Pope Francis Tells Accountants to Become Creative

• In Event: Classroom Applications

Abstract

In November 2014, Pope Francis addressed the World Congress of Accountants in Rome and called on the profession to go beyond accomplishing its duty with competence and wisdom. The primary objective of this study is to draw insights from the pope’s speech on how spirituality can expand the scope of accounting ethics from “integrity, honesty, and professionalism” to “creativity, human development, and social solidarity”. Recent studies show that workers and companies with a spiritual orientation perform better than their peers. One particular benefit of spirituality is that it encourages creativity. The author also shares lessons from a class discussion of the pope’s speech.

Author

• Dov Fischer, CUNY-Brooklyn College