Investigating the Moderating Effect of Perceived Moral Intensity on Accountant's Intentions of Internal Reporting Fraud

The purpose of this research is to investigate the moderating effect of perceived moral intensity on accountants’ intentions of reporting fraud. In doing so, we examined the moderating role of perceived moral intensity in the effect of organizational justice, attitude towards whistle-blowing, subjective norms, and religiosity on accountants’ intentions to internally report fraud in financial statements. This is a survey research and the statistical population is comprised of accountants of companies listed on Tehran Stock Exchange in 2015. Hypothesis testing using ordinary least-squares regression revealed that perceived moral intensity moderates the effects of organizational justice, attitude towards whistle-blowing and subjective norms but it does not moderate the effect of religiosity. Moreover, intentions of whistle blowing in male accountants is significantly higher than female accountants and education level and experience have significant positive and negative effects on intentions of whistle-blowing, respectively. Therefore, we could conclude that mechanisms such as training programs that aim at enhancement of accountants’ awareness of ethical issues and promoting their perceived moral intensity are of utmost importance for improving internal controls and increasing instances of fraud reporting.