Summary of Professional Ethics Module Essay Example for Free

Summary of Professional Ethics module EssayEthics is a branch of philosophy that studies the difference between right and impairment. As victor comptrollers, you will consecrate many opportunities to choose between right and wrong. And as you stir seen in the business line press, making the wrong choice can lead to serious consequences including corporate failure, loss of reputation, fines, and even put aside sentences. The objective of this unit is to introduce you to different branches of morality, in order to help you understand that population turn up the topic with different points of view. You will learn about different ways of view through an honorable question. This will help you identify the way that you soak up decisions so that you can recognise your own individualised morals in any professional ethical problem that you may be faced with. In this way, you can mitigate any detrimental impact of your own personal morals, with a view to a more objective ap proach. Perspectives on ethics In very broad terms, there atomic number 18 three al nearly ways of looking at ethics that have developed all over time reign overs con throwance, good intentions, and competence. integrity way of opinion about ethics is in terms of conformity to rules. From this perspective, ethics is understood as a list of things to do and to non do. Sometimes the list gets very long and complicated and acquirefully to be interpreted by a whole institution of mickle. The ethical person, from this perspective, is the one who conforms to the rules. A blink of an eye way of idea about ethics is in terms of good intentions. From this perspective, a behaviour is considered ethical if it is establish on good intentions. Good behaviour indeed follows from good intellection.The third perspective thinks of ethics in terms of competence. From this perspective, the ethical person is one who can make decisions base on principles and then act on them. This perspe ctive is thought of as looking at competence, because ethics is thought of in terms of an ability rather than an attitude our traffic to former(a)s hotshot way to think about ethics is to acknowledge that there are things that someone just does not do, as part of a duty to others. A limitation of this principle is that you have to go down what those things are that someone should not do.At least one philosopher (Immanuel Kant) has defined those duties by saying act according to principles that everyone could follow. For example, if you disobey traffic lights, you should consider what would travel by if everyone did so. The point is that we should recognise everyone as equals, and not assume that the rules are any different for ourselves than they are for other people. As an report example, a professional accountant would not deliberately issue false or inaccurate pecuniary statements.If everyone did so, no statements could be trusted and as a consequence not further would th e profession be brought into disrepute, but all financial statements would have no value to their users. Ultimately the need for accountants and for financial reports would be called into question. Consequences some other way of thinking about ethics is based on thinking about the consequences to different people. Briefly, consequentialism encourages you to make decisions based on the consequences both positive and negative for those involved.This category of thinking is the branch of ethics known as utilitarianism. This states that an action is right if it leads to the most good outcomes and the least incompetent outcomes for the greatest number of people. One limitation of thinking about ethics in terms of consequences is that you have to agree on what sorts of consequences matter for example, should you be trying to promote pleasure and avoid causing pain, or should you instead focus on promoting peoples actual well-being, regardless of whether doing so makes them happy?A mod ern application of this point of view is the cost- pull ahead analysis, which involves assigning monetary values to the costs and benefits of an action and beholding how they add up. This practice is often used in evaluating new projects. As an accounting example, an accountant thinking in terms of consequences would prepare true and fair financial statements because doing so would bring the most benefit to the greatest number of people. In other words, stakeholders inside and outside the organisation would be able to make more informed decisions as a result.Virtue theoryIn justness theory, the emphasis is on decision making what sort of person one should try to be, and to define the virtues such a person would embody. You decide what makes a good person, instead of what makes a good action, and act accordingly. One limitation of this way of thinking is that what constitutes a virtue must be agreed upon, and it can vary by culture and over time. For example, the qualities of good financial reports were once considered to be completeness, historical accuracy, reliability and strict adherence to the legal form in disclosing business transactions.More recently, the qualities of good financial reports have come to be relevance for decision-making, acknowledgement to a wider conceptual framework, and presenting the economic substance of business transactions. As an accounting example of the use of virtue theory, in deciding whether to agree to a clients request to use a confutable method for valuing inventory, an accountant would ask, What would a conscientious accountant do in such a mail? What would one of my respected mentors do? Social contract theoryThe social contract theory of ethics advises you to think about ethics as embodying a set of rules agreed upon by reasonable people to bring order to social living. So when making an ethical decision you ask yourself, What rule would reasonable, candid people agree to? You then follow such rules, regardless of whether they benefit you in particular situations. One criticism of this theory points out that the agreement referred to by social contract theory is entirely imaginary. why consider yourself bound by an agreement that never happened?An accounting example of social contract thinking might be seen in a situation where an accountant has to decide between loyalty to a client and candid assessment of financial statements. Both of those options involve important social values. Thinking in social contract terms, the accountant might ask, What sort of rule for balancing these values would unbiased people agree to? Confucian ethics Confucian ethics seeks to provide harmonious relationships at bottom rules of order, the family, and the individual. Looking within yourself and learning from experienced people are seen as the main roads to wisdom and self-harmony.The emphasis on experience leads to respect and reverence for the past, the aged, and for ones ancestors. One of the criticis ms of this model is that in a society where relationships are considered more important than the laws themselves, corruption and nepotism may be tolerated. As an accounting example, in deciding whether to agree to a clients request to use a soi-disant method for valuing inventory, an accountant thinking in Confucian terms might consider agreeing to it because doing so would cause harmony with the client.Rules of jerk In addition to scholarly branches of philosophy, some other ways of looking at right and wrong have developed. The golden rule The classic golden rule is to do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In other words, I will not cheat that person because I do not want them to cheat me. The golden rule is a simple and useful tool, but it does have some limitations. We dont really know how babies or animals want to be treated, for example, so the golden rule cant tell us much about how to treat them.Also, the whole rule is based on your own feelings of how you y ourself would want to be treated. But your own needs and preferences might not be typical. For example, the fact that you personally do not value privacy does not conceive that you dont owe others an obligation to respect their privacy. As an accounting example, this rule of thumb could be applied to mean that you disclose all information that may be relevant in financial reports because, if you were the reader of those financial statements, you would expect to receive all the information, and disregard any that is not relevant to you.Mirror Test Another rule of thumb is the mirror test. This is a quick way to evaluate a decision that you are about to make, and reinforces the notion that you are responsible for your own actions. Imagine youre looking in a mirror and ask yourself Is it legal? If it is not legal, dont do it. What will others think? Others meaning a friend, a parent, a spouse, a child, a manager, the media, or someone else whose opinion is particularly important to yo u.As an accounting example, in deciding whether to agree to a clients request to use a questionable method for valuing inventory, an accountant thinking in terms of this rule of thumb would consider how a boloney about this action would look on the front page of the local newspaper. Justice and care based approach What this quiz actually does is help you identify whether you lean towards a justice and rule-based approach or whether you lean towards a care-based approach.The justice and rules-based approach says that the rules should be applied equally to everyone and that justice and fairness are most important. Some researchers have suggested that this is a more masculine approach to the world. The care-based approach says that care, rather than justice, is most important and that we should act responsibly to people in need. Some researchers have suggested that this is a more distaff approach to the world. You can see why this research is controversial, and why you may disagree w ith the results.However it is elicit to consider whether gender could influence ethical positions. It may also help you when discussing issues with colleagues from other countries. Generally, in normality American and European groups, men have been found to have, on average, higher justice scores and women have been found to have, on average, higher care scores. The significance of these statistical findings is a topic of ongoing turn over among scholars. It is important to know how you approach an ethical question, and to recognise that other people may approach it a different way, irrespective of gender.