The Accounting Career and Its Contributions to Society

965 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Challenges with respect to professional ethics

Since the day we are able to comprehend, our parents have tried to set a good example for us to understand the importance of right and wrong and how to act in many situations. As we get older to attend school, our teachers, family, and friends also influence our daily lives. During our journey to adulthood, we come across everyday challenges of whether to be ethical or unethical in situations we find ourselves in. When entering our career profession, we are taught and trained by the company to understand their ethical codes of conduct, such as in an accounting career. The accounting career has been an increasing and prominent profession that continues to play a valuable role to society. Because accountants serve as financial reporters and mediators, the information they provide requires a high level of ethics in assisting executives, investors, and other businesses in making critical financial decisions. Ethical misconduct by accountants can be damaging to society, resulting in distrust by the public and business operations. However, there are many influences and pressures placed on accountants as well as creditors, stockholders, and other parties affected by financial decisions. For example, in September 2004, Jay Reeves of The Washington Post had written that HealthSouth, “the largest U.S. operator of rehabilitation-hospitals, was under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department for allegedly overstating earnings by $2.5 billion since 1999.” This accounting scandal had put several people in prison for the unethical decisions they decided to participate in. Another example of a major company’s unethical decision making is well known as Enron. According to the University of Washington Mich...

... middle of paper ...

...lp us determine what is considered to be ethical in various situations. However, in the end, we must evaluate moral issues for ourselves, and taking into consideration both the facts and ethical situations involved.

Works Cited
A Framework for Thinking Ethically. (1988, Winter). Retrieved from https://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html
Berman, J. (2014, February 5). It's a Fact that Women Get Paid Less Than Men. Stop Debating. The Huffington Post.
History, Concepts, Ethics and Rule-Making in Human Care Regulation. (2009). Retrieved from Univesity of Southern Maine Muskie School of Public Service: http://www.naratraining.org/historycourse/ethics/ethics5.html
Karpoff, J. (2010, April 5). The Decade's Worst Financial Scandals. Seattle, Washington.
Reeves, J. (2004, September 30). Timeline of Accounting Scandal at HealthSouth. The Washington Post.

Show More
Related

  • Cleveland Custom Cabinets Case Study

    1539 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ethics plays a vital role in developing accurate and high quality financial statements for management, financial institutions, and investors. As management utilizes financial statements to make decisions regarding the operations of the business, it is necessary to review accurate financial statements to make strategic decisions about the future of the organization. Investors and financial institutions require accurate financial statements to make informed decisions upon whether to invest funds into the organization or the wisdom of lending funds to said organization.

    Read More

  • Accounting Fraud, the Investor and the Sarbanes Oxley Act

    1981 Words  | 4 Pages

    Throughout the past several years major corporate scandals have rocked the economy and hurt investor confidence. The largest bankruptcies in history have resulted from greedy executives that “cook the books” to gain the numbers they want. These scandals typically involve complex methods for misusing or misdirecting funds, overstating revenues, understating expenses, overstating the value of assets or underreporting of liabilities, sometimes with the cooperation of officials in other corporations (Medura 1-3). In response to the increasing number of scandals the US government amended the Sarbanes Oxley act of 2002 to mitigate these problems. Sarbanes Oxley has extensive regulations that hold the CEO and top executives responsible for the numbers they report but problems still occur. To ensure proper accounting standards have been used Sarbanes Oxley also requires that public companies be audited by accounting firms (Livingstone). The problem is that the accounting firms are also public companies that also have to look after their bottom line while still remaining objective with the corporations they audit. When an accounting firm is hired the company that hired them has the power in the relationship. When the company has the power they can bully the firm into doing what they tell them to do. The accounting firm then loses its objectivity and independence making their job ineffective and not accomplishing their goal of honest accounting (Gerard). Their have been 379 convictions of fraud to date, and 3 to 6 new cases opening per month. The problem has clearly not been solved (Ulinski).

    Read More

  • Accounting profit and True Profit

    996 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...urvey of ethical behavior in the accounting profession. Journal of Accounting Research, 9 (2), pp. 287-306.

    Read More

  • Lack of Ethical Behavior in the Cases of Bernie Madoff and Enron

    669 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ethical behavior is behavior that a person considers to be appropriate. A person’s moral principals are shaped from birth, and developed overtime throughout the person’s life. There are many factors that can influence what a person believes whats is right, or what is wrong. Some factors are a person’s family, religious beliefs, culture, and experiences. In business it is of great importance for an employee to understand how to act ethically to prevent a company from being sued, and receiving criticism from the public while bringing in profits for the company. (Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, & Langvardt, 2010) Business ethics is when ethical behavior is applied in an business environment, or by a business. There are many situations that can arise in which a person is experiencing an ethical dilemma. They have to choose between standing by their own personal ethical standards or to comply with their companies ethical standards. In some instances some have to choose whether to serve their own personal interests, or the interest of the company. In this essay I will be examining the financial events surrounding Bernie Madoff, and the events surrounding Enron.

    Read More

  • Marquis vs. Warren in the Case Against Abortion

    1306 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gedge, E., & Waluchow, W. (2012). Readings in health care ethics (2nd ed.). Toronto, Ontario: Broadview Press.

