The British Accounting Review 35 (2003) 349366 www.elsevier.

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Relocating accounting and business ethics: reections on a business ethics retreat in Scotlands National Park
Ken McPhail
Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Glasgow, 65-73 Southpark Avenue, Glasgow G12 8LE, UK Received 26 March 2002; revised 27 November 2002; accepted 9 May 2003

Abstract This paper describes an accounting and business ethics course that was developed at Glasgow Universitys Department of Accounting and Finance and recounts an attempt to increase the effectiveness of aspects of the course through relocating the places where it took place. In particular

E-mail address: k.mcphail@accn.gla.ac.uk (K. McPhail). 0890-8389/03/$ - see front matter q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/S0890-8389(03)00042-8

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the paper provides some reections on an ethics retreat in Loch Lomond National Park in Scotland. The paper provides an account of the weekend and describes the activities in which the students participated. It provides some reections on the weekend and considers how successful the retreat was in promoting the goals of the course. The paper concludes with a call for further thought and discussion on the role that place could play in making accounting and business ethics education more effective. q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Accounting and business ethics; Space; Retreat

1. Introduction One of the characteristically postmodern traits of our present condition is the increasing scepticism towards the professions and their privileged place in society. However, while the accounting profession has endured many crises in the past, there have perhaps not been many bigger and potentially more disruptive than the Enron debacle. As with all crises, the profession can respond to the challenges it represents in a number of ways: it can claim innocence and make no changes; it can respond in a reactionary way and make only supercial changes; or it can use the circumstances as a positive opportunity to thoughtfully and critically reect on where things are not right and make some positive and substantive changes. In the light of public and political comment surrounding the case it would certainly appear that the rst two responses are simply not options. This paper starts from the premise that the professions approach to accounting and business ethics education is one of the key areas where things are not right, an area that seems to have been marginalised in the current discussion and debate surrounding Enron. Although in the UK accounting education generally includes some consideration of auditor independence, the whole area of accounting and business ethics, from the political economy of accounting and the ethical values on which it is based; through to the emotional and intellectual skills required to recognize and engage with business ethics dilemmas; and on to continuous ethical support and development through professional CPD, is particularly underdeveloped (see: McPhail, 2001a; Gray et al., 1994; Neimark, 1996; Chua, 1996; Davis and Sherman, 1996; Dillard and Tinker, 1996; Dillard, 1991; Davis and Welton, 1991). While there has been some considerable debate as to whether it is possible for accounting and business ethics education to have any impact on students ethical proclivities at all (McCabe et al., 1991; Weber, 1990; Stead and Miller, 1988; Hiltebeitel and Jones, 1992; Harris and Brown, 1990; Forisha and Forisha,1976; Borkowski and Ugras, 1992; Wynd and Mager, 1989; Burton et al., 1991), its effectiveness obviously depends on the kind of education students receive and whether it is an isolated course or part of a broader culture of support and development. It is questionable whether a few weeks studying the professions code of conduct will have a signicant impact on students ethical proclivities (see Webb, 1996). However, more substantive and creative approaches have been shown to have an impact (see for example Weisberg and Dufn, 1995; Berger and Pratt, 1998; Carson, 1994). Business ethics researchers are beginning to

