Ethical Education in Accounting: Integrating Rules, Values and Virtues
particular action. External influences, including
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Rules of social ethics
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- PRACTICAL WISDOM SELF-MASTERING VIRTUES Courage, moderation, … TRANSITIVE VIRTUES Fairness, truthfulness, loyalty,…
- Moral Motivation Transitive Virtues Self-Mastering Virtues Practical Wisdom Moral Sentiments
particular action. External influences, including the perceptions of peers, education, and ethical knowledge can cultivate (or discourage) moral sentiments. Moral judgment, or capacity to judge which alter- natives are ethically acceptable and which are not and to determine the uprightness of the intention. Good behavior requires deliberation and deciding to carry out an action. Making sound moral judgments is previous to making a good decision. In this deliberation, practical wisdom plays a crucial role. It fosters upright moral reasoning by taking into account universal principles and the pertinent circumstances of each situation. Fur- thermore, some other relevant virtues in accounting, such as objectivity, open-mindedness, insight and perspicacity can be considered as integrated within practical wisdom. Ethical knowledge, including a right under- standing of rules, principles and values, which could be seen as accumulation of wisdom throughout time, can also help one to make sound ethical judgments. This latter is especially valuable for those without experience and with low practical wisdom. However, rules, principles and values have to be considered only as an aid and not as a substitute for practical wisdom. PRACTICAL WISDOM SELF-MASTERING VIRTUES Courage, moderation, … TRANSITIVE VIRTUES Fairness, truthfulness, loyalty,… Figure 2. Practical wisdom as a driver of moral virtues. Moral Behaviour Ethical Knowledge External Influence Moral Sensibility Moral Virtues Moral Judgement Moral Motivation Transitive Virtues Self-Mastering Virtues Practical Wisdom Moral Sentiments Figure 3. Constituent factors and virtues for a moral behaviour. 104 Dome`nec Mele´ Moral motivation, understood as willingness to take the moral course of action, placing moral values (human goods) above other values, and taking personal responsibility for moral outcomes. Fre- quently, moral motivation is the driving force for making good moral judgments but it plays a crucial role in selecting the right action and in executing it. Practical wisdom and transitive moral virtues (indirectly also self-mastering virtues) foster moral motivation, since they give a permanent motivation for acting well. External motivation, such as moral role modeling, ethical leadership, culture, education, etc., can also play a significant role in motivating people towards moral behavior. Moral virtues or permanent attitudes and interior strength for moral behavior. Among these virtues, those which have special relevance to accounting are fairness, integrity, truthfulness, honesty, loy- alty, faithfulness, trustworthiness, service to the common good, gratitude and benevolence (‘‘transitive virtues’’ or justice in a broad sense). Courage, perseverance, competence, diligence, professional will, humility, and other self-mas- tering virtues which help to defeat inner resistance to act as one should. Practical wisdom, as has been said, provides capacity to perceive the right means for each virtue. If this sketch is correct, character, shaped by the virtues of the subject, is crucial for moral behavior. Rules, values (goods) and virtues in ethical education in accounting If the goal of ethical education is achieving good behaviors, it should insist on awaking moral sensi- bility, help make sound moral judgments, induce moral motivation and encourage moral virtues. Possibly some people would argue that ethical education is only about developing moral reasoning in students. I side with those that think that this is not enough. What does it matter if students know how to reason well in ethics if they are not moti- vated to act ethically? Thus, in my view, ethical education requires not only the development of intellectual skills but also the development of attitudes for good behavior. Another problem, as we have seen, is that gen- erally, rules, principles, values and virtues in current ethical education are presented in a fragmented fashion in accounting. But, if moral values, rules and virtues are so closely intertwined, ethical education ought to present all of these elements in their interrelation, although the main orientation should be toward virtues (character) since virtues are critical for moral behavior, as explained in the preceding section. Teaching rules, starting with prohibitive rules, makes sense and should be promoted. The order of learning is ‘‘that we first have to learn in certain initial situations what is always enjoined or always prohibited, in order that we may become able to extrapolate in a non-rule-governed way to other types of situations in which what courage or justice or truthfulness, together with prudence, demands is more than conformity to the universal rule.’’ (MacIntyre, 1993, p. 143). Thus, the knowledge of rules contained in codes of conduct is still necessary but they have to be critically examined and under- stood in their relation with human values. Thus, human values and general principles related to them should occupy a central role in ethical education as well. Rather than presenting enlight- ened ethical theories to students I would suggest challenging them to reflect on what is really good. This question is not so common since many view the answer to it as a mere personal choice. Certainly, each person has to discover what is good for him or her. But such a choice entails great responsibility. According to MacIntyre (1993), the starting point of moral reasoning for ordinary and plain people ) by which I mean those who have not received any philosophical influence ) is the question ‘‘What is my good?’’ When an ordinary persons ask ‘‘what is my good?’’ he or she is asking about what he or she values, but he or she could be wrong and might re- think the real value for him or her. This leads to the further, already philosophical question: ‘‘What in general is the good, for my kind of history in this kind of situation? And that in turn will lead to a fundamental philosophical question ‘‘What is the good as such for human being as such?’’ (MacIntyre, 1993, pp. 136 )137). An accountant is involved in a professional prac- tice which demands reputation and a contribution to the public interest or the common good, but he or Ethical Education in Accounting 105 she is, above all, a person who asks him or herself, ‘‘what is my good here and now?’’ From a relatively early age we follow rules given by parents, teachers, clergy or other people who elicit our confidence. Afterwards, we may have realized that some of these were social conventions, or organizational rules and came from reasons of efficacy or utility, but others we discover to have a moral sense (fairness, truth- fulness, loyalty, . . .). Through this process of trial and error, one discovers moral values and the dif- ference between them and their opposites. Wisdom accumulated over centuries recognizes some ethical values rooted in human nature, which ordinary persons have a certain capacity to take hold of, for instance, the value of human life, contributing to the well being of others or living together in a peaceful and amiable way. This latter includes a set of moral values that most people can understand as such. Ethical education should be aware of this and present questions and comments regarding human values and how rules correspond to them. Regarding virtues, ethical education is different from rules and values since the acquisition of virtues is not a question of knowledge, but a result of personally deliberated and free actions. As Aristotle realized, it takes place by repetition of good actions. Here arises the age old question, coming from Socrates and Plato’s time about whether virtues can be taught. If virtues are acquired trough deliberated and free actions, it is clear that ethical education cannot produce virtues by itself, but virtues can be shown. Furthermore, the importance of virtues can be emphasized to motivate students toward moral behavior, which generates virtues. Several authors have given suggestions in this respect. For Mintz (1995) educators should inform students about the importance of virtues and facilitate the learning of virtue through case analysis, cooperative and col- laborative learning techniques and role-playing. Dobson and Armstrong (1995) stressed the essential role played by moral exemplars or role models, or ‘‘white-hat’’ accountants. Stewart (1997) urges the use of narrative to enhance moral motivation. At the same time, he points out how the accounting faculty must be role-models to students in their professional responsibilities. All these proposals can contribute to fostering ethical behavior, if it is though? together with rules and human good in an integrated manner. Conclusion This paper has attempted to present some short- comings to approaches of ethical education in accounting that separately consider rules and prin- ciples, values and virtues in a fragmentary manner. I have considered that values are ‘‘intrinsic moral values’’ or ‘‘moral goods’’ rooted in human nature and virtues are human virtues, that is to say, virtues of the person as such. Values (in the intellect) have a correspondence with virtues (in character). It has been argued that rules, values and virtues are inter- related and form a unity. This should lead us to re-think ethics in accounting by considering simultaneously rules, values and virtues and their interrelation. This paper also holds that the main goal for ethical education in accounting ) and of course, in any other professional field ) should be to impact on the ethical behavior of those receiving this education and not only to provide a set of theories tools to solve ethical dilemmas. Ethical behavior primarily has to do with character, although ethical knowledge and external motivation must also be an influence. Consequently, ethical education has to be oriented toward motivating moral behavior and acquiring virtues, as some scholars have pointed out in recent years. 17 However, virtues are not a matter of knowledge but personal moral development. What ethical education can do is to show virtues, exhort and motivate the student to acquire them and ex- plain how to do so. This includes the presentation and discussion of rules, generally from codes, prin- ciples and values which are necessary for acquiring virtues. From a practical perspective, this proposal re- quires, first of all, changing the status quo of teaching which exclusively presents rules and enlightened ethical theories. Teaching material should also seek a different focus than what is common in many places, which is presenting dilemmas based on cases and providing little or no information about the people involved. What I have proposed is a comprehensive ethical approach interrelating rules, values and vir- tues. Cases studies should include not only dilemmas but also descriptions of specific people involved in a Download 195.26 Kb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |
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