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Ethical Work Climate in The National Audit Department Offices in Malaysia

This article examines the types of ethical work climates perceived by public sector auditors in the National Audit Department offices in Malaysia. A survey was administered to 382 auditors to assess their perceptions of the ethical climate based on dimensions of rules, care, law, and instrumental. The results found that auditors perceived the strongest climate to be rules-based, indicating policies and procedures guide decision-making. They also perceived instrumental and caring climates. In contrast, a law-based climate was perceived as almost non-existent. The study provides insight into ethical climates in the audit department that could help improve ethics among auditors and enhance credibility and public trust.

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
171 views22 pages

Ethical Work Climate in The National Audit Department Offices in Malaysia

This article examines the types of ethical work climates perceived by public sector auditors in the National Audit Department offices in Malaysia. A survey was administered to 382 auditors to assess their perceptions of the ethical climate based on dimensions of rules, care, law, and instrumental. The results found that auditors perceived the strongest climate to be rules-based, indicating policies and procedures guide decision-making. They also perceived instrumental and caring climates. In contrast, a law-based climate was perceived as almost non-existent. The study provides insight into ethical climates in the audit department that could help improve ethics among auditors and enhance credibility and public trust.

Uploaded by

Manivannan M.B
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 22

MANAGEMENT

& ACCOUNTING
REVIEW
Volume 18 No. 1
April 2019

MAR Vol 17 No. 2 August 2018.indd 1 18/4/2019 11:00:45 AM


CONTENTS

1 Drivers of Audit Failure and Fraudulent Financial Reporting: Evidence


from Nigerian Distressed Banks
Augustine Ehijeagbon Akhidime

25 Sustaining Businesses in a Global Turbulent Environment: The Role


of Information Sharing
Sidah Idris and Suhana Mohezar

41 The Effect of Firm Characteristics on Earnings Management Practices


among Malaysian Public Listed Companies in the Technological
Industry
Erlane K Ghani, Nur Afifah Mohd Azemi and Evita Puspitasari

57 Ethical Work Climate in the National Audit Department Offices in


Malaysia
Suhaiza Ismail and Nursia Yuhanis

77 Assessing Good Governance Practices and Development Nexus: An


Application of Structural Invariance Analysis
Ibrahim Abiodun Oladapo, Normah Omar, Asmak Ab Rahman,
Roshayani Arshad and Manal Mohammed Hamoudah

101 Accounting Graduates: Are they Still Accountants?


Erlane K Ghani, Nur Azrin Mat Tarmezi, Kamaruzzaman Muhammad,
Mazurina Mohd Ali and Nabilah Abdullah

117 Environmental Risk Disclosure Practice in Malaysia: An Emphasis


on the Plantation Industry
HaslindaYusoff, Faizah Darus, Mustaffa Mohamed Zain, Yussri Sawani
and Tamoi Janggu

139 Awareness of Social Business in Social Media in Malaysia


Siti Hafizah binti Daud

167 Non-Audit Services and the Corporate Governance of Audit Clients


Khairul Anuar Kamarudin, Wan Adibah Wan Ismail and Jessieca
Cherryl Yatan

MAR Vol 17 No. 2 August 2018.indd 2 18/4/2019 11:00:45 AM


MANAGEMENT & ACCOUNTING REVIEW, VOLUME 18 NO. 1, APRIL 2019

Ethical Work Climate in the National Audit


Department Offices in Malaysia
Suhaiza Ismail and Nursia Yuhanis
International Islamic University Malaysia

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to examine the ethical work climate types at the National
Audit Department (NAD) offices in Malaysia as perceived by public sector
auditors. The respondents for this study were public sector auditors in the
NAD offices from both federal and state levels. Using a survey questionnaire
on ethical climate by Victor and Cullen (1988), a total of 382 responses were
received and usable. In order to achieve the research objective, descriptive
statistics of the mean score and standard deviation were used. The results
reveal that the highest mean score was ‘rules’ climate, indicating that public
sector auditors perceived this rules ethical climate to be highly present
in their organizations. This was followed by ‘instrumental’ and ‘caring’
ethical climate types. In contrast, law ethical climate type was perceived as
almost non-exist in the NAD offices. This study provides useful information
on types of ethical climate types that exist in offices of the National Audit
Department (NAD) as perceived by public sector auditors which may to
some extent help to inculcate the right ethical climate in order to improve
the level of ethics among public sector auditors and subsequently enhance
the credibility of the NAD and public trust in the government.

