The managers of public sectors are confronted by the dilemmas related to ethics because they effort to select options surrounded by the values set. Ethical problems might emerge from similarly alluring alternatives that may perhaps be defended as the right one in some circumstances (Ehrich, Cranston & Kimber, 2004). The starting of the twenty-first era has shown the profession of accountancy as the biggest challenge to continue. Such task highlighted the need for the profession to make stronger the self-assurance of public in its ethics plus efficiency (Onyebuchi, 2011). The scandals related to accounting that is found out frequently in the 21st century are actually the indications regarding the violation of rules by the human beings, which are established to provide various advantages to the groups or individuals. Such violation of the rules and regulations are considered as a crime by the society as well as the law (Güney & Bozkurt, 2012). The rules of the organization are violated by the individuals because of the negligence, density, work stress, and many other reasons by which the idea of a mistake is taken by those people. However, such defilement can be reduced by enforcing the governance codes as well as the standards of ethics in the business world (Amat & Gowthorpe, 2004).
Dilemma
The issues of privacy have now become one of the major areas that should be given consideration at the place of work. As staff does not know what is in reality measured secluded of theirs. There are misunderstandings about the ethical factor at the time the privacy of someone is invaded either it is of employee or any other organization. Employees also have their lives outside the organization which is very personal and it must not be considered within the organization. Moreover, every organization has its own policies, procedures and the strategies to deal with the customers so, getting their data through dishonest way is not a good act. When I started working in the public sector, I also experienced different ethical problems within the organization, especially in the accounts and finance department. In this paper, I am going to discuss one of the dilemmas that are faced by many workers of the organization.
When I joined my company I go through with a lot of different problems related to ethics and I faced such dilemmas many times within the organization. When I started working as an accountant in the company I was asked by my superior to impersonate one of my employees in order to get the bank info that was needed. My superior employee told me to call the bank and tell them that I was someone else from the organization (means do not disclose you and use the name of some other worker) so as to access the data from bank quickly. In my opinion and other coworkers, it was an ethical dilemma (Chiang, B., & Braender, 2014). But I refused him in a very polite way and request him to give me some more days so I will be able to collect the information of the bank.
Why such situation is considered as Ethical Dilemma
The profession of accounting is mainly based on the moral conducts with the auditors as well as accountants who are known as the ethical managers of the societies plus corporations Jackling, Cooper, Leung & Dellaportas, 2007). However, any lack might create the dilemma regarding ethics in any organization either private or public. As ethical dilemma has been discussed in the above heading, now such problem will be justified by various theories of ethics (both Non-Consequentialist and Consequentialist).
The system of ethics has been categorized by various philosophers according to their own features of non- consequentialist and consequentialist. Basically, consequentialists are those ethicists who focus on the critical outcomes of the decisions that are made by them, however, non- consequentialist do not give their concentrations on the decision’s results when they choose what they have to perform (Zwier, 1984). The dilemma that has been explained above is that when I refused to call the bank in order to get the information, it is related to the theory of non-consequentialist as it was the quick decision that was made by me and I did not think about the future consequences. The non-consequentialist theory of ethics has been given by Kant as he claimed that the ethical worth of an activity done from obligation does not rely on upon the outcomes of the activity, but rather depends just on the authoritative type of the adage (Cummiskey,1989). During the work, I was asked by the superior person to call the bank without disclosing myself to the bank and get the information. I was aware that the motives of my superior were not wrong as he was just trying to access the data quickly but in my eyes, it was very unprofessional and thus an ethical dilemma (Chiang, B., & Braender, 2014).
I was having a respectable relation with superior and I was not in a position to destroy that relationship just because of the above problem. I did not want to break the rules and regulations of the company by refusing his command that is why I refuse him very politely. The stakeholder theory is defined as the management of the business as well as its ethics which means that the moral values and the economics are kept together. Whereas, in the above situation, the relation between me and my superior do not suffer as I request him to give me some days for collecting the bank information because his end goals were authentic. Such potential relation struggle is exasperated at the point when norms of the organization disregard to give direction to workers on practices that may damage proficient moral codes or proficient gauges of conduct (Chiang, B., & Braender, 2014).
One of the moral theories ‘utilitarianism’ states that no rule or act of morality is basically wrong or right. Relatively, the wrongness and the rightness of any rule or action is individually a material of no moral good that is developed in the significances of performing such action or obeying that regulation (Moreland, 1992). So when my superior told me to call the bank and get the information without disclosing yourself that was not a moral act in my eyes as it was not an ethical way to perform your work.
Individual & situational Factors
Personal factor is the other name of individual influences that are generally about a single person by whom the sensitivity of that person would be influenced towards ethical problems and also develop his/her judgment about those matters. For example, age, gender, employment, experience, education, personal values etc. The factor that was the part of my ethical decision making was the experience of my superior employee and also I was too young to deal with him rudely. Another factor was moral values that I kept thinking of while taking a decision as talking to the superior employee in a rude manner would affect your employment as he was my direct superior from the starting of my job.
