...Behavioral Aspect of Accounting: The Need to Emphasize on Ethics ------------------------------------------------- Ahmad Zubair Chedi ------------------------------------------------- Abstract Accounting plays a vital role in providing information that permit economic decision, therefore the information has influence on its users. The financial statements that serve the basis for the economic decision are drawn up, not by the users, but by the enterprise’s accountants under the authority and control of the enterprise’s management. Ideally the preparers should take as their objective the fulfillment, (to the best of their ability) of the users’ needs. However the preparers have their own objectives, which often are quite different from those of the users. The financial statements can play a very important role in helping the enterprise’s management to achieve its objective. If the accounts show that the enterprise is doing well, the shareholders will be happy also the market price of the company’s shares will remain high. Since the accounts are prepared under the direction of the management there is a temptation for the management not to present the full truth about the enterprise in the financial statements, particularly when the company is doing badly. The paper examines the behavioral aspect of accounting with emphasis on the need of ethics; the methodology used is purely content analysis, using secondary data. The study reveals that unethical behavior is less prevalence...
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...CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION: THE ROLE, HISTORY, AND DIRECTION OF MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING QUESTIONS FOR WRITING AND DISCUSSION 1. A management accounting information system is an information system that produces outputs using inputs and processes needed to satisfy specific managerial objectives. 2. The inputs of a management accounting information system are economic events. The processes transform the inputs into outputs and are such things as collecting, measuring, storing, analyzing, reporting, and managing. Typical outputs include special reports, product costs, customer costs, performance reports, budgets, and personal communication. 3. The three objectives of a management accounting information system are as follows: To provide information for costing out services, products, and other objects of interest to management; to provide information for planning, controlling, evaluation, and continuous improvement; and to provide information for decision making. 4. All organizations — manufacturing, merchandising, and services — must have a good management accounting information system. Management accounting concepts and procedures are not restricted to any one type of organization. 5. The users of management accounting information are managers and workers within the organization. Anyone internal to an organization is a potential user of management accounting information. 6. Management accounting information is used to cost out objects (for example, services and products) and to aid in...
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...Ethics in Management Accounting What are ethics? According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, ethics are defined as, “Rules or behavior based on ideas about what is morally good and bad.” Ethics are rooted in an individual or an entire group’s moral values that govern daily behavior and crucial decisions. From a professional perspective, ethics provide a given quality and ensures a fair practice. In terms of business, it is the moral duties and obligations that apply to various professions and their code of conduct. Ethics encompass a set of understood rules to guide the direction of a business, company, corporation, or organization. Ethics are essential and tremendously depended on in the profession of accounting. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, accounting is defined as, “The skill, system, or job of keeping the financial records of a business or person.” The system of accounting records financial transactions and analyzes, reports, and verifies the results. Accountants perform these tasks by establishing these reports through a system known as bookkeeping. The three common reports that are generated by accountants are balance sheets, income statements, and cash flow statements. Each of these reports serve a crucial purpose to the success of a corporation. The balance sheet summarizes a company’s assets and liabilities. The income statement reports a company’s gross proceeds, profit or loss, and expenses. The cash flow statement analyzes the flow of incoming and...
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...Ethics in Accounting Tonya Thompson Carlene Wilson Immediate Accounting ACC305 November 17, 2010 What is Ethics? Business ethics are moral values and principles that determine our conduct in the business world. Commercial ethics standards activities are needed; whether you have a single client or several business organizations. Ethics Standards can be applied to all aspects of business, from generation of an idea the sell of the particular item. While the objective of all business is to make profits, ethics should contribute to the interest of the society by ensuring fair practices. Being ethical is a theoretical inquiry into the standards of right and wrong or good and bad. Ethics deals with morality insofar as it embodies a set of rules already accepted or formulated for potential acceptance. In studying morality Ethics primarily describes, analyzes and criticizes different moral codes as to their consistency, viability and legitimacy. But it also envisions better norms based on human ability to learn and get a better insight into the nature of our own conduct. Each type of business sectors have associations that has set some kind of ethical standards for them to follow. One association for CPA’s is Financial Executives International (FEI) they were founded in 1931 as the Controllers Institute of America. The expansion of responsibilities of financial executives into policy-making areas led us to change...
