Applying Interpersonal Relationships and Integrity to Help Strengthen Continuing Professional Education in Ethics for Professional Accountants

• In Event: Research Paper Session—Public Interest

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 build accounting professionals’ character, organizations and those who train and educate professionals, should discuss business as a moral activity, emphasizing the consideration of its effects on community and human relationships.

As public interest protectors, professional accountants must develop ethical awareness, and maintain and strengthen their ethical moral guides. In examining how working, professional accountants can accomplish this task, we focus on two concepts that three major Western religions (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism) use: interpersonal relationships and integrity.

Authors

• Eileen Z Taylor, North Carolina State University

• Alan Reinstein, Wayne State University