Keywords: Ethical climate, public sector auditors, National Audit


Department, Malaysia

ARTICLE INFO
Article History:
Received: 12 April 2018
Accepted: 25 July 2018
Available online: 30 April 2019

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INTRODUCTION

The National Audit Department (NAD) is an independent executive


authority which has been entrusted by the Government to manage audit
activities for all government entities in Malaysia. Based on the Audit Act
1957, NAD is authorized to audit the accounts of the central and state
governments (Malaysian Government, 2000, p. 180). Tan Sri Dato’ Setia
Hj. Ambrin Bin Buang as the Auditor General of Malaysia, has emphasized,
“Through quality auditing, the Government and citizens will obtain an
objective and without prejudice, information on the weaknesses in managing
public service” (Buang, 2014). Thus, public sector auditors play a crucial
role to assist government organizations improve their level of accountability,
quality and integrity (Buang, 2011).

More importantly, the former President of the Malaysian Institute of


Accountants (MIA) has indicated that to boost assurance and confidence,
ethical accountants are required (Errol, 2013). Auditors including public
sector auditors are accountable to judge whether the set of accounts audited
provides a true and fair view of the organization in line with the framework
of financial reporting. Therefore, auditors need to make ethical and sound
decisions to provide the public with the required assurance. In other words,
it is crucial for auditors to remain ethical and objective in their actions and
decisions besides being knowledgeable about auditing, accounting and
financial reporting (Singh and Poduval, 2009).

The ethical climate of an organization is claimed to have an influence


on the ethical level of the members of the organization. Therefore,
recognising the ethical climate is crucial because different outcomes may
be related with different dimensions of the ethical climate (Cullen, Victor
and Stephens, 1989; Wimbush and Shepard, 1994). Prior literature has
shown that certain ethical climate types influence ethicality of the members’
positively whilst certain other types would influence it negatively (Barnet
and Vaicys, 2000; Abdullah et al., 2014; Lu and Lin, 2014). Realising the
important role of public sector auditors and the influence of ethical climate
on auditors’ ethics, the current study aimed to examine the types of ethical
climate that exist in the NAD offices as perceived by public sector auditors.

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ETHICAL WORK CLIMATE IN THE NATIONAL AUDIT DEPARTMENT

The fundamental contribution of this study is that it provides useful


information to the government particularly the NAD to further nurture a
good environment that can influence public sector auditors’ behaviour in
more ethical manner. Specifically, the NAD can take appropriate measures
to inculcate appropriate ethical climate types in the NAD offices to enhance
ethical behaviour among public sector auditors. The remainder of this paper
is structured as follows. The next section offers a detailed explanation on
ethical climate and a review of relevant literature. The subsequent section
offers the research methodology used in the study. Then, a section discusses
on the research findings. The final section presents the implications of the
study, limitations, suggestions for future research and conclusion.

ETHICAL CLIMATE AND LITERATURE REVIEW

Ethical climate is defined as the stable and psychologically important


perceptions members of organizations hold regarding ethical policies
and procedures practiced in their organizations (Schneider, 1975). Victor
and Cullen (1987 and 1988) define ethical climate as a multidimensional
construct which represents an aggregation of employees’ perceptions of the
organization. They also propose a theoretical typology of ethical climate
types which are derived from a combination of ethical criterion and locus of
analysis (1987, 1988). The ethical criteria are used for decision-making in
the organization, whereas the locus of analysis refers to the level of ethical
decision-making (Victor and Cullen, 1988).

The ethical criterion dimension covers three major classes of ethical


theory: egoism, benevolence and principle. The first class, egoism, refers to
“the maximization of self-interest” (VanSandt, 2001, p. 18), which means
that a person believes highly in himself or herself, regardless of opposed
situations or opinions from society to preserve his or her dignity as an
individual. The second class, benevolence, is defined as where “people tend
to be less aware of laws and rules and may also be amenable to arguments
employing rules or principles” (Victor and Cullen, 1988, p. 105). Thus, a
discussion or argument with those with lesser knowledge or who ignore
law and rules might be incompetent. The last ethical criterion dimension
is principle, and “people who are principled tend to be less sensitive to
particular effects on others” (Victor and Cullen, 1988, p. 105). Normally

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the situation happens when an honest and loyal worker becomes the enemy
of another who violates the organization’s policies in the workplace. The
loyal worker reports the other employee to the management with no second
thought if there is a policy violation.