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appreciate, with increasing sophistication, the attributes that make ethics education more effective. Course composition (Weisberg and Dufn, 1995; Herndon, 1996) content (Webb, 1996; Miles et al., 1989; Tucker, 1983; Vesilind, 1991; Kremers 1989, Glynn and Fergusson, 1994; Russel and McCullouch, 1990; Baylis and Downie, 1991), timing (Webb, 1996; Rhode, 1992; Miles et al., 1989; Hafferty and Franks, 1994; Lindaver and Hagerty, 1983; Koehn 1991; Hassler, 1987; Wilcox, 1983) as well as the medium through which ethics issues are presented (Webb, 1996; Green et al., 1995; Downie et al., 1997; Lansley, 1985; Veshosky and Edbers, 1991; Gowan et al., 1996) have all been identied as important elements in effective business ethics education. However, as yet there has been little study of the importance of the place where accounting and business ethics is taught (although see McPhail, 2002). This paper begins to explore the possibility that space might be a further important element in effective accounting and business ethics education. Over the past few years the accounting and organisational studies literature has experienced the beginnings of what might be termed a spatial turn (Miller and OLeary, 1994). Following a signicant period when linguistic theory provided the lens through which many accounting theorists interpreted the function of accounting within organisations and society, (see for example, Laughlin, 1987; Boland, 1989; Arrington and Fancis, 1989; Arrington and Puxty, 1991; Llewellyn 1993; Power and Laughlin, 1996; Francis, 1994) an increasing number of studies are adopting a more geographical perspective on accounting practice. Powers (1992) work on the territorialized nature of brand accounting; Hines (1988) seminal paper on accountings role in the construction of abstract spaces; Miller and OLearys (1987) work on the Panopticon-like way in which accounting techniques open up corporate spaces to managements disciplinary gaze and their more recent work (Miller and OLeary, 1994) on the role that accounting played in arranging and mapping out the physical space in Caterpillars Decatur plant (see also Arnold, 1998; Miller and OLeary, 1998; Froud et al., 1998) are just a few examples of studies which have brought a spatial awareness to the study of accounting. Some of the more recent studies reect both a growing spatial awareness within the philosophy and social science literatures in general (see for example Lefebvre, 1998; Bachelard, 1994, Casey, 1998) and a growing awareness of the spatialisation of money within the geography literature (see for example Harvey, 1996, 1982; Leyshon, 2003; Leyshon et al., 1988; Thrift, 1994). However, it would seem that the implications of this emerging spatial consciousness has yet to be explored as a basis for praxis and engagement within accounting education in general and accounting and business ethics education in particular (although see McPhail, 2002). This paper attempts to begin to address this gap in the literature and is written with three specic objectives in mind. Firstly, the paper draws on some spatial theory to develop a case for why an awareness of space might be relevant within accounting and business ethics education. Secondly, the paper describes an attempt to take space seriously in teaching accounting and business ethics. The paper reports on an accounting and business ethics course developed at Glasgow University and recounts an attempt to increase the effectiveness of the course through relocating the places where it took place. In particular the paper reports on an ethics retreat in Loch Lomond National Park in Scotland. The purpose in recounting this experience is simply to stimulate further thought and discussion on other possible places where accounting and business ethics education could take place. Finally, the paper tentatively attempts to evaluate the success

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of the retreat and discusses the potential for using this particular kind of dislocation to increase the effectiveness of accounting and business ethics education in general. The paper is split into ve sections. Section 2 provides some of the context behind the retreat, it introduces the accounting and business ethics course of which the retreat was a part and explains the objectives behind the trip. Section 3 provides a short discussion of why space might be important in understanding how individuals relate to ethical issues. Section 4 provides an account of the weekend and describes the activities in which the students participated. Section 5 provides some analysis and reections on the weekend and in particular considers how successful the retreat was in achieving its goals. Section 6 calls for more debate and discussion on the potential for relocation in making accounting and business ethics education more effective.

2. The course The retreat was arranged as part of an accounting and business ethics course offered by Glasgow Universitys Department of Accounting and Finance. The course: Accounting and Business Ethics, is an optional, advanced level course that can be taken in the third or fourth year of any degree program offered by the Department. The course was developed in 1999 in response to a perceived lack of ethical education for accounting and business students. The profession in the UK has failed to seriously address the whole area of ethical education and emotional intelligence (see McPhail, 2001a). Forty-three students elected to take the course in 2002 and 49 students attended the course in 2003. The rst two weeks of the course introduced students to some ethical theory. The objectives of this part of the course were rstly to encourage the students to think about different ways of identifying and resolving ethical dilemmas and secondly to help them apply these theories within a business and accounting context. These rst two weeks were intended to provide students with a foundation for studying the ethics of free market economics and accounting in week three. The aim of this initial section of the course was rstly, to enable students to understand the ethical basis of accounting and secondly to help them appreciate that there are different ethical bases on which business decisions could theoretically be based and appraised. Surprisingly, most nal year students have not yet grasped either of these points. Week four focused on the ethics of corporate governance and was based on a case study of the Maxwell Pension fraud.1 This year Ivy Needham, one of the Maxwell pensioners also participated in the seminar. Despite being partially sighted and over 70 years of age Ivy managed to secure a pension for all 32,000 Maxwell pensioners and convince the EC to change the law in relation to pension fund management. In weeks ve and six the focus of the course changed from macro ethical issues to micro
1 Robert Maxwell built up an empire of communications companies, including quoted companies like Mirror Group Newspapers in the 1980s. These companies however, formed part of a complex network that was designed specically for manipulating accounting gures. His scam threatened to be revealed when he could not deliver security against a loan and faced with the prospect of bankruptcy he plundered the MNG pension fund. He was found dead in the sea off Tenerife in 1991. Apparently he had fallen from his yacht. In December 1991, accountants reported that 770 million was missing from his companies and that 430 million had been stolen from the pension fund (Punch, 1996).

