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Journal of Business Ethics
Published in: Journal of Business Ethics 3/2018

24-11-2015

An Investigation of the Relationships Among Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Participation and Ethical Judgment and Decision Making

Authors: Anne L. Christensen, Angela Woodland

Published in: Journal of Business Ethics | Issue 3/2018

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Abstract

The Pathways Commission (http://​www.​pathwayscommissi​on.​org, 2012) calls on accounting educators to develop students’ skills in ethical judgment and decision making, but there is uncertainty about how best to accomplish this task. We test if participation in Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) programs is positively associated with students’ ethical judgment and decision making. Using a questionnaire administered to students participating in VITA and students not participating in VITA at seven universities, we form multiple measures of students’ ethical judgment and students’ ethical decision making. Regression analyses reveal that VITA participation is positively and significantly associated with ethical judgment and, in certain cases, is also positively and significantly associated with ethical decision making, even after controlling for other determinants including completion of ethics courses. We conclude that VITA programs can be effective educational interventions to promote ethical development in students. Our study adds to the growing literature on positive student outcomes associated with VITA participation, provides empirical evidence to support the tenets of situated learning and service-learning theories, and contributes to the development of effective ethics education.
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Footnotes
1
Our human study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at Montana State University and has therefore been performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki. Participation was voluntary and all participants gave their informed consent prior to their inclusion in the study. All responses are reported in aggregate form.
 
2
We noted fairly consistent VITA program characteristics and administration methods and did not find any differences that would cause us to question the validity and usefulness of our results.
 
3
The defining issues test (DIT) is commonly used to test ethical reasoning (Shaub and Lawrence 1996). However, studies show that it is less effective in evaluating ethical sensitivity (Shawver and Sennetti 2009) than using vignettes and a multidimensional ethical scale (MES).
 
4
We later include only our measure of deontological beliefs in our regression analyses because of significant negative correlation between the deontological and teleological belief measures.
 
5
Of the 118 students intending to participate in VITA who took the pre-survey, 52 also took the post-survey and are included in the post-survey results. Of the 142 students not intending to participate in VITA who took the pre-survey, 52 also took the post-survey and are included in the post-survey results.
 
6
Timm and Gross (1990) find that non-traditional students respond differently to learning experiences than traditional students. Moorer (2009) found that graduate students possess greater interpersonal and conceptual skills than the undergraduate students. However, Eweje and Brunton (2010) find that, among New Zealand business majors, age impacts ethical judgment, but not ethical awareness. Waples et al. (2009), in their meta-analysis of business ethics instruction studies, find that ethics instruction has a larger impact on individuals aged 35 or older.
 
7
Waples et al. (2009) find no clear distinction between male and female responses to ethical instruction. Craft (2013), in a review of empirical ethical decision-making studies from 2004–2011, and O’Fallon and Butterfield (2005), in a review from 1996 to 2003, also found mixed results with respect to gender, with some studies reporting significant differences for females and others not. Although Christensen et al. (2014), in their meta-analysis of ethics studies, find that females have slightly higher levels of moral reasoning than males, the significant level of heterogeneity among the studies suggests that the differences may be due to factors other than gender alone.
 
8
Seider et al. (2011) studied students from a variety of majors who participated in a service-learning project centered on poverty and found that, while all students’ understanding of social responsibility increased, it increased more for non-business majors. The differences they cite are among broader fields such as liberal arts, education, nursing, and business rather than the more narrowly defined career choices we measure (e.g., audit, tax, management accounting).
 
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Metadata
Title
An Investigation of the Relationships Among Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Participation and Ethical Judgment and Decision Making
Authors
Anne L. Christensen
Angela Woodland
Publication date
24-11-2015
Publisher
Springer Netherlands
Published in
Journal of Business Ethics / Issue 3/2018
Print ISSN: 0167-4544
Electronic ISSN: 1573-0697
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2957-x

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