 |
| | | | |
| | | |
| |
Do Accounting Instructors Need a Code of Ethics?
Belverd E. Needles, Jr.
With recent scandals involving the accounting profession, such as the Enron and WorldCom cases, isn't it wise for us as accounting instructors to consider what our ethics should be in the accounting classroom? Shouldn't we set the example for our students beginning with the first accounting course? A recent publication by the International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER), the worldwide association of accounting academics, addresses this issue. A Global Code of Ethics for Accounting Educators was developed by an IAAER Task Force, chaired by Norlin Rueschhoff of Notre Dame University that included academics from seven countries around the world and was approved for exposure by the Association's Executive Committee. Rueschhoff says, "The goal of the Task Force was to research and develop a code of ethics for accounting academics that could be readily be adopted by national and international associations of accounting academics."
The bankruptcy of Enron in December 2001-the largest in the history of U.S.
corporations and one of the most shocking-has served to reinforce the importance
of not only good financial reporting but also the ethical application of accounting
principles. It is time to reassess and renew efforts to introduce ethical
considerations into the first-year accounting course. This is necessary for
several reasons.
The Global Code of Ethics addresses in a comprehensive manner all areas of responsibility for accounting educators. Specifically, it addresses accounting educators' responsibilities in three broad areas: accounting education, academic research, and service to the accounting profession. The responsibilities in accounting education include standards of conduct under the categories of educational responsibilities, basic principles of teaching, and tenure and promotion evaluation standards. The responsibilities in academic research include standards of conduct under the categories of the research mission, research performance and research review and journal policies. Finally, the responsibilities to the accounting profession include standards of conduct under the categories of professional responsibilities, professional character, professional development, and professional service. In total the Code includes thirty-two specific standards of conduct.
It is the section on responsibilities in accounting education that is most applicable to teaching the first course in accounting. Of the three parts listed above, the first two parts appear to be especially relevant to the teachers of the first course in accounting.
Educational responsibilities of teachers consist of the following:
- Accounting educators accept responsibility for competent, inspirational, scholarly instruction.
- Respect for the integrity and teaching scholarship of academic colleagues requires unbiased, cooperative interaction with colleagues at home and abroad.
- Educational responsibility requires maintaining basic principles of teaching and collegial evaluation standards.
The basic principles of teaching consists of the following:
- Teaching and a concern for student learning play a central role for the accounting educator. Teaching scholarship deserves evaluation and reward.
- Rewards for and improvements in teaching demand collegial peer evaluation and the capability of addressing problem solving as a scholar. Teaching scholarship is open to use and review by one's peers.
- Professional ethics should pervade the teaching of accounting.
- Proper counsel of students is integral to effective teaching.
As President of IAAER, I would be interested in your reaction to these standards of ethical conduct for accounting instructors. It seems to me that we in the first course must set an example for our students of high ethical standards and that these guidelines are a good place to start. We should accept responsibility for the quality of our instruction, respect the work of our colleagues, and be willing to accept objectivity evaluation. We should place teaching and student learning and counseling, as well as educational scholarship, at the forefront of what we do.
The Global Code of Ethics for Accounting Educators will be the subject of a main panel session at the 9th IAAER World Congress of Accounting Educators in Hong Kong on November 14, 2002. The full text of the Code and information about the World Congress of Accounting Educators in November may be found on the IAAER web site at www.iaaer.org.
|
| | |
|
