1. Discussion of Values and Personal Codes of Conduct
Following up from 4/13 class

2. International Federation of Accountants (& IMA)
Integrity. A professional accountant should be straightforward and honest in all professional and business relationships
Objectivity A professional accountant should not allow bias, conflict of interest or undue influence of others.
Professional Competence and Due Care.
A professional accountant has a continuing duty to maintain professional knowledge and skill at the level required to ensure that a client or employer receives competent professional services based on current developments in practice, legislation and techniques. A professional accountant should act diligently and in accordance with applicable technical and professional standards when providing professional services.
Confidentiality.
A professional accountant should respect the confidentiality of information acquired as a result of professional and business relationships and should not disclose any such information to third parties without proper and specific authority unless there is a legal or professional right or duty to disclose. Confidential information acquired as a result of professional and business relationships should not be used for the personal advantage of the professional accountant or third parties.
Professional Behavior.
A professional accountant should comply with the relevant laws and regulations and should avoid any action that discredits the profession.

3. Commonalities with your list?
How do some of the values on your list coincide with the International Federation of Accountants (& IMA) items?

4. Commonalities with your list?
The integrity value (to act in an honest and ethical way) is very similar to the profession’s ethical principle of integrity.
Independence (to be free from dependence on others) is similar to the profession’s principle of objectivity.
The personal values of mastery and knowledge are similar to the profession’s principles of professional competence,
Personal value of conscientious (to reliably carry out my duties and obligations) is similar to the professional’s principle of due care.
Faithfulness is similar to the profession’s principle of confidentiality.
The values of self-control and conformity (to be accepting of authority, traditions and social norms) are similar to the profession’s principles of professional behavior.

5. How would your code guide you in a typical dilemma?
Your firm is struggling to meet its quarterly earnings number. Your boss asks you to record an extra $200,000 of sales at the end of the quarter for a transaction that has not occurred. You know a regular customer typically buys this amount of product each quarter and the salesperson assures you they will do so early next quarter, but the customer has not signed the contract and the products were still sitting in the company’s warehouse at the end of the quarter. If you refuse to record the fictitious sales you may not receive your quarterly bonus, and your boss will most likely make the false journal entry anyway.

6. Rest’s 4-Component Model of Ethical Behavior
What must happen for ethical behavior to occur?
Moral sensitivity (recognize as a moral issue)
Moral judgment (form your best judgment what to do)
Moral motivation (prioritize doing what you judged as right)
Moral character (fortitude to follow through, sometimes called integrity)
James Rest & colleagues, 1960’s

7. Ethical Judgment---or Intuition??
For examples, see Joshua Greene’s website,

8. Dilemmas claiming to demonstrate that ethical decisions are intuitive
Streetcar dilemma……vs……..Footbridge dilemma

9. More on values and ethics
YourMorals.org or a facebook app.
Helps explain why people can disagree on important moral issues but both claim the moral high ground.