Study regarding the Clarification of Ethical Dilemmas in Financial Audit
Author:
Alexandra ARDELEAN, PhD Student
JEL:
M41, M42, M53, M59, G02
DOI:
Keywords:
ethics, ethical dilemmas, morals, utilitarianism, deontology, virtue ethics, ethical judgement, confidentiality
Abstract:
The auditing profession is undoubtedly based on ethics and morality, on values which permit to make the ethical decisions that are likely to inspire trust to the external beneficiaries of an audit. Although both ethics and morals suppose the distinction between good and bad, the main difference between the two lies in the fact that morals presupposes an accepted code of ethical values, while ethics is associated with behaviour based on personal choices. Ethics may be arranged in five classes based on the most spread theories among which the most established are utilitarianism ethics, deontological ethics and virtue ethics. The inclusion of ethics within the professional activity of auditors contributes to the embrace of a set of moral values which guide the cognitive process linked to the decision making in audit. The ethical dilemmas which appear because of the conflict between the auditors` personal interests and their public interest which may be divergent and may be solved through the practice of an ethical framework meant to clarify them. Idealism and relativism assess the inclination of harming the others and by applying these ethical dimensions to auditors, four classes related to personal ethics may be identified, which indicate different visions about morality. By taking into account these classes of ethics we proceeded with the construction of a pattern in order to solve ethical dilemmas. This permits to classify the type of ethical action based on the sensitivity to universal moral values, the proposed solution being enveloped within one of the three classes of ethics, which are utilitarianism ethics, virtue ethics or deontological ethics. \r\n\r\n