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PHI2000-Assessment 4 Professional Ethics Essay

PHI2000-Assessment 4 Professional Ethics Essay

PHI2000-Assessment 4 Professional Ethics Essay
PHI2000-Assessment 4 Professional Ethics Essay

PHI2000-Assessment 4 Professional Ethics Essay

Many professional associations demand that their members act professionally and in public interest. For example, the distinctive mark of the accounting profession is in its commitment to public interest. By acting in public interest, one is expected to consider the legitimate benefit of the stakeholders including the clients, financial institutions, employers, government, investors and the business community. This is very important because professional accountants are required to act in dignity and integrity while guaranteeing proprietary and consistent functioning of commerce. There is no doubt that this very reliance occasions a public interest demand and responsibility on the accounting profession. Professionals are required to take reasonable and objective public perception in judging whether to accept or to continue with a present engagement having regard that the expectation of public interest will be higher for large corporations and more so those in the public limelight. Hence, the accounting profession is a public calling. A professional accountant should always owe allegiance to the relevant code of conduct and service to humanity and not the self- interest, client interest or employer’s interest alone.

Individual Autonomy and the Code of Conduct

Human beings have different interests and rights which typically compete with the rights and interests of other persons. This is so because individuals are social beings who operate in a diverse environment founded on a scarcity of resources and heightened competition for the available resources. Accountants do not work in a vacuum; they exist and serve in the real world. It is through competition that conflict becomes imminent in any society (Gasper, 2016).  Conflict of interest cannot be separated from human nature. It is due to these realities that laws and codes of conduct are enacted to regulate human behavior and personal relations among different persons. To be specific, the code of behavior acts to control behavior in the workplace more so when dealing with clients, government and other professional colleagues. It is the doctrine of the rule of law that is in play here. All persons are equal under the law, and no one is above the law. This means that personal disputes must be solved amicably and speedily under the relevant law including using the professional code of conduct.

Accountant’s Code of Conduct

The Code conduct for accountants contains four sections. Part A creates the fundamental rules of professional ethics. It also provides a theoretical framework that auditors must apply and comply with. This article identifies threats that may cause non-compliance with the basic principles; it also analyses the significance of the threats that have been unearthed. Lastly, it employs the safeguards, where applicable, to destroy the threats or minimize them to reasonable levels (Johnson, 2016). The standard of protection that this section avails is fundamental specifically when it comes to evaluating the compliance level with core principles. Accounting professionals are required to make use of professional judgment when enforcing this particular conceptual framework. This framework is crucial more so when an accounting professional is deciding to accept or refuse instructions from a client. The necessary safeguards must be employed to guarantee the effectiveness of the fundamental principles. It is clear that ‘part A’ of the code forms the basis of compliance with the overall provisions of the code of conduct.

Part B and C of the codeprovide the circumstance through which deviations from provisions of part A may be tolerated and describe how the theoretical framework works in certain situations. These sections avail the examples of protections that may be necessary to address any threats to compliance with the essential principles that may arise. They also describe the circumstances where safeguards are not prevalent to sort the risks, and efficiently the facts creating the said threats shall be avoided.

Basic Principles

An accountant is supposed to adhere to a number of basic principles. First, a professional accountant is expected to act with integrity. This means that he or she must be straightforward, objective and honest in all business engagements. An accountant is not supposed to use illegal means to get money or wealth (Banks, 2016). He is prohibited for example from forging books of record to evade tax or misadvising clients for any reason. When one tries to uphold integrity, he is faced with the questions of conflict of interest and public interest. No matter the intimidation or threats, be it from the colleagues, the employer or the clients, as it may, accountants should always aim to be ethical and moral. Moreover, professional accountants should be objective and independent in their dealings. This means that biases, partiality and undue influence cannot be tolerated in this profession.

Business decisions should never be made by a subjective mind or on the basis of any level of preferences. On that note, professional accountants should always show high levels of expertize and due diligence. This is geared towards ensuring that the relevant stakeholders including clients get proper professional services as per their needs and based on the current accounting developments and standards of practice. It is through the delivery of relevant professional services that modern professional accountants survive the tide of globalization and increased competition. Moreover, the duty of confidentiality forms a huge part of the cardinal principles of accounting practice. Business relationships are full of confidential information, and therefore protection of this data from being accessed by third parties or unauthorized persons becomes necessary. Sensitive information can or should only be disclosed as prescribed by the law or when there is an imminent professional duty to release the same. Accountants can only build their business by protecting confidential information, as disclosure of classified information can act to destroy client-accountant relationship. Lastly, accountants should always aspire to work professionally whether in the workplace or anywhere. Otherwise, the profession will be highly discredited. This can only be done if accountants comply with the set laws and regulations.

Conceptual Framework

The economic environments that professional accountants operate can enact myriad of challenges that interferes with one’s ability to adhere to the core principles. It is not possible to determine every circumstance that creates threats for an individual accountant to comply with the essential standards of behavior. Effectively, situations may arise that necessitates the enforcement of distinct standards. Therefore, the accountant’s code of conduct demands that accountants must identify, analyze and address challenges to compliance with the core principles. The theoretical framework enables accountants to work following their professional duties and particularly in public interest (Crane, & Matten, 2016). Threats to professional conduct are many, and they depend on the particular circumstances. They include, but not limited to, self-interest threat, partiality threat, mobilization threat, relationship or familiarity threat and coercion threat. All these threats are created by a business relationship, family relationship, and indebtedness.

Safeguards

These are actions or procedures that can help in eliminating threats to professional conduct. They include education and training coupled with experience standards required for one to enter the profession, continued professional enhancement, professional codes of conduct, rules regulating corporate governance and disciplinary procedures.

Ethical Resolution of Conflict in the Profession

A professional accountant should resolve conflicts inherent in any business by complying with the essential principles. Conflicts are common to any business organization and therefore coming up with a proper mechanism to solve the said conflicts becomes necessary.  The ethical method of resolving conflicts in the enterprise is an effective, relational and dignified way of conflict resolution. Alternative dispute resolution is a form of ethical business conflict resolution. It includes arbitration, negotiation, and conciliation (Trevino, & Nelson, 2016).  This can be contrasted with litigation which is expensive, time-consuming and adversarial hence not sufficient for any business interest. For a person to kick-start either a formal or informal dispute resolution process some factors either jointly or severally with particular factors which apply to the conflict resolution process. These factors to be considered are; firstly the relevant facts, secondly, the relevant issues. Moreover, the relevant parties and the ethical issues prevalent in the dispute need to be identified. Additionally, the important principles essential to the matter in question needs to be deciphered together with the laid down internal procedures and lastly, the alternative courses of action.

After one has considered the applicable factors, an accountant should determine the proper course of action, while weighing the impacts of each potential course of action. If the dispute remains unattended, an accountant can consult other legal dispute resolution mechanism.

Conclusion

Ethics and professionalism are essential to the accounting profession as they act to maintain discipline and decency in the world of business.

References

Banks, S. (2016). Everyday ethics in professional life: social work as ethics work. Ethics and Social Welfare, 10(1), 35-52.

Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.

Fowers, B. J. (2005). Virtue and psychology: Pursuing excellence in ordinary practices. Americ Trevino, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2016).

Gasper, D. (2016). Ethics of development.

Johnson, T. J. (Ed.). (2016). Professions and power (Routledge Revivals). Routledge.

Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. John Wiley & Sons.an Psychological Association.

PHI2000-Assessment 4 Professional Ethics Essay

Professional Ethics

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