Financial Accounting Knowledge

Current Issue

By Issue

By Author

By Subject

Author Index

Keyword Index

About Journal

Aims and Scope

Editorial Board

Publication Ethics

Indexing and Abstracting

Related Links

FAQ

Peer Review Process

Journal Metrics

News

Guide for Authors

Terms and Conditions

Forms

Trainee Auditors’ Perception of Ethical Climate and Workplace Bullying

    Authors

    1 Assistant Professor of Accounting, Department of Accounting, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

    2 Master of Accounting, Faculty of Management and Accounting, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

    3 Master of Accounting, Faculty of social sciences and Economics, AL Zahra University, Tehran, Iran,

,

Document Type : Research Paper

Abstract

Purpose: workplace bullying, which is closely related to the ethical climate, has always been disruptive and a threat to audit firms. Therefore, the present paper aimed to investigate trainee auditors’ perception of the relationship between the audit firm's ethical climate and workplace bullying.
Method: Data collection tools included The Ethical Climate Questionnaire (Cullen, Victor, and Brason, 1993) and The Workplace Bullying Questionnaire (Arian Gholipour et al, 2009). The questionnaires were distributed among 358 trainee auditors. All the trainee auditors have been working in audit firms for 0 to 4 months. The data were analyzed statistically using SPSS software. The research hypotheses were tested through the structural equation method.
Results: According to the results aspects of ethical climate, such as profit-mindedness, social responsibility, firm’s rules and procedures, and professional rules and principles, can affect significantly bullying behaviors in the workplace. Moreover, our results showed that sex, age, education, audit firm size, and ethnicity do not affect bullying in the audit firms.
Conclusion: Our findings are applicable to both practical and social problems. These findings provide guidelines for audit firms to establish a healthy ethical climate. This, in turn, can result in recruiting, training, and retaining young and skilled professionals in the field of auditing. Also, the findings of the present paper can be applied socially to obviate bullying in the workplace and, consequently, to help in improving auditing both as a profession and as a business.
Contribution: The results of the present study, in addition to covering the gap of existing research in this field, provide guidance for audit firms in creating an appropriate ethical environment to reduce bullying of supervisors and thus maintain and promote new audiences in auditing.

