THE ACCOUNTANT_AUTUMN_2018_VER-7-L

TECHNICAL
THE RELEVANCE of ethics to management
education in the accounting profession.
ARIANE AZZOPARDI
ARIANE AZZOPARDI IS AN
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR AT KPMG
MALTA WITHIN THE QUALITY &
RISK MANAGEMENT FUNCTION
It is sometimes questioned whether professional
judgment and ethics can be taught. Prior to the
major corporate scandals involving auditors and
accountants, the education model for accountants
focussed mainly on teaching the technical elements
of accounting. We have slowly seen a shift in more
recent years of including the ethical and moral aspect
of the profession and ethics which are being included
and discussed in the educational programmes and
curriculums for accountants.
The goal of including ethics within the curriculum
is to help individuals acquire skills to deal effectively
with ethical challenges they may come across during
the course of their work and provide them with the
necessary tools and guidance when they encounter
ambiguous situations in practice. This cannot be
achieved by solely studying the code of ethics and
professional conduct, but rather a process whereby
individuals become more consciously involved in making
ethical decisions and this is brought by including it in the
educational system for accountants and also through
mentoring programmes during the professional career.
Accounting is a profession demanding expertise
and accountants have clients who depend on the said
expertise. At the same time, accounting has an ethical
dimension. An accountant has the responsibility to act
in the public interest and not solely to satisfy the needs
of the employing organisation or client. In carrying
out their responsibilities as professionals, accountants
should exercise professional skeptiscm and moral
judgment in all the activities. Education of ethics should
be the teaching of the subject to students carrying
out the various courses available for the accountancy
profession and also a continuous education during
the professional career. Ethics education is not a list
of dos and don’ts, as this can give the misconception
that anything is acceptable if it’s not specifically
forbidden. Ethics education is a journey of sensitisation
and development where one becomes more aware
of the ethical dimensions of matters and challenges
encountered. Enriching ethics in accounting education
will change the mind-set and will assist the accountants
develop skills to assist them with actioning such critical
decisions.
Ethics education can provide insights into how to
adjudicate between conflicting principles and show
why certain courses of action are more desirable than
others. Ethics education, as defined by Langenderfer
and Rockness, is more than studying the code of
professional conduct, but rather a process whereby
individuals become more consciously involved in
making ethical decisions.
The objectives of Ethics education are to
• Relate accounting education to moral issues
in a business context
• Provide the members of the profession
with the tools to take decisions that have ethical
implications
• Develop a sense of moral obligation and
social responsibility
• Develop the skills required to deal with ethical
conflicts or dilemmas
• Develop the skills to deal with the ambiguities
of the accounting profession
The IESBA Code of Ethics which is applicable to the
professional accountants specifies that a professional
accountant's responsibility is not exclusively to satisfy
the needs of an individual client or employer, however
30 Autumn 2018