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Accounting ethics improvement. E thics is a board and comprehensive concept. it is hard to simply define ethics since ethical landscape is painted in shades of grey and not black and white Ethics is not the same as morality Ethics is not about the rules for behaviors
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Ethics is a board and comprehensive concept. it is hard to simply define ethics since ethical landscape is painted in shades of grey and not black and white • Ethics is not the same as morality • Ethics is not about the rules for behaviors • Ethics is not just to do with the theory. About Ethics
Social Elements with Ethics A consideration of ethical questions involves a consideration of the quality and nature of relationships with other people. About Ethics(cont.)
Profession is not the product of a law of nature • It is a social artifact • For instance, individual practitioners might attract clients willing to recognize and pay for their leaning and skill, this would not make for a profession. • Indeed, for there to be a profession at all it would first be necessary for people to com together in order to form some sort of voluntary association. Being a member of a profession
The idea of a social compact made between society and particular occupational groups and associations. • Certain privileges are accorded in return for the provision of social goods that would not otherwise be available. The social compact
One particularly influential definition of a profession: The term refers to a group ... pursuing a learned art as a common calling in the spirit of public service - no less a public service because it may incidentally be a means to livelihood. Pursuit of the learned art in the spirit of public service is the primary purpose. The idea of profession
Society allocates certain privileges to profession: • The right to engage in self regulation • The exclusive right to perform particular functions • Special status At all times it should be remembered that what society gives, it can take away. It only accords privileges on the condition that members of the profession work to improve the common good. The idea of profession(cont.)
Professionals might need to develop a particular appreciation and understanding of some defining end, such as justice. It is as much for this and the disinterested pursuit of these ends that the community looks to the professions for assistance. • Accountants have a responsibility to be especially interested in the nature of truth and to ensure that this interest is reflected in the organization of their professional practice. The Ideas of profession(cont.)
It is the accountant’s preparedness to accept these additional obligations that has the potential to add so much to the quality of the ethical landscape traversed by us all. • It is essential that professional virtues be founded in a culture that lends the weight of tradition, stories and institutional sanction to the practical application of best practice. • One of the important benefits that a group of self-regulating professionals should bring to society is a framework for informal systems of checks and balances designed to protect the community from some of the less welcome excesses of human behavior. What might accountants be?
Governmental workers--independent, professional orientation of the accountant is in tension with the objectives and procedures defined by the employer. • Accountants enjoy peer support which should be directed to helping them to discharge professional obligations - especially those relating to integrity, an orientation towards the truth and a commitment to the provision of independent advice. • Accountants must not suspend their judgment in deference to those who exercise power or influence to discern the difference between a clients’ interests and wants. What might accountants do?
The need for accountants to have a particular orientation to the truth is not just a philosophical point about the distinctive concerns that may provide emphasis for professional orientation, but also a practical point that has particular importance in a world in which the tide of information is reaching full flow. • Most people with increased access to raw data will need to find independent sources of advice able to verify that data is reliable (and, preferably, true). A more speculative proposal
Accountants ought to be at the forefront of debates about such matters. • Accountants need to demonstrate a practical commitment to being ethical and doing that which is right and good. • Above all else, this will be the bedrock of their contribution to the task of building and maintaining a more ethical society. Conclusion
I Pound, R. (1986) quoted in American Bar Association Commission on Professionalism, (1966), ...In the Spirit of Public Service: a blueprint for the rekindling of lawyer professionalism, ABA, p.10 • ii Australian Council of Professions, (1993) Professional Services, Responsibility and Competition Policy: a discussion paper prepared for the Permanent Advisory Committee;, August 1993, p.1 • http://www.ehow.com/accounting-ethics/ • http://www.ehow.com/facts_6937354_can-professional-ethics-accounting-improved_.html References: