Does accounting education develop ethical maturity? Evidence from Indonesia

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence in relation
to the ethical development of students studying accounting in Indonesia. To
understand the development of these students’ ethical maturity, we examine their
perspectives about the purpose of accounting and the objective of business. The
paper reports on the results of four focus groups of accounting students who just
completed an introductory financial accounting course. The Indonesian context is
then used to frame the analysis of the focus groups. Insights from the focus groups
reveal a strong notion that the perspectives of students studying accounting in
Indonesia were solely influenced by ethical values of Anglo-American capitalism.
The ethical values of prioritising shareholder interests over other stakeholders are
generally accepted by these students as the nature of accounting and business. The
finding suggests that accounting education does not only change the cultural values
of students studying abroad in western countries as highlighted by previous studies,
it also shapes the ethical values of accounting students educated at home. Thus, this
paper concludes that accounting education in Indonesia does not develop students’
ethical maturity because they were only inculcated with a single perspective.