ACCOUNTANTS ETHICAL ISSUES

Accountants Ethical Issues

By

Acknowledgement

I would like to appreciate the efforts of all those who have provided their assistance to complete this dissertation. I am thankful to my supervisor who assisted me and provided suggestions and stimulation, which enabled me to successfully complete my research.

Declaration

I hereby declare that the work present in this report is based on my research and hard work and it has not been submitted from anywhere on any award. Data that has been gathered from different sources have been acknowledged.

Abstract

The responsibility of the professional accountants is not only to accomplish the legitimate objectives of the corporation; however, they are also accountable for ensuring that they recognize the ethical impact of their decisions on a diverse set of stakeholders. Research has been conducted to ascertain the accountants' ethical reasoning, but investigators have been unable to examine the ethical sensitivity, which is their ability to detect the ethical component of their decisions. The most important factor that distinguishes accountant professionals is their acceptance of the responsibility to act in the interest of public. Hence, it is important for the accountants to ensure that do not only work for satisfying the needs of their employer, but they also work for the public interest. In order to ensure that these accountants work for the public interest regulations and standards have been developed which should be observed by the professional accountants. Therefore, the researcher has conducted the study to develop an understanding of the standards that should be followed by the accountant professionals for effective decisions making and creating a positive impact on the performance of corporations. This research has provided an in-depth knowledge on the ethical issues faced by the accountants and how these can be overcome by ensuring to comply with the ethical standards.



Acknowledgementi

Declarationii

Abstractiii

iv

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

1.1Background1

1.2 Research Aims2

1.3 Research Objectives2

1.4 Research Question3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW4

2.1 Understanding the Role of Accountants in Organizations4

2.2 Types of Accountants5

2.2.1 Management Accountants5

2.2.2 Financial Accountant6

2.3 Accounting Services Provided by Professional Accountants6

2.3.1 Auditing6

2.3.2 Accountants in Related Services6

2.4 Ethical Issues Faced by Professional Accountants7

2.4.1 Pressure from Management7

2.4.2 Accountants as Whistleblower8

2.4.3 The Effects of Greed8

2.4.4 Omission of Financial Records9

2.5 Ethical Standards for Professional Accountants9

2.5.1 Integrity9

2.5.2 Objectivity9

2.5.3 Professional Competence and Due Care10

2.5.4 Confidentiality10

2.5.5 Professional Behavior10

CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY11

3.1 Type of investigation11

3.2 Data collection method12

3.3 Sampling method12

3.4 Ethical issues13

3.5 Research limitations13

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS15

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION16

References17

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Individuals belonging to any profession are obliged to follow ethical standards and principles. Every profession that deals with something of value, for instance money, faces ethical issues (Jones, 1991, 366-395). Thus, accountants and other professionals such as auditors and financial managers are likely to experience these ethical dilemmas regularly as a part of their job (Petrecca, 2002). Numerous standards have been stipulated by organizations to ensure that professionals belonging to this field have thorough understanding of the codes before they practice their profession. This will facilitate them to prevent these professional from carrying out inappropriate behavior (Petrecca, ...