(Re)forming the circle: education, ethics and accountancy practices

Abstract

In advancing and sustaining their claims to be a ‘profession’, the accountancy institutes argue that they serve the public interest and that this is done by behaving in an ethical and impartial way. Some of the accountancy bodies' interventions in the auditing and financial reporting arena are examined and doubts are cast on their claims. It is argued that the profession's ethical position is compromised, partially at least, as a result of its educational processes and the socializing experiences of successive generations of accountants who are not encouraged to reflect upon the profession's social obligations. The accounting textbooks recommended by the accountancy bodies to their students rarely contain any explicit discussion of ethics, while most of the auditing books have a tendency to expound the ethical guidelines issued by the professional bodies in a mechanical way, without critical scrutiny and discussion. Overall, professional education fails to develop any moral reasoning process among aspirin...