Accounting Ethics Questions

.....ethical for an employer to use social media information as a factor when considering whether to hire an employee? What about monitoring social networking activities of employees while on the job? Use ethical reasoning in answering these questions. The wide-ranging use of social media in the workplace gives rise to serious moral and ethical concerns. Kantian ethics lays emphasis on the form of an action in ascertaining its morality. Kant insists on the Categorical Imperative.

Kant implies that this ethical principle is the superlative and outright and proper test to morality, whereas imperative implies that from time to time one must command oneself to be moral and undertake the right thing, even and particularly when one's self-centeredness may be infringed by acting ethically (Mintz, 2015). As an overall moral rule, for an employer to impose into an employee's private life on social media devoid of consent or in a clandestine or intimidating way would be immoral under Kantian ethics.

Employing social media while determining whether to hire or employ an applicant, when social media content is not pertinent to the employee's capacity to do the job, would be discourteous, patronizing, and biased to job applicants and employees, yet again, irrespective of permission. The risk of such actions is that personal information obtained from perspective or mistakenly might cause employers to evaluate applicants falsely, devoid of their awareness or short of offering a chance for explanation (Mintz, 2015).

On the other hand, with respect to monitoring social networking activities of employees while on the job, it can be argued that lawful and impartial employer social media policies and practices attain more good consequences than bad, which would make this aspect to be moral with regard to Utilitarianism. In addition, whilst on the job, the employees are expected to be working, and therefore cannot be deemed to be infringing on the employee's liberty, confidentiality, and dignity and thus is not immoral (Mintz, 2015). 2.

Michael just graduated with a degree in Accounting from State University. He worked hard in school but could only achieve a 2.95 GPA because he worked 40 hours a week to pay his own way through college. Unfortunately, Michael was unable to get a job because the recruiters all had a 3.0 GPA cut-off point. Michael stayed with his college job for another year but is anxious to start his public accounting career. One day he reads about a job opening with a local CPA firm.

The entry-level position pays little but it's a way for Michael to get his foot in the door. However, he knows there will be candidates for the position with a higher GPA than his so he is thinking about using his overall GPA, which was 3.25 including two years of community college studies, rather than his major GPA and the GPA at State, even though the advertisement asks for these two GPAs. Michael asks for your opinion before sending in the resume.

What would you say to Michael and why? First and foremost, I would point out to Michael that professionals in the accounting profession are expected to maintain high ethical standards at all times and comply with utmost integrity in all undertakings. Considering this, I would not advise him to use his overall GPA of 3.25 that is inclusive of his two years of community college studies. To begin with, there is a possibility that Michael would still fail to get the entry-level position with the overall GPA of 3.25.

However, in the event that he does succeed in the screening process for the position, the CPA firm would routinely ask for official documents that substantiate such grades. As a result, the firm would discover that Michael was deceitful. In this perspective, as a candidate, he would be charged of dishonesty and duplicity. This implies that he might not get any chance of working with the firm in the future, or possibly, even other CPA firms (Mintz, 2016).

On the other hand, I would advise him to be truthful and attach the two documents required. This will be imperative because if Michael makes the application with the 2.95 GPA, then he can have the chance to give his reasons as to why he stands out as a suitable candidate for the entry-level position. In his curriculum vitae and cover letter, Michael can have the prospect to point out his impressive work ethic and proficiencies attained whilst working his way through school.

For instance, some of these proficiencies might encompass prioritizing responsibilities, time management, organization and time management. These competencies might stack up against the other candidates without any kind of experience. Additionally, in his curriculum vitae, Michael can include the three attainments, the major GPA, State GPA, and cumulative GPA. This way, when he passes the screening process, he is capable of providing any documents required (Mintz, 2016). 3.

The 2011 National Business Ethics Survey defines "active social networkers" as people who spend more than 30% of the workday participating on social networking sites. According to the results of the survey, active social networkers air company linen in public. Sixty percent would comment on their personal sites about their company if it was in the news, 53% say they share information about work projects once a week or more, and more than a third say they often comment, on their personal sites, about managers, coworkers, and even clients.