The locus of analysis dimension represents diverse sources of


motivation and influences whereby the individual might regard his or her
own views on ethical or unethical issues. Victor and Cullen (1988) refer
to it as “a referent group identifying the source of moral reasoning used
for applying ethical criteria to organizational decisions or the limits on
what is considered the ethical analyses of organizational decisions” (p.
105). Locus of analysis consists of three perspectives: individual, local
and cosmopolitan levels from which an analysis may be made (Victor and
Cullen, 1988). Individual locus “is external to the focal organization in the
sense that the prevailing normative climate supports a referent for ethical
reasoning located within the individual” (Victor and Cullen, 1988, p. 106).
This locus of individual explains that perceptions of work climate in an
organization can depend on how individuals regard their environment from
their own point of view. While individual locus focuses on oneself, local
locus “specifies sources of ethical reasoning within the organization, such
as the workgroup” (Victor and Cullen, 1988, p. 106). Victor and Cullen
(1988) further add that the important reference group is contained within
the social system (p. 106), which means that employees might perceive a
negative or positive value depending on the type of group to which they
belong. A group that places a high value on morality tends to influence an
individual to perceive the same thinking; similarly, the same with groups
that place a low value on morale. The third level of locus is cosmopolitan,
which specifies organizational sources of ethical reasoning external to the
focal organization, such as a body of law or professional associations (Victor
and Cullen, 1988). This locus is developed in law-based environments to
perceive morality or norms acquired from sources outside the organization.

Thus, nine theoretical climates derived from the combination of the


two categorical dimensions of locus of analysis and ethical criterion. The
individual locus combined with ethical criterion creates the following
climates: egoism-individual (EI) produces a climate of self-interest,
benevolence-individual (BI) produces a climate of friendship and principle-
individual (PI) produces a climate of personal morality.

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Local locus, combined with ethical criterion creates the following


climates: egoism-local (EL) produces a company profits climate,
benevolence-local (BL) produces a team interest climate and principle-
local (PL) produces a company rules and procedures climate. For the last
three sets of dimensions, the combination of ethical criterion and locus of
analysis creates the following climates: egoism-cosmopolitan (EC) produces
a climate of efficiency, benevolence-cosmopolitan (BC) produces a climate
of social responsibility and principle-cosmopolitan (PC) produces a climate
of laws and professional codes respectively. The nine ethical climates are
presented below in Figure 1.

LOCUS OF ANALYSIS
Individual Local Cosmopolitan
Self- Interest Company Profit Efficiency
Egoism
ETHICAL CRITERION

Friendship Team Interest Social Responsibility


Benevolence

Personal Morality Company Rules and Law and Professional


Principle

Procedures Codes

Figure 1: Ethical Climate Types

In practice, however, empirical testing of Victor and Cullen’s (1988)


theoretical framework identifies five distinct types of ethical climate. The
instrumental climate (people protect their own interest above all else),
emerges from a combination of self-interest and company profit climate
types. A caring climate (the major consideration is what is best for everyone
in the organization) is derived from four theoretical climate types: friendship,
team interest, social responsibility, and efficiency. It comprises all three
referents (individual, local, and cosmopolitan) at the benevolence criterion,

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and the cosmopolitan referent at the egoism criterion, whereas the other three
remaining emergent climates are each represented by a single theoretical
climate. The independence climates (each person in the firm decides for him/
herself what is right and wrong) captures personal morality; rules climates
(everyone is expected to conform to organizational rules and procedures)
captures company rules and procedures, while law and code climates
(people are expected to comply with the law and professional standards)
captures the theoretic climate types of laws and professional codes. Figure 2
illustrates the five types of ethical climate commonly employed in research
on ethical climate.

LOCUS OF ANALYSIS
Ethical Individual Local Cosmopolitan
Theory

Egoism Instrumental

Benevolence Caring

Principle Independence Rules Law and Code

Figure 2: Five Common Empirical Derivatives of Ethical Climate


(Victor and Cullen, 1987, 1988; Neubaum et al., 2004)

Recognizing the ethical climate is crucial because different outcomes


may be related with different dimensions of the ethical climate (Cullen,
Victor and Stephens, 1989; Wimbush and Shepard, 1994). Prior literature
has shown that different ethical climate types affect level of ethics differently.
Law and code have been found by many studies to have a positive significant
influence on the ethical level of individuals (Vardi, 2001; Peterson, 2002a;
Peterson, 2002b; Cullen, Parboteeah, and Victor, 2003; Buchan, 2005;
Shafer, 2008; Huang et al., 2012). A caring climate is defined by Victor and
Cullen (1987) as having its major consideration in what is best for everyone
in the organization. Tsai and Huang (2008) found a caring climate as the least
highly rated type of ethical climate among nurses in Taiwan. A caring climate
is found by many previous studies to positively influence ethical behavior
(Vardi, 2001; Peterson, 2002a; Cullen et al., 2003; Buchan, 2005; Shafer,
2009; Huang et al., 2012; Yener, Yaldiran and Ergun, 2012). Therefore, it

