Considerations on the Improvement of Ethical Decision Making in the Accounting Profession

Abstract

Ethical-decision making is an overly complex process. Despite the enormous number of studies assessing it in various fields of research, much is still unknown. This paper provides an overview regarding the paths that can be used to enhance ethical decision-making process in a period when ethical challenges are set to intensity (according to the Ethics board’s COVID-19 Working Group and national ethical standard-setters from various countries working under the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants). In this respect, we consider that although the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants is a good path for improvement, this is not enough when guiding professional accountants. Moreover, a constant effort for combining standard-setters’ provisions with prominent ethical decisionmaking models tested in the literature and innovative ethics pedagogies will result in improving ethical decision-making quality in the long run. Future research avenues are also approached.

Keywords

• ethical decision-making process
• models
• code of ethics
• ethics education