Deontology and Utilitarianism in Accounting Article Review

As stated in the AICPA code of conduct, the accountants need to put aside their own points-of-view and use the unified school of thought that is presented in the code. This means that the accountants should work on a deontological perspective since the utilitarianism perspective is akin to breaking or bending the rules in order to satisfy their own interests.

The professional code of conduct was developed as a result of regulating the accountants who had failed to self-regulate themselves. This is also the reason behind the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Naturally, people are known to think about themselves first without considering the interests of others. Therefore allowing the utilitarianism point-of-view will simply be allowing the accountants to do as they please. Every person has their own virtues and thoughts on what is right or wrong. The basic tenet of utilitarianism will thus hurt the businesses since it will bring about egotism that will maximize defrauding of unsuspecting investors as a result of material selfishness which is natural in human beings.Applying the deontological point-of-view of accounting principles which is what is envisioned in the professional code of conduct of accountants will thus help the accountants to act ethically and will prevent conflicts of interest as result of misrepresentation of factors or using personal judgment to make the decision. This will make sure all decisions made are ethically appropriate and there are no agents such as personal judgment or self-interests that may impair the judgment made by the accountant Micewski & Troy, 2007()

References

Hess, D. (2007). A Business Ethics Perspective on Sarbanes-Oxley and the Organizational Sentencing Guidelines. Michigan Law Review, 105(8), 1781-1816.

Micewski, E.R., & Troy, C. (2007). Business Ethics -- Deontologically Revisited. Journal of Business Ethics,….....