Question Prep. Ethics Question 1c

Ethics is a strange area. I tend to tell my students that the way to approach an ethical dilemma is to pretend that you are a saint (for some it’s rather easier than for others!)

If you were the “victim” where the other party faces the dilemma, what would you like that other party to do.

Quite honestly, ethics is more a matter for personality – its difficult to LEARN ethics – it’s a characteristic that all accountants (and everybody else that is in a position where they should be trustworthy) should show / demonstrate and that’s why it’s such an important part of paper P1!

I’ve moved to an area of the World where ethics and honesty seem to have been forgotten. On numerous occasions in the last 6 months I have been invited to take advantage of the black economy.

Now I regularly face a dilemma! Do I evade the tax or do I insist upon getting a receipt? As part of my lecturing work, I teach about ethics and honesty. How can I talk to students about the subject if I personally were to be less than totally honest? I can’t!

And it’s a sobering thought that, were all the people in the World as honest as I strive to be, corruption and the black economy would diminish (it will never disappear, sadly)

Get off your high horse, Mike. That’s enough pontificating!

Ok?

Think like a saint! What would Gandhi do, or Jesus, or (I’m not sure if I’m allowed to mention his name, but) the prophet central to the Islamic religion, or Nelson Mandela

You don’t have to look far to find role models