Reconstructing Accounting Ethics Through Spiritual Values: A Qualitative Study toward Sustainable Financial Reporting

Abstract

Financial reporting fraud, earnings manipulation, and symbolic sustainability disclosures continue to undermine organisational accountability, indicating that compliance-based governance mechanisms alone may be insufficient to ensure ethical reporting practices. This study explores how accounting professionals understand and experience the role of spiritual values in ethical decision-making and sustainable financial reporting. Using an interpretivist paradigm, this study employed a qualitative exploratory design involving semi-structured interviews with ten participants, comprising corporate accountants, external auditors, government auditors, accounting academics, and a finance manager. Data were analysed using thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke's procedures. The findings suggest that participants perceive spiritual values—including honesty, trustworthiness (amanah), integrity, moral responsibility, and transcendental awareness—as important sources of internal moral guidance in professional practice. These values were perceived to support ethical awareness and the maintenance of ethical integrity when participants faced professional pressures. Participants further associated spiritual values with transparency, accountability, and responsible financial reporting practices. The findings also highlight ethical resilience as an interpretive concept that helps explain how professionals maintain ethical commitments under organisational pressure. This study contributes to the accounting ethics literature by providing qualitative insights into the role of internally driven values in supporting ethical reporting practices beyond formal compliance mechanisms. The findings offer practical implications for organisations, professional accounting bodies, and educational institutions seeking to strengthen ethical awareness and reporting integrity.