Ethics in Accounting

Ethics in Accounting

Generally speaking, most people want to act in an ethical manner. Being ethical is a positive mannerism and consequences of ethical actions usually result in other positive reactions such as respect and goodwill. Yet ethics are constantly in the limelight for negative reasons when it comes to accounting departments in many businesses. Money is a very powerful force in society and it appears that when people are given the opportunity to handle large sums of money, ethics unfortunately takes a backseat.

Hewlett Packard (HP) is a well-known computer and electronic company that has had its share of negative ethical accounting practices. “HP is one company trying to boost awareness of ethics after its embarrassing scandal. The computer-maker revealed last fall that it used trickery to obtain the private phone records of journalists, board members and employees” (Kessler, 2007). Sometimes it just does not seem plausible that such well educated people would do things that seem so ignorant.

HP is taking strides to improve their ethical issues in an attempt to not only improve their overall well-being, but also improve their image to the general public. Jon Hoak was hired as their chief ethics and compliance officer and he explains that, “HP still needs to hire private detectives to investigate allegations of misconduct. But only certain employees at HP are now allowed to hire them, and the detectives must submit to a background check.” (Kessler, 2007). Another common solution is to incorporate a check and balance system. Have everyone look over everyone else’s work and communicate with one another. Communication in any form is a powerful tool that tends to get left out way too often.

Ethics in accounting is extremely important; after all accounting is all about the money of a company. Companies are in business to make money and a profit is vital to ensure that the business stays successful, unethical accounting practices...