ETHICAL PRINCIPLES VS. ETHICAL RULES, EFFECT OF MORAL DEVELOPMENT, AND AUDITOR INDEPENDENCE: ARTICLE REVIEW
The Enron case was a daily staple of television news for several weeks in 2002. The Enron-story both started earlier and lasted longer in the print media. Further, the ethical and accounting scandal that involved Enron was a corporate disease that spread far beyond the confines of Enron. In the summer of 2004, however, one only infrequently hears about Enron in media reports, and even less is heard about ethical accounting practices.
The reasons for the waning interest are multiple, but not especially complex. First, the shallow mass media catering to a public with a collectively short interest span no long finds the issues involved to be sufficiently sensational. Second, the president and the Congress gain no longer gain points by grandstanding on the issue. Third, corporate brass opposed to reform that cramps their collective style and an accounting profession that is reluctant to place consulting and auditing functions at arms-length from one another hope the pressure to reform will fade.
The ethics and accounting scandal, however, was and is an important development for American society. The scandal demonstrated just how easily ethical standards can be discarded at the highest corporate and institutional (accounting) levels when the price is right.
This paper reviews an article by Herron and Gilbertson (2004) that deals with the issues of ethics and auditor independence. Herron and Gilbertson (2004) examine the issue from multiple perspectives.
First, they consider the effects on ethical judgments by auditors of working from a rules-based code of ethics versus working from a principles-based code of ethics. In a rules-based environment, auditors attempt (presumably) to abide by stated rules. If situations emerge that rules do not deal with specifically, however, it is easier for an auditor to make...