This paper considers the potential for improving the reputation of the Irish accountancy profession by exploring undergraduate accounting students' intolerance of academic cheating as a predictor of future attitudes to unethical workplace practices. The study reports that females are significantly less tolerant of cheating than males. Further, with regard to ethical ideology, idealism was found to have a significant positive association with intolerance of cheating while relativism reported no

more »

... ssociation. It is anticipated that the growing admission of women to membership together with educational intervention to influence idealism may improve ethical attitudes and help restore the profession's reputation.