What are the dangers of such behavior for the employee and employer? There are dangers for both employees and employers with respect to active social networkers sharing information about their company. For the employers, the danger is that workplace secrets are not safe any longer and therefore they have to make the supposition that any aspects that take place within the work setting, be it new products, new policies or new issues, could become public at any given moment.

On the other hand, for employees, the danger is that they are extraordinarily susceptible to ethics risks. Therefore, they are bound to experience more transgression and face more retribution compared to their work mates (Ethics Resource Center, 2013). 4. In January 2008, it was discovered that William Borchard, who handled due diligence for clients of Pwc interested in mergers and acquisitions, divulged controversial plans to Gregory Raben, an auditor at the firm, and Raben used the information to buy stock ahead of a series of corporate takeovers.

The SEC found the two guilty of insider trading, a violation of the law. Assume none of the clients were audit clients. What are the ethical issues involved in engaging in such transactions? Were any of the AICPA rules of conduct violated? Explain. Assuming none of the clients were audit clients, one of the ethical issues involved in engaging in such transactions is confidentiality.

Regardless of whether they were audit clients or not, both William Borchard and Gregory Raben were in violation of confidentiality, which is a neglect of their duties. This particular information is purposed to be kept strictly confidential and not disclosed to parties not relevant to the transactions. Another ethical issue encompasses the two individuals being in breach of their fiduciary duties to the clients as also to their employers. AICPA rules of conduct were surely violated. In particular, AICPA code Rule 301, Client Confidential Information was violated.

In accordance to this rule, a member who is in public practice is prohibited from disclosing any confidential information without specific permission and consent from the client. Therefore, necessary steps and precautions ought to have been undertaken, for instance, applying nondisclosure agreements, in order to safeguard against the prospective purchaser's disclosing confidential information (Blatch, 2015). 5. Mr. Arty works for Smile Accounting Firm as a senior accountant. Currently, he is doing a review of rental property compliance testing of rental receipts and expenses of the property owned by the client.

He determines that the staff accountants tested only two tenants per property, instead of the three required by the audit program based on materiality considerations. However, to request more information from the client would cause massive delays, and the manager on the engagement is pressing hard for the information now.

The manager did approach the client, who stated that she "needed the report yesterday." The manager reminds Arty that no problems were found from the testing of the two properties, in past years the workpapers called for just two properties to be reviewed, the firm has never had any accounting issues with respect to the client, and he is confident the testing is sufficient. Explain the relationship between the manager's explanations and the judgment tendencies discussed in Chapter 4.

Professional judgment can be delineated as a logical and methodical decision process that encompasses the application of pertinent knowledge and experience with the setting of auditing and accounting standards and Rules of Professional Conduct. It is impartial, practical, and undertaken with integrity and acknowledgment of accountability to those influenced by its consequences. Judgmental tendencies can impede and encumber one from rational sense. The manager's explanations maximize the likelihood of good consequences.

This is in the sense that in past years, the workpapers called for just two properties to be reviewed and the firm has never had any accounting issues with respect to the client. In addition, the reviews were undertaken with truthfulness and forthrightness and are well thought out (Mintz, 2015). 6. Assume a U.S. company operates overseas and is approached by foreign governments officials with a request to provide family members with student internships with the company.

The company does business in that country with foreign customers and is negotiating for a contract with one such customer to provide services. Under what circumstances might such a request violate the FCPA? Companies as well as individuals are subject to criminal and civil consequences if and when found that they have violated the Federal Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). This sort of request would be in violation of the FCPA if the U.S.

Company hires or provides internships to such family members without having to go through the prevailing internship programs and meet such standards. This is because in accordance to the FCPA, companies are prohibited from incorrectly influencing foreign officials with any aspect of value and as a result gifts, cash payments or any other element employed in corrupt endeavors to win business (SEC, 2015). 7. Safety-Kleen issued a major financial restatement in 2001. The next year, the company restated (reduced) previously reported net income by $534 million for the period 1997 -- 1999.

Pwc withdrew its financial statement audit reports for those years. Do you believe.