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ethical issues. The students explored the moral psychology of the rm in week ve and in particular studied how an individuals ethical behavior can often change depending on the organisational setting. The aim of this seminar was to help students appreciate the way in which organisational structures and contexts can impinge on ethical decision making. In week six the study of ethical decision making continued with an analysis of the Thalidomide drug. This year the case was presented by Simone Baker, the secretary of the UK Thalidomide Society and herself severely affected by Thalidomide. In week seven the students studied the relationship between space and ethics. As well as exploring the impact of the increasingly globalised nature of business on ethics (McPhail, 2001b), this seminar also focused on the local architectural spaces within which business decisions are made. In week eight the students were taken on a tour of one of Glasgows notorious housing estates as a stimulus for considering what it means to be an accounting professional and therefore, by denition, someone who is supposed to have public interest at heart. This seminar was conducted by the head of a local economic development and regeneration unit and covered the issue of pro bono publico work by local rms of chartered accountants amongst other things. The course concluded with some revision sessions. Although the content of the course has remained fairly stable over the past two years the way in which the issues were presented to the students has changed from year to year. Last year for example the session on professional ethics was convened at the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland and students also had the opportunity to visit Barlinnie prison in Glasgow. Overall the course probably attempts to cover too much. However, this reects a concern that most of the students have very little formal ethical and emotional education and are particularly ill equipped for applying their minds to ethical problems within the context of accounting and business ethics (see Gray et al., 1994). As noted above the course aims to provide students with a broad introduction to the ethics of business and accounting and in particular attempts to provide students with an understanding of the ethical bases of the practice of accounting. However, the course also attempts to contribute towards the students emotional and ethical skills (Cohen, 1999; McPhail, 2001a; MacIntyre, 1967; Kuhn, 1998; Green et al., 1995; Miles et al., 1989; Gillon, 1996, p. 323; Downie et al., 1997; Romisowski, 1981; Stenhouse, 1975; Laurillard, 1993; Pask, 1976; Green et al., 1995). The educational philosophy of the course is based on a combination of experiential learning and social and emotional learning theory (Cohen, 1999). Although all the seminars commenced with a short introductory lecture, most also involved some experiential learning, for example experiencing Ivy; Simone; Barlinnie or Ruchill housing estate. The second theoretical basis for the course was taken from the emerging social and emotional learning literature (McIntosh and Style, 1999; Elliot, 1997; Goleman, 1995; Gardner, 1983; Cohen, 1999). This literature suggests that there are different forms of intelligence, for example rational or analytical or social and emotional and that each type of knowledge requires a different educational approach. In particular it suggests that social and emotional intelligence can be identied as a legitimate sphere of intellectual development (Gardner, 1983). Some of the characteristics of this kind of intelligence are the ability to empathize with others and the capacity to interrogate ones own emotions (McIntosh and Style, 1999; Elliot, 1997; Goleman, 1995; Gardner, 1983; Cohen, 1999). In order to achieve these objectives a number of different educational approaches and techniques are used on the course including role play, lm, literature, real

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life case studies and relocation. Over the past two years students have been taken to the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland in Edinburgh, Barlinnie prison, Ruchill housing estate in Glasgow and nally Loch Lomond National Park.

