Auditing Paper
Repairing Society’s Perception of the Accounting Profession in a Troubled Time
INTRODUCTION Accountants are held to a high ethical standard because of the sensitive financial information they encounter and the type of financial documents the produce. After events such as Enron surfaced, the accounting profession as a whole came under fire and our reputations are in question. These scandals reveled what can happen if accountants do not act in an ethical manner and why it is so important that accountants do make sound, ethical decisions. This paper will explain the ethical standards accountants are supposed to abide by and why those rules were put into place by the AICPA. Many people believe that the unethical nature of accountants is due to the lack of proper rules and proper education of the rules. This paper will focus on students who are taking classes in business with the intention of becoming accountants and CPAs in the near future. We will look at studies done to examine the ethical nature of these students. One study points out that accounting students in the United States are unethical as a result of their common cognitive thinking style. Since we have established the fact that young accountants can be unethical, it is important to understand where we stand compared to other societies. For this, we will refer to research performed by Dr. Su which looks at the ethical level of students in an individualistic society compared to those in a collectivist society. After we have established the United States ethical position compared to that of other societies, we will look how an solid base for ethical decision making can be instilled in young accountants and propose ideas on how to repair the image of accountants. Let us begin by defining what ethics mean and what it really means to be ethical according to the AICPA (Amlie).
BACKGROUND
According to Louwers, ethical behavior can be defined in two ways; “(1) ethical behavior is that which
INTRODUCTION Accountants are held to a high ethical standard because of the sensitive financial information they encounter and the type of financial documents the produce. After events such as Enron surfaced, the accounting profession as a whole came under fire and our reputations are in question. These scandals reveled what can happen if accountants do not act in an ethical manner and why it is so important that accountants do make sound, ethical decisions. This paper will explain the ethical standards accountants are supposed to abide by and why those rules were put into place by the AICPA. Many people believe that the unethical nature of accountants is due to the lack of proper rules and proper education of the rules. This paper will focus on students who are taking classes in business with the intention of becoming accountants and CPAs in the near future. We will look at studies done to examine the ethical nature of these students. One study points out that accounting students in the United States are unethical as a result of their common cognitive thinking style. Since we have established the fact that young accountants can be unethical, it is important to understand where we stand compared to other societies. For this, we will refer to research performed by Dr. Su which looks at the ethical level of students in an individualistic society compared to those in a collectivist society. After we have established the United States ethical position compared to that of other societies, we will look how an solid base for ethical decision making can be instilled in young accountants and propose ideas on how to repair the image of accountants. Let us begin by defining what ethics mean and what it really means to be ethical according to the AICPA (Amlie).
BACKGROUND
According to Louwers, ethical behavior can be defined in two ways; “(1) ethical behavior is that which
Cited: Abdolmohammadi, M., Read, W., & Scarbrough, D. (2003). Does Selection-Socialization Help to Explain Accountants’ Weak Ethical Reasoning? Journal of Business Ethics, (42), 71-81. Retrieved from http://www.springer.com/ Amlie, T. (2010). Do as We Say, Not as We Do: Teaching Ethics in the Modern College Classroom. American Journal of Business Education, 3(12), 95-103. Retrieved from http://www.cluteinstitute.com/journals/AJBE.html Brown, P., Stocks, M., & Wilder, W. (2006). Ethical Exemplification and the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct: An Empirical Investigation of Auditor and Public Perceptions. Journal of Business Ethics, (71), 39-71. Retrieved from http://www.springer.com/ Louwers, T., Ramsay, R., Sinason, D., Strawser, J., & Thibodeau, J. (2011). Auditing & Assurance Services. New York, New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Su, S. (2006). Cultural Differences and Accounting Ethics: An Empirical Study for Accounting Students. International Journal of Organizational Innovation, 165-181. Retrieved from http://www.ijoi-online.org/