Accounting Professional’s Perceptions of Ethics Education: Evidence From Lebanon

Accountants nowadays play significant role in decision-making due to the increased complexity of the business operations. The downfall of huge corporations such as Enron and Worldcom led to rigorous legislations stressing the importance of ethical behavior and accountability (Robertson, 2008). A large block of studies in literature have supported the importance of ethics education, emphasizing on its implementation within the curriculum. The purpose of this study is to investigate the Lebanese professional perception of Accounting ethics education. A questionnaire was used to gain a clear insight about accountants’ perception with respect to ethical education and ethical awareness. With 140accountants taking part in this study, the results highlighted that Lebanese accountants acknowledge the significance of ethics education for their career and they highly supported the presence of ethics education within the universities’ accounting programs. A major challenge for academics and accounting professionals is to collaborate together in order to increase ethical awareness of accountants and increase their commitment to ethical behavior in the workplace.