3. Relating space to business ethics education This short section attempts to make the connection between place and ethics education. Commencing from the literature which brings a new spatial awareness to the analysis of ethics in general, the section proceeds to consider some work that implies that space may also be an important element in business ethics education. In week seven of the course the students explored the emerging literature on the relationship between ethics and space or place.2 The literature on space highlights the importance of retaining a spatial awareness when attempting to investigate and understand business ethics issues (see Casey, 1998; McPhail, 2002). Milgrams (1974) study of the relationship between space and empathy for example has been applied by Bauman (1998) in his exploration both of the Holocaust and the impact of globalisation on ethical relationships. Yet while our understanding of the link between space and ethics is becoming more sophisticated, these insights have not been applied reexively to the study and practice of accounting and business ethics education. Although the business ethics literature contains much discussion on how to teach business ethics (Weisberg and Dufn, 1995; Webb, 1996; Miles et al., 1989), the increasing spatial awareness within the ethics literature in general has not yet stimulated any discussion on where to teach business ethics. While Baumans analysis focuses on the relationship between the I and its other (primarily other human beings), Gaston Bachelards Poetics of Space addresses the relationship between the I and its place. Casey (1998) highlights the elementary nature of Bachelards analysis when he says, to be at all, to exist in any way, is to be somewhere, and to be somewhere is to be in some kind of place. In his seminal study Bachelard builds on this basic observation to develop the concept of topoanalysis, or the systematic psychological study of the places of our lives. Although Bachelard focuses on the intimate places of the home, his contention, that place inuences who we are and the way we think, can be applied more generally. For example, from a different perspective, Bachelards argument can be supported from attitude theory. This literature suggests that physical location is important in determining the cognitive scripts we invoke in particular situations3 (Tajfel and Fraser, 1990; Hewstone et al., 1993; Campbell (1963) in Tajfel and Fraser, 1990; Shaw and Wright, 1967; Cole and Scribner, 1974). Rudolf Steiner4 also makes a similar argument to Bachelard. However, what is signicant about Steiners work for this paper is that he incorporates an awareness of the relationship between space and emotional development into the architecture of his schools and his system of education.
2 While there has been a considerable amount of debate over the difference between space, place, site and location I use these terms quite loosely within the paper (see Casey, 1998). 3 The attitude theory literature draws on the dramatological metaphor of the script to convey the idea that human beings often play different roles within different situations. 4 There are many Steiner schools in the UK.

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This literature therefore suggests that it is at least plausible that the place where education takes place might inuence the nature of its impact. The experimentation with place within the course thus represents a tentative attempt to draw on the theoretical perspectives of both Bachelard and Steiner and recognise the role which space could play in the development of effective business ethics education. The objective of the retreat was simply to investigate whether this change in location had a perceptible impact on the way in which the students engaged with the subject of accounting and business ethics. The objective of the paper however is not to establish whether there is a causal relationship between retreats and deep learning in general, rather the paper has the more modest aim of recounting and evaluating the specic experience and encouraging further experimentation with space in ethics education.

4. The retreat This section provides an account of the retreat in Loch Lomond National Park in Scotland. The trip was arranged for week seven of the 10-week course and was optional. The faculty contributed towards the cost of the weekend from a fund which had been set aside specically for the development of the ethics course. However, students were also asked to make a small contribution.5 Initially 24 students elected to participate in the trip.6 However, the night before the retreat there was a signicant fall of snow and consequently seven students could not attend because they were snow bound. This section provides a narrative account of the weekend. The aim of this admittedly partial account7 is to provide the reader with a feel for both the retreat and the location where it took place.

Students were asked to contribute only 20 to the cost of the weekend. The cost was therefore not prohibitive. The students who did not attend either had work commitments, assignment deadlines to meet or other prior arrangements. 7 Limited in the sense of being my own recollections of the weekend.
6

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John Paul Bennet, Jennifer Crorie, Amanda Ghita, Clare Joiner, Laura Lavery, Karen Robertson, Sonia Vickers, Louise Wood, Stuart Alen, Grant Archer, James Beal, Calum Cooper, Mark Elliott, Judd Johnstone, Alasdair Lawrie, and Ian Tytherleigh made it through the snow. They are excited by the snow, but also, as they will admit later, because the weekend is an unknown. They have never been on a business ethics retreat and do not know quite what to expect. The snow has stopped, the sky is duck egg blue and the sun is singing as we leave Glasgow. Some of the students are excited simply by the prospect of spending some time in the countryside as they have not been out of the city for over a year! We stop at Queens view on the way. You can normally see Loch Lomond and the Ben from Queens view. However, the snow has started again so the students have a snowball ght while I take some photographs. The journey to the eld station takes approximately one hour and there is just enough time for a short walk before lunch. As we leave the eld station a car approaches and the students have to stand by the side of the road until it passes. One student comments, good, they might think we are science students instead of boring accountants.

