Stacey Porter

The effect of ethics courses on the ethical judgement‐making ability of Malaysian accounting students

Purpose - The paper aims to evaluate the effectiveness of ethics courses provided to Malaysian accounting students and their impact on ethical judgement-making ability. Design/methodology/approach - Third-year accounting students from six Malaysian universities participated in a pre- and post-ethics course study. The sample consisted of four universities which provide an ethics course (experiment group) and two universities which do not provide an ethics course (control group). Rests Defining Issues Test instrument was employed and the Findings - Students who attended an ethics course improved significantly in their ethical judgement-making ability compared to students who did not attend the course. Male students, non-Muslim students and students in private universities benefit more from attending an ethics course compared to their female and Muslim students and those students in public universities. Research limitations/implications - The findings indicate that providing ethics courses reshapes the ethical thinking of future accountants and thus are likely to improve the local ethical climate amongst professionals in the field. Results indicate significant improvements in cognitive moral development, although many students continue to apply conventional (Stage 4) reasoning skills when dealing with issues. The research provides a positive signal to the accounting faculties indicating that their effort in inculcating ethical values is worthwhile and this endeavour has to continue. Originality/value - This study involves a controlled field study of a unique group of Malaysian accounting students and applies Kohlbergs theory of moral development to demonstrate the effect of an ethics intervention. Particular attention was given to examining conventional (Stage 4) judgment-making processes and how this appears to be influenced by religious affiliation and university type. This adds value to the ethics literature as there are only a few studies examining the merits of Stage 4 reasoning. Most importantly, it helps to fill a gap in the literature by providing both cross-sectional and longitudinal data from multiple samples of ethics classes, using both experiment and control groups.

Indonesia's low concern for labor issues

Purpose – This study aims to advance explanations of the communication level of labor disclosures of Indonesian listed companies.Design/methodology/approach – Year‐ending 2007 Annual report disclosures of 223 Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) listed companies are analyzed. The labor practices and decent work disclosure component of the 2006 Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines are used as the benchmark disclosure index checklist.Findings – The results show a low level of voluntary disclosure (17.7 per cent). The highest level of communication is for issues related to skills management and lifelong learning programs for employees. Very few companies disclosed information about health and safety committee and agreements, and salary of men to women. Statistical analysis reveals that government ownership and international operations are positively significant predictors of “labour” communication. Isomorphic institutional theory partially explains the variability of these disclosures. Bigger companies als...

Coercive pressures on occupational health and safety disclosures

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors explaining voluntary occupational health and safety disclosures (OHSDs). Design/methodology/approach Annual report disclosures of 223 Indonesia Stock Exchange listed companies for the year ending 2007 are analyzed. The OHSD components of the 2006 Global Reporting Initiative guidelines are used as the disclosure index checklist. Findings The results show that approximately 30 percent of Indonesian listed companies provide OHSD. The most disclosed item is health and safety programs. Logistical regression analysis reveals that industry type and international operations significantly influence the propensity to provide OHSD. These findings suggest that coercive isomorphism partially explains OHSD practices in Indonesia. Research limitations/implications The main implications of the findings are that Indonesian listed companies generally have poor health and safety information disclosure sets and largely ignore the potential roles of their workers in any health and safety committees. Originality/value This paper provides insights into the disclosure practices of occupational health and safety issues, a vital subset of corporate social responsibility disclosure which is still under-researched. The paper also empirically investigates the key determinants of OHSD, an empirical test which is largely ignored in past OHSD-related studies.

The Indonesian Government’s coercive pressure on labour disclosures: Conflicting interests or government ambivalence?

Purpose – This paper aims to focus on corporate social responsibility and workplace well-being by examining Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX)-listed companies’ labour disclosures. Design/methodology/approach – Year-ending 2007 and 2010 annual report disclosures of 31 IDX-listed companies are analysed. The widely acknowledged Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines are used as the disclosure index checklist. Findings – The results reveal that the overall labour disclosure level increases from 21.84 per cent in 2007 to 30.52 per cent in 2010. The levels of four of the five specific labour disclosures also increase with employment being the exception. The results further show that the Indonesian Government does not influence the increase in the levels of the overall labour disclosure or the four categories showing increased disclosure but, surprisingly, does significantly affect the decrease in the level of the employment category. Research limitations/implications – It is implied that the government is a...