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...ENRON AND UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR By SHERNITA JONES INSTRUCTOR ALFRED GREENFIELD ACC 557 FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING 10/27/2013 This paper will describe the following: 1) Corporate ethical breaches in recent times, assess whether or not one believe that current business and regulatory environment is more conducive to ethical behavior. 2) Describe the organization, the accounting ethical breach and the impact to the organization related to ethical breach. 3) Determine how the organization ethical issue was detected and how management failed to an ethical environment. 4) Analyze the accounts impacted and / or accounting guidelines violated and the resulting impact to the business operation. 5) As CFO, recommend which measures could have been taken to prevent this ethical breach and how each measure should be implemented in the future. Establishing principles for ethical behavior frequently starts with a policy on ethics. Businesses acquire a policy on ethics to guide their measures and to set up a general meaning of correct versus incorrect. According to the American Library Association, code of ethics is a handbook for suitable behavior (2012). Given the corporate ethical breaches in recent times, existing businesses and regulatory environment is more conductive behavior because some companies and managers feel as though they can get away with it. The unpredictable increase and collapse of the Enron Company set off a...
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...Ethical Breaches ACC 557 Name Date Instructor Introduction In recent years, accounting ethical breaches has emerged as a major problem for most of the organizations. With growth of businesses, the number of accounting ethical breaches has also increased in organizations. Accounting ethical breaches may be defined as the misappropriation and misconduct of financial data by the auditors and accountants of the company (Duska & Ragatz, 2011). The accounting ethical breaches not only affect the organization, but also the stakeholders involved with the organization. The paper will discuss the accounting ethical breach in Enron. The paper will also discuss the ethical issues, accounting ethical breaches and the recommendations to prevent such breaches. Ethical Behavior in Current Business and Regulatory Environment With increasing number of corporate ethical breaches, the role of ethical behavior has increased in organizations. The organizations are more supportive to ethical behavior ensuring risk, compliance and governance culture within organization. As a part of this culture, effective communication around ethical practices has been followed by the organization. Since ethical breaches are mainly done for the sake of money, rewarding and ethical practices has effectively helped organizations to minimize the ethical breaches (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2009). At the same time, ethical breaches have not only affected the image of the company, but are also responsible for...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Beatrice Arnold ACC/291 February 4, 2013 James Covert Unethical Practices and Behavior The business environment can be a cause for unethical practices and behavior in accounting. An example of this can be management instructing an employee to record a transaction in an incorrect manner. It can be as simple as a company whose clients sign a contract on December 1, 2012 for the year. Then reporting the revenue for the whole year in December instead of just reporting the month of December as would be the requirement of accounting principles (Kendra, 2013). Another cause for unethical practices or behaviors can be greed. Some people will do anything, including breaking the law to get extra money. An accountant has an opportunity to “cook the books” (Xaxx, 2013) that can allow they to take a little or a lot. This is very tempting as no one seems to get hurt in the process. At times ignorance of the tax law or regulations about insider trading can be easily misunderstood by inexperienced accountants, which could cause unethical behavior without even realizing it. The role of an accountant is to use information the company provides to gather useful information about the company’s economic affairs. This can be difficult if there is a conflict of interests. If the accounting firm hired to perform a profit and loss audit finds that the information it has to report will be damaging to their client the accounting firm’s responsibility...
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... | Aman Sawhney | | | Contents Introduction 1 Why Ethics Matters 1 Ethics and Ethical Dilemma 2 Creating an Ethical Environment 3 Reasons for Unethical Behavior 4 Ethical issues in Finance 4 Financial Statement 5 Fictitious Revenues 5 Off-balance Sheet Financing 5 Hidden Reserves 5 Hostile Takeovers 6 Insider Trading 6 Introduction Ethics in general is concerned with human behavior that is acceptable or "right" and that is not acceptable or "wrong" based on conventional morality. General ethical norms encompass truthfulness, honesty, integrity, respect for others, fairness, and justice. They relate to all aspects of life, including business and finance. Financial ethics is, therefore, a subset of general ethics. Ethical norms are essential for maintaining stability and harmony in social life, where people interact with one another. Recognition of others' needs and aspirations, fairness, and cooperative efforts to deal with common issues are, for example, aspects of social behavior that contribute to social stability. In the process of social evolution, we have developed not only an instinct to care for ourselves but also a conscience to care for others. There may arise situations in which the need to care for ourselves runs into conflict with the need to care for others. In such situations, ethical norms are needed to guide our behavior. As Demsey (1999) puts it: "Ethics represents the attempt to resolve the conflict between selfishness...
