Accounting Ethics

Does Economic Rationalization Decrease or Increase Accounting Professionals’ Occupational Values?

“…The attainment of professional status by a specific occupational group is often interpreted as the outcome of "professional projects," or attempts to enact a "regulative bargain" in which scarce knowledge and skills are translated into legitimate recognition from states, in the form of professional status and monopoly over a jurisdictional domain (Larson 1977). Duska 2003;Mele 2005;Pakaluk and Cheffers 2011;Klein 2015) suggests that the occupational values of professionalism generically emphasize (1) public good, which according to Schwartz's (1992) taxonomy is a normative goal of selftranscendence values, and (2) independence and creativity, which for Schwartz (1992) is a normative goal of openness to change values. Below, we consider each of these values in turn.…”

“…Accounting professionals pursue self-transcendence values, emphasizing the public good, to ensure that they are working to further the public interest rather than their own self-interest (Loeb 1988;Duska and Duska 2003;Mele 2005;Jackling et al 2007;Lan et al 2008;Pakaluk and Cheffers 2011). The codes of conduct of international and national professional associations, such as the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), require accountants to act with integrity and honesty in relation to the interests of all stakeholders.…”

“…Accounting professionals also pursue openness to change values, emphasizing independence and creativity, to maintain their autonomy in the creation, innovation and application of accounting expertise (Loeb 1988;Huss and Patterson 1993;Duska and Duska 2003;Pakaluk and Cheffers 2011;Bampton and Cowton 2013;Klein 2015). The international and national codes of accounting ethics require professionals to exercise independence in client assessment.…”

“…These scandals highlighted the importance of understanding environmental factors that affect accountants' commitment to the occupational values of professionalism (Jackling et al 2007;Graafland and Van de Ven 2011), which emphasize independent client assessment oriented toward public good (Loeb 1988;Duska and Duska 2003). A fundamental assumption of the research on business ethics (Sen 1987;Ghoshal 2005;Ferraro et al 2005) and professions (Ritzer and Walcak 1988;Freidson 2001;Timmermans and Berg 2003) is that these occupational values are undermined in vocational environments that are dominated by economic rationality.…”

Notes to some types of external frauds from the perspective of criminal legislation in the Czech Republic

“…3 Vnitřní podvodná jednání jsou tedy projevem nepoctivého jednání zaměstnanců (popřípadě členů statutárních a jiných orgánů), kteří mají často dokonalou znalost vnitřních kontrolních systémů a podnikových procesů, přičemž jsou mnohdy vybaveni vysokou mírou důvěry, pravomoci a odpovědnosti. Je logické, že čím je míra pravomoci a odpovědnosti či obecně postavení zaměstnance vyšší, tím vyšší obvykle bývají i škody jeho protiprávním jednáním způsobené.…”