Abstract:

The process of ethical judgment is affected by individual characteristics and situational factors. The ethical judgment begins when an individual recognizes an ethical dilemma and may be influence with the situational factors such as moral intensity. This study examines the moderating effect of moral intensity on the relationship between individual characteristic (i.e. work locus of control) and ethical judgments. 197 auditors took part in this study, responding to the questionnaires provided to them. Two sets of questionnaires were distributed among the auditors with high and low intensity of the ethical scenarios. Results indicate that work locus of control has no significant effect on auditors’ ethical judgments. However, the results of the current study revealed that there is a significant moderating effect of moral intensity on the auditors’ ethical judgment. The results indicated that the intensity of the ethical scenarios moderate the relationship between work locus of control and ethical judgment. In other words, auditors may form more ethical judgments when dealing with ethical issues which are high intensity. Limitation of this study is using only ne ethical issue of Independence in the analysis. Results may vary using other ethical issues.