When filial piety clashes with accounting work in China

Research by Dr Yuheng Wang of International Business School Suzhou (IBSS) at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), titled "The Unfilial Accountant: Ethics in Small Chinese Firms", has been officially published in Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal (ABS 3, ABDC A*).

The study reveals that the ethical dilemmas faced by accountants in small Chinese firms do not primarily stem from workplace pressure or financial temptation, but  from the intersection of Confucian filial piety ethics and the one‑child policy.

Based on in‑depth interviews with 26 accounting practitioners in Shandong province, the study uncovers three core findings:

• First, the work‑family boundary is "locked". Accounting roles in small firms are characterised by long working hours, frequent travel and understaffing, leaving little flexibility between work and family life. Family obligations cannot easily enter the workplace, while work demands rarely give way. As a result,  accountants can become  systematically trapped between professional responsibilities and expectations and filial piety.
• Second, the one‑child policy amplifies the pressure of being "unfilial". In traditional families, filial responsibilities are shared among siblings, but the one‑child policy concentrates all such duties on a single child. When that child  works in the accounting, the ethical pressure can be significantly magnified.
• Third, the low social status of the accounting profession can exacerbate family disappointment. In the local Chinese context, accounting work is often perceived as "unpromising". Parents receive neither companionship nor social honour. "As a result, being seen as “unfilial" thus internalises from a behavioural judgement into a personal identity.

Dr Yuheng Wang notes: "Accounting is not a value‑neutral practice, but a social activity deeply embedded in cultural, historical and political contexts. The ethical pain point for accountants in small Chinese firms is not ordinary work‑family conflict, but a structural opposition between the professional community and the familial‑ethical community."

The study suggests that firms could provide flexible scheduling and family support subsidies, while policymakers should focus on accommodating family obligations in labour law reforms. For practitioners, recognising the structural roots of this dilemma is an important step toward alleviating self‑stigma

Dr Yuheng Wang is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Accounting at International Business School Suzhou (IBSS), Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. He graduated from the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow in 2022, where his research focused on corporate social responsibility accounting.

After graduation, he joined Beijing Normal University as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Accounting, while broadening his research interests to include professional accountancy, accounting ethics, management accounting, and accountability.

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal publishes leading‑edge research on the interaction between accounting, auditing and their socio‑economic, institutional and political environments, encouraging critical investigation of policy and practice alternatives including new developments in accounting practices and technologies and the impact of accounting on organisations, communities and society. Its mission is to expand understanding of and creative solutions to important accounting, auditing and accountability topics.