After lunch the students commence their rst task of the weekend. In groups of ve they are asked to select a piece of accounting poetry, explain why they chose it; explain what the poem is about and identify the main ethical issues the poem addresses. Each group is also asked to read the poem and present their discussions to the group as a whole. I endeavour to help the students clarify the task. Some students were confused by the poems, I dont understand this, this sounds a bit weird, the words are spread about all over the page. Others were embarrassed, Im not going to say, youll laugh at me. Some poems are discarded because they just cannot be understood, this one is so weird, or because they are too long, this one is four pages. Although one or two groups choose a poem because it is, poetic, another group is having some problems. One student comments, what if we pick the wrong one! In the end however all the groups do nally choose a poem. One group chooses a poem called My Dog is a Forensic CPA; another group selects a poem called c:/poems/buds/blossom. As the students start to analyse their poem one student comments, Ive got an idea about the poem but I think Im probably wrong.

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The students were then asked to reect on why they thought the author had chosen to write a poem rather than just say what they wished to convey in a rational fashion. The students were also asked to discuss the problems they had relating to their poem. Some students were quite sceptical as to the authors reasons for writing a poem. Others felt free to be openly expletive in a way that would be hard to conceive of within the formal setting of a lecture or seminar. However, some students interestingly commented that it might be that the authors used the poem as a form of emotional management.

In relation to the issue of engaging with the poems some students said that they found it difcult to cope with the ambiguity. Another student commented that she had become educationally lazy and that is why she found it difcult to engage with the poems! However, most of the students say that they were more comfortable with mathematical subjects at school and had always found this kind of exercise more difcult. As we break for dinner the students continued to talk about the poems in the corridors. After dinner and some free time spent wondering the shore of Loch Lomond we watch the movie Dancer in the Dark in preparation for the session the following morning. The musical by Lars Von Trier, which has won a signicant amount of critical acclaim, tells the story of a Czech immigrant, Selma who works in a factory somewhere in small town America. Selma lives with her son in a caravan which she rents from a local policeman, Bill and his wife. However, she escapes from her hardships in imaginary Hollywood musicals. As the story unfolds we discover that Selma has a genetic disease which means she is slowly losing her sight. The lm presents a harrowing account of the events which follow after Bill steals some money that Selma has been saving for an operation for her son who has the same genetic eye disorder. The cover of the video reads Dancer in the Dark is one of the most controversial lms of recent years. It is groundbreaking, compelling and utterly unforgettable. Bjorks award winning performance is guaranteed to provoke. This is true. Some of the female students have to look away when Selma kills Bill and Amanda cries when Selma is hanged.

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The lm provides numerous ethical dilemmas that the students can address and the following morning in a workshop the students were asked to discuss three questions in groups. Selma is eventually red from her job in a local factory because, as a result of her poor eyesight, she inadvertently causes a machine to break down. The rst question the students had to address is, should Selma have been let go? This is a complex question as the incident involves a number of issues. Selmas sight has almost gone. However, she has also been working double shifts, and doing extra work, in order to save enough money for her sons operation. The second question the students had to address is whether Selma should have killed Bill. In a tussle that ensues after Selma realises that Bill has stolen her money, Bill is shot but not killed. He pleads with Selma to kill him, saying that this is the only way he will ever let go of the money. Selma eventually hits

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him on the head several times with a large metal bank box. The nal question that the students had to address is, should Luke have taken on the case for free? Eventually Selma is caught and imprisoned for Bills murder, but not before she has been able to take her money to a local clinic and arrange the operation for her son. Selma is convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. However, when Selmas friend discovers what has happened she employs another lawyer who agrees to take on the case for the money that would have been paid for Selmas sons operation. Selma, however decides she will not sacrice her sons sight. Prior to addressing each question the students watched the relevant sections of the lm again. The students talked animatedly about each of the questions and argued openly with each other. At one point, just for a short while, I feel as though they have forgotten I am in the room. They forget themselves too and momentarily living and learning are seamless. The afternoon is spent walking in the woods and we leave for Glasgow after dinner.

