...What ethical issues arise in accounting and how can these be dealt with? For the last several decades, it is generally realized that ethical issues in accounting have become more and more crucial. Ethical issues influence accounting judgment and give a significant impact of the whole company. Currently, unethical behavior that occurs in accounting sector is very common. Ethical issues in accounting focus on accountants who work in public or private organizations. They must be following the ethical guidelines when review a company or individual’s financial records for reporting purposes, especially reporting balance sheets and financial statements. The ethical issues for these accountants should report the information of company assets, liabilities and profits honestly without giving in to the pressure placed on them by management or corporate officers. Unethical accountants could easily alter company financial records and give false information of company successes. This may lead to short-term prosperity, but the altered financial records will ultimately discovered by auditors as a fraud. There are many reasons that might cause accountants behave unethically. Many discussions on them to analyze the reasons why accountants have unethical behavior. These reasons include ethical values of themselves, the relationship between accountants and the organizations they audit, the financial environment and the incentive structure which might motivate their behavior (Ann E, 2007). Ethical...
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...In this case study, the causes of that the Andersen’s auditing of companies accused of accounting improprieties, it’s has a main factor. Because Athur Andersen do not think about the company who is to cooperate whit it is like Athur Andersen to make deceptive accounting. These four real cases to show us how they operate the deceptive accounting. First point, “Sunbeam.” 1997 sunlight company (SUNBEAM) is referred to the forge sales volume, the profit and the expenditure. Under its partner discrete sampling's premise, Andersen had still approved the sunlight company to have the questionable point financial reporting. Finally, Sunlight Company suspends pay. Claim request which proposed regarding the American negotiable securities and the transaction committee, Andersen strong against. Finally, to accuse in the situation which shows neither approval nor disapproval, Andersen and the shareholder out of court settlement, compensates $110million dollars. Second point, “waste management.” Waste Management the company to make a false report gathers shares the desk, Waste Management Company’s financial reporting 1992 to 1996 income false report to amount to $1.4 billion dollars to the company. The American negotiable securities and the transaction committee discovered that Andersen's report has the misleading function. Rules it to be a suspect the improper occupation operation finally. Andersen has accepted this ruling, and has paid damages $7 million dollars civil fine. The Andersen...
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...Accounting Theory is designed to provide students with an understanding of historical and contemporary issues that influence the development of accounting thought. As it has developed accounting theory has three main approaches, the descriptive or positive, the normative and the critical viewpoints. Based on these theoretical perspectives this unit will examine current issues such as social and environmental accountability, the ethical and global dimensions of accounting and the political context within which accounting policy decisions are made. The unit will take a research focus in that the work of researchers in accounting will be discussed. Accounting Theory is designed to provide students with an understanding of historical and contemporary issues that influence the development of accounting thought. As it has developed accounting theory has three main approaches, the descriptive or positive, the normative and the critical viewpoints. Based on these theoretical perspectives this unit will examine current issues such as social and environmental accountability, the ethical and global dimensions of accounting and the political context within which accounting policy decisions are made. The unit will take a research focus in that the work of researchers in accounting will be discussed. Accounting Theory is designed to provide students with an understanding of historical and contemporary issues that influence the development of accounting thought. As it has developed accounting...
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...Islamic University Malaysia ETHICS IN ACCOUNTING EDUCATION: CONTRIBUTION OF THE ISLAMIC PRINCIPLE OF MAêLAîAH Abdul Rahim Abdul Rahman Assistant Professor, Department of Accounting, Kulliyyah of Economics and Management Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Gombak, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (e-mail: abdulrahim@iiu.edu.my) ABSTRACT There is a growing concern over the apparently low moral standards of some accountants and an increasing number of academics who suggest that the education system should bear some of the blame. Ethical components in accounting education have been found to be insufficient and there is a lack of emphasis on humanizing accountants. The objective of this paper is firstly to address the importance of ethics in accounting education and evaluate the development of literature in this area. Secondly, the paper argues for the direction of accounting education to focus on religious ethical development and values in developing accounting ethics. The paper argues that the Islamic worldview and ethics perspective can provide some insights into the process of developing a more humanized and ethical accountant. This paper proposes the Islamic legal principle of ma§laúah as an ethical filtering mechanism to be taught as part of the ethical accounting education process. This is aimed at providing awareness to accounting students and accountants on the process to resolve ethical conflicts. The study of Islamic worldview...
