Are Ethics Relevant to the Practice of Professional Accounting?

What distinguishes professionals from other types of practitioner? Similar to the medical and legal professions, society grants professional accountants exclusive rights to perform certain services (e.g., auditing) and expects something in return. Thus, professionals have a higher-order duty to look after the public interest first and foremost, ahead of their own personal interests. This higher-order duty introduces a tension in the work of professional accountants as they try to balance, at times, conflicting objectives between their commercial interests and their duty to society, to the public interest.