Professional Responsibility and Ethics for Accountants

Go to Course: https://www.coursera.org/learn/ethics

Introduction

### Course Review: Professional Responsibility and Ethics for Accountants In today’s fast-paced financial landscape, the importance of ethics and professional responsibility in the accounting profession cannot be overstated. Coursera’s course, **Professional Responsibility and Ethics for Accountants**, is designed precisely for aspiring and established accounting professionals who seek to deepen their understanding of these essential principles. #### Course Overview The course emphasizes that accountants have a multifaceted role that goes beyond merely fulfilling the expectations of clients or employers. A distinguishing feature of the accounting profession is its inherent commitment to public interest, underscoring the critical importance of ethical conduct and professional accountability. As participants navigate through the course, they will engage with core concepts vital for any successful career in accounting, including the responsibilities that come with the CPA designation. #### Syllabus Breakdown 1. **About the Course:** The course kicks off with an orientation module that familiarizes students with the course structure, their peers, and the necessary technical skills for online learning. This foundational step ensures everyone feels comfortable navigating the virtual environment. 2. **Module 1: Foundations of Professional Responsibility** This module lays the groundwork by defining key concepts such as professionalism and professional responsibility. It examines the identity and standards expected from professionals, informing students about the CPA credential and the associated AICPA Code of Conduct. The exploration of professional associations through targeted exercises is particularly noteworthy, as it offers insights into resources central to professional accountability. 3. **Module 2: Values and Ethics** This segment invites participants to reflect critically on their values and how these influence decision-making in the context of ethical dilemmas. The course delves into various moral philosophies, introducing ethical theories that shape accounting practices. Through engaging discussions and resources, students will grasp the significance of building ethical capacity and insightful approaches to ethical reasoning. 4. **Module 3: The Purpose of Business** Here, students join an engaging debate around the overarching purpose of business, examining the legal frameworks governing different business forms. The module highlights the ethical underpinnings of capitalism and the balance between shareholder primacy and broader stakeholder interests. The inclusion of personal anecdotes from small business owners provides an authentic lens through which learners can understand the complexities surrounding corporate responsibility. 5. **Module 4: Corporate Governance** This module expands upon the themes established in prior content by examining corporate governance frameworks. Students explore both external regulations and internal practices that influence ethical performance within corporations. By investigating the interplay between laws, ethical standards, and cultural factors in organizations, participants gain a comprehensive view of how to foster ethical cultures in their workplaces. #### Recommendations **Who Should Take This Course?** This course is ideal for accounting students, professionals preparing for their CPA exams, and anyone engaged in financial management, auditing, or related fields. It provides essential insights that inform practice and decision-making in line with ethical norms. **Why You Should Enroll:** - **Comprehensive Knowledge**: Each module builds on the last, enabling a robust understanding of ethics and responsibility tailored to the accounting profession. - **Engagement with Real-World Issues**: By tackling contemporary ethical dilemmas in business, the course prepares participants to face challenges in their professional lives. - **Resources and Networking**: With the inclusion of professional associations and the AICPA Code, students not only learn but also connect with vital resources for their career growth. **Final Thoughts:** Coursera's **Professional Responsibility and Ethics for Accountants** provides an essential foundation for understanding the ethical landscape of the accounting profession. With its combination of theoretical knowledge, practical exercises, and critical discussions, this course stands out as a worthy investment for anyone serious about their career in accounting. Whether you're just starting or looking to refresh your knowledge, this course has something valuable to offer. Enroll today and empower yourself to navigate the world of accounting with integrity and professionalism.

Syllabus

About the Course

In this module, you will become familiar with the course, your instructor and your classmates, and our learning environment. This orientation will also help you obtain the technical skills required to navigate and be successful in this course.

This module is an introduction to and exploration of three concepts: professional, professions and professional responsibility. It begins with reflections on what it means to be professional. These are followed by a discussion of why being professional is not always sufficient. The discussion introduces what a CPA is and why professions exist. The three characteristics of a profession are identified. Next, the concept of professional responsibility is introduced, followed by a discussion of the three parts of professional responsibility: identity, standards and judgment. The module concludes with a professional association website exploration exercise. The exploration introduces resources central to professional responsibility in accounting. The website exploration exercise also introduces the requirements for obtaining and maintaining CPA licensure and the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct.

This module is an introduction to values and ethics. The module begins with reflections on values and how they can be revealed by the objects we choose to keep and what actions we choose to take. The reflections are followed by discussion of what values and norms are and the distinction between them. Next, the process of learning values and norms is described, followed by a brief discussion of why values may be influenced and changed throughout life. Then, a brief description of how most decisions about what is right and wrong are made provides the basis for understanding why it is important to build ethical capacity. The three areas of moral philosophy, meta-ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics are introduced, followed by brief discussions of exemplar issues/questions that are addressed by each area, which include: characteristics of values, ethical theories and universal values. Discussion of three categories of ethical theories, deontological, teleological and virtue ethics explains the basis on which each determines what the right or good thing to do is. This module also concludes by introducing an on-line resource, one that is useful for developing or refreshing understanding of ethics: the Ethics Unwrapped website. A few short videos from the website build upon the previous discussion of ethical theories and add a brief introduction to two consequentialist ethical theories: hedonism and utilitarianism.

This module introduces the debate over what the purpose of business is. The module begins with discussion of legal liability in the three basic legal forms of business: sole proprietorship, partnership and corporation. Clips from interviews with three small business owners illustrate the work ethic they bring to managing their businesses. Next, the development of capitalism is contextualized as a response to mercantilism, the Western European economic system that was dominant when Adam Smith was his two most influential treatises. The discussion draws attention to the ethical roots of capitalism; the centrality of personal autonomy and the compassionate connotations of self-interest. More interview clips illustrate that the concerns of the three small business owners go well beyond merely earning a profit. Separation of management and owners in the modern corporate form of business has led to debate over what the purpose of a business is. The debate over what and to whom corporate management is and should be accountable is explored. The module introduces two contrasting legal theories of firm. The first theory is the trust relationship between corporate owners and management that is forged through private property rights. The second is the public interest nature of the relationship between society and business. The interests of shareholders and other stakeholders often conflict, but the responsibilities of management to corporate owners and society co-exist. Further discussion provides insights into situational factors that can lead to and justify prioritization of broader stakeholder and societal interests over the general rule of shareholder primacy. Popular culture strongly influences the beliefs of a society. The module ends with a brief discussion of the source of a controversial but highly popular belief that the only moral responsibility of business is to maximize shareholder wealth.

Business generates wealth and prosperity, but hyper-norm beliefs about fairness and theories of distributive justice significantly affect how wealth is distributed throughout society. Corporate governance is the system (of rules, practices, policies, institutions and laws) that directs and controls business. Corporate governance also is one of the key mechanisms through which society determines how wealth and prosperity is distributed. This module introduces corporate governance elements that are external (laws and regulatory agencies) and internal (boards of directors, ethics and compliance programs and organizational culture) to a corporation. The module includes discussion of two sometimes competing themes that drive the need for and development of corporate governance. These themes extend from the debate over the purpose of business and responsibilities of management that were introduced in the last module. The need for corporate governance is often motivated by the idea of shareholder primacy and the need to protect the private property rights of corporate shareholders in the context of incomplete contracting and information asymmetry. Yet, for nearly a century arguably the most significant legislative reform in US business regulation has resulted from major economic downturns that had significant and wide-spread negative impacts on society as a whole and large-scale corporate ethical lapses, scandals and fraud that ran counter to societal notions of fairness.