The Influence of Culture on Ethical Decision Making: The Role of Moral Disengagement and Locus of Control

The accounting profession demands high integrity and ethical competence. This study aims to analyze the influence of organizational culture on ethical decision-making among accounting students, with moral disengagement as a mediator and locus of control as a moderator. A quantitative approach using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) analysis was conducted on a sample of undergraduate accounting students in Jakarta and West Java. The results of the study show that: (1) organizational culture has a positive and significant effect on moral disengagement, (2) moral disengagement has a negative and significant effect on ethical decision making, (3) internal locus of control significantly moderates the effect of moral disengagement on ethical decision making, while external locus of control is not significant, and (4) moral disengagement mediates the effect of organizational culture on ethical decision making (β = -0.051; p = 0.020). These findings emphasize the importance of building an ethical organizational culture and strengthening the internal locus of control in accounting education curricula to develop professionals who consider ethics.