Ethics
Ethics
In recent years there have been many breakdowns in the ethical decision making processes that companies use. In past year's companies like Enron, WorldCom and HealthSouth have made many unethical decisions that have in turn wreaked havoc upon American markets and investors (Bean & Bernardi, 2005). At what point in a professionals career should ethical practices be taught or reinforced? Many professionals working in the accounting field today believe that implementing more ethics courses is accounting curriculum's is the place to start (Bean & Bernardi, 2005).
Proponents of ethical education believe that the level of ethics courses required in accounting education curriculum's are far from sufficient. The National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) in a 2005 report identified a major issue in regard to the requirements of ethics classes in accounting education (Bean & Bernardi, 2005). The belief of the reports author was that professionals working in the accounting field should be responsible for identifying the educational requirements needed to become a CPA, but the views of educational institutions often varies from those of professionals in the field (Bean & Bernardi, 2005). Educational institutions often use mission statements that boast that their students are ethical leaders and decision makers, but in reality require very little in the form ethics classes if any at all (Bean & Bernardi, 2005).
Opponents of increasing the teaching of ethics courses in current curriculum's place the burden of proof upon supporters by asking for concrete proof that the teaching of these courses has a measurable increase in the ethical practices of accountants. The currently recommended amount of ethics courses over a 150 credit hour program is 3 classes, which accounts for only 6% of the total curriculum (Bean & Bernardi, 2005). Authors of the NASBA report purposed that students first learn from courses with a basis in...
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