Jin, Drozdenko, and DeLoughy (2013) examined the organizational value clusters to determine that the corporate ideology affects the professional decisions and ethical choices (pp. 13-14). The authors used the data of national survey to analyze the organizational settings and mechanism of the corporate value system. The findings demonstrated that the accounting professionals possess the value judgment and ethical responsibility, but exercise the unethical behavior due to the demand and appreciation of the management (pp. 17-18). Jin et al. (2013) indicated that accounting professionals face limited options due to corporate interests, ideology of executives, and myopic mindset. The desire to achieve the high profit and performance results has negative consequences for the corporate ethics. Employees, accounting professionals, and executives sacrifice with commitments and ethical responsibilities. The researchers suggested finding the ways to support the ethical thinking, unbiased mindset, and …show more content…
It significantly affects the mentoring process, relationships with the client, and create a foundation for discrepancies between the firm’s leaders and accounting professionals (Bobek, Hageman, & Radtke, 2015). Bobek, Hageman, and Radtke (2015) used the descriptive statistics to measure the responses of accounting professionals and correlation analysis to evaluate the ethical environment. The research demonstrated that the participation of accountants in shaping the ethical norms increases the mentoring relationships, values, and outcomes (pp. 127-129). The sensitivity analysis demonstrated significant differences in perceptions of the ethical environment between the partners and non-leaders of the accounting firm. The differences do not allow maintaining a strong ethical atmosphere, decreasing the degree of organizational fit, and weakening the ethical perceptions of firms’ members (p.
First, the Code of Professional Conduct encourages accountants to behave ethically. Encouraging accountants to behavior ethically is a strength because it helps create customer loyalty, positive work environments, and dedicated employees, which helps avoids legal issues. Accounting professionals have to behave ethically just because of the profession they are in. Accountants need to behave ethically because the investors, creditors, and rest of the public rely on an accountant’s professional judgment to make
The controller and accounting staff play a significant role in company ethics. Specifically, they manage all accounting transactions and are responsible for reporting earnings. Julie must demonstrate a strong ethical behavior and instill this value in her employees. In addition, senior management needs to lead their employees to build a company based on high morals and strong ethics. Without the appropriate leadership, the company will suffer as witnessed during the business scandals of a few years back. As stated by Sam DiPiazza, CEO of Prices Waterhouse Coopers, “It has become dramatically clear that the foundation of corporate integrity is personal integrity.” (2003)
Romal, Jane B., and Hibschweiler, Arlene M. "Improving Professionals Ethics: Steps for Implementing Change." The CPA Journal (2004). Retrieved on 16 September 2006 .
...urvey of ethical behavior in the accounting profession. Journal of Accounting Research, 9 (2), pp. 287-306.
Establishing and implementing a strategic approach to improving organizational ethics is based on establishing, communicating, and monitoring ethical values and legal requirements that characterize the firm's history, culture, and operating environment” (p. 129). Ethics programs ensure satisfactory relationships with all stakeholders by aligning with all of their demands and needs, and determine conduct with customers and relationships with regulators, shareholders, suppliers, and employees (Ferrell, 2004). Values are a core set of beliefs and principles, one or many. A number of factors contribute to the development of values. These include membership in a community or culture, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.
For a company to be successful ethically, it must go beyond the notion of simple legal compliance and adopt a values-based organizational culture. A corporate code of ethics can be a very valuable and integral part of a company’s culture but I believe that it is not strong enough to stand alone. Thought and care must go into constructing the code of ethics and the implementation of it. Companies need to infuse ethics and integrity throughout their corporate culture as well as into their definition of success. To be successfully ethical, companies must go beyond the notion of simple legal compliance and adopt a values-based organizational culture.
Ethical issues in business arise because of conflicts between an individuals personal moral philosophies and values and values or attitudes of organization in which a person works and a society in which one lives. Ethical issues can be identified in terms of the major participants and functions of business. Ethical issues related to ownership include conflicts between manager’s duties to the owners and their own interests, also separation of ownership and control of business. Financial issue includes, for example, the accuracy of reported financial documents. Ethical issues can acquire between manages and employees, then employees are asked to carry out assignments they consider unethical. Consumers and marketing issues are related to providing safe desired products for a fear price and not harming people and an environment. Accountants also face ethical dilemma, they have to deal with competition advertising commission. All of this places the accounting profession in situation of ethical risk.
