Abstract:

From the beginning of the 21st century, an increase has been observed in interest in the reliability of the information presented in the annual reports constituting the basis for investors’ decision making. This state of affairs has been influenced by numerous financial scandals and the related bankruptcies of the largest listed companies, such as like Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, Global Crossing, Adelphia Communications Corporation. The blame for embellishment of financial results was attributed not only to accounting specialists, but also to managers, who reported positive information, thus raising the stock prices. One of the main reasons for dishonest behavior is the managerial staffs’ tendency to behave unethically. Therefore, incorporation of ethical issues into the education process of future managerial staff is of great importance.

Taking this into account, the purpose of the article is to answer the following questions:
1. How are accounting specialists perceived by the Management students at the Department of Management?
2. Can the employees at accounting specialist positions, under the influence of the management of the company, disregard ethical principles?
3. Can employees at the of accounting specialist positions disregard ethical principles, if they are at risk of losing their job?
4. Are there any differences in the way a specialist is perceived by the students of Finance, Accounting and the students of Management?

The article presents the second part of the results of a survey conducted among students at the Faculty of Management, at the University of Gdansk in Poland, as part of the project "Ethics in the profession of an accounting specialist". In total, 143 persons studying Management were surveyed, i.e. 89.4% of all those subjected to the study.

The result obtained provide the following information:
• 78.6% of the students surveyed admit that ethics plays a significant role in the perception of the accounting specialist profession, whereas as many as 15.7% do not support this opinion;
• 80.0% of the students surveyed claim that accounting specialists should not exclusively take their own interest into account while solving professional ethical issues in a workplace;
• 67.1% of them think that beautification of financial statements is not ethical, event if is it does not mean breaking the law, whereas 20.7% do not have an opinion;
• 80.0% believe that accounting specialists are not allowed to break the professional ethical principles when pressured by their executives;

Those outcomes are, to some extent, in contrast with the outcomes obtained during the first part of the research that was carried out among the Finance and Accounting students.

The research carried out allows determination of the opinions exhibited by the Management students at the University of Gdansk on the importance of ethics in the profession of an accounting and finance specialist. In addition, the results allow indication of the differences, in this regard, between the students of the two main study majors offered at the Faculty of Management: Finance and Accounting and Management.

The subject of future research should involve determination of the importance knowledge of ethical principles plays in the recruitment process for the positions of accounting and finance specialists.

Keywords:

Students, professional accountants, ethics, University of Gdansk, Poland.