Machiavellianism in public accountants: some additional Canadian evidence

The current study surveys practising Canadian public accountants in Canada in both Big 4 and non-Big 4 firms to determine their orientation with respect to Machiavellianism, defined as 'attending to one's interests much more than to others'. Results indicate that while there are no significant differences in Machiavellianism between public accountants in the upper-level positions (managers and partners), partners are significantly less Machiavellian than seniors. These results are consistent with previous studies on Canadian public accountants.     

‘An Examination of the Ethical Commitment of Professional Accountants to Auditor Independence’

This research explores the relationship between work context and professional ethics. Specifically, we analyze through an online survey of professional accountants the degree to which changing work conditions have altered individual accountants’ commitment to the core professional value of auditor independence. We argue that certain changes in the condition of work have made some categories of accountants more susceptible to the logic of commercialism rather than the logic of professionalism. We find general support for this argument. We observe that accountants working outside of public accounting have a higher commitment to independence than do accountants working in the context of public accounting firms. We further observe that accountants in large international accounting firms (i.e. the “Big Four”) report lower commitment to auditor independence than do others in public accounting. And we observe that older accountants report stronger commitment to auditor independence. One finding, however, contradicts our general thesis. We find that commitment to one’s client does not necessarily result in a loss of commitment to the core professional value of independence. We conclude that changes in the context of work have contributed to the demise of ethics among professional accountants and suggest that further research be done to elaborate the relationship between client commitment and independence commitment.     

The Impact of Ethical Leadership, the Internal Audit Function, and Moral Intensity on a Financial Reporting Decision

Two elements of corporate governance??the strength of ethical executive leadership and the internal audit function (IAF hereafter)??provide guidance to accounting managers making decisions involving uncertainty. We examine the joint effect of these two factors, manipulated at two levels (strong, weak), in an experiment in which accounting professionals decide whether to book a questionable journal entry (i.e., a journal entry for which a reasonable business case can be made but there is no supporting documentation). We find that ethical leadership and the IAF interact to determine the likelihood that accountants book the entry. Specifically, accountants are less likely to book a questionable journal entry when there is a weak ethical leader and a strong IAF compared to all other conditions. In addition, we find that accountants question the appropriateness and ethicalness of the request to book an undocumented journal entry more in the weak ethical leader and strong IAF condition than in the other conditions. These results suggest that the IAF has a different impact on financial reporting decisions depending on the ethicalness of executive leadership and that a strong IAF may cause accountants to question the appropriateness and ethicalness of an undocumented journal entry when combined with weak ethical leadership. We also find that the interactive effect of ethical leadership and the IAF on an accountant??s decision is fully mediated by his/her perception of the moral intensity of the issue. Thus, accountants, who perceive greater moral intensity associated with booking the entry, are less willing to do so.     

The differential perception of accountants to Maccoby's head/heart traits

We in the accounting profession have long shown an interest in presenting an ethical image. But are accountants more ethical than others in the business world? In order to answer that question, a survey was mailed to 250 lower-level accounting professionals to determine their perceptions of the importance of nineteen head and heart trait items first identified by Maccoby. The results, based on 134 replies, indicate that accountants have a higher perception of the importance of the heart traits that have been associated with ethical inclinations than both managers and business students surveyed previously. However, in that head trait items still dominate in terms of importance, if accountants are more ethical, it is not to an overwhelming degree.     

Whose “loyal agent”? Towards an ethic of accounting

In order to move towards an Ethic of Accounting, one must start by defining the function and role of the accountant. This in turn depends to a great extent on the identity of the “client” or whatever party the Accountant owes his “loyal agency” to. The issue is one of cardinal importance, and it is perceived as such by the accountants themselves. Loeb for instance says that the “client-identity issue is overriding importance now, and will become even more crucial in the immediate years ahead”. The question of what constitutes ethical behaviour on the part of the accountant will depend then upon the relation within which such ethical behaviour will have to be deployed. The main question raised in this paper will therefore be, is the accountant primarily engaged by one client (whether an individual or a corporation) to act as their “agent”, deal with their problems by loyally advancing their interests to the best of his professional competence, although within the limits imposed by law and morality? Or is the “public sector” to be considered the principal target of the accountant's resolute professionalism and unswerving loyalty? These problems and other related issues are here analyzed against the background of a recent (1984) case involving a Revenue Canada Auditor in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, which helps to bring out the almost paradoxical relation between accountant and client, and the difference between this relation and that of other professionals to their clients or patients.     