    Read More

  • Sexism and Stereotypes

    567 Words  | 2 Pages

    Another large sexist factor in the workforce, is that women get paid less than men do for the same exact job. “Women get paid 77 cents on the dollar for every dollar a man makes, according to a recent study from the Institute for Women's Policy Research. That's a difference of more than $10,000 per year on average,”(Berman). Why is this? Some people believe that it is because women gravitate towards low...

    Read More

  • Ethics In Steve Jobs

    1416 Words  | 3 Pages

    Recall the tale of an impoverished man who steals a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. In the instance when two moral obligations collide, the only way to comply with one is to violate the other. No matter which course is chosen, the other must be ignored.”(Freeman, Engels & Altekruse 2004) Stealing and breaking the law challenges the philosophy of breaking the responsibility of caring for one’s family. Accountants need to think clearly, challenge the possibilities, understand the options, and acknowledge the consequences. The choice to steal bread will vary from one person to another, but as Christians, dying of hunger is more of a reward than a consequence. Accountants can learn from examples of people and companies who have been faced with pressing ethical dilemmas. Accountants can learn from Bernard Madoff and his $61 billion ponzi scheme that ruined thousands of people’s life savings (Freshman 2012), or Enron “circumventing the rules, temporarily changing or suspending the rules, and outright thievery to achieve his objectives” (Gini 2004). Knowledge about the past will lead people to make wise ethical decisions. The world can clearly see the consequences that these people and firms have undergone and do not want to follow in that path. There are responsible businesses, like Frito-Lays who have a major go green campaign. They have a better business by reducing their natural

    Read More

  • Discrimination of Women in the Workplace

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is very important to be concerned about the issue because it is constantly increasing throughout the United States. It upsets me that women are paid less than men because women have the same ability and work ethic as men do, but they are looked at differently. According to AAUW, women make 77 percent of what men make. This rate hasn’t changed since 2002 (Hill, 2013). Statistics show that women will never make as much as men due to the thought of never being comparable to men (Williams, 2013).

    Read More

  • Nursing Code of Ethics

    1354 Words  | 3 Pages

    Garrett, T. M., Baillie, H. W., & Garrett, R. M. (2010). Health care ethics: Principles and problems (5thed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

    Read More

  • Personal Code of Ethical Values

    1271 Words  | 3 Pages

    As an individual and ambitious accounting student with plans to pursue a career in public accounting, I recognize the importance of understanding my core personal values and behaviors that guide the ethical principles of my everyday actions. I recognize that I have a responsibility to myself, family, future colleagues, future clients, and the general public to follow certain guidelines and conduct myself in an ethical manner. Furthermore, I acknowledge the idea that ethical dilemmas will occur, but I am committed to my “Personal Code of Ethical Values” (as seen above) that represent my desire to live ethically in every facet of my life.

    Read More

  • Can Ethics Be Taught?

    1611 Words  | 4 Pages

    When working within any professional body, an individual will be subjected to circumstances in which personal ethics will come into play. The Accounting profession is no different as ethical questions arise as part of any working day and can effect how an individual or the company conducts business. These questions can vary greatly in practice from selection of new customers to the rates at which those clients are going to be charged. These ethical questions are raised regularly within the workplace and each employee will react to them differently. The varying reactions will depend on the morality of each individual, or each employees own ‘ethics’. As each employee has their own set of values companies must be alert to the fact that some of their employees may have more ‘flexible’ morals than others. This ‘flexible’ morality can lead to corruption and manipulation within the workplace and can give companies serious problems. As a result of this, all of the main professional accounting bodies have begun to re-introduce mandatory courses teaching ethics to their employees. As well as this, ‘A Guide to professional ethics’ was published which contains a number of different principles in order to govern the behaviour of accountants and also to identify and reduce the greatest areas of risk with respect to unethical behaviour.

    Read More

  • Importance Of Ethics In Accounting

    1556 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Accounting Education: The Future Of The Accounting Future

    1883 Words  | 4 Pages

    Change is inevitable. Yogi Berra once said “The future ain’t what it used to be.” It is clear that the future of the accounting profession ain’t what it used to be (Gormon and Hargadon 1). The changes occurring are happening fast, they are dynamic and they are completely and undeniably real. Since the world around the accountant is changing, the accountant has no option but to change as well. The field of accounting has always been one to know change and to know adjustment, but within the recent past and certainly within the next few decades, the changes that are occurring and will occur absolutely are the most dramatic and exponential yet. Obvious changes lie in the expanding scope of services performed by accountants, the increased use of

    Read More

  • Pursuing a Career as an Accountant

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    Accountants are becoming a needed job in the business industry and play a very important role in the success of many businesses. This job usually requires at least a bachelor’s degree in accounting and sometimes even a CPA (Certified Public Accountant). There are many other things that are needed to be considered before choosing this career. The job environment, education, skills, and benefits are just some of the many things that need to be thought through before considering this career.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Accounting In Our Modern Society

    2459 Words  | 5 Pages

    Accounting is a very important term to our modern society. It is the career for men and women who at the start have their eyes set on top positions in industry, management, government, and general business. Accounting is a basic need of every businessman, from the operator of a filling station to the government of the United States. It's so important to our society. None of the business organization can operate without is. They are there-somewhere-in every business. In small business, people use pen, ink and skill keep the records. In large business, modern accounting machines are used to operate. Men and women are directing these machines in the accounting process. Wise businessmen enter business must have some accounting knowledge.

    Read More

More about The Accounting Career and Its Contributions to Society

Open Document