Accounting Ethics - Really Need Some Help Please
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I posted this in the intermediate forum last night but so far (although it has had over 80 views no one has replied so I wondered if I might find some help in this forum.
I would really, really appreciate if any of you that have studied the Accounting Ethics unit (32) could give me some advice.
In my Kaplan study text an ethical dilemma is defined as the following:
..an ethical problem in which the ethical choice involves ignoring a powerful non-ethical consideration (ie you have to choose between the right or ethical option and the option which will benefit you in some way but is not ethical).
However, further down the page the book states that the four characteristics of an ethical dilemma are as follows:
1) There must be at least two courses of action from which a choice must be made as to the action to be taken.
2) There must be significant consequences for taking either course of action.
3) Each of the courses of action can be supported by one or more ethical principles.
4) The ethical principles supporting the unchosen course of action will be compromised.
This third characteristic seems to contradict the description of the ethical dilemma mentioned above in that it says that 'each' of the opposing choices must be supported by ethical principles, whereas in the description one choice is the ethical choice and one choice is a non-ethical choice.
Could anyone advise me on this?
Many thanks.
CelticStar
I would really, really appreciate if any of you that have studied the Accounting Ethics unit (32) could give me some advice.
In my Kaplan study text an ethical dilemma is defined as the following:
..an ethical problem in which the ethical choice involves ignoring a powerful non-ethical consideration (ie you have to choose between the right or ethical option and the option which will benefit you in some way but is not ethical).
However, further down the page the book states that the four characteristics of an ethical dilemma are as follows:
1) There must be at least two courses of action from which a choice must be made as to the action to be taken.
2) There must be significant consequences for taking either course of action.
3) Each of the courses of action can be supported by one or more ethical principles.
4) The ethical principles supporting the unchosen course of action will be compromised.
This third characteristic seems to contradict the description of the ethical dilemma mentioned above in that it says that 'each' of the opposing choices must be supported by ethical principles, whereas in the description one choice is the ethical choice and one choice is a non-ethical choice.
Could anyone advise me on this?
Many thanks.
CelticStar
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Comments
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Re:Accounting Ethics - Really Need Some Help Please
Surely some of you 158 lookers must have done the Accounting Ethics unit!
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Re:Accounting Ethics - Really Need Some Help Please
I didn't do this unit because it's in the diploma route, I guess and I did the nvq route (before diploma was even available).
My thoughts on this are that there are different ways of making an 'ethical decision' which would conflict with each other. For example one way of making the decision would be the rules approach (Social contact theory) where the rules decide which was the decision has to be made, versus the Confucian ethics method (utilitarian method) where it is what satisfies the most people. Clearly one method could be in conflict with another yet both are valid methods of making ethical decisions. Ethics isn't just about rules but about care as well.
If I haven't made any sense please ask again and I will have another go at rephrasing it, this is a relatively new area to me too so I might have completely got the wrong end of the stick!
Annette0 -
Re:Accounting Ethics - Really Need Some Help Please
Thank you Annette for takig the time to reply, I really appreciate it. I do understand what you are saying - which was very interesting - and it underlines a lot of what I have been learning, I just wondered if anyone else had come across this particular section of the workbook and found it contradictory in the way it seemed to be to me.
Thanks again.
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