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ETHICAL WORK CLIMATE IN THE NATIONAL AUDIT DEPARTMENT

is noted from most studies that caring, independence, rules and company
code and law climates are important to positively lead to ethical behaviour.
On the other hand, the egoistic ethical climate type (instrumental climate)
has a negative influence on the ethical level of individuals.

Based on the literature above, it is apparent that prior studies have


investigated different dimensions of ethical climates: service, efficiency, and
professionalism. However, a, review of literature revealed a lack of ethical
climate research related specifically to Malaysian accountants. Accordingly,
the current study will fill the gap by examining the types of ethical climate
as suggested by Victor and Cullen (1988), namely caring, law and code,
rules, instrumental and independence, focusing on Malaysian public sector
auditors. In addition, it was noted that most of the studies were conducted
in developed countries such as the US, but the number of studies conducted
in developing countries such as Malaysia is still limited. The current study
will address the gap in the literature by following Victor and Cullen’s (1988)
ethical climate framework to examine the perceived ethical work climate
of Malaysian public sector auditors.

Based on this review of literature, it was found that there is minimal


research done among the public sector auditors in Malaysia. Therefore, this
study fills the gap in the accounting and public sector literature since there
is a scarcity of studies explaining ethical climate from the perspective of the
Malaysian public sector. Thus, this study hopes to contribute to the body of
knowledge, and be beneficial not only to the government, particularly the
National Audit Department, but also to other professions including auditors,
academicians, and researchers and to the public as a whole.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In undertaking this research, a questionnaire survey method was used to gain


responses from public sector auditors in Malaysia. The auditors involved
worked with the National Audit Department (NAD) at both Federal and
State levels in Malaysia. At the Federal level, there were 11 NAD branches
in the social and security division, and another five NAD branches were in
the finance division. This gives a total of 16 NAD branches at the Federal
level. Under the State government, there is a NAD branch in each of the

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13 states of Perlis, Penang, Kedah, Perak, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang,


Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor, Sabah and Sarawak. All NAD
offices at the State and Federal levels were called by phone to ascertain the
number of auditors in each office before distributing the questionnaires to
each office. Finally, a total of 1,074 copies of questionnaires were sent to
the 326 public sector auditors at the Federal level and 748 public sector
auditors at the State level. The data were analysed using the Statistical
Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The descriptive statistics
of mean score and standard deviation were computed.

Meanwhile, the research instrument utilized in this study was a survey


questionnaire which was adapted from the Ethical Climate Questionnaire
(ECQ) developed by Victor and Cullen (1987) to measure the five types
of ethical climates, namely caring, law and code, rules, instrumental and
independence. The instrument consisted of 26 items as shown in Figure 3.

Table 1: Instrument Items for Each Ethical Climate Types


Types of Ethical
Items
Climate
Law and code In this organisation, people are expected to strictly follow legal or
professional standards
People are expected to comply with the law and professional standards
over and above other considerations
The first consideration is whether a decision violates any law
Rules Everyone is expected to stick by organisational rules and procedures
Rules ethical climate type is represented by the items
Successful people in this organisation go by the book
It is very important to follow strictly the organisation’s rules and procedures
here
Successful people in this organisation strictly obey the organisation’s
policies
Caring The most important concern is the good of all the people in the organisation
Our major consideration is what is best for everyone in the organisation
In this organisation, our major concern is always what is best for the
other person
Instrumental People are concerned with the organization’s interests
People are expected to do anything to further the organisation’s interests
There is no room for one’s own personal morals or ethics in this organisation
Independence In this organisation, people are guided by their own personal ethics
Each person in this organisation decides for themselves what is right
and wrong
In this organisation, people are expected to follow their own personal and
moral beliefs

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ETHICAL WORK CLIMATE IN THE NATIONAL AUDIT DEPARTMENT

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Demographic Profile of the Respondents

