Effect of Ethical Ideology on Quality of Financial Reporting

Accountants have critical and difficult responsibility in interpreting the firm’s transactions and events and presenting them in the form of financial reports so that they can be useful to stakeholders to evaluate the performance of that firm. Thus, unethical professional works, including presenting less qualitative and fraud financial information, can lead to social distrust to accountants and dishonor of the whole of accounting profession. Due to the increasing ttention worldwide on ethical issues and the importance of quality of financial reporting (QFR) n accounting, this research attempted to cover the study gap that exists in determining the effect f financial managers’ ethical ideology on QFR. The Ethical Position Questionnaire (EPQ) was used to determine the ethical ideology f financial managers. Then the QFR parameter was quantified by observable varia bles. Finally, the effect of manager's ethical ideology on QFR in some 150 firms listed at the Tehran Stock Exchange was examined. Structural equation modeling based on partial list square (PLS) method was used for data analysis. The results showed the managers’ ethical ideology is effective on QFR, so that it explains 18% of the variance of this variable. Further, idealistic view of managers has positive and meaningful effect on QFR. Due to the positive impact of managers’ idealistic view on QFR, it seems necessary that the professional bodies and responsible authorities consider programs to enhance managers’ idealism and thus increase QFR.