How to Create Effective Ad Copy for the Small Service Organization

ABSTRACT

This paper reports the results of a study that examined two factors that influenced the individual's selection of an accountant: The qualifications that the accountant may hold and the accountants membership of a professional accounting body.

In Australia, any person can hang a shingle outside their door calling themselves an ?accountant.” In contrast, the law dictates that a doctor of medicine can only use the title “doctor” when he/she has tertiary qualifications and registers with the relevant Health Departments throughout Australia.

Let's be clear on the term accountant–there are accountants in public practice who offer themselves to the public to perform a wide range of duties from income tax preparation, auditing and financial advice. Then there is the accountant who is employed internally in a business to keep the financial reins. It is the accountant who offers public accounting services that this study concerns itself.

Prior research studies conducted in this area are examined for relevance to the study and to determine if the results concur with the outcomes of this study.

The managerial implications of the results are discussed considering the confusion and perceptions that arose with the meaning of “qualification” and “professional body membership.”     

The Attitudes of Certified Public Accountants Toward Solicitation

ABSTRACT

A recent Supreme Court ruling disallows prohibitions of certified public accountant solicitation. This paper provides a historical development of certified public accountant solicitation and a study is conducted to investigate the attitudes of certified public accountants toward solicitation. The results suggest that while certified public accountants generally are ambivalent toward solicitation, they perceive that they might need to solicit as a defensive competitive tactic. Moreover, the results indicate that selected demographic characteristics significantly influence the certified public accountants' attitudes toward solicitation. The younger certified public accountants, those certified public accountants who have been in practice fewer years, and those certified public accountants employed by less established firms appear to hold much more positive views toward solicitation.     

签字会计师个人经验与财务重述

文章用累计签发报告数、签发报告年数度量签字会计师一般个人经验,进而考察其对客户公司财务重述的影响,结果发现,在控制了公司及事务所层面因素后,随着签字会计师一般经验的提高,客户财务报告发生重述的可能性显著降低。进一步研究发现,签字会计师的客户特定经验(任期)也对财务重述具有抑制作用,并且在客户特定经验较少时,一般经验的作用更为明显;就一般经验而言,无论是行业经验还是非行业经验均有助于降低财务重述;签字会计师一般经验对财务重述的影响主要来自于复核合伙人。研究还发现,事务所规模、签字会计师性别会弱化一般经验的作用。这一研究提供了签字会计师个人经验与公司财务重述关系的经验证据,进一步拓展了审计师个人特质与审计质量之间关系的文献。     

Whistleblowing and management accounting: An approach

In this paper, we consider the licensing of and codes of ethics that affect the accountant not in public accounting, the potential for an accountant not in public accounting encountering an ethical conflict situation, and the moral responsibility of such accountant when faced with an ethical dilemma. We review an approach suggested by the National Association of Accountants for dealing with an ethical conflict situation including that association's position on whistleblowing. We propose another approach based on the work of De George (1981), in which both internal and external whistleblowing are possible alternatives, for use by management accountants in an ethical conflict situation. Finally, we consider the implications of our analysis for management accounting. While most of the analysis centers on management accountants, we note the likely applicability of the analysis to accountants in the public sector. Dr. Stephen E. Loeb is Professor and Chairman of Accounting and the Ernst and Young Alumni Research Fellow at the University of Maryland at College Park. He is the author or co-author of a number of articles relating to accounting and ethics that have appeared in journals such as The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting Research, the Journal of Accountancy, and The Government Accountants Journal. Dr. Loeb is co-editor of the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy.Dr. Suzanne N. Cory is Associate Professor of Accounting at California State University, San Bernardino. A good deal of the work on this paper was done while Dr. Cory was a faculty member at The George Washington University.We are indebted to Lawrence A. Gorden, Allen G. Schick, Jere Francis, Lee Preston, Stanley W. Davis and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Any errors are our own.     