An organization needs to adhere to ethics in order to effectively implement its mission, vision, and objectives in a way in which offers a solid foundation to management and their subordinates to properly develop and implement its strategies. By doing so, the organization as a whole is essentially subscribing to one commonality that directs all of the actions of the employees of the organization. Additionally, it assists in preventing such employees from divergence in regard to the proposed strategic guideline. Ethics additionally ensures that a strategic plan is developed in accordance to the interests of the appropriate stakeholders of the organization, both internal and external (Jin & Drozdenko, 2010). Likewise, corporate governance that stems from various regulatory parties makes it necessary for organizations to maintain a high degree of ethical standards; this is done by incorporating ethics within the organization’s strategic plan so as to foster a positive corporate image for the stakeholders and general public (Min-Dong Paul, 2009).
Ethics in business is a highly important concept, as it can affect a company’s profits, salaries paid to employees and CEOs, and public opinion, among many other aspects of a business. Ethics can be enforced by company policies and guidelines, set a precedent when a company is faced with an important decision, and are also evolving thanks to new technology and situations that arise due to technology usage. Businesses have a duty to maintain their ethical responsibilities and also to help their employees enforce these responsibilities in and out of the workplace. However, ethics and the foundation for them are not always black and white. There are many different ethical theories, however Utilitarianism, Kant’s Deontological ethics, and Virtue ethics are three of the most well known theories in existence. Each theory is distinct in that it has a different quality used to determine ethicality and allows for a person to choose which system of ethics works best with both the situation and his or her personal ethical preferences.
This essay will talk about the ethical standards and code of conduct in the accounting profession, in particular for CPA Australia, the importance of ethical education for accounting students, the importance for ethical financial reporting and also addresses ways to deal with conflicts that arise from ethical issues in the
Ethical business practices include assuring that the highest legal and moral standards are observed in your relationships with the people in your business community. This includes the most important person in your business, your customer. Short term profit at the cost of losing a customer is long term death for your business.
The field of ethics (or moral philosophy) involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior (Fieser, 2009). Many of the decisions one faces in a typical day could result in a multitude of outcomes. At times it can be hard to determine whether or not the decision you are making is an ethical one. Many philosophies have been devised to illustrate the different ways of evaluating moral decisions. Normative ethics focuses on assessing right and wrong behavior. This may involve reinforcing positive habits, duties we should follow, or the consequences of our behavior (Fieser, 2009). Of the many normative philosophies two stand out to be most accepted; teleology and deontology. Although they oppose each other in how actions are evaluated, they uphold many similar characteristics under the surface.
I enjoyed the conversation on GAAP and earnings management relating to the case “Be Careful What You Wish For: From the Middle”. The conversation was brief, but got me thinking on the ethics of earnings management. GAAP accounting is to reflect in good faith the company’s actual financial status and present reality as is. It is not to present a manipulated set of numbers that paint a pretty picture. GAAP requires recording of revenue when there is persuasive evidence of an arrangement, assurance of collectability, a fixed or determinable price, and delivery. If Sarah recognizes revenue before delivery, she would violate GAAP and partake in channel stuffing. It would not be earnings management.
This paper discusses the role of ethics in corporate governance. I seek to show the application of moral and ethical principles in corporate governance. Ethics is a topic that has generated a lot of interest in the last decade especially after high profile scandals. The failures of prominent companies such as WorldCom, Enron, Merrill lynch and Martha Stewart portrays the lack of corporate ethics. The failure of such business has seen an increased pressure to incorporate ethics in corporate governance. The result of corporate scandals has been eroding investor and public confidence. The entire economic system has experienced some form of stress from loss of capital, a falling stock market and business failures.
The textbook defines business ethics as “the accepted principles of right or wrong governing the conduct of business people.” Business ethics also govern the members of a profession and the actions of an organization. Many organizations put into place an ethical strategy which is “a course of action that does not violate accepted principles.” These principles are used to guide organizations and employees to make the right decisions.