A key question that remains to be addressed is the cause of such lapses in professional ethics. Manycritics have pointed to the growing influence of commercial greed over professional objectivity as a key reason for the ethical lapses in accounting. Macey and Sale (2003, p. 1167), for example, argue that the internal governance structures of large
accounting firms made the ‘‘modern accounting industry […] more like a business than a profession.’’ Arthur Wyatt, a former managing partner of Arthur Andersen and now a prominent critic of the accounting profession, maintains that ‘‘simple greed’’ can explain the observed deviation from core ethical values among accountants (e.g. Wyatt and Gaa,
2005). Wyatt argues that the introduction of nonaudit services, primarily management consulting work, into large public accounting firms shifted the reward structure away from adherence to professional.
standards and ethics toward commercial gain.
Bailey (1995) suggests that professional ethics and
values are the product of a ‘‘golden age’’ of professionalism
that has since passed, and that key ethical
standards have not been successfully translated on the
workplace to the younger generation. Simply stated,
these critics suggest that changes in the context of
professional work have made the accounting
profession more susceptible to a logic of commercial
gain than professional independence and objectivity.
In spite of the rhetoric, there are few empirical tests
of any of these assertions.
lapses