Table 2 presents the respondents’ demographic profiles in terms of


gender, age, total working experience in the accounting industry as well as
in the National Audit Department, and level of education attained. As shown
in Table 2, two-thirds of the respondents are female (69.9 %). Meanwhile,
almost half (46.7 %) of the respondents fell in the range of 30-39 years old.
Besides, in terms of working experience, a clear majority of the respondents
(74.4 %) were found to have more than five years’ working experience in
the accounting field, with 74.1 % already worked for the NAD for more than
five years. For academic qualifications, most of the respondents (89.8 %)
had a diploma and degree, whereas nine respondents had master’s degree
and five respondents had professional qualifications such as Certified Public
Accountant (CPA), Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA),
Malaysian Institute of Certified Public Accountants (MICPA) and Chartered
Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). In sum, the respondents
possessed appropriate qualifications and considerable experience in NAD
and in the accounting-related field. Hence, their responses are deemed
reliable and appropriate for this present study. The following section
discusses the findings of the current study.

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Table 2: Demographic Profile of Respondents


Frequency Percentage (%)
Gender Male 115 30.1
Female 267 69.9
Total 382 100.0
Age < 20 years 0 0.0
20-29 years 104 27.3
30-39 years
179 46.9
40-49 years
50-60 years 56 14.7
43 11.3
Total 382 100.0
Working exp. accounting <5 years 90 23.6
5-10 years 152 39.8
11-15 years 49 12.8
16-20 years 32 8.4
> 20 years 51 13.4
Missing data 8 2.1
Total 382 100.0
Working experience National <5 years 98 25.7
Audit Department 5-10 years 156 40.8
11-15 years 47 12.3
16-20 years 30 7.9
> 20 years 50 13.1
Missing data 1 0.3
Total 382 100.0
Highest Education Diploma 213 55.8
Bachelors 130 34.0
Masters 9 2.4
Professional qualification 5 1.3
Others 21 5.5
Missing data 4 1.0
Total 382 100.0

RESULTS ON TYPES OF ETHICAL CLIMATE IN THE NAD

In order to achieve the research objective, the mean scores and standard
deviations for each of the five ethical climate types were computed and the
results are shown in Table 3.

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Table 3: Mean scores and standard deviation

Variables Mean Std. Deviation

Ethical Climate:
Law 2.42 0.623

Independence 3.03 0.956

Caring 4.52 0.571

Instrumental 4.55 0.820


Rules 4.95 0.872

As shown in Table 2, the mean scores for all ethical climate types
ranged from 2.42 to 4.95. The results indicate that there are different levels
of different ethical climate types in the NAD offices. Based on the mean
scores, ‘Rules’, ‘caring’ and ‘instrumental’ ethical climate types are three
types of ethical climate that highly exist in the NAD offices. On the hand,
‘law’ which had mean score of 2.42, is the ethical climate type that is not
obvious in the NAD offices as perceived by the public sector auditors.
The highest mean score of 4.95 was for the rules climate, indicating that
the public sector auditors perceived this rules ethical climate to be highly
existing in the NAD offices, which proposes that they follow rules in their
organizations. The result was expected because being an auditor there are
rules and procedures as well as code of ethics which auditors need to comply
with in carrying out their professional tasks and responsibilities.

Likewise, the ‘caring’ ethical climate was also perceived to be highly


existing in the NAD offices. A ‘caring’ ethical climate is when decision or
action is made based on what is best for everyone in the organization. In
other words, it is an ethical climate type that concerns everyone’s need and
welfare. It is encouraging that it exists in the NAD offices because having
the environment that makes everyone feel important and valued would
enhance an individual’s commitment to the organization as well as to the
profession which ultimately will improve the quality and performance
of the auditors’ work. This is in line with Victor and Cullen (1987) who
claimed that a ‘caring’ climate is the best ethical climate type to exist in
an organization. The result is in contrast to the result by Tsai and Huang
(2008) who discovered that a caring climate of the least rated type of ethical
climate in Taiwan.

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Interestingly, the ‘instrumental’ climate is also perceived as highly


existing in the NAD offices. The instrumental climate refers to an ethical
climate when people protect their own interest above others. This is when
personal interest is first fulfilled before considering another people’s interest.
The ‘Instrumental’ type to some extent, seems to be the opposite of a ‘caring’
ethical climate type. The possible reason for both types of ethical climates
to exist in the NAD offices although they contradict each other is may be
that different climate types are necessary in different situations. In some
situations, a ‘caring’ environment is important but in some other situations,
an ‘instrumental’ climate is needed.

