The CPA Journal published an article titled Incorporating Professional Ethics Throughout an Accounting Curriculum. This article was published in the September 2005 edition and focuses on the dilemma the educational community is facing in trying to incorporate ethics teaching in higher education classes. Educators are concerned about ethics classes taking away from the technical classes that are a necessity in the accounting curriculums. The authors of this article propose and have been practicing a modular approach to this dilemma. (Carnes, 2005)
The modular approach that the authors have been practicing incorporates ethics instruction into two technical courses. The ethics instruction parallels the technical instruction of the course and therefore does not detract from technical courses but provides the necessary ethics knowledge. The authors have created a program that provides very little in class instruction. The instruction is just a brief overview while the knowledge comes more from teamwork and outside class-work with that team. (Carnes, 2005)
Ethics in accounting is a major issue. Ethics in accounting has been very much in the public eye as of late. Many large corporations are struggling and failing because of a lack of ethical decision making in their accounting practices. Having complete and accurate accounting is paramount in ensuring a solid future for any organization. The government is very aware of the importance of ethics in accounting as well and passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 to ensure that accurate accounting activities are practiced.
The Sarbanes-Oxley Act provides three major categories of protection of financial data accuracy. First it develops the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). “This board is ...