Ethics and the accountant

Every profession requires special knowledge and skills, and each professional is expected to possess certain essential personal qualities. Likewise, in the accounting profession, accountancy students need to possess certain essential personal qualities that their employers look for. The growing concern over the ethics of professionals makes it important consider the perceptions of the public, students, and accountants of the values of accounts in the working world.A questionnaire was given to a sample population of 500 which included the public, accounting students, and accountants. The questionnaire was designed to examine the personal qualities of accountants. From this study, the perceptions of the personal qualities of accountants are that accounts should be ethical and have integrity. These perceptions reflect the importance of ethics in the accounting profession. On other qualities, the public differ in perception from that of the students and accountants.James Poon Teng Fatt is a lecturer in Business Communication in the School of Accountancy and Business, Nanyang Technological University. His areas of research and interest are accounting education, entrepreneurship, and English for specific purposes.     

Luca Pacioli on Business Profits

This paper investigates whether gender affects ethically sensitive decisions of a personal or business nature. Data from 51 practicing accountants from both public accounting and private industry suggest that while differences exist between female and male accountants in responses to specific situations, overall responses are quite similar. Statistically significant differences were found for only five of the sixteen ethically sensitive situations. Further, when personal and business situations of a similar nature were paired together, two of the eight differences between personal and business responses were significantly different between females and males. Taken as a whole, the results refute the suggestion that the ethical decision making of organizations may be enhanced as more women enter the business field.     

Role Morality in the Accounting Profession – How do we Compare to Physicians and Attorneys?

Role morality can be defined as “claim(ing) a moral permission to harm others in ways that, if not for the role, would be wrong” (A. Applbaum: 1999, Ethics for Adversaries: The Morality of Roles in Public and Professional Life (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ) p. 3). Adversarial situations resulting in role morality occur most frequently in the fields of law, business, and government. Within the realm of accounting, professional obligations may place the accountant in a situation where he/she is susceptible to the pressures of role morality. If the accountant engages in acts consistent with role morality, significant harm to others may result. The current study represents an initial investigation into role morality in accounting and includes survey data from three samples of professionals: accountants, physicians, and attorneys. Results suggest that accountants generally do not agree that role morality is acceptable. Additionally, when compared to the groups of physicians and attorneys, physicians agree the least with role morality, while attorneys agree the most. Implications for practicing accountants and suggestions for future research into the theory of role morality are offered. Robin R. Radtke is currently an Assistant Professor at Florida Atlantic University. Dr. Radtke earned her Ph.D., at the University of Florida and has previously taught at the University of Houston, the University of Texas San Antonio, and Texas Tech University. Dr. Radtke’s main research interests are in the ever growing field of accounting ethics and she has been an editorial board member of Research on Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accounting (formerly Research on Accounting Ethics) since 1995. She has published in various journals including Issues in Accounting Education, Behavioral Research in Accounting, Accounting Horizons, Research on Professional Responsibility and Ethics in Accounting, and others.     

Ethical dilemmas for accountants: A United Kingdom perspective

The paper provides an introduction to some of the professional ethical dilemmas facing an accountant in the United Kingdom. The first part deals with those dilemmas which accountants would normally accept are covered by the term ethics. These include the problems associated with adequately fulfilling a duty to shareholders and conflicts of interest (including whistleblowing) by the accountant acting as independent auditor or as an employee. The second part deals with wider aspects of ethical dilemmas stemming from reconciling the implicit understanding that the accountant is being objective with the fact that accounting rules make it very difficult to sustain that objectivity.Andrew Likierman, Professor of Accounting at the London Business School graduated from Oxford in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, is a qualified accountant and has worked in both the private and public sectors. He started the first regular UK MBA ethics course but more usually publishes in the field of financial control.     