5. Reections This section presents some reections on the weekend and in particular on the impact of the relocation on the level of students engagement with the accounting and business ethics issues explored during the retreat. The students were asked to keep journals in which they were encouraged to record their feelings and reections on all aspects of the weekend. However, unfortunately the students were not very disciplined and only a few of the female students submitted their journals at the end of the retreat. While these diaries provide some interesting insights into the thoughts and feelings of a few students, the majority of the reections in this section are drawn from my own ethnographic experience of teaching the course over the past two years and attending the retreat. Spending over thirty six hours m.hsp sp="0.25">h with the students, eating with them; talking to them; reading poetry and watching movies with them proved to be an effective way of studying how the students engaged with ethical issues in general and whether this mode of engagement was inuenced by their location. The fact that some of the activities had been attempted the year before in seminars at the university also provided a useful comparator for assessing the impact of the relocation in particular.8 The section begins with some reections on the specic activities of the weekend and then provides some general observations on the use of relocation in teaching accounting and business ethics in this particular case. 5.1. The tasks: reading poems and dancing in the dark A number of different attempts to relocate aspects of the course were made over the past two years. The trip to Barlinnie prison was intended to challenge and disrupt students by simulating what would happen if they were to be convicted of a business crime. The trip to Ruchill was intended, amongst other things, to help students engage with the concept of
8 Anecdotal evidence suggests that this years group of students was broadly comparable to last years cohort. It would seem that similar types of students elected to take the course.

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a profession and the challenge of public interest and pro bono.9 These locations were thus chosen in order to relate to specic learning activities and to enhance specic learning objectives. The retreat was also designed to enhance particular learning activities and goals. There are a growing number of studies on the use of literature and lm as a means for encouraging students to engage with ethical issues (see for example Berger and Pratt, 1998; Adler, 1995; Grifn, 1995; Proctor, 1993; Proctor and Adler, 1991; Serey, 1992; Zorn, 1991). Indeed, experimentation with these alternative forms of media has taken place across the professions. The medical ethics (Downie et al., 1997; Downie and Charlton, 1992; Downie, 1991; Shepard et al., 1997; Green et al., 1995; Carson, 1994) and legal ethics (Weisberg and Dufn, 1995; Webb, 1996) literatures for example both contain studies of the use of lm and literature in developing students ethical sensibilities. Last year both lm and poetry were used to some effect on the course and the retreat was arranged with the view of increasing the effectiveness of these teaching techniques in challenging students ethical sensitivities. The assumption was therefore that the location of these particular activities might increase their effectiveness. Is there any evidence therefore to suggest that the students abilities to engage with the ethical issues raised through the medium of poetry and lm was inuenced by being in the middle of one of Scotlands National Parks? While the literature suggests that both poetry and prose seem to be effective teaching aids for studying medical and legal ethics, the accounting students who attended the weekend generally found it difcult to engage with this kind of medium. The re-location seemed to have little perceptible impact on the way students engaged in this exercise. Discussions with the students over the weekend reinforced this perception and also provided some evidence that this difculty may be related to the psychological characteristics of the types of people who choose to study accounting, or at least the kinds of intellectual skills they have developed. Almost all of the students who attended the weekend said they had chosen to study accountancy because they found it easier to deal with mathematical types of problems. Most of the students also commented that they would never think of reading poetry for pleasure or relaxation. Other students interestingly observed that the education they had received at university did not support the specic kind of skills required to engage with poetry. This kind of disposition seems common amongst many accounting students and has been well documented within the literature (see for example Gray et al., 1994). There is a well established body of literature which suggests that the key to moral and ethical development lies in the individuals empathetic capacity to enter into the experience of others10 (see for example Levinas, 1987; Hand, 1989; Davis, 1996; Bauman, 1993; 1996, 1998; McIntosh and Style, 1999; Cohen, 1999). Indeed the ethics course was based on this particular school of thought. This literature suggests that an individuals ability to recognise and engage with ethical dilemmas depends on their capacity to
9 Pro bono work is work undertaken for free generally for the benet of charitable organizations or the local community. 10 Rawls concept of The Original Position is just one example of an ethical position which requires quite a well developed imaginative capacity to enter into the experience of others.

