Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Accountants $x Professional ethics'

Unethical behavior includes all decisions and actions counterproductive to an organization's mission and can cause irrevocable damage to the organization's professional reputation. The Securities and Exchange Commission reported 807 ethical violations in 2015. This study was underpinned by the ethical leadership theory, which emphasizes leadership decision making based on fair and just practices, for all involved parties. The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore the ethical decision-making best practices that not-for-profit accounting managers in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area needed to strengthen the ethical decision-making process in their organizations. Data were collected through semistructured interviews from 5 participants who were accounting leaders of not-for-profit organizations. The analysis of data involved coding techniques, while member checking ensured confirmability of participant responses. Three themes emerged from the analysis of data as the most effective in fostering an ethical climate within the organizations, notably: the importance of leveraging internal controls, staff education on ethical decision making, and the role of leadership in fostering ethical leadership. The findings from this study may contribute to social change by providing leaders with strategies to reduce the occurrence of fraud within organizations. The beneficiaries of this research may include not-for-profit leaders, accounting professionals, and business practitioners. The goals of these individuals are to aid companies in furthering their missions and ensure organizations remain operational and utilize ethical decision making.

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Bachelors
Business Administration
Accounting

Interpretation 101-3 of the AICPA Code of Professional Ethics provides four independence requirements for certified public accountants performing bookkeeping services. As such, these requirements are largely thought of as rules requiring compliance. The purpose of this study was to provide empirical evidence related to the question, "Can the guidelines in Interpretation 101-3 be effectively interpreted?" Accordingly, the research objectives were twofold: (1) to make an estimate of the effectiveness of independence discrimination resulting from the use of Interpretation 101-3 , and (2) to identify variables related to differences in CPAs' judgements of impairment and non-impairment of CPA independence in situations covered by Interpretation 101-3. The research methodology for this study was based on a case approach. Twelve situations developed from analysis of Interpretation 101-3 and discussions with practitioners were organized into twenty-four cases in which a CPA firm provided a variety of accounting services. These twenty-four cases were divided into two case sets of twelve cases each and then combined with two cases from a previous study by David Lavin. These cases were submitted to an expert panel for validation as to their relationship to Interpretation 101-3, and a predetermined "correct" judgement was established for use in analysis. A mail survey of the licensees of the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy was used for collecting data. The CPAs were provided with a copy of Interpretation 101-3 and asked to base their judgements exclusively on the standard. Hypothesis testing was used to determine the effectiveness of the independence discrimination resulting from the use of Interpretation 101-3. Statistical models were developed for evaluating differences in the effectiveness of independence discrimination and differences in the CPAs' judgements themselves.

The thesis deals with the ethics of auditors, tax advisers and accountants. It focuses on the basic characteristics of these professions and especially their codes of ethics - Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants, Code of Ethics of the Chamber of Tax Advisers of the Czech Republic and the Code of Ethics of the Chamber of Ceritified Accountants. It also includes a comparison of these ethical codes. Finally, the results of the survey on the topic "Ethics and ethical codes of selected professions" are analyzed.

Several industrial scandals, especially those about Enron and WorldCom, have lead to an intense debate about the independent audit and the independent auditor. A substantial part of the auditor’s income originates from counselling, and therefore the role of the auditor may be seen as double, and the auditor’s objectivity may be questioned. In the year of 2002, a new Auditors Act was legislated in Sweden. In the 21 § of the act, a model based on principles was introduced, to test the auditor independence in every single case. The question is if the new Auditors Act better ensures an independent audit than the preceding Act did. After the collapse of Enron, the international work on the development of rules that better can guarantee the independent audit, has been intensified. Will the wording and effect of the Swedish Auditors Act stand, will the international progress on this area influence the interpretation of the Act, or will the Swedish legislator be forced to rewrite the Act? Three problems are discussed in this thesis; 1. How shall an independent audit be ensured?, 2 What kind of activity may the auditor exercise?, 3 How should the auditor’s activities be organised to ensure the independence? This thesis describes howthe role of the auditor and his independence is regulated today, partly by legislation, partly by self- regulation, both national and international. Different regulations are compared and differences and similarities are described. A number of specific problems that may influence the independence of the auditor, in relation to his clients, and a discussion about how these problems may be avoided, is presented.

