The key elements of an ethical issue

The ethical issue is considered as the problematic and challenging issue within the organisation due to the selection procedure between alternative which can be analysed at the base of wrong or right. The ethical issue does not concern about the moral issues within the organisation, but it should be related to the ethics where thoughts and planning are considered as part of the procedure. Ethics is considered as part of the judgmentbehaviour within the organisation. Unethical issues with an organisation can create the ethical problems related to the organisational accounting and business. Under this essay, the key elements of the ethical issue, the application of the code of ethics for the professional account, the significant cultural issues in the resolution of the ethical problems and finally the solution of the ethical problems both orally and in writing will be discussed.

Within a business organisation, there are few key elements which can be identified as the ethical issue. These ethical issues are related to the ethical behaviour of the employees, and the organisations sometimes overlook this. As the accounting professional of the organisation use of ethical considerations a part of the responsibility of every employee. Those can be identified as:

Honour- with the maintenance of good ethics within the organisation will develop the owner of the employee, and he can easily become the centre of attraction within the organisation. The honourable, ethical knowledge and their maintenance will develop the gratitude of the people and directly reflects on the behaviour (Armstrong, 2017). This also helps the employee in became successful in the professional life.

Respect- the role of the professional accountant is very respectful within the business organisation. For being a successful employee within the organisation, the use of good ethics will do most of the job. The organisation is not only related to the use of moral and ethical values but also the process of micromanaging they will help an individual in gaining the respect.

Customer focus- The organisational ethics has to be customer focus.  A customer focus organisation can easily develop ethical values within their employees (Bobek, Dalton, Daugherty, Hageman&Radtke, 2016). The decision of the organisation reflects the ethical responsibility of the organisation and employees. Therefore customer focus orientation should be the main focus of the accounting professionals. However, the accounting professionals have the duties towards the organisation which is indirectly related to the customer focus orientation.

Risk-taking- Sometimes the right ethical value can developer risk-taking situation for the employees. However, the use of legal ethics will always be appreciated within the organisation even if sometimes the risk-taking can cause major issues (Cameron & O’Leary, 2015).

Result oriented- The use of ethics never been part of the result orientation. Application of ethical values within the organisation if only concerned with doing the right and Legal procedure but not focusing on what will be the result. But most of the ethical issues within the organisation arise because of using wrong ethics.

Persistence- as per the understanding of ethical values will give perfect results. But the employees who are using the rightful ethical values persistent towards getting the hopeful result from their activities and operations (Christensen, Cote & Latham, 2016).

The application of the Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants to a range of ethical issues and problems in accounting and business

Passion- Sometimes the passion for achieving some specific things can develop ethical issues within the organisation. The employees of an organisation have a passion for achieving an important position in the organisation which can interact within their moral and ethical values and create ethical problems.

The international ethics standard board of accountants has to follow the code of ethics which has issued in the year of 2009 July and developed by the International Federation of accountants. This code of ethics can be differentiated into six different categories. Those are the fundamental principles, integrity, professional competence and due care, objectivity, confidentiality and professional behaviour (Crane &Matten, 2016).

The application of the code of ethics of the professional accountants includes the responsibility of public interest, but the responsibility of these professionals did not specify for the needs of the employer or individual client. In working for the public interest, the professional accountant must observe as well as comply with the code as per the regulation of professional accountants.

This code of ethics has four different part and the part one is associated with the fundamental principles is associated with the conceptual Framework which is used by the accountant for identifying the threats of the fundamental principles and evaluating the significance of these threats (Ferrell, 2016). In addition to that, applying the safeguards as per the code of conduct is part of this Part A.

According to the part B and C, the ways by which the conceptual framework can be applied in certain situations. And part B will be applied for the public practices where the part C associated with the safeguards related to the business agendas (Fiolleau& Kaplan, 2017).

The fundamental principles of the professional accountant are divided into five different areas. The integrity of the professional accountant is essential which is related to the honest and straightforward business relationship. In addition to that, the professional accountant has to be non-bias in addition to that the objectivity of the professional has to be conflict-free and need to develop proper business judgement. In addition to that confidentiality is one of the major concerns of the job role. The business relationship has to be professional enough, and the respect towards the confidentiality of the organisational information is part of the responsibility. Any organisational information cannot be shared with the third party audios for the personal advantage of the accountant (Gaynor, Janvrin, Pittman, Pevzner& White, 2015). In addition to that, the professional competence and due care need proper knowledge and skills related to accounts. And finally, the professional behaviour of the professional accountant need to include the limitations and laws of the profession and also avoidance of various activities are actions related to the discredit of the account profession need to part of the professional behaviour.

The resolution of ethical issues the effect of cultural issue main impact both positively and negatively. The culture of an individual is associated with the various type of traditional norms and values, and sometimes this will effect on the process of ethical resolutions. The member of the International Federation of Accountants has identified that more than 2.8 million accountants working in more than 130 countries (Himick, Brivot& Henri, 2016).

The significance of cultural issues in the resolution of ethical issues

According to this Foundation that in the maintenance of common morality in any place and by anyone need high-level principles which will be related to the respect for justice. The right or wrong depends totally on the time and space of each of the individual. It has to understand that the individual and cultural differences irreverent in every workplace. But in finding the differences between this, it has been found that the cultural practices might be the effect on the ethical rights negatively. The normative ethics is related to the behaviour of an individual and also his actions. For example, it can be said that the process of bribery is considered as illegal in every Nation but some countries using this as part of their business for the Organisational process (Martinov-Bennie &Mladenovic, 2015). The cultural issues mainly affect negatively in the ethical resolution process because the normative cultural decision should always be ethical.

For solving the problems related to the ethical issues in oral and written use of the Institution of Chartered Accountants England and Wales useful. Using this framework developed by this institution is differentiated into seven different steps. Initially, all the relevant facts related to the problem need to gather, and the identification of a problem has to do (Massey, 2017). After that, the affected part is because of the ethical problem has to find out. Following that, the ethical issues which are involved in this consideration need to be highlighted. Identifying which of the fundamental principles of professional accounts is affected because of this ethical issue is the next step. After that, the internal procedure of the employee’s organisation needs to be referred. In the following step consideration and evaluation of various alternative courses of the operation or action has to do. In the final step, the implementation of the total course of action is to do, and monitoring of the progress is much needed (Shawve& Miller, 2017).

There are many more other frameworks which will help in solving the ethical problems of accounting and business, but the usefulness of the ICAEW framework is the most significant and useful among them.

Conclusion

In light of the above discussion, it can be established that like every other profession the accounting in business as the ethical issues arise as part of the functions. The Federation of Accountants has developed a specific code of ethics for maintaining the responsibility of an accountant. The development of this code of ethics has helped Accountants all over the world in maintaining the specific rules as part of the ethical value creation. However, for solving specific problems related to work ethics Accountants have their different Framework among which the ICAEW framework is explained in this essay.

References

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