CASE 4.6
ARVEL SMART, ACCOUNTING MAJOR
Synopsis
This brief case involves an ethical issue that many future accounting graduates have faced in
recent years. Internship programs are an important facet of the recruiting efforts of large accounting
firms. Those firms typically offer internships to students they hope to hire on a permanent basis
when they graduate. Accounting majors enrolled in five-year accounting programs may have an
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Arvel Smart, Accounting Major—Key Facts
208 Case 4.6 Arvel Smart, Accounting Major
1. Arvel Smart’s parents were CPAs who had their own accounting firm in a small town in
southeastern Missouri.
3. During the summer between his third and fourth years in Missouri’s five-year accounting
program, Arvel served an auditing internship with a Big Four practice office in Kansas City.
5. Because he wanted to spend the summer between his fourth and fifth years in college with his
6. Before accepting an internship offer from one of the two St. Louis firms, Arvel decided that he
would accept the Big Four job offer at the conclusion of the second internship.
7. Arvel experienced some degree of guilt when he accepted the internship with the St. Louis firm
Instructional Objectives
Case 4.6 Arvel Smart, Accounting Major 209
1. To expose students to an ethical dilemma that many accounting majors face during their college
careers.
Suggestions for Use
For the past several years, the job market within the accounting profession has been a sellers’
market. Many large accounting firms have desperately tried to hire new accounting graduates to
“staff up.” The ethical dilemma raised by this case is one that many of my students have faced in
1. No doubt, your students, like my students, will have differing opinions regarding this issue.
Several of my students indicated that unless Arvel was specifically asked whether he had such an
2. The majority of my students generally express the viewpoint that Arvel did not behave
unethically by accepting the second internship when he ultimately intended to accept the job offer