Situational factors have a great influence on the behavior, judgment, and recognition of an individual on the ethical dilemma. In the organization, the situational factors by which the moral decision-making is affected consist of corporate’s culture, rewards, authority, work roles, codes of conduct etc. The situational factor that might justify that it was an ethical dilemma was the order of my superior to call the bank by using the name of some other employee as he was aware of our company’s policies and in a professional environment, performing such type of act was not a good thing. Although, the intention of my superior employee was not bad but still I refused his order as it was against the policy of the organization where I was working.
How the Dilemma was solved
The social integrity of students, as well as researchers, better know that taking a decision morally plus ethically is not an easy task as it is an imperfect and tricky process. It is exposed to us in our daily lives as we look through the newspaper. The ordinary people, business personnel, and even leaders fight with their ethical and moral dilemmas (Aupperle, 2008). In such a flawless world, it is every time clear that what is wrong or what is right, however, in actual, it is not clear. Sometimes, any wrong thing of the person will become right for you which clearly explain that sometimes your right act will be wrong for another person (GIANG, 2017). Mostly, the correct option might be personal. Professional, as well as personal judgment, is the two approaches towards making a decision that is supported by the professors of accounting in order to resolve the dilemmas related to ethics (Sullivan, 2004).
The options available to me at the time I wanted to make the decision were:
Destroy the relationship with the superior employee by refusing aggressively or continue the relation by giving an excuse.
Don’t think about the rules and regulations of the organization and do whatever your superior employee says to you.
Refuse his order in a polite way and ask him to give me some days so that I will be able to collect the bank information ethically.
The hypothetical model of James Rest explains the moral decision-making procedure that is established in order to assemble the research as well as the theories regarding ethics behavior and development from the different point of view (Lincoln & Holmes, 2011). According to him, moral judgment is not the single and the most important impact on moral administrative. It was proposed by him that such decision making includes 4 different emotional procedures (moral judgment, moral action, moral sensitivity, and moral intention). Ethics sensitivity means an interpretation of any situation that demonstrates how different activities or actions would bring the changes, thinking about the reason as well as know there is a presence of ethical problem when it occurs. Moral judgment is the process of judging that which of the actions might be most defensible in an ethical manner. It means when the moral problem is understood, the person must judge it as well (Kamari, 2012). The moral intention is the level of duty towards making the ethical course of the move, assuming individual liability for good outcomes, and esteeming moral values over different qualities. At last, moral action is a continuance in an ethical activity, overcoming lure as well as exhaustion, and having the bravery to work for an ethical aim (Lehr & Sumarah, 2004).
The ethical behavior is encouraged by the effective organizations, however; inefficient corporations discouraged such conduct and as a result, pay the cost for it (Oseni, 2011). Like, at the time when I was asked by the superior call the bank by changing my name and get the details that he was needed, I followed the ethical standards of the firm and did not forget about the moral principles as well. That is why, I decided to refuse his request politely as it was unethical in my eyes to talk to him in an aggressive manner and I also request him to give me some days for collecting the particular information (Chiang, B., & Braender, 2014). I was aware of the motives of my superior that is why; I asked for some days and in the end, the information was received by us through the proper means. Though more time was taken in this procedure as first I had to get through the process of clearance in order to achieve access to such bank account. I was not comfortable to call the bank by using the name of some other person in order to get the information so I deal with him very calmly and politely because it was the matter of my job. As described in the model of Rest that the person must keep in mind four procedures while making the ethical decision. Therefore, I keep that in mind and refuse the request of my superior in a respectful manner directly.
Reflective Statement
I had a great experience working with different people as a team in this module. Although, I was not a social person in my school but I had worked a lot in my school days with the people who were having the same features regarding background plus personality and they used to speak the similar language, however, now I got the experience to work with a diverse group. It also made me anxious as well as nervous because before this module because I did not have an experience of working with diverse people before and I was not confident enough to work with the different people at the same platform. I tried to manage my team effectively and became an active member of that team. I did not put my other members of the team in the trouble by completing the assigned work on time. My interpersonal skills are also enhanced after this module as now I am able to manage my time in an effective manner and I have learned a lot of new things all through the module. My performance skills are also improved and I had also noticed the weak points in my personality that I will improve further. Even though I had also come across with various feelings for different conditions as well when I was a part of this module. In the beginning, I was not so much social in the class but later on, when the teacher gave us different projects and presentations it removes the communication gap between the students and we all divided into groups. Therefore, we all showed team spirit as well as enhanced our personal skills when we prepare a lot of different assignments together as a team. I was such a great experience as I did a lot of hard work in order to improve my self-confidence and other skills which were needed to be improved.
The results demonstrate that conflict of
Interests, including self-interest threats, are perceived by professional bodies to be the
Most likely occurring ethical issues faced by accountants in public accounting practice
And business entities.
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