Essays --

Deontology and Utilitarianism in the Accounting ProfessionThe American Association of Public Accountants first implemented honorable rules in 1905. Since then, invoice ethics has been heavily scrutinized. It has been said that the relationship between personal values, codes of turn out and findings to engage in financial misre turn ination are weak at best (Douglas, Davidson, & Schwartz, 2001), p. 101). It is substantive for Accountants to make ethical decisions. In order to promote ethical decision making, it is vital that profession develop a strong ethical environment. The advise of this paper is to look at two of the main ethical theories as they relate to the score profession. Specifically this paper will give a detailed description of utilitarianism and deontology. The organizational culture and the American Institute of sure Public Accountants code of professional conduct will then be looked at from the context of the two ethical theories. Finally, I will presen t the ethics system I believe is most appropriate for the account statement profession.1.0 UtilitarianismThe term utilitarianism, as defined in this paper, is not a psychological theory that is establish on what is. Instead, it is an ethical theory based on what should to be. Utilitarianism, also called universalistic hedonism, should not be confused with Egoism or Egoistic Hedonism (which states the agents individuals own happiness as the ultimate end of his actions (Sidgwick, 2000, p. 254). Instead, utilitarianism is an ethical theory that advocates the idea that the happiness of some must, at times, be abandon for the benefit of the larger quantity of people. This theory suggests that proper behavior seeks to increase happiness for the... ...eads to the perverse result that chthonian certain circumstances a lie, for example, might be morally right if the individual contemplating the lie matte up no compunction about lying and morally wrong save if the individual felt such a compunction (Kelman, 1981, p. 34). As mentioned earlier, the accounting profession is working hard to regain the publics trust. This is because at some bakshis the profession as a whole assumed the utilitarian based concept that ...the purpose, nature, and responsibility of business are to maximize profit or shareholder value. To the extent that an accounting firm is a business, it falls under the profit-maximizing rubric. But when an accounting firm sees itself primarily as a business, making a profit overrides its main function of attesting to the truth and justness of financial statements. (Duska, Duska, Ragatz, 2011,p. 170)