Individualism-collectivism cultural differences affecting perceptions of unethical practices : Some evidence from Australian and Indonesian accounting students

• Published in: Teaching business ethics (Dordrecht) Vol. 3; no. 2; pp. 137 - 153
• Main Authors: HAI YAP TEOH, SERANG, D. P, CHUI CHOO LIM
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Kluwer 1999; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Accounting; Asian students; Auditing standards; Business ethics; Collectivism; College students; Cross cultural studies; Cultural differences; Culture; Curriculum subjects: programmes and methods; Educational sciences; Hypotheses; Individualism; Perceptions; Society; Students; Teaching; Teaching methods; Australia; Indonesia; Ethics; Higher Education; Teacher Perception of the Student; Cultural Pluralism; Commercial Education; Cultural Difference
• ISSN: 1382-6891; 1573-1944

This paper examines the impact of the individualism-collectivism dimension of culture on ethical perceptions in a sample of Australian and Indonesian Final Year accounting students. The study uses the Triandis instrument to establish that Australian students tended to be more individualistically- and Indonesian students more collectivistically-oriented. The study then proceeds to test the hypothesis of no difference in perceptions between these two country samples in their evaluations of questionable actions portrayed in five vignette situations. The findings reject the no difference cultural hypothesis, indicating that there are perceptual differences between the collectivistic Indonesian students and the individualistic Australian students. In general Indonesian students tend to perceive a lesser degree of risk for the questionable acts depicted by these cases where such acts would have beneficial impacts on close or moderately close in-groups. Consistent with this observation, they also tend to perceive a greater amount of gain if this gain impacts more on close or moderately close in-groups.