Professional Ethics in Accounting
Added on 2020-04-01
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Professional Practice in AccountingIntroductionIn any profession, there is always a set of rules or guidelines that dictate acceptable behavior and a certain code of conduct in a professional or work environment. The idea is to gain insight into real life working environments and observe the implementation on professional code of conduct. “A code of conduct outlines ‘how to be professional”[ CITATION Tha12 \l 1033 ]. For the purpose of this report, I have interviewed a friend of mine, who works in an accounting firm as an accounting consultant. Question 1- What kind of an organization do you work in? What do you work there as?Answer- I work in an accounting firm as an accounting consultant.Question 2- Can you tell a little bit more about your business organization?Answer 2- The firm has about 60 employees including consultants, articles as well as interns. Wedo have a separate IT department. Question 2- Are you are of the policies and procedures of your business organization?Answer- Yes, there are certain policies and procedure in my business organization that need to be strictly adhered to. For example, we have very strict policies about the use of internet for work purposes and during office hours. Also, no employee or inter is allowed to use their own laptops. We are all provided workstations by the company.Question 3- what influence do these policies have on your professional relationship with your peers, superiors and juniors?Answer 3- Our firm has a very positive environment. All of the employees are expected to behave professionally and keep personal differences aside. The policies and procedures set a guideline for us and help us in bettering ourselves as professionals and in turn, bettering our firm every single day. Even so, there is a certain level of informality when employees become friends.This however, doesn’t come in the way of the level of professionalism at the firm.
Question 4- What happens if someone at the firm intentionally or unintentionally breaches the code? Are there any legal implications to it?Answer 4- Whenever a new employee or an intern joins the firm, he or she is oriented and trained for the first couple of days to make him/her accustomed to the working environment in our firm. They are told about the rules and regulations that are to be followed and are therefore expected to follow the code. It is the interns who are more likely to unintentionally breach codes,either because they don’t know or they’re not used to the working environment of the firm. Moreoften than not, they are left off with a warning. Employees tend to stick to the codes. But of course, if someone is found intentionally breaching the code of conduct, especially in cases where there might be direct harm to the reputation, privacy or confidentiality of the firm, it can result the employee in losing his or her job. Personally, in my time at the firm, there has fortunately never been an incident where anything like this has happened. Although, there most definitely are going to be legal implications in addition to losing their job, if someone tries to intentionally harm the company in any way.Question 5- How does the company introduce or inform the employees with its codes and policies?Answer 5- Interns are, like I said, trained for the first couple of days and told orally about the work environment etc. However, employees upon joining the firm are required to sign a contract wherein all the codes and policies are mentioned. These include everything from how they are expected to dress up formally, to the use of mobile phones or internet and personal laptops during work hours, copying data from office computers, strict use of employee emails for office use etc. Question 6- Does the company require its employees to complete continual professional education?Answer 6- No, the company doesn’t force its employees to have additional degrees. Of course, ifan employee wishes to do so, he is free to pursue continual professional education provided it does not affect his or her work and contribution to the firm.Reflections upon the Interview
In any professional working environment, it is essential that the employees and the employers alike follow a certain code of conduct and professionalism. This sets a guideline as to what general behavior is expected from any person that joins the firm. There are a number of similarities as well as differences in the expectation which are discussed below.SimilaritiesBeing an accounting firm, one expects the business organization to be professionally adept. As told in the interview, the firm follows a certain set of rules and guidelines and expects its employees to do the same. These guidelines are essential in creating a professional environment in a business organization and bring in order to an otherwise chaotic and haphazard work system.When employees adhere to codes and procedures, they increase their market value. “Firms continue to offer competitive salaries to help attract proven candidates[ CITATION Cop17 \l 1033 ]”. The first similarity was the expectation of being aware of the company policies and guidelines. As a professional, it is the duty of any employee to be well aware of what constitutes their work environment and what codes, ethics and policies are followed in their workplace. “The main drive of accounting ethics and ethical values is the upholding of professionalism and good practice[ CITATION Bri16 \l 1033 ]”. Therefore, it becomes essential that an employee be professional and more importantly, aware of legal boundaries he may have as a professional as well as an individual.Another similarity was the expectation of the implications one might have to face upon breaching the code of the company. “The first step in a code of conduct violation is the verbal warning[ CITATION Lis17 \l 1033 ]”. In most cases, if the damage is not too big, the employer will sit down and have a one-on-one conversation with the employee, explaining to him in detail whathe should not have done and to be careful about it in case a similar situation arises in the future. This is similar to what was found in the interview. In case the employee keeps on repeatedly doing what he’s told not to, the employer then issues a written warning and may even suspend the employee for a short period of time ranging from a few days to over a month. Even after this,if the employee is found indulging in flouting the codes and guidelines, his job contract is terminated and the employee is fired.
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