Accounting for ourselves: accounting practice and the discourse of ethics

Article Abstract:

An analysis of the moral dimension of account-giving is made in order to shed light on the ethics of accounting. Deontic claims, such as duties and norms, and teleological criteria, such as goods and consequences, are inevitable in this discursive act, which is characterized by intersubjective identities of the agents involved. Such interdependency allows ethical evaluation of corporate practices, including those of accounting. Power, obligation and goods relations are expressed in the act of giving an account through moral reasoning, responsibility and rationale for existence. Given that moral conflicts are crises in people's understanding and valuation of their lives, accounting assumes its moral reponsibility when it enhances the human ability for moral discourse and action. To this end, accounting must be understood in its capacity to contribute to human and environmental concerns.

Accounting and auditing, Business ethics, Hermeneutics

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Educating accountants: towards a critical ethnography

Article Abstract:

An ethnography of accounting education can function as a type of reliable qualitative research on the processes of the self-reproduction of professionalism. The characteristics of ethnography include that it describes the different linguistic and symbolic practices that maintain a shared reality among social entities, and it takes a realistic approach. The critical factors in the examination process of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales include informing students that the preparation for an examination has little in common with the enrollment in college courses, emphasizing the importance of technique, and realizing that the process of preparing for an examination can affect the participants' social lives.

Tests, problems and exercises, Usage, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, Education, Accountants, England, Wales, Ethnology, Cultural anthropology

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The Legitimate Concern with Fairness: a comment

Article Abstract:

Some basic concerns are evident in Paul F. Williams' research on fairness as an issue in accounting practice and research. Williams argued that accountability could not be subsumed under decision usefulness, and that fairness should be recognized more explicitly. Fairness under accountability and fairness in distribution are derived from different ethical frameworks and different assumptions about society. Communitarian values can co-exist with individualistic values in accounting by giving more prominence to distributive justice within accounting objectives. In addition, the existence of more than one set of societal values and assumptions implies that more than one set should be given visibility in financial reports.

Research, Corporation reports, Company reports, Fairness, Williams, Paul F.

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