Choose a profession whether the one you are currently in one

Choose a profession, whether the one you are currently in, one you aspire to, or one you are just interested in. Do a Google search for difficult moral decisions in that profession. 1) Explain one of those decisions and how you would resolve it using what you\'ve read about ethics in this course so far. 2) Compare and contrast (pro and con) how your resolution might differ from someone\'s who holds a different normative ethical theory.

Solution

This is Accounting profession, which I want to opt after college.

Q1. A personal decision which is based on ethic and character of that person, what he/she believes right, is a moral decision.

Manipulation of accounts in accounting profession requires moral decision. Accountant of an organization, by the pressure of management, manipulates account. This is the process which makes the organization financially good; there are so many ways like, increasing current ratio, charging capital expenditure in the financial statement, recording salary advance, etc. Such manipulation is not ethical, since the interests of users (shareholders, lenders, etc) are concerned; they may be misguided. Moral decision has to be taken in this regard; I have to talk to the management that I can’t take part in such manipulation; I have to establish that in have strong ethics; if they understand I will continue with the organization, or otherwise leave it.

Q2. Pro: Financial statements must give true and fair picture of organization’s financial health because of protecting users’ interest; suppose investors invest in the organization based on higher current ratio. Therefore, this is very much important of my moral decision; someone should protest against the malpractice. If this is not stopped, no one can rely on accounts.

Con: Although this is unethical, manipulation of accounts can’t be stopped completely. Organizations want to hide some entries and records which they don’t want to show, such as keeping down the profit margin in order to avoid dividend.