The aim of the thesis will focus on ethics for professional accountants, who are not only accountants, but also tax consultants and auditors. Confidence in the profession greatly weakened by major accounting scandals in the U.S. and in Europe at the turn of the millennium. I will focus on ethics from the perspective of philosophy and from the perspective of management in the introduction of the theoretical part. The theory of sustainable development and corporate social responsibility relates also with business ethics. In response to accounting scandals in the U.S. the new law was agredd and this documnet established new requirements for companies trading on the American Stock Exchange and drew an attention to code of ethics for professional accountants. I will describe the different types of accounting fraud in the practical part, said publicated examples.

Previous research has shown that accountants may be inadequate moral reasoners. Concern over this trend caused the Treadway Commission (1987) and the Accounting Education Change Commission (1990) to call for greater integration of ethics into the student's training. Ponemon and Glazer (1990) found a difference in cognitive moral development (CMD) between accounting students at a public university and a private university with a liberal arts emphasis. This study expands Ponemon and Glazer's research by examining two liberal arts universities, one a private, secular institution and one a Catholic institution. The primary research question asks if Catholic university accounting students manifest greater CMD growth than secular university accounting students. Additionally, this study examines and compares the priority that accounting students from the different institutions place on ethical values versus economic values. It was expected that Catholic university accounting students would manifest both greater CMD growth and a greater concern for ethical values over economic values when compared with non-Catholic university accounting students. The study utilized a two-phase approach. In the first phase, an organizational study of two institutions was made to determine how each strives to integrate moral development into their accounting students' education. In the second phase, lower-division and senior accounting students were given three ethical and values related tasks to complete which propose to measure differences in ethical and economic values.

It is widely accepted that accounting education aims to produce competent professional accountants, who are capable of making a positive contribution to the profession and the society in which they work. The provision of a basis of ethical values should therefore be viewed as an important aspect of professional accountants’ education and training. In the face of increasing changes encountered by accountants, it becomes essential that they develop and maintain an attitude of learning to learn (i.e. Continuous Professional Development or CPD). In current times, an education programme for Chartered Accountants (CAs) needs to transcend the traditional approach that emphasised ‘transfer of knowledge’, with learning defined and measured strictly in terms of knowledge of principles, standards, concepts, facts and procedures at a particular time. This study aims to investigate the utilisation of the CPD of ethics among prospective CAs by analysing and statistically interpreting the perceptions and attitudes of a group of undergraduate students at a South African higher education institution, by means of an empirical survey. The objectives of this study are to: (i) demarcate the CA and his/her profession by studying undergraduate students’ perceptions; (ii) determine undergraduate students’ perceptions of CPD, life-long learning (LLL) and ethics, within the framework of a CA and his/her undergraduate education; (iii) investigate the perceived core values within the CA profession; and (iv) analyse specific aspects of the education and training of prospective CAs at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).
Professor Thea L. Voogt Professor Ben Marx

by Anita, Wing-Ngar, Tsang.
Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1998.
Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-114).
Abstract also in Chinese.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT --- p.i
TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.ii
LIST OF TABLES --- p.iv
LIST OF FIGURES --- p.vi
ABSTRACT (CHINESE) --- p.vii
ABSTRACT (ENGLISH) --- p.viii
CHAPTER
Chapter I. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1
Chapter II. --- THEORETICAL BACKGROUND --- p.5
The Person-Organization Fit Framework --- p.5
Role Motivation Theories --- p.8
The Professions --- p.11
Professional Role Motivation Theory --- p.14
Role Theory and the Role Episode Model --- p.21
Interrole Conflict Among Professionals --- p.23
Person-role Conflict Among Professionals --- p.25
Consequences of Role Conflict --- p.25
Differential Effects of Positive and Negative Incongruence --- p.27
Chapter III. --- HYPOTHESES OF THE STUDY --- p.29
Chapter IV. --- METHODS --- p.35
Sample --- p.35
Data Collection Procedures --- p.35
Measures --- p.40
Data Analyses --- p.58
Chapter V. --- RESULTS --- p.61
Basic Descriptive Statistics --- p.61
Effects of Absolute Congruence Indexes on Perceived Role Conflict --- p.64
Differential Effects of Positive and Negative Congruence Indexes --- p.67
Chapter VI. --- DISCUSSION --- p.81
Organizational-Professional Role Congruence and Interrole Conflict --- p.82
Individual-Work Role Congruence and Person-Role Conflict --- p.86
Perceived Role Conflict and Work Outcomes --- p.88
Research and Managerial Implications --- p.89
Limitations and Future Research --- p.93
Conclusion --- p.95
APPENDIX A --- p.97
REFERENCES --- p.102

碩士
國立政治大學
會計研究所
97
The main purposes of this study were to explore the ethical perception gaps of professional ethics between Certified Public Accountants and Lawyers. This research uses multidimensional ethics scale as a measurement of moral judgments with four dilemmas, then uses the method of questionnaire survey with participants in some accounting firms and law firms. There are 194 samples retrieved, and 174 effective samples. The data is analyzed by using the method of descriptive statistics, t-test, Spearman’s correlation. The findings of the study revealed that the perception gaps of independence for accountants and avoiding the conflicts of interests for lawyers are significant, and the perception gaps of confidentiality are insignificant. This might be resulted from the particularity of these two professions. As a result, this study is recommendable for practicing field, educators, and future researcher as reference materials.