台湾会计师行业监管:形成、发展与启示

如何对会计师进行有效监管始终是各国各地区会计监管部门所关心的问题,也是各国各地区会计师行业面临的重要课题。在促进证券市场健全发展的过程中,新兴市场往往借鉴发达市场的成熟经验,更多地是在本土化情况下加以创新,台湾地区会计师行业监管就是典型的例子,由专业管制专业便是一个最好的方式,会计师行业监管扮演着相当关键的角色。     

Using and Valuing Accounting Information: Joint Decision Making Between Accountants and Retail Managers

Using accounting information can be complex and difficult because it requires joint decision making between two groups, accountants and line managers, whose different perspectives may interfere with communication and exchange. Interpersonal tension and mistrust may further intensify barriers to problem solving. Deutsch's theory of cooperation and competition was used to examine the interaction between managers and accountants as they made decisions with accounting information. Thirty-three managers from a large food retailer were interviewed on critical incidents. Structural equation and other results support the argument that cooperative goal interdependence induces an open-minded discussion of opposing views. This in turn results in productive decisions and strong relationships which in turn lead to appreciating and valuing the importance of collecting and using accounting and financial information. These relationships seemed to hold across accounting roles. Results were interpreted as suggesting that developing strongly cooperative goals and the skills of constructive controversy can facilitate productive problem solving between accountants and line managers.     

New audit partner identification rules may offer opportunities and benefits

From the WorldCom and Enron accounting debacles that triggered the demise of Arthur Andersen to Ernst & Young’s 2013 and 2015 settlements of claims that its audits facilitated massive accounting fraud by financial services firm Lehman Brothers, large-scale financial scandals have led to increasing scrutiny of public auditors. Investors are justifiably eager to ascertain the quality of audits of public companies when making investment decisions. In the U.K., the reputation of the audit partner is recognized as a signal of audit quality, and as such, the names of the lead partners have been disclosed to the public since 2009. The U.S. standard of providing the auditing firm name without identifying the lead partner recently changed to match the U.K. and EU standard after much debate. As of May 2016, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has adopted—and the Securities and Exchange Commission has approved—new regulations that will require the public disclosure of the individual audit partner responsible for each public company audit, as well as the identification of any additional accounting firms that contribute to the audit. This article examines the new rules in light of disclosure requirements imposed on other professionals, as well as international auditor disclosure requirements. The accounting profession has generally opposed the new disclosures, but this article suggests opportunities and benefits for the profession as a result of the changes, including the opportunity for audit partners to develop individual reputations for quality and specialization. In addition, this article makes recommendations for business managers, owners, and investors for making the best use of the information the new disclosures will provide.     

浅谈我国注册法务会计师制度的构建

法务会计,是会计学和法学相交叉的边缘性学科。法务会计具有法律服务性、法律事项性、调查取证性、价值量化性等特征。构建我国注册法务会计师制度,必须认真贯彻实施1994年1月1日起施行的《中华人民共和国注册会计师法》,并在此基础上完善相关的法律法规体系建设。同时,借鉴国际法务会计经验,我国应大力推进注册法务会计师协会组织建设;建立注册法务会计师的资格认证制度;构建和不断完善注册法务会计师职业道德规范体系。     

Establishing an ethic of accounting: A response to Westra's call for government employment of auditors

The central question in Westra's (1986) search for an ethic of accounting concerns to whom the accountant owes loyal agency: to the client or to the public interest. The authors argue that the accountant's master has already been defined as the public interest. An ethic of accounting is identified through analysis of the accoutant's master and through examination of the accountant's ethical obligations under the Code of Professional Conduct (AICPA, 1988). Potential conflicts between professional and organizational loyalties are analyzed with respect to the real-life problem used by Westra to support her argument. Finally, the implications of government employment of auditors are discussed.Elaine Waples is currently a doctoral student at the University of Nebraska.Michael K. Shaub, Ph.D., C.P.A., is Assistant Professor of Accountancy at the University of Nebraska. His research interests include auditors' ethics and audit judgment issues.     

Marketing by CPAs

Abstract

Until the late 1970s, the AICPA discouraged commercial advertising and some other marketing tactics by practicing accountants. This study contacted 600 CPAs in the U.S. in an attempt to discover what kinds of marketing they employ, how useful they think it is, and how appropriate do they feel the AICPA's rules and regulations are in regard to marketing an individual CPA's services. Most thought the AICPA was fair. Accountants doing the most marketing tend to be younger males. “Conflict of Interest” was the area of most current concern in light of the ongoing problems of public accounting firms doing both auditing and consulting for the same client. “Newspaper” was the preferred advertising medium. Most of those surveyed were pleased the AICPA relaxed its restrictions on marketing and advertising, even though many CPAs still do not market their services to any great extent. This may change as younger accountants fill leadership positions in U.S. accounting firms.