Förmågan till etiskt resonemang hos svenska auktoriserade revisorer
Tillämpning av Defining Issues Test
The aim of this paper is to examine the capacity for ethical reasoning of Swedish certi-fied auditors in the five largest accounting firms in Stockholm, and also how ethics courses affect the auditors' ability to ethically statement. To calculate the auditors ability to ethical statement, questionnaire has been used. The questionnaire is based on a psychological instrument, the so-called Defining Issues Test. At the beginning of the questionnaire some questions are asked about the ethics courses. From the questionnaire a calculation was made of an average index called p-score (Principled score). With the help of Kohlberg moral development theory identification was made of an auditor's capacity for ethical reasoning. The empirical material shows that the averages of the Swedish public accountants land on Kohlberg conventional level. This means that audi-tors have a relatively high capacity for ethical reasoning. The result also shows that there is no link between participation in ethics courses and capacity for ethical reason-ing. The conclusion is that the Swedish auditors have a relatively high ability to manage conflicts of interest and make ethical decisions, but to provide independent audit the au-ditors need to be on the highest level in Kohlberg moral development theory. The accounting firms should offer ethics courses in greater extant to improve auditors' abili-ty to ethical reasoning.