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...ETHICAL ISSUES Ethical issues is deem to give implication on the nature and role of accounting. Thus, to ensure that accounting stated roles can be perform successfully, accountants, as professionals, are expected to maintain a level of ethical conduct that goes beyond society’s laws. They have the responsibility to ensure that their duties are performed in conformity with the ethical values of honesty, integrity, objectivity, due care, confidentiality, and the commitment to the public interest. Luca Pacioli, the "Father of Accounting", wrote on accounting ethics in his first book Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni, et proportionalita, published in 1494. Ethical standards have since then been developed through government groups, professional organizations, and independent companies. These various groups have led accountants to follow several codes of ethics to perform their duties in a professional work environment. However, accountants’ involvement with large corporate scandals in recent times reflects that they have not complied with the expected ethical standards. Thus, ethics has become a key area of concern in accounting at present owing to the series of corporate scandals that had taken place in the world questioning the credibility of the accounting profession. These scandals have placed in doubt the effectiveness of contemporary accounting, auditing and corporate governance practices, for which accounting profession is responsible for. Unethical...
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...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...
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...executive can accelerate accounting of expected expenses, delay accounting of expected revenue, engage in off balance sheet transactions to make the company's profitability appear temporarily poorer, or simply promote and report severely conservative estimates of future earnings. And this phenomenon of accounting scandal exist in contemporary society. The integrity of the accounting profession and the credibility of financial information provided by businesses have been undermined by scandals. Accounting and business education should pay more attention to the ethical to prevent accounting scandals. And they should not be focused on the teaching of accounting techniques. Neoliberal ideology is a political movement beginning in the 1960s that blends traditional liberal concerns for social justice with an emphasis on economic growth. And it is similar to globalization. Globalization includes three elements that are difficult decreasing, quick response to alterations, and multilateral trade liberalization. And accounting professional contains individual professional judgment and professional self-regulation. Globalisation brings many benefits but also a number of problems, for instance, low price labour used by multinationals that Increasing wages for highly-skilled workers and reducing wages for less-skilled workers obviously leads to greater inequality. Neoliberalism has also been unable to address growing levels of global inequality. In order to better focus on ethical education, accountants...
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...Accounting and Ethics DO ETHICAL STANDARDS EXIST IN ACCOUNTING DEPARTMENTS? Purpose: This analytical report is a required assignment in Kimmerly Brady’s Business 205 course. Due to time constraints the primary data (survey) required for the report were gathered in a limited fashion. A survey was developed, an a procedure was considered; however, the responses are the results of only ten collected surveys. The responses are only included to demostrate a n understanding of primary data usage. The purpose of this report is to convey the message that ethics are the foundation of the accounting profession. In order to maintain discipline & order in the professional realm, rules of ethics are not satisfactory enough to ensure the integrity of Accountants. Education and training in ethical matters should be mandatory for Accountants; evaluation and monitoring of their adherence to these rules is climacteric for maintaining standards. Ethical codes of conduct and compliance of these codes should be required in today’s accounting firms for honorability to exist. CPA’s are licensed practitioners, who as Accountants express opinions about financial statements. The globalization of business operations and technological advances have radically changed how accountants work. New ethical issues have been raised by this ...
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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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...Abstract Within the accounting profession there are many complex ethical issues that must be dealt with quite often. It is important that the people working within the industry provide high quality financial statements and always pay close attention to ethical concerns that may arise. Since ethics is such a major concern in the accounting industry, a rules based system is in place for enforcing ethical concerns. There are many regulating bodies that exist that enforce many highly detailed regulations that people within the industry must follow at all times. Throughout history there have been several major accounting scandals that have been followed by new regulation to ensure that these problems do not come up again. CLERP 9 and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act are just a couple of acts that have caused significant changes to the accounting world in recent times. This paper will look at some of the different issues that accountants face as well as some of the regulations that seek to end unethical behavior. Ethical Standards in Accounting Introduction The accounting industry is an always changing and constantly growing industry. Accounting plays a vital role in society and business and up until recently accounting was considered to have some of the highest standards for ethical and moral conduct in business. In recent years there have been many high profile business failures caused by the unethical behavior or accountants and accounting firms. Since some major companies, like Enron...
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...Ethical risks and threats in the accounting profession Accounting ethics is primarily the study of moral values and judgments as they apply to accountancy. Accounting ethics were first introduced by Luca Pacioli in 1494 in his book “Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni, et proportinalita”, and later expanded by government bodies, professional organizations and independent companies (Humphrey 2005). Throughout 2001 and 2002, the financial scandals in in the USA and some other countries, such as Australia, dramatically demonstrated how the efficiency of financial markets is based on assumptions of trust and ethical behavior of corporate managers (McPhail 2001). The collapse of companies such as Enron, WorldCom and Global Crossing in the USA, HIH Insurance and OneTel in Australia, and Parmalat in Italy, has led to a loss of confidence by the investing public in the system of financial reporting and accountability. The globalization and diversification of accounting services, combined with market competition and high profile corporate collapses has drawn attention to the accounting profession and its perceived ethical standards. (Cooper 2007) Ethical values provide the foundation on which a civilized society exists. Without the foundation, civilization collapses. On a personal level, the answer to the question of the highest aspiration might be wealth, fame, knowledge, popularity, or integrity. But if integrity is secondary to any of the alternatives, it will be sacrificed...
