Do values change over time? An exploratary study of business majors

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Abstract

Value can be defined in a variety of different ways, but can be summarized as the attitudes, beliefs, and principles which guide an individual in making decisions based on how the ultimate outcome effects themselves. Research has found that values and ethical behavior can be changed through experiences and education. Ethics and values have become important issues in recent years due to the exposure created from accounting misconduct and misrepresented financial statements from some of the United States' largest companies. At the center of this are the managers who prepare and approve the financial statements and the accountants who audit the financial statements. Mean-level changes and rank-order changes in values were obtained from business majors in 2004 and in 2010 using the Schwartz (1992) Value Survey. Our results show that both mean-level changes and rank-order changes occurred for individual values of business majors over time. Furthermore, higher-order values also changed, especially for male business majors.

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