Accounting in the Profession: Ethical Dilemmas and Solutions

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Accountants in the Profession
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Introduction
An ethical dilemma can be defined as a problem in decision making where there are two
possible moral choices or imperatives and neither of the choices is acceptable or even preferable.
A dilemma is said to arouse whereby; obeying one choice will result to transgression of the other
available choice. During an ethical dilemma, the professional facing the dilemma gets confused
and he develops undecided minds on which best option to choose or which action not to take.
Ethical dilemmas are in existence when the unethical act temptation is more than ethical action
(Natale, and Doran, 2012, p.190). Ethical dilemma in accounting is part of the day to day life of
their profession. The accounting profession has a major contribution and duty to the general
public; hence an accountant faces different objections from the stakeholders and also the firm
management staffs.
Accountants are mandated to provide information to the general public through the
presentation of the financial position of a firm. Moreover, accountants are supposed to be the
providers of information to the public to allow the investors to make their informed decisions
from the available company information. An accountant provides a company’s information to the
stakeholders to increase the confidence they have on the firm as well as in the accountant.
Stakeholders’ confidence on the accountant can be attained through the behaviors and the
knowledge the accountants’ discloses. Ethical behavior is a must in this profession, this is
because an accountant is mandated with the authority prevent any fraudulent activity and also to
gain the public trust upon release of accounting data (Natale and Doran, 2012, p.245).
Any attempt of unethical practice by an accountant can lead to a loss of funds, customers
and also the shareholders moreover on the side of the accountant unethical practice consequences

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are worse hence ethics and code of conduct are required to always be followed by accountants.
Often most of the accountants receive pressure from their bosses who are the management who
pressure the accountants to an act of unethical conduct. Most fraudulent cases caused by
accountants have been the increase in revenue of a company to make it look good for customers
as well as the shareholders (Low, Dave,. and Hooper, 2016, p.234). There are different sources
of ethical dilemma in the accounting field, the sources are as follows; conflict of interest, human
feeling, self-centeredness, interest, fraudulent, illegal activities/ clients pressure and finally the
worst and the most influential is the pressure from the management.
Conflict of interest as an ethical dilemma
Lack of proper addressing of conflict of interest is one of the issues most disciplinary
bodies receive from the organizations or from accountants. A conflict of interest can be said to
be an interest or a relationship which may attempt to create or may create the threat of
objectivity. The aim of a disciplinary body is reasoning with a natural party to indentify whether
a reasonable individual who through analyzing the case at hand can think or say that there was
the existence of a real conflict. A conflict of interest involves an individual who has two
competing relationships of which both are claiming loyalty. Examples of conflict of interest are;
a public officer whose professional position conflicts with his personal interests, an individual
with an authority position in one firm which conflicts with his interests to the other firm and
finally an individual with conflicting responsibilities (Low, Davey, and Hooper, 2016, pp.22-
254). Moreover, the type of activity which is under review can create possible conflicts of
interest. A good example of a conflict of interest is nepotism. This refers to the practice of
offering favors to relatives and also your closest friends.

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Nepotism is one of the commonly known conflicts of interest. This act is referred to or
results to a personal conflict of interest as the friend or the family member you recommend may
not be the best fit for that work or position. Another example of conflict of interest is self-
dealing; this is a situation whereby a person in an authoritative position of responsibility in a firm
government agency or in any ruling body has got outside interests that are conflicting. This may
lead to the individual acting or performing his duty on his own interest rather than on the interest
of the employee. Self-dealing mostly comes upon in situation of fraud. This is a situation where
someone is in a trusted position but he violates the trust (Armstrong, Ketz, and Owsen, 2013,
pp.1-15). An example of this situation may be the benefits earned by a real estate agent after the
sale of the property.
Conflict of interest affects the principle of objectivity, integrity and professional
competence. This is because through a conflicting mind an accountant deviates professional
conduct s to unethical conducts. Through changing the cash flow figures and also omitting some
figures from the financial reports and cash flow of a firm the accountants fails to meet the
standard and the principle of integrity. Moreover, personal opinion is affected by the conflict of
interest and what results is the misconduct of an accountant leading to fraud and other financial
reporting scandals (Armstrong, Ketz, and Owsen, 2013, pp.1-15). Conflict of interest can be of
negative effect to investors and also the customers who are tricked with a fake financial record as
a result of an accountant acting out of self-interest or the interest of the managers.
In addition, conflict of interest affects the general view of the accounting profession as a
corrupt and a professional which is full of unethical behaviors. The general public may view
accounting as a matter of fixing figures to attract more investors as well as shareholders while
the information provided does not exist in real life. Professional behavior changes as a result of a