Enhancing the Ethical Decision-making Framework in the Certified Public Accountants’ Association Based on Q Methodology

The objective of the present study was to enhance and improve the ethical decision-making framework in the certified public accountants’ association. The statistical population consisted of eight experts in the field of accounting, which were selected by a purposeful and judgmental method. Therefore, first-class information obtained from semi-structured interviews along with information extracted from the literature were collected in a combined approach and analyzed by Q-factor analysis and ranking index. The results indicated that personal factors (e.g., religious beliefs, personal characteristics, work experience, and self-supervision culture), professional factors (e.g., common financial benefits, work motivation, job position, interpersonal relationships, organizational misconduct, executive accuracy, and enhancement of performance), organizational factors (e.g., regulatory patterns, workplace ethics, type of organizational leadership, reward and punishment system, control structure, and organizational culture), and finally external factors (e.g., ethical codes, economic conditions, family status, and university education) are of the most important and influential factors on ethical decision-making in the certified public accountants’ association.

Keywords:

Ethical decision-making , Q methodology , certified public accountants’ association