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represent (rather than re-present) events through a well-developed imagination (Weisberg and Dufn, 1995). Some authors have compared this capacity to a poetic imagination (Megill, 1992). Samule Coleridge once compared imaginative creativity to the poetic power of synthetic integration that reveals the depths of meaning, (Magill, 1985). Magill (1985) elaborates that it is generally through the metaphors stored in our imagination that an individual interprets reality and infers obligations. He says, Imaginative discernmententails a process like the artists perception of a landscape, creatively portraying from many perspectives a holistic view in which the myriad details t together (Magill, 1985). The students apparent difculties in engaging with this kind of representational thinking may hint at a possible deciency in a key ethical skill, at least within the accounting and business part of their lives11 (McIntosh and Style, 1999; Elliot, 1997; Goleman, 1995; Gardner, 1983; Cohen, 1999). The issue here is not whether students like or dislike poetry, but rather their intellectual and emotional capacity to engage with a particular mode and medium of representation, at least within an accounting and business context. By contrast, however, the students found it much easier to engage with the movies. The lms provided an excellent opportunity for the students to reect on some of the ethical theories they had considered earlier in the course; to think about the way they made ethical decisions and the way they defended their arguments. Reporting on a similar experiment with medical students Green et al. (1995) explain that sometimes members of the group are shocked by the images and need to discuss and explore their feelings of anger. The experience with the accounting students reected a similar kind of need to discuss the issues raised by Dancer in the Dark. One student commented, Dancer in the Dark is a very good lm, but only in that it really hits youI think we are all feeling a bit drained in one way or anotherIt is one of the most powerful lms Ive ever seen. In the previous year, students had attended two evening screenings at the Universitys Gilmore Hill cinema complex. The lms were Wall Street and A Simple Plan. In comparison with last year, the students denitely engaged more with the ethical issues raised by the movies. It is of course difcult to establish whether this change was attributable to the lms, the students, the location, or some combination of these. However, it certainly seemed that the location at least did not inhibit the learning experience. One student for example wrote, Sunday morning, [after discussing the movie ] we had a grand walk! Still even in free time the setting was stunning, it was perfect enough that we just took it in and enjoyed
Work by Tajfel and Fraser (1990), Hewstone et al. (1993), Shaw and Wright (1967), and Cole and Scribner (1974) suggests that individuals may have different levels of ethical awareness and employ different modes of ethical thinking in different parts of their lives.
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itIn a group that had gone off for a wander we nd ourselves at the shores of Loch Lomond talking business ethics!generally setting the world to right.

5.2. General benets: getting to know you In addition to possibly enhancing specic learning experiences during the weekend, the retreat may have inuenced the effectiveness of the Accounting and Business Ethics course in general. One of the most useful functions of the retreat seemed to be that the relocation of the learning experience outside the formalised setting of the lecture theatre broke down the barriers both between the students and between students and myself. One student wrote, This is the rst time we got to see the other side of many of the people weve spent four years getting to know. It was really interesting. Taking the learning experience to a different location certainly developed a greater sense of collegiality amongst the students. It also disrupted my position as lecturer. I found that this familiarization did seem to have a longer term impact on the course as the students who had attended the weekend seemed more willing to participate in subsequent discussions in the seminars in comparison to the students who had not attended the retreat. For this reason it would probably have been even more benecial to position the retreat nearer the beginning of the course. Given the paucity of ethics education in the Accounting profession, it is likely that any educational benets from the retreat will soon deteriorate when the students commence their professional training. However, many psychological studies have highlighted the importance of disruption in aiding memory retention and recollection. It may be that an event like this, could serve a useful longer term function of keeping at least some trace of accounting and business ethics in their mind (Parker, 1995; Matasar, 1989; Osler and Schai, 1985; Weisberg and Dufn, 1995; Webb, 1996).

6. Conclusion This paper has drawn on some spatial theorists to develop a case for why an awareness of space might be particularly important within accounting education. The paper describes an attempt to take space seriously in teaching accounting and business ethics and in particular has presented some reections on a retreat that was organised to try and increase the effectiveness of an accounting and business ethics course. Section 2 described the course and the reasons why the retreat was arranged. Section 3 attempted to allow the reader to enter into the experience of the weekend and Section 5 tried to draw some lessons from the retreat based on some general reections and observations. By recounting this experience the paper attempts to stimulate further thought and discussion on other possible places where accounting and business ethics education could take place. Overall the paper has suggested that accounting and business ethics education

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is lacking in the kind of spatial awareness that seems to be emerging in other areas of the literature. The paper suggests that dislocating the place where accounting ethics education is experienced might be one useful way of increasing its effectiveness and calls for more research into the impact of location on learning. However it is unlikely that one 10-week course, no matter where it is located, will have a major impact on the students unless it ts into a more comprehensive programme of professional and ethical education. This more holistic approach will only be realised when the profession recognises that the current level of ethical education for accounting professionals is culpably inadequate. Ultimately, business ethics education will only become effective when the profession starts to take the issue seriously.

Acknowledgements Thanks to Margaret Milner for driving the minibus, to the Faculty of Law and Financial Studies for contributing to the cost of the retreat and to all the staff at the University Field Station at Rowardenan.

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