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My major is business administration with concentration in accounting. It makes
me sad to realize that in the last couple years this discipline that has been so
useful and respected has been under pressure and looked down upon, due to
multiple behaviors by big companies that have resorted to accounting fraud in
order to report greater earnings for their own purpose as well as to fool
investors. Prominent companies and CEOs have been authors of such fraud which
has weakened the business industry. Companies like Enron, Tyco, WorldCom and
others have been an example of how high profile unethical behavior has become.
It has been increasingly visible that ethics were overlooked for the sake of
profits. Some will argue that given that the goal of a firm is to maximize
profits for shareholders, ethics should take a backseat to profits; however in
this paper I will try to show that good business ethics in accounting are
increasingly important and that it should be the norm for every firm.
I am a firm believer of strong ethics in accounting because I believe ethics
provide the foundation on which a civilized society can exist. More people will
benefit from transparent accountability. Without strong ethical behavior this
very old discipline will collapse. More than just a concern for firms,
individuals who intend to make a living in this discipline must make efforts to
conduct themselves in a good way, in their quest for wealth fame and knowledge.
Integrity in this case has to come first.
It has often be said that in business it is good to be greedy, because it is
this greed that makes one move on and achieve greater profits. Thus whenever we
instill to many moral codes, we will take away the motivation for individual to
excel, thus making the firm weaker. However I think such belief is extremely
shortsighted; I think people can get motivated even if they have other values
that are much higher than just getting profits. I think people shouldnt do
everything for profit, especially engaging in unethical behavior. The goal of
firms and the people who work in it should focus on getting owners wealth not
just profit, and wealth requires more than just making money, but also having
trust from the organization, the society and everyone who can be directly or
indirectly affected by the way an accounting firm conducts its business.
It is sad that accounting has suffered from such bad reputation in the last
years, however a bigger question is how canaccounting as a profession move out
of such dark times and regain the confidence of every body by going back to its
