Accounting, accountability and ethics continue to emerge as local, national and global concerns. Ethical communication, or moral discourse, requires the involvement of accountants and their understanding of ethical theory. This is most appropriately framed in the context of the professions within society.
Corporations are re-examining their role with regard to global society and the natural environment. Corporate responsibility is one of the components included in framing, or reframing, the mission of the company and determining the processes to set strategy and achieve stated objectives. Corporations, such as Nike, report including corporate responsibility as an integral part of all management decisions.
Demand for transparency in corporate reporting is evolving in response to creditor and investor demands. Recent decades reveal a growing discussion about corporate social and environmental accounting as part of the publicly available corporate report, or entity report, with assurance or attestation by the professional accountant. This discussion, both internally and externally, follows from the notion that corporations and other entities are embedded in society, enabled or licensed by society and have responsibility to society. Accountants as professionals working in this public arena are explicitly charged to serve the public good.
Professional accountants are engaged in internal management decisions, auditing, financial reporting, and tax planning. As decision making evolves and reporting expands, it is critical for accounting students to be well prepared to understand the changes and participate in modeling future practice. It is critical for them to understand their own ethical reasoning and be prepared to apply it in practice.
