Ethics Article Review

Ethics Article Review

The purpose of ethics in business is to direct business men and women to abide by a code of conduct that facilitates, if not encourages, public confidence in their products and services. Professional accounting organizations recognize the accounting profession's responsibility to provide ethical guidelines to its members. According to the article, “It's a matter of integrity,” ethics in business is also about the integrity of the people.

Summary of article

“Integrity is defined in Article III of the California Society of CPAs' Code of Professional Conduct as the quality from which the public trust derives and the benchmark against which a member must ultimately test all decisions” (Schreiber, 2003). Public trust in accounting has faltered over the last decade due to many scandals, including Enron and WorldCom.

Guidelines have been established to help with difficult decisions, but in the end, it is the CPA whose judgment is relied upon to ensure the accounting treatment is appropriate given the circumstances. “Judgment is determined by several factors, including: Knowledge of proper ethics. The California Board of Accountancy regulates this with a requirement to take one eight-hour course on professional conduct and ethics every six years” (Schreiber, 2003). Sufficient training needs to be adhered to.

Ethics in business is important. When a person becomes an accountant, he should be familiar with the standards and rules of the position, accept personal responsibility for the foreseeable consequence of his actions, and realize the long-term affects of his behavior on the accounting industry and the citizens. At all times, an accountant should conduct themselves with integrity, dignity, and respect for the position held in society.

Application to the workplace

Ethics needs to be prevalent in any company. The oil and gas industry is not an exception. In the oil and gas industry, our company is responsible for handling many investors money. The accounting department is responsible for accurately debiting and crediting the appropriate working interest and royalty owners’ accounts. Any company that is responsible for other people’s money should have a strong ethical foundation.

Presently there is not a program