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...Managers’ Ethical Evaluations of Earnings Management and Its Consequences* ERIC N. JOHNSON, University of Wyoming GARY M. FLEISCHMAN, University of Wyoming SEAN VALENTINE, University of North Dakota KENTON B. WALKER, University of Wyoming 1. Introduction and motivation The purpose of this study is to investigate, in an experimental setting, how favorable versus unfavorable organizational consequences influence managerial responses to an employee’s earnings management behavior. We focus on the following question: Do the ends of positive organizational consequences justify the means of earnings management? Earnings management is defined as ‘‘the choice by a manager of accounting policies so as to achieve specific objectives’’ (Scott 2003: 369). Earnings management can be fundamentally classified as either accounting related, involving the manipulation of accounting records through aggressive or fraudulent applications of accounting principles, or operating related, involving choices made by management regarding the timing of investment or operating activities, with the result that reported earnings are influenced by these choices (Lev 2003; Cohen, Dey, and Lys 2008; Roychowdhury 2006; Gunny 2010).1 The effect of earnings management on the value of the firm and the related issues of financial-based incentives for managing earnings has been widely examined in the accounting literature (e.g., Healy 1985; Dechow, Sloan, and Sweeney 1995, 1996; Healy and Wahlen 1999; Fields...
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...EthicHow to Be An Ethical Accountant? About eleven years ago, Enron, one of the world’s largest energy companies with 21,000 employees (Enron Corporation, 2012), collapsed. The whole nation was shocked as the investigation went on. “Ten years ago this week, the accounting firm Arthur Andersen sealed its fate when a few partners in its Houston office decided to shred documents related to the collapse of one of its clients, Enron” (Agnes, 2011). Found out that Enron scandal had close relationship with the fraud of the accounting firm Arthur Anderson, “another problem whose effects are becoming apparent today — moral hazard in the audit industry” (Agnes, 2011). Business and society take into serious consideration about ethics and integrity standard among today’s accounting firms and their accountants. Meanwhile, how to become an ethical accountant is drawing widespread concern. The first thing to figure out is why ethics are so important to every single accountant. To start with, accountant is actually a third party job working with clients and their private information. This information includes personal bank account number, social security number, and other information about their personal properties. Who would give all these sensitive data are to someone they don’t trust? Citizens will suffer if people who want to harm them get their private information. What’s worse, organization may face unfair competition due to the leak of company core data. Clients would like to trust...
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...was one of the biggest accounting scandals of American corporate history. WorldCom was a U.S based telecommunication company. The WorldCom accounting scandal was disclosed in 2002. The Company had resorted to fraudulent accounting practices for five quarters (four quarters of 2001 and the first quarter of 2002) (The WorldCom Accounting Scandal, 2002). The well-known telecommunication company WorldCom and the accounting, auditing and consultancy enterprise were involved in this big accounting fraud. The corporate scandal of WorldCom ultimately headed the company towards the disgrace that ensued in the biggest bankruptcy in American history. After this act company terminated the service of the top executive including Scott Sullivan (Sullivan), the Chief Financial Officer and David Myers, the Senior Vice President and Controller. The main entity accused of this fraud in the company was the Arthur Anderson WorldCom auditor. The company auditors did the fraud and held Sullivan responsible for this fraud. Sullivan was arrested on charges of frauds and misrepresentation of the accounts. The Arthur main accused of fraud was washing their hand by fired the fact of fraud. He was creating the facts, which shows that he was not aware about the accounting discrepancies (The WorldCom Accounting Scandal, 2002). The auditor made the hole of $4 billion in balance sheet of the company, which created the financial crisis for WorldCom. For overcoming from the financial crunch company lay off...
