Accountants Continuing Professional Ethics Education

• In Event: Auditing 1

Abstract

Accounting professionals have long played a crucial role in unethical business decisions, which have often led to business failures. While many studies show that college ethics courses can help develop students’ ethical skills, few have explored how to extend ethics education to professional accountants. Despite the prominence and pervasiveness of ethics requirements for accountants in the US (state boards who regulate CPAs, the IIA, and the IMA all require ethics training); ethics programs often focus on rules and regulations, rather than on processes for solving ethical dilemmas. To improve accountants’ ethical awareness and behavior, those who train and educate them should discuss business as a moral activity, emphasizing the consideration of its effects on community and human relationships. We propose that ethics CPE should include two concepts common to three major Western religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism): interpersonal relationships and integrity.

Authors

• Eileen Z Taylor, North Carolina State University

• Alan Reinstein, Wayne State University