Paper Topic:

Ethics Article Review FIN324

Accounting Ethics Courses ' in Review

In the article , Accounting Ethics Courses : A Professional Necessity by David F . Bean and Richard A . Bernardi , the authors put forth an interesting idea regarding using educational preventive maintenance to reduce a business ' potential for an accounting scandal

Summary

The accounting profession has fallen under a cloud of suspicion after recent scandals involving Enron among other companies involving accounting malfeasance and fraud left shareholders losing virtually all their vested capital . When a company 's upper manage engages in fraudulent behavior , this negativity will reflect badly

on the company 's accountants regardless of whether or not they were involved . In fact the public 's opinion will always blame the accountants for being willing and active participants

In to reverse negative sentiment , it is advisable that members of the profession seek active measures to restore the good name of the accounting profession by mandating the study of ethics in accounting education

That is , there should be more pressure placed on colleges to incorporate more formal ethics courses within the framework of an accounting program . This has been met with great derision by academics who see any such pressure to change requirements as an intrusion . The authors feel that this attitude on the academia 's part is antiquated and doing more harm than good

UPS

While there have not been any scandals at UPS , the company would still benefit if the academic changes discussed in the article were implemented because it would lead to the possible circumvention of any potential scandals from occurring . That is , if the future crop of accountants hired to work at UPS had significant ethics training , those accountants would (theoretically ) have a greater grasp and understanding of ethics and know where the line needs to be drawn between acceptable and unacceptable behavior

Based upon reviewing Bean and Barnardi 's article , it would be highly advisable for UPS that when reviewing a potential employment applicant to take into consideration the ethics course requirements of the colleges that the applicant attended . UPS could also take a more proactive role by recruiting on campuses that stress ethics courses in their business schools . For those employees who are already working for UPS , a series of ethics workshops , lunch and learns , or tuition reimbursement programs for those who wish to enroll in ethics classes would be possible options

The reason that ethics must be stressed at UPS or in any other venue of finance and accounting is that in addition to the moral issues revolving around unethical behavior , there can also be civil and criminal issues as well . Getting involved in a scandal does not help a company or its employees at all . In fact , it can possibly lead to a company 's collapse as has been seen most famously with Enron . This is why the world of finance and accounting needs to take the role of ethics seriously

Conclusion

Bean and Barnardi have suggested that an increased role of ethics courses in accounting programs can help reduce...

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