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...Business Research and Ethical Issues in Independent Auditing Te’ Portia Sibley RES 351 John Gilpin Jan, 22, 2014 The role of an auditor is to audit with integrity and objectivity. In an essay by Roger D. Martin, the role of an auditor should expand to assess the integrity and ethical values of their client as well. The purpose of this research was to bring to light how the auditor-client relationships could devolve into questionable behaviors. This article is in response to the regulations of the Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002, that an independent auditing firm be contracted to audit a company in compliance with the Generally Accepted Accounting Practices. Prior to the act, company management hired the auditing firm, negotiated the fee and could request the firm perform other services. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that an audit committee of the company’s Board of Directors hire the auditing firm with restricted duties. The researcher concludes that an auditor could and should be trained to understand ethics and how it influences behavior. This is a tool auditors could use to assess the integrity and ethical values of clients and better understand the ethical infrastructure (organizational elements that contribute to an organizations ethical effectiveness) of an organization. What unethical research behavior was involved? The article discusses how auditors maintain integrity and fulfill their responsibilities independently. Auditors should be aware of risks when dealing...
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...expenditures. With large amounts of revenue going in and out of hospitals and facilities and health care reform accounting can be challenging. To help ensure fair and accurate financial reporting, there are practices and ethical standards that must be followed when accounting for finances in health care. This paper will provide the four elements of financial management and standard accounting principles and ethics. Financial Reporting Practices The Financial Accounting Standards Board was established in 1073. It is the designated organization in the private sector that establishes standards of financial accounting for nongovernmental entities. The standards established are officially recognized as authoritative by the SEC and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The FASB also has accounting standards for health care entities. "The AICPA Health Care Expert Panel developed technical guidance on the application in consolidated financial statements of a recent accounting standards update for health care entities" (Financial Reporting, 2012, para 2). In May 2012, the FASB decided to revisit the question of whether management should assess whether there is doubt about an entity's ability to continue. According to Financial Reporting (2012), "The decision can as a result of FASB's recent decision not to pursue going-concern-type disclosures." Accounting and reporting for health care industries differs from...
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...Managerial Organization LDR/531 March 23, 2013 Managerial Organization One of the world’s leading electricity companies, Enron Corporation, suffered from a financial scandal, which involved the corporation and its accounting firm. The scandal happened during the 1990s and was a result of irregular accounting procedures. This scandal caused Enron to file bankruptcy in December 2001 (Thomas, 2002). The subject of this paper will discuss how organizational behavior theories could have predicted or explained Enron failure. This subject of this paper will also compare and contrast the contributions of leadership, management, and the organizational structure of Enron, which to the corporations failure. Organizational Behavior Organizational behavior is the field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within the organizations for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organizations effectiveness; specifically organizational behavior focuses on how to improve productivity, reduce absenteeism, turnover, and deviant workplace behavior, and increase organizational citizenship behavior and job satisfaction´ (Robbins & Judge, 2007). Organizations have a structure that consists of board of directors, senior leadership, external auditors, and internal auditors. The CEO runs the company, but board of directors and senior leadership are also involved in the decision-making process. Monitoring the corporations...
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...Other Financial Management Techniques The President of EEC has decided to adopt the balanced scorecard. The balanced scorecard translates an organization’s mission and strategy into operational objectives and performance measures for four different perspectives. The President would like for the managerial accounting team to continue research and explain how to use a balanced scorecard to measure unethical behavior with EEC. First as the team is going to obtain research in how to transition to a balanced scorecard let us review the first part of the research, as well. Definition of a Balanced Scorecard The balanced scorecard is a strategic planning and management system that is used extensively in business and industry, government, and nonprofit organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improve internal and external communications, and monitor organization performance against strategic goals. It was originated by Drs. Robert Kaplan (Harvard Business School) and David Norton as a performance measurement framework that added strategic non-financial performance measures to traditional financial metrics to give managers and executives a more 'balanced' view of organizational performance (Balance Scorecard Institute). Any measurement system should be developed by the mission, goals, and objectives of the organization, in this case we are analyzing EEC (MUSE, 2010). After defining a balanced scorecard it has an integrated...
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