Abstract. The article reviewed was The Impact of Ethical Tools on Aggressiveness in Financial Reporting. The key of the abstract is to demonstrate the differences in financial reporting between the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and U.S. Standards (p.477). More in depth the research focuses on the code of ethics and moral duties of company top management.
Introduction. The authors study the financial scandals and the recent financial crisis to demonstrate the gap between market processes and accounting standards. The IFRS and U.S. GAAP differ in contrary nature of accounting standards. GAAP is considered as rule-based standards, while IFRS viewed as a principle-based. Therefore, the professional judgment on financial improprieties is highly important (p. 479). The main objective of the research is to specify the impact of ethical setting on judgment and decisions of accountants. The code of ethics and systematic ethics trainings can diminish the inconsistencies from accounting policies. The study is important due its analysis of mechanisms and alternatives of decision-making, and the influence of code of ethics on chief officers’ strategic choices (pp. 484-485). The authors focuses on the problem: how accounting standards contribute to the professional judgment, company financial performance, and earning management. The authors discuss issues that arise because of the unethical financial reporting.
Literature Review. The systematic review of literature
It would seem that the finance or bookkeeping department of any company faces the greatest number of ethical challenges because the opportunity to manipulate the accounting and misrepresent or otherwise take money from the company is ‘ever-present.’ However, there are opportunities for unethical behavior in all areas of a business – and in all businesses in the economy.
The ACS codes of ethics is a part of the ACS constitution. As an ACS member you must uphold and advance the honor, dignity and effectiveness of being a professional. This involves, in addition of being a good citizen and acting within the law. While Because of their roles in developing software systems, software engineers have significant opportunities to do well or cause harm, to enable others to do well or cause harm, or to influence others to do well or cause harm. To ensure, as much as possible, that their efforts will be used for good, software engineers must commit themselves to making software engineering a beneficial
Financial reporting practices and ethics have manifested an ocean of literature. This has mainly come from organization theorists that address accounting practices. These theorists and professionals have given fresh accountability measures. Their ideals give this industry the tools needed to survive, grow and prosper. The way an organization prepares and reports its financial information and handles its daily operations is in essence financial practices, and in the way it accomplishes this reveals their ethical standards to which they adhere to. This paper will discuss the financial practices, ethical standards, and
“ In order to prevent fraudulent financial reports and statements, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants(AICPA) has created ethical standards” (Ethical standards in a financial statement, 2011). These standards aim to make financial professionals accountable for their accounting practices. This includes the integrity of financial reporting and ensuring financial reporting is done fairly and factually. Financial accountants and professionals should maintain professional integrity, objectivity, and independence to reduce the risk of resulting legal action, loss of profits, and a poor reputation if improper financial reporting is done (Ethical standards in a financial statement, 2011).
Accountants are held to a higher ethical standards and they must performed their duties in compliance with standards or ethical values of honesty, integrity, objectivity, due care, confidentiality, which must be fully committed to. They must put clients or public interest first before their own. They must have and ethical values and maintain those values way beyond what the society or the company’s code of ethic. It is important that accountants’ behavior or ethical values is in conformity with the
It finally has been acknowledged that simply taking an ethics class does not provide the same level of experience as providing a more integrated approach to ethics within the learning process of a student within graduate business school. Gaining the ability and competence to understand ethics is only first step to what awaits the new leaders who will be required to live an ethical life but also sustain and encourage a corporate ethical environment from which staff can also make ethical decisions. The recent financial scandals along with the younger generation’s concerns for the environment has elevated and renewed the importance of corporate leadership in providing more transparent and straightforward accounting reports as well as addressing other issues that do not encourage a culture of ethics within their organization. Wrongdoing should be addressed and ethical decisions need to be encouraged and supported instead. CEOs and board members are just beginning to present themselves and their organizations as ethical decision-makers who are responsibly provide good and wise solutions for stakeholders of the company. In the Journal of Business Ethics, “Business Ethics in North America: Trends and Challenges” the authors reviewed and
The requisites in the Code of Ethics represented in the Sarbanes-Oxley Enactment have formed a foundation in the world of business because business administrators and stakeholders are now mandated to abide by the guidelines in the Act but they still need to be improved. When tackling the issue of social responsibility of a corporate it is of utmost significance that transparency be a key contributor, while ethics is considered by most in business as an oxymoron. People that lack moral standards will more often than not look for loo-holes in this relations due to their evil behaviors, however business principles and moral publication should be ensured so that such behaviors are dealt with in line with the law. “There has been a number of scandals reported in relation with accounting fraud and bad corporate governance as this are termed the biggest reasons why businesses are failing as high-profile organizations continue to subside. Investor confidence levels dropping in relation to financial capital markets due to investors incurring losses and correction mechanisms of the market that were in place were inadequate thus forced the enactment of the SOX Act by Congress (Jain,
Autonomy - this principle means that it is a form of personal liberty; the individual is free to make choices and to implement those decisions, free from deceit, duress, constraint or coercion. The nurse has the right to make choices that will benefit the patient and the decision to implement them without fear of being reprimanded. The nurse has gone to school to learn the trade of caring for people and has the competence to use what has been learned. Nurses are also learning everyday while on the job and their knowledge is continuing to grow from this.
