November 2024
ACCA’s Sarah Lane’s research has revealed the top three areas for ethical challenges are leadership, culture and sustainability – and that ethical dilemmas are becoming more complex…
It was Global Ethics Day on 16 October, and our latest report, ‘The New Era of Ethical Challenges for Professional Accountants’, highlights the evolving nature of ethical challenges and the increasing complexity of ethical dilemmas in accountancy.
The findings reveal that 55% of accountants have witnessed unethical behaviour in their career and almost one in four (24%) have been put under pressure to behave unethically in the past three years. In addition, the results also reveal that more men have experienced ethical pressure than women; 27% of males have been put under pressure to act in an unethical way, compared with 19% of females.
At ACCA we aim to support students in building their accountancy career and we carried out this research to understand what ethical challenges our members are facing both now and going forward. In building a career in accountancy you become part of a profession which is long trusted as custodians of financial integrity. During your career you will build a multitude of skillsets, which leads to an increased complexity in ethical challenges.
Some 64% of respondents told us that ethical dilemmas have become more difficult to resolve in the past three years.
Ethics lies at the very heart of the accounting profession and is part of every student’s training to become a professional accountant.
Ethics is commonly described as ‘doing the right thing,’ but this can mean different things to different people. Rules are black and white in their application; ethics is principles-based and requires personal judgement to be applied in your professional career. Understanding how to apply the ethical principles as outlined in our Code (integrity, objectivity, confidentiality and professional competence and due care and professional behaviour) to ethical challenges is key and you can use the conceptual framework to do that.
We asked participants to name their top three areas for ethical challenges over the past three years. The answers were:
- Leadership and culture (40%).
- AI and technology (32% and 26%). Sustainability (30%).
Professional accountants look to leaders to inspire ethical behaviour and the culture of the organisation in setting the tone of the workplace. AI and technology are transforming ethical challenges; for example, if we use AI in our decision making, how do we know that information is ethical?
Sustainability is a huge growth area for professional accountants, with the extensive reporting requirements of the Corporate
Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) being effective in the UK and Ireland for the 2025 reporting year for most large companies.
Ensuring the ethical application of the CSRD will no doubt lead to some complex ethical challenges going forward for professional accountants.
Globalisation, driven by technology, is facilitating businesses and as a result individual careers are expanding across borders. In a remote job you can work anywhere in the world as a professional accountant – fantastic.
However, this in turn creates new ethical challenges emerging due to regional variations including cultural, legal and economic factors.
While the drivers of complexity in ethical dilemmas are broadly similar globally, our research underscores the importance of considering local factors in promoting and enforcing ethical behaviour. The nature of where we work has also transformed with working remotely, resulting in ethical challenges not only being more complex, but being resolved in a different, more individual way.
Our research also highlights key areas for senior leadership to address in the near future.
These include mental health and wellbeing, professional competence and continuous learning, technology and data ethics, ethical leadership and governance, diversity, equity and inclusion and sustainability reporting.
These insights underscore the need for robust ethical leadership and culture in organisations, and ongoing learning and development to support professional accountants in navigating these challenges in today’s evolving landscape.
Read the full report here and remember to check out the ethics section of our website.
- Sarah Lane is Head of Ethics and Assurance at ACCA
