Annotated Bibliography

This article describes the idea that some employees are more willing to do unethical  pro-organization behavior, or behaviors that benefit the company but violate the proper conduct, rules, or values, for a leader who is especially liked by the employee. This idea is based on the social exchange theory or the relationship between the leader or supervisor and the subordinate or employee. Overall, the paper talks about how leaders or management can intentionally or unintentionally facilitate unethical employee behaviors. 

Bryant, W., & Merritt, S. M. (2021). Unethical Pro-organizational Behavior and Positive Leader–Employee Relationships. Journal of Business Ethics, 168(4), 777–793. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/10.1007/s10551-019-04211-x 

This article takes a look at business ethics from the international business perspective. It considers the impact of a business organization’s decisions on both the internal and external stakeholders. It tackles issues from equal employment practices to fair pay initiatives and how it is especially important to consider these factors when operating abroad. The author discusses the benefits and obligations that multinationals have to respect the citizens of foreign countries. He always mentions that challenges of ethical practices abroad involve the economic, legal, and political reasons that incentivize companies to not have ethical practices abroad. 

Prasad, A. (2008), “Towards a system of global ethics in international business: a Rawlsian manifesto”, Management Decision, Vol. 46 No. 8, pp. 1166-1174. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/10.1108/00251740810901363

This article discusses the ethical dilemma of the early 2000s Enron Corporation accounting scandal which drew worldwide attention to the problem of large-scale corporate fraud.  Founded in the late 1980s as an electrical energy broker, managers used unscrupulous accounting methods to fake their profits by creating external partnership entities known as Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs).  Enron used SPVs to “cook their books” by keeping millions of dollars of debt off their balance sheet in order to maintain a high credit rating and an artificially inflated stock price.  After news got out, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched an ethics investigation which ultimately led to jail time for many Enron executives and bankruptcy and dissolution of Enron and their accounting firm Arthur Anderson.    

Sims, R. R., & Brinkmann, J. (2003). Enron Ethics (Or: Culture Matters More than Codes). Journal of Business Ethics, 45(3), 245-256. d

This study examines how accountants and accounting students have more than just a fiduciary obligation to their employer and coworkers; Professional practicing accountants are tasked with constantly upholding proper business ethics in a commercial accounting environment. This article provides a hypothesised analysis and of ethical sensitivity in practicing accountants and accounting students. The article helps define an ethical issue as “a person’s actions, when freely performing, may harm or benefit others”. The hypothesis that accounting students will more thoroughly attend to information and be better able to recognize and differentiate ethical issues.

Fiolleau, K., & Kaplan, S. (2017). Recognizing Ethical Issues: An Examination of Practicing Industry Accountants and Accounting Students. Journal of Business Ethics, 142(2), 259–276. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/10.1007/s10551-016-3154-2

This article describes a discussion with members from an important accounting authority about common ethical decisions to be made in accounting. They talk about what they deem morally acceptable for various accounting situations. The article then goes on to analyze articles about ethical accounting published in ‘CPA magazine’ and splitting them into 6 categories.

Baud, C., Brivot, M., & Himick, D. (2021). Accounting Ethics and the     Fragmentation of Value. Journal of Business Ethics, 168(2), 373–387. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/10.1007/s10551-019-04186-9

Nathaniel Aplin

Caleb George

Jared Choe

Andrew Smith

Alex Berg