Recent collapses such as Enron, HIH and other international businesses have resulted in a tightening of legislation, as well as reforms to corporate governance. Justice Owen (2003) believed that the effect of corporate governance reform should be based more on personal integrity, honesty and truthfulness rather than tougher legislation and corporate governance rules. Educational institutions have a vital role to play in shaping the new reforms and creating a more ethical business environment. Multiple innovations and global communications throughout the world will have an effect on business ethics. Multinational corporations are more likely to be at risk due to ethical issues that result from cultural diversity of local staff in host countries. Salter et al. (2001) discussed this issue and recommended two solutions to overcome the cultural constraints that global audit firms are facing as they are dependent on the judgment, norms and standards of their staff in each country. One is to accept the local standards of the staff. While such a solution may have been acceptable in the past it is unlikely to be acceptable now. A high and consistent standard of auditing is incompatible with audit and ethical standards that fluctuate nationally. The second solution is to train auditors to achieve common standards of ethical behaviour. While training is an alternative solution, it has a root in culture. Salter et al. (2001) provide evidence on cultural motivations in ethical training and examine how training can affect ethical attitudes of college students as future professionals and managers. They have examined the attitudes of accounting students in the UK and in the US that are similar in terms of training. However, these two countries have distinct cultures. This study examines attitudes towards a variety of cheating scenarios in academic and business environments. The sample consisted of students who study in the same classroom but come from different cultural backgrounds.
This research will make a significant contribution to evaluating cultural differences with respect to ethical dispositions. Specifically this research addresses the degree of differences in the ethical orientations of a potential pool of future accountants/auditors in Australia, South Asia and East Asia.
The results of this study will also enhance current knowledge on whether business ethics is humanity-based or culture-based. The findings will assist in developing both a national and an international code of ethics and impose the same ethical practices to take into account the differences in ethical orientations and cultural norms.