Ethics in the accounting field Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Ethics in the accounting field - Research Paper Example ..4 Ethics in Accounting†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.4 The Scope of Ethics in Accounting†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...5 Issues with Accounting & Ethics†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...6 How these Challenges are Affecting the Profession†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..7 Recommendations †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.8 Executive Summary Like most professions, accountants are expected to work within morally acceptable systems in their decision-making and operations. Ethics is so crucial in accounting because accounting is involved with the control, distribution and documentation of financial transactions. Accountants therefore need to be regulated by very serious ethical standards which are monitored by professional accounting bodies. In practice though, accountants fail to meet the ethical standards and frameworks stipulated for them. This has led to so many corporate scandals like the Enron and Arthur-Anderson scandal. There are four main causes for this, identified in the paper. They include: inherent lack of ethical awareness amongst accounting students and practicing accountants. External causes for unethical behavior amongst accountants include shareholder pressures as well as the existence of loopholes in accounting standards. This paper recommends that ethics in accounting should be an integral part in the training of accountants. Accounting professionals should also be given refresher training and proper regulation to ensure that they are ethical in their behavior. Additionally, accounting standards should be institutionalized in statutes to make it less susceptible to manipulation. Finally, there should be a good effort to eliminate grey areas found in ethical standards to keep accountants focused on honoring ethical standards whilst they work. Introduction Ethics is an important part of the accounting profession. It is therefore necessary for people who study accounting to have a firm grasp of the ethical framework of accounting to become good accountants in practice. However, over the past decades, there have been a blatant disregard for ethics in the field of accounting and this is always connected either directly or indirectly to the blatant disregard for accounting ethics (McPhail & Walters, 2009). The Enron & Arthur-Anderson collapse can be attributed to the complete disregard for ethics on the part of accountants and managers. This paper identifies the causes of massive disregard for ethics in the accounting profession and its effects to the various stakeholders. It goes further to make recommendations about how best accountants can be made more responsive to ethics in their routine activities. Ethics in Accounting Ferrell et al (2009) defined ethics as a way of incorporating moral judgment and rules of conduct into a given profession. This therefore means that ethics is linked to the use of moral standards to ensure that the decisions and activities of a professional are acceptable by the wider society. In order to define and institutionalize ethics, professions have come up with their own codes to ensure that these ethics are standardized and people are kept in check in their routine professional activities. The accounting field is no exception to the general rule. Accountants need some rules that â€Å"determine the attitudes and procedures of the accountant in relation to the client and to the general