Using a sample of 703 full- or part-time employed students from two U.S. universities, we conducted an empirical investigation of the relation between perceptions of ethical leadership and perceptions of political skill. The sample was composed of 141 accounting majors and 562 non-accounting students. The results indicated that the two concepts were highly correlated. Our findings also indicate that perception of both ethical leadership and political skill significantly dropped with age and work experience. Moreover, accounting seniors who had previously completed a standalone ethics course had higher perceptions than their counterparts on both constructs, which were still highly correlated. This finding suggests that the ethics education of these students may not have positively impacted their discernment in the area of ethical sensitivity. Thus, accounting students may enter the workforce with inadequate ethical sensitivity, and entry-level accountants may therefore be prone to cognitively confuse the leadership attributes of political skills and ethics. The ability of accountants to differentiate between the ethical leadership and the political skill of leaders, and/or knowledge of how the political skills of leaders could mask their unethical guidance, is posited as an area of ethical sensitivity worthy of inclusion in accounting ethics pedagogy.

我们使用来自美国两所大学的703名全职或兼职学生的样本，对道德领导力观念与政治技巧观念之间的关系进行了实证研究。样本由141个会计专业和562个非会计专业学生组成。结果表明这两个概念是高度相关的。我们的研究结果还表明，随着年龄和工作经验的增长，人们对道德领导力和政治技巧的认识大大下降。此外，以前完成过独立道德课程的会计高级人士对他们的看法比他们在这两种架构上的同行要高，后者仍然高度相关。这一发现表明，这些学生的道德教育未必会对他们在道德敏感性方面的认知产生积极影响。因此，会计专业的学生可能缺乏足够的道德敏感性进入工作队伍，因此入门级会计师可能会在认知上容易混淆政治技巧和道德规范的领导属性。会计师区分道德领导者和领导者的政治技巧的能力，和/或有关领导者的政治技巧如何掩盖其不道德指导的知识，被认为是值得在会计道德教育学中纳入的道德敏感性领域。