Ethical standards are required to be followed by management accountants in order to maintain good professional image and also be ethically responsible.
The Institute of Management Accountants is a member of the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission,which was founded in 1985 in order to support the National Commission on Fraudulent Financial Reporting.The statement of IMA about ethical professional practise has been selected worldwide as the basic code of conduct for management accountants.For the first time in 12 years,IMA has updated the version of its ethics guidance statement.These updates are based on the changes in management accounting profession and whistleblower provisions.The statement of ethical professional practise provides also trust in the employee-employer relationship and provide a guarantee to the information users about the quality of the information. Moreover,there are 4 ideals of ethical professional conduct that exist and these are competence,confidentiality,integrity and credibility.These 4 ideals directly affect ethical behaviour of a person.In terms of competence the main point is that ”Management accountants have the obligation to improve on a continuous basis in order to insure a high level of professional competence”.In this case,Sofia Professora is already experienced and skilled enough on her job.However,she did not warned Eugenia Politikou that some of the personel that she gathered information may be inexperienced or new to the job position.Also she did not warned Politikou about relevant laws and regulations that she needs to be aware of.So,the performance of the activity(gathering information) cannot be successfully done,so her judgement of Politikou’s report is unfair.Secondly,in terms of confidentiality she did not monitored Politikou’s actions and compliance with the principles of confidentiality.Also she was obliged to inform her concerning the confidentiality of the information obtained during research.Also she used the confidential information unethically because she knew that if the company complete its goal which is the expansion of the commercial product line,then she would be directly affected because she will get her bonus payment.Thirdly,regarding integrity Professora did not advise Politikou about any potential conflicts in her report research and also did not support Politikou during her research in order to know that her research might require different job position knowledge and also she did not warned to her to avoid any activities that might discredit profession.In addition,she did not advised Politikou to refuse any favors or gifts that might influence her actions.Lastly,her behaviour towards Politikou was not the best she(Professora) did not agree with Politikou’s report and research process and did not wanted her to mention her reservations about her projections again.This kind of behaviour might lead to prejudice from Politikou in order to carry out upcoming duties ethically.Finally,as to objectivity Professora did shared fairly her information but not objectively because Professora might had changed the information of the report in order for her to be able to easier accomplish company’s goal and earn her bonus.One common technique for managers who want to be respected by the Board of Directors may put pressure on the accountant in order to make a renovation of the financial data available.The changes that Professora might had made to her report could influence Politikou’s interpretation and understanding of the reports and cause delays or deficiencies in information according to law or company’s policies.So Proffesora’s judgement on Politikou’s report is unfair.Summing up,Professora’s behaviour and conduct towards Politikou was unprofessional as to she did not completely followed the 4 principles of ethical professional conduct both personally and towards Politikou and also caused ethical problems as she put her personal interest of obtaining the bonus payment over the interests of the company.
