Sany Dwita, Herlina Helmy, Charoline Chreisviyanny
This study aims to empirically examine the influence of gender and personality, as measured by construal of self, on holier-than-thou perception bias among Minangkabau accountants. Drawing on psychological and anthropological literature, this study formulates two hypotheses for examining the influence of gender and construal of self on holier-than-thou perception bias. The data for this study were collected using a survey questionnaire distributed to 235 final-year accounting students in Padang, West Sumatera. The questionnaire contains three scenarios eliciting the participants' judgements with regard to resolving auditor-client conflicts and whistle-blowing dilemmas. The data collected were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) to test the hypotheses. The findings of this study show that gender has a significant influence on holier-than-thou perception bias among Minangkabau accountants. In particular, Minangkabau women are more likely to demonstrate holier-than-thou perception bias than their male counterparts. However, the findings show that construal of self has no influence on holier-than-thou perception bias among Minangkabau accountants. The findings show differences in the professional judgements of future accountants which have implications for organisations such as accounting firms and accounting education in Indonesia. © 2018.
Department of Accounting, Universitas Negeri Padang, Indonesia