Keywords

References
Accounting Education Change Commission (AECC). (1993). Improving the Early Employment Experience of Accountants. Issues Statement No. 4. Issues in Accounting Education, 8(2), 431- 435.
Akwasi, A. (2004). The relationship between organizational ethical culture and the ethical behavior of employees: A study of accounting and finance professionals in the insurance industry of United States. J Bus Econ Res, 2(9),55-72.
Anthony, A. Liu. (2020). Trainee auditors perception of ethical climate and workplace bullying in chinese audit firms. Asian Journal of Accounting Research, 2443-4175.
Appelbaum, S. H., & Roy-Girard, D. (2007). Toxins in the workplace: effect on organizations and employees. Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Effective Board Performance, 7(1), 17-28.
Bagherpour velashani, M., saei, M., & Shani, E. (2012). Auditors’ Opinion about the Factors Affecting their Job Satisfaction. Journal of empirical research in accounting, 2(4), 65-94. [In Persian].
Bagi nasr abadi, A., & Behzad Nia, M. (2021). The Relationship Between Strategic Human Resource Management and Job Performance: The Mediating Role of Moral Atmosphere. The university of Tehran scientific journals Database, 18(4), 751-774. [In Persian].
Borhani, F., Jalali, T., Abbaszadeh, A., & Haghdoost, A. (2011). Viewpoint of Nurses about Ethical Climate of Educational Hospitals at Medical Science University of Kerman. Journal of Medical Ethics, 5(17), 27-44.
Bulutlar, F., & Oz, E. (2009). The effects of ethical climates on bullying behavior in the workplace. Journal of Business Ethics, 86(3), 273-295.
Chen, J. C., & Silverthorne, C. (2008). the impact of locus of control on job stress, job performance and job satisfaction in Taiwan. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 29(7), 572-582.
Cullen, J. B., Victor, B., & Bronson, J. B. (1993). The ethical climate questionnaire: An assessment of its development and validity. Psychological Report, 73, 667-674.
Debra, W. Sherril. (2008). An exploratory study of ethical climate perceptions of the mortgage banking industry. United States: Capella University.
Duncan, J. R. (2001). Twenty pressures to manage earnings. CPA Journal, 71(7), 32-37.
Einarsen, S., Raknes, B.I., & Matthiesen, S. B. (1994). Bullying and harassment at work and their relationships to work environment quality: an exploratory study. European Work and Organizational Psychologist, 4(4), 381-401.
Einarsen, S., Aasland, M. S., & Skogstad, A. (2007). Destructive leadership behavior: a definition and conceptual model. The Leadership Quarterly, 18, 207-216.
Elçi, M., Erdilek, M. K., Alpkan, L., & Şener İ. (2014). The mediating role of mobbing on the relationship between organizational silence and turnover intention. Procedia -Social and Behavioral Sciences, 150, 455-464.
Fornell, C. & Larcker, D.(1981). Evaluating Structural Equation Modeling with Unobserved Variables and Measurement Error. Journal of Marking Research,18(1), 39-50.
Ghadiri, M., Beshlide, K., Hashemi sheikh shabani, s., & Moshkelani, F. (2013). The Relationship of Ethical Climate with Job Satisfaction, Organizational Commitment and Turnover Intention. journal of Ethics in Scince and Technology, 8(3),1-15.
Gholipour, A., Bod, M., Fakheri Kozekanan, S., & Baghestani Barzaki, H. (2009). Perceived Organizational Bullying Relationship with Women’s Stress. Refahj, 9 (34), 187-2. [In Persian].
Golparvar, M., javadian, Z., Mosahebi, M., & Vaseghi, Z. (2013). The Implicit Roles of Interpersonal Conflict in Connection with Organizational Injustice, Exhaustion, Stress and Deviant Behaviors. Quarterly journal of Psychological studies, 9(2), 49-82. (In Persian).
Hassanzadeh, K., Sohrabi, A., & Fayyazi, M. (2018). Investigating the Organization's Ethical Climate on Burnout with Emphasis on the Attitudes of the Employees of the Maskan Bank of Tehran Province. Organizational culture management, 16(2), 439-460.
Homayooni, A., hashemi sheikh shabani, E., Naami, A., & Beshlideh, K. (2015). The relationship between organizational mobbing with chronic fatigue and workplace cognitive failures. Iran Occupational Health, 12 (2), 1-12. [In Persian].
Lee, Deborah. (2000). An analysis of workplace bullying in the UK. Personnel Review, 20(5), 593 – 610.
Lewis, S. E., & Orford, J. (2005). Women’s Experiences of Workplace Bullying: Changes in Social Relationships. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology. 15(1). 29–47.
Lewis, S. E. (2006). Recognition of Workplace Bullying: A Qualitative Study of Women Targets in the Public Sector. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 16(2), 119–135.
Lord, A. T., & Dezoort, F. T. (2001). The impact of commitment and moral reasoning on auditor's responses to social influence pressure. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 26(3), 215-235.
Mahdavi, G., & Ebrahimi, F. (2013). Professional Values and Ethical Perception of Internal Auditors of Iran Medical Sciences Universities. Journal of Health Accounting, 2(3), 54-67. (In Persian).
Mahdavi, G., Ebrahimi, F. (2015). The Effect of Ethics on the Professional and Organizational Commitment of Accountants (A Case Study: The Universities of Medical Sciences). Journal of health accounting, 4(2), 87-103.(in Persian)
Martino, V. D., Hoel, H., & Cooper, C. (2003). Preventing Violence and Harassment In The Workplace. European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.
Muethel, M., Hoegl, M., & Parboteeah, K. P. (2011). National business ideology and employees 'prosocial values. Journal of International Business Studies, 42(2), 183-201.
Nadi, M., & shojaee, M. (2019). Relationship between perception of bullying in the workplace, job self-alienation, organizational support with the Intention to Leave Work and the role of mediator of forced citizenship behavior. Journal of applied sociology, 30(1), 167-188. (In Persian).
Najafi, M., Karimi, M., Ghahramani fard, A., & Rezvani, S. (2010). Study of the relation between ethical climate dimensions and Job satisfaction among employees at Isfahan office of Education. New educational approaches, 2(2), 1-22. (In Persian).
Pourezzat, A., Gholipour, A., & pirannejad, A. (2010). Sense of Justice and Public Trust; outcomes of E-governance. journal of Daneshvar Behavior, 16(38), 1-16. (In Persian).
Rahimnia, F., & Nikkhah Farkhani, Z. (2012). The effects of ethical climate on organizational identity and turnover intentions among salespeople. The journal of ethics in science and technology, 6(4), 1-11.
Rahimnia, F., & yoosefifar, H. (2020). Explaining the Employees Bullying towards Managers in the Public Sector. Organizational culture management, 18(2), 325-349.
Rajalakshmi, M. & Naresh, B. (2018). Influence of psychological contract on workplace bullying. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 41(2), 90-97.
Rezazadeh, J., Rajabzadeh, A., & Davanipour, I. (2008). An Investigation into the Supervisory Factors Contributing to the Auditors’ Job Satisfaction and Their Intentions to Remain in the Firm: An Iranian. The University of Tehran's scientific journals database, 15(51), 19-36.
Rockett, P., Fan, S.K., Dwyer, R. J., & Foy, T. (2017). A human resource management perspective of workplace bullying. Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research, 9(2), 116-127.
Safarzadeh, M., Karimdad, A. (2020). The Drivers Affecting InternalAuditors Moral courage. Financial accounting knowledge, 7(1), 133-155.
Shahriyari, M., Barzegar, E. (2016). The Relationship between Ethical Climate and Consulting with Professional and Organizational Commitment of the Public Sector Accountants. Journal of health accounting, 5(2), 47-70.(in Persian)
Strawser, R. H., Ivancevich, J. M., & Lyon, H. L. (1969). A note on the job satisfaction of accountants in large and small CPA firms. Journal of Accounting Research, 7(2), 339-345.
Tambur, M., & Vadi, M. (2012). Workplace bullying and organizational culture in a post transitional country. International Journal of Manpower, 33(7), 754-768.
Valiyan, H., Koushkijahromi, A., & Niloofari, P. (2018). The effect of organizational bullying with individual sleep quality with respect to a mediating role rumination among Hospital female nurse. Journal of Counseling Research, 16(64), 127-153. (In Persian)
Victor, B., & Cullen, B. (1988). A theory and measure of ethical climate in organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 33, 101-125.
Wimbush, J. C., Shepard, J. M., & Markham, S. E. (1997). An empirical examination of the relationship between ethical climate and ethical behavior from multiple levels of analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 16(6), 1705-1716.
Yaghoubi, N. M., Koohi Khor, M., Kamaliyn, A. R., & Tajpoor, M. (2018). investigate the effect of Organizational Mobbing behaviors on job and Organizational Attitude. Quarterly Journal of Public Organzations Management, 6(2), 117-136. (In Persian).
 
Financial Accounting Knowledge
Volume 8, Issue 4 - Serial Number 31
January 2022
Pages 135-167
Files
Share
How to cite
Statistics