The moral code of ethics as healthcare professionals is we have a responsibility and a moral code to our patients and the others we serve and they are: “Work to ensure the existence of a process to evaluate the quality of care or service rendered; to avoid practicing or facilitating discrimination and institute safeguards to prevent discriminatory organizational practices; work to ensure the existence of a process that will advise patients or others served of the rights, opportunities, responsibilities and risks regarding available healthcare services; work to ensure that there is a process in place to facilitate the resolution of conflicts that may arise when values of patients and their families differ from those of employees and physicians; demonstrate zero tolerance for any abuse of power that compromises patients or others served; work to provide a process that ensures the autonomy and self-determination of patients or others served; work to ensure the existence of procedures that will safeguard the confidentiality and privacy of patients or others served; and work to ensure the existence of an ongoing process and procedures to review, develop and consistently implement evidence-based clinical practices throughout the organization.” (American College of Healthcare Executives, 2015)
Ethical issues have greatly transformed in our lives since the great Enron, Xerox and other huge corporations proposed big profits showing earnings of billions of dollars and yet in reality facing bankruptcy. These corporations faced great trouble with the federals and state for manipulating financial statements. But not only corporations can be blamed on this, accounting firms were involved in this as much as the corporations were. With the business stand point, ethics comprises of principles and standards that guide behavior. Investors, traders, customers, and legal system determine whether a specific action is ethical or unethical. Ethical issue is a vast subject, but we will look at the niche
Ethical and legal obligations apply to all members of society. As one in society, the obligation to act in an ethical, law abiding manner on a daily basis is vital to the integrity of daily life. Many professions have their own code of ethics. Financial reporting is not exempt from such ethical and legal standards. One’s lively hood depends on decisions made in the business world. Business transactions are done daily and can impact one’s economic stability. Trust is placed in the hands of corporate America and an obligation of financial reporting to reveal a complete honest and legal picture of an entity’s accounting practices is important in attaining trust. This paper will discuss the obligations of
Given the pervasive adoption of financial and regulatory compliance globally specifically in the areas of accounting, operational risk disclosures and significant organizational events, the organizational climate is becoming increasingly conducive to ethical behavior. It's not that corporations have had any type of epiphany that being more transparent with their financial reporting or managing of events is virtuous. Rather, it is the accumulated accountability, precisely defined series of personal responsibility requirements that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) and other comparable laws have placed in corporate officers requiring their organizations stay in compliance (Zimmermann, 2005). With corporate officers being held accountable for the accuracy, fidelity and veracity of accounting and financial management statements, the current business and regulatory environment continues to prove conducive to more ethical behavior. With the U.S. Government and other nations' governments enforcing greater levels of accounting and financial reporting compliance through fines and potentially limiting market access, senior management teams and boards of directors are highly motivated to comply and reduce potential fees, fines and public attention to financial mismanagement. One of the most visible deterrents to unethical accounting and financial reporting activity is when shareholders are compensated for
The formal definition of ethics is as follows, moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour or the conducting of an activity or alternatively the branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles. (Ethics definition: dictionary.com, 2014)
Different corporate scandals have established the necessitate of corporate interior codes enlargement to apply on the members of Board of Directors and top administration in order to espouse standing, ethical performance, and uprightness of companies (Aldama, 2003; Australian Stock Exchange, 2003; Higgs, 2003; New York Stock Exchange, 2003; OECD, 2004). It is become indispensable to affirm the behavior of all other worker by adopting a code of ethics (Australian Stock Exchange, 2003; Independent Directors Association and the Russian Institute of Directors, 2004; International Federation of Accountants, 2007; Investment and Financial Services Association Limited, 2003; New York Stock Exchange, 2003). Business ethics is one of the factors in the corporate social conscientiousness (Carroll, 1991; Schwartz and Carroll, 2003), and corporate ascendancy has a enormous
1. “Cute accounting” is stretching the form of accounting standards to the limit, regardless of the substance of the underlying business transactions or events. “Cooking the books” is fraudulent financial reporting. The Equity Funding Corporation of America fraud is significant for management accountants and financial executives because the fraud was carried out over a nine-year period by at least 10 executives of Equity, several of whom were CPAs with public accounting experience. This fraud furnished clear evidence of the need for ethics codes for management accountants and other financial executives. Four components of ethical conduct for management