The Effect of Creating a Professional Standard of Moral Conduct on Auditor’ Moral Decisions in Water and Power Industry in Golestan

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of teaching moral behavior on auditors’ moral decisions in water and power industry in Golestan, Iran. Statistical population is all auditors of water and power companies in Golestan Province. They are of professionals and specialists in the area of morality and religion. Twelve auditors familiar with moral and religious subjects holding at least MA degree were selected from water and power companies in Golestan as a sample. DEMATEL technique is of decision-making methods based on paired comparisons. In DEMATEL, Taking advantage of experts’ judgments, factors are identified and systematically organized according to principles of graph theory. A hierarchy of available factors is then presented along with their causal effects. The intensity of such correlation is then defined as a numerical score. Results showed that auditors’ moral decisions are strongly influenced by moral conduct. religious knowledge and element moral sensitivity are respectively in the highest (22.02%) and the lowest (17.40%) correlation with other elements. element moral knowledge are respectively in the lowest and the highest correlation with other elements. Thus it is concluded that morality is affected by other elements the most. Moral judgment and moral conduct are in highest rank of importance comparing with other elements. Moral sensitivity is placed in the lowest rank. Moral motivation and morality are the causes of moral judgment, moral conduct and moral sensitivity.