Experiential Simulations of Ethical Dilemmas in Accounting: Overcoming Challenges to Stimulate Ethical Thinking

Claire-France Picard; Cynthia Courtois

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Experiential Simulations of Ethical Dilemmas in Accounting: Overcoming Challenges to Stimulate Ethical Thinking

Claire-France Picard and Cynthia Courtois

Université Laval, Canada

Volume 20: 2023 pp. 163-194: ABSTRACT

Given the current business environment, business managers and accountants are more likely to encounter situations with ethical implications. Hence, business and accounting education should prioritize ethical skills such as critical thinking. However, significant pedagogical challenges await those who wish to venture down this path. Despite new educational tools in business and accounting ethics, we believe that new activities are needed to improve the acquisition of skills in professional ethics among students. Thus, we developed experiential simulations of ethical dilemmas inspired from what business managers and accountants typically encounter in their practice. More specifically, we created online simulations in the form of videos and interactive content. The purpose of these simulations is to help students experience the emotions that can be felt when faced with an ethical dilemma. They also provide a means of understanding the emotions of other characters and of thinking about how their actions affect others.
Keywords: critical thinking, emotions, ethical dilemmas, experiential learning, pragmatism, simulations.