Ethical Conflicts experienced in Auditing Sector: A Focus Group Study

Abstract

In business life, employees can easily encounter with ethical conflicts due to the incongruency between values of employees and their managers or organizational values. Ethical behavior is crucial in overcoming ethical conflicts. Individual and organizational factors, cultural orientations of individuals can be predictor of ethical behavior in an organization. The aim of this research is to find out the ethical conflicts experienced by individuals and how these ethical conflicts are resolved. The participants of the study consist of employees who are working in auditing. Their ethical conflict management styles are analyzed. Qualitative methods are deployed for the study. Focus group study is conducted to find out the ethical conflicts which are experienced by auditors. Also, their ways of resolving the ethical conflicts are analyzed. The results indicated that auditors frequently experience ethical conflicts due to the content of their jobs and individuals prefer different resolution strategies in accordance with the conditions. The study guides managers and businessmen about ethical conflicts and conflict management styles especially in the field of accounting and auditing. Also, the study is the preliminary stage of another comphrensive study.

Keywords

• ethical conflict,conflict management

Denetim Sektöründe Yaşanan Etik Çatışmalar: Odak Grup Çalışması

Abstract

Çalışanlar ve yöneticilerin veya örgütsel değerlerin arasındaki uyumsuzluklar, çalışanların yüksek olasılıkla etik çatışmalar yaşamasına neden olabilmektedir. Etik davranış, etik çatışmaları engellemek açısından önemlidir. Örgütteki etik davranışın belirleyicileri olarak bireysel ve örgütsel faktörler veya bireylerin kültürel eğilimleri etkin olmaktadır. Bu çalışmanın amacı iş hayatında bireyler tarafından yaşanan etik çatışmaları  ve bu etik çatışmaların çözüm yöntemlerinin belirlenmesidir. Çalışmada kalitatif bir araştırma yöntemi olan odak grup çalışması kullanılmıştır. Odak grup çalışmasının katılımcılarını da denetim sektöründe çalışan bireyler oluşturmaktadır. Odak grup çalışması ile denetim sektöründe yaşanan etik çatışmalar ve etik çatışmaları çözüm yöntemleri analiz edilmiştir. Çalışmanın sonuçları olarak, denetçilerin, iş yapısına bağlı olarak sıklıkla etik çatışmalar yaşadığı belirlenmiştir. Denetçilerin durumlara bağlı olarak farklı çatışma çözüm yöntemleri kullandıkları da ortaya konmuştur. Çalışma, denetçi ve denetim sektöründe bulunan iş adamlarına etik çatışma konusunda bir bilgi sağlamaktadır.  Denetim sektöründe bulunan bireylerin etik çatışmalar ile karşılaştıkların ne gibi çatışma çözüm yöntemi kullanabileceklerine dair de bir kaynak oluşturmaktadır.

Keywords

• Etik çatışma,çatışma çözüm yöntemleri,denetim sektörü

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