IMPLICATIONS, LIMITATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS


FOR FUTURE STUDY

The main objective of the current study was to identify the types of ethical
climates that exist in NAD offices in Malaysia. Using a survey questionnaire
by Victor and Cullen (1988), a total of 382 responses were received and
usable. Descriptive statistics of mean scores and standard deviation were
used to analyse the data. The results reveal that the top three ethical climate
types that were highly existent in the NAD offices are ‘rules’, ‘caring’ and
‘instrumental’ ethical climate types. In contrast, the law ethical climate type
was perceived as almost non-existent in the NAD offices.

The findings of the current study on the ethical climate types that
are currently existent in the NAD are useful for the NAD. Having this
information, the NAD could find measures in enhancing an appropriate
climate or in eliminating climates that are undesired. This is important,
as prior research has proven that ethical climate types can affect ethical
decision or behavior of members in the organization. For example, since the
instrumental climate focuses on self-interest and ignores others, and previous
studies have found that it can lead to unethical behaviour, it is important to
ensure that organizations have a low or non-instrumental climate. Deshpande
and Joseph (2009) suggest that preventing the instrumental climate can help
promote ethical behaviour among organizational members.

This study does have some limitations. Firstly, it makes use only of
questionnaires. Future researchers may want to gain richer data and more

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ETHICAL WORK CLIMATE IN THE NATIONAL AUDIT DEPARTMENT

insightful information by interviewing public sector auditors or conducting a


case study on a department or a ministry. Secondly, this study only identifies
ethical climate types that exist in the NAD offices in Malaysia. Future
studies may further investigate the influence of various types of ethical
climate on ethical decision or behaviour of public sector auditors. Finally,
future researchers may want to analyse the results based on group shared
perceptions of auditors rather than based on individual responses. This may
give better information on the types of ethical climate that exist in different
NAD offices. As a conclusion, the findings of this study provide insightful
information on the type of ethical climate that exist in the NAD offices in
Malaysia which is hoped can assist the NAD to cultivate the right ethical
climate in order to enhance credibility of the public sector auditors as they
carry a crucial responsibility to give assurance on the financial management
of the government.

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APPENDIX A QUESTIONNAIRE

SECTION A: DEMOGRAPHIC INFORMATION

1. Gender
Male Female

2. Age
<20 years 20- 29 years 30- 39 years

40-49 years 50-60 years >60 years

3. Working experience
in accounting field. <5 years 5-10 years 11- 15 years

16 -20 years >20 years

4. Working experience
with current <5 years 5-10 years 11- 15 years
organization.
16 -20 years >20 years

5. Highest educational
qualification Diploma Bachelors Masters

Professional qualification

Others: (please specify)….…………..

6. Professional
affiliation CPA ACCA

MICPA CIMA

ICAEW Others (please specify)……………….

7. Organization level
Federal

State

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SECTION B: Please indicate your level of agreement with


these statements on the ethical culture of your present
organization.

Strongly Strongly
Disagree Agree
In this organization, people are mostly out
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
for themselves.
The major responsibility of people in this
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
organization is to consider efficiency first.
In this organization, people are expected
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
to follow their own personal moral beliefs.
People are expected to do anything to
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
further the organization’s interests.
In this organization, people look out for each
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
other’s welfare.
There is no room for one’s own personal
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
morals or ethics in this organization.
It is very important to follow strictly the
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
organization’s rules and procedures here.
Work is considered sub-standard only when
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
it hurts the organization’s interests.
Each person in this organization decides for
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
himself what is right and wrong.
In this organization, people protect their own
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
interest above other considerations.
The most important consideration in this
organization is each person’s sense of right 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
and wrong.
The most important concern is the welfare
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
of all the people in the organization.
The first consideration is whether a decision
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
violates any law.
People are expected to comply with the law
and professional standards over and above 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
other considerations.
Everyone is expected to comply by
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
organization rules and procedures.
In this organization, our major concern is
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
always what is best for the other person.
People are concerned with the organization’s
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
interests.

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Successful people in this organization go


1 2 3 4 5 6 7
by the book.
The most efficient way is always the right
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
way, in this organization.
In this organization, people are expected
to strictly follow legal or professional 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
standards.
Our major consideration is what is best for
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
everyone in the organization.
In this organization, people are guided by
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
their own personal ethics.
Successful people in this organization
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
strictly obey the organization policies.
In this organization, the law or ethical
code of their profession is the major 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
consideration.
In this organization, each person is
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
expected, above all, to work efficiently.
It is expected that you will always do what
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
is right for the public.

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