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...Review of Accounting Ethics Dr. ACC 557: Financial Accounting May 22, 2013 Table of Contents 1.0 Corporate ethical breaches in recent times. 3 2.0 Accounting ethical breaches and their impacts 3 2.1 The Scandal of Enron 3 3.0 Organizational ethical issues and the management failure 5 4.0 Breach of the accounting practices and its impacts 5 5.0 Recommendations by the CFO 6 6.0 References 8 1.0 Corporate ethical breaches in recent times. Ethics is an important aspect of business in today’s enironment. Sometimes management ignores or leaves to state laws to govern the code of ethics within a company. Companies have faced a lot of issues regarding ethical situations in modern times. According to Baker (2012) contrary to the popular belief of the recent global financial crisis resulting from failures of accounting ethics, he argues that there is not enough evidence to support this connection. 2.0 Accounting ethical breaches and its impacts Breaches of the accounting ethical policies have become a source of concern for the firms today. The proper application of IFRS and GAAP standards is vital for each firm. In recent years as more scandals have come into the spotlight firms have taken more and more internal measures in addition to the policy making at the governmental level to ensure breach of consumers’ trust and laws does not take place in the future. There has been a tremendous increase in the interest in accounting ethics (Cowton, 2013). 2.1 The Scandal of Enron...
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...Accounting ethics is primarily a field of applied ethics and is part ofbusiness ethics and human ethics, the study of moral values and judgments as they apply to accountancy. It is an example of professional ethics. Accounting introduced by Luca Pacioli, and later expanded by government groups, professional organizations, and independent companies. Ethics are taught in accounting courses at higher education institutions as well as by companies training accountants and auditors. Due to the diverse range of accounting services and recent corporate collapses, attention has been drawn to ethical standards accepted within the accounting profession.[2] These collapses have resulted in a widespread disregard for the reputation of the accounting profession.[3] To combat the criticism and prevent fraudulent accounting, various accounting organizations and governments have developed regulations and remedies for improved ethics among the accounting profession. ------------------------------------------------- Importance of ethics The nature of the work carried out by accountants and auditors requires a high level of ethics. Shareholders, potential shareholders, and other users of the financial statements rely heavily on the yearly financial statements of a company as they can use this information to make an informed decision about investment.[4] They rely on the opinion of the accountants who prepared the statements, as well as the auditors that verified it, to present a true and fair...
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...In the article “Don’t Leave Your Hand in the Cookie Jar,” the author states that John Davies and Karl Schumaker have totally opposite opinions about how to make the year-end adjusting entries for 2009. John is an assistant controller. He has a master’s degree in accounting, is a CPA, and has three years of solid experience with a major accounting firm. Karl, John’s immediate boss, a controller, is 20 years older than John, and he has a B.S. in management and a general M.B.A. from a top graduate school. Moreover, he has over 25 years of corporate accounting and finance experience even though he has no public accounting experience. The adjusting entries in question consist of accounts receivable bad debt, product returns, and product warranties. The accounts receivable bad debt is the first accounting adjustment they have different opinion. Karl would to prefer to bring the bad debt up to 3% of sale this year from 2.75% last year because he thinks an economic slowdown is coming. Besides, Karl believes in conservative accounting, so he thinks that the accountants should use the least favorable amount. However, John thinks the bad debt should be keep as same as 2.5%. John said that he does not see the need to bump up the bad debt percentages, and he mentioned they can adjust it in future as needed. The second adjusting entry they hold the opinion differ from each other is product returns. Karl wants to keep the 1% on product returns, but John thinks the product returns should...
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...explains the reason for this investigation and the aims of the study. An overview of the following chapters is also given. Ethical issues have been the focus of media attention in recent months. Politicians have been accused of unethical behaviour, in the way they accepted election campaign donations. Educational institutions have been in the spotlight due to unacceptable practices and Haslam (2007) reported that teachers are being pressured to help students cheat to help meet league table grades. Ethics is becoming increasingly important in business practice as well as academic and professional education. The accounting scandals in the past which involved the former energy company, Enron and former “big five” accounting firm, Andersen (Comunale et al, 2006); have led to the need to develop ethical standards in students which could then be transferred to their employment life. There is a need for ethical awareness and education for current and future accountants, as there can be serious consequences for unethical behaviour in business (Pollara 2008). The accounting scandals in the past have been a major setback for the accounting profession and confidence in the profession has been lost. Ethical behaviour is seen as a way to improve the negative perception of the profession and the information provided. Some writers have advocated the inclusion of an ethical module in academic degree programmes. According to Bampton and Maclagan (2005, p. 298) “universities should aim to produce...
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