFuller, Joseph (Author) / John, Eaton (Thesis director) / Mary, Ingram-Waters (Committee member) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / WPC Graduate Programs (Contributor) / School of Accountancy (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2019-05