碩士
大葉大學
會計資訊學系碩士班
95
Accounting related scandals occurred in foreign companies such as Enron and WorldCom and Taiwanese companies such as Buo Da Technology, Infodisc, and Rebar; all the cases are related to accountants’ morality. Whether an accountant’s morality is related to his values or, as demonstrated in the Enron incident, “ethics,” is the focus of our study, which discusses the relationships between Morality Ethics Value, Morality Ethics Curriculum, and Professional Morality. We targeted accounting students and accountants in the central region of Taiwan. The questionnaires are based on MES chart and were given out and retrieved on the same occasion. 444 questionnaires were given out, 438 valid copies were retrieved, and 18 were invalid (retrieval rate was 98.6%). Our findings indicate that accountants’ Morality Ethics Value is significantly correlated with their Professional Morality; schools’ Morality Ethics Curriculum has a positive influence on accounting students’ Morality Ethics Value and Professional Morality. The findings, however, also suggest that the ethics curriculum in today’s colleges is not doing what it is expected to do; the t-test shows that a person, regardless of whether he has attended ethics courses, shows no significant differences in terms of Morality Ethics Value and Professional Morality. In other words, the courses have no impact on accounting-related personnel’s Morality Ethics Value and Professional Morality.

The accounting profession continually has problems with hiring and keeping qualified staff; and many accounting scandals have shown a lack of ethical behavior on the part of Certified Public Accountants (CPA). This suggest a misfit between those in the profession and the ethics that the profession strives towards. Research has shown that the congruity of personal values with organizational values, person-organization fit (P-O fit), is an important factor in the hiring, socialization, and retention of employees. In addition, ethical behavior has been found related to P-O fit. Accounting educators have been called upon to address these problems by inculcating accounting students with the values of the accounting profession. This research firstly reports on the results of a comparison of the personal values of upper level accounting students in Georgia with the personal values of CPA leaders in Georgia. Personal value priorities were measured with the Rokeach Value Survey (RVS). The findings indicated that these samples of Georgia CPA leaders (N = 193) and accounting students (N = 516) significantly differed in the priority given to 24 of the 36 (66.7%) RVS values. This result suggests a lack of P-O fit between accounting students and the accounting profession. Secondly, this research reports on the effectiveness of two education interventions designed to improve the P-O fit of accounting students: a Curriculum Modification Intervention and a Value Self-Confrontation (VSC) Intervention. These education interventions were delivered online as part of the content of two distance learning classes on accounting ethics. The curriculum of both classes were augmented with content aimed at increasing the priority given to the value of courageous. The two classes were designated as either Group 1 or Group 2. Group 1 received only the Curriculum Modification Intervention. Group 2 received both the Curriculum Modification Intervention and the VSC Intervention, which was targeted at increasing the priority given to the four values of capable, courageous. honest, and responsible—values related to the Code of Professional Conduct and Bylaws (2012) of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. The results indicated that Group 1, from the beginning to the end of class (short-term value change), did not increase the priority given to courageous. Thus, the stand-alone Curriculum Modification Intervention did not result in the desired effect. Group 2, on the other hand, did increase the short-term priority given to all four of the targeted values. Moreover, Group 2 increased the long-term priority given to two of the four targeted values: capable and courageous. The higher priority given to these values at the end of class persisted for 15-16 weeks. The effect sizes indicated practical significance. These results suggest that the VSC Intervention was effective at inducing both short-term and long-term value change in the priority given to values of importance to the ethics of the accounting profession. These findings have implications for CPA firms, specifically with regard to hiring ethically “fitting” staff and fostering an ethical culture in accounting firms. The results of this research also provide input that may be helpful in improving accounting pedagogy, especially the pedagogy of accounting ethics education and distance education. Key words: person-organization fit, P-O fit, CPA firm turnover, personal values, value change, value self-confrontation, VSC, Rokeach Value Survey, RVS, Certified Public Accountant, CPA, ethics education, accounting students, online education, distance learning.
Business Management
D.B.L.