Document Type
Scholarship
Abstract
All universities, especially Jesuit universities, have an obligation to develop their students’ moral and ethical consciences. Regis University is guided by its responsibility to help its students develop an ethical compass; pursue a continual search for truth, values, and a just existence; and answer the question “How ought we to live?” A foundation in accounting ethics supports this mission. This paper presents a descriptive case study showing how Regis University’s College for Professional Studies (CPS) School of Management (SOM) integrated accounting ethics into its curriculum. Since 2010, the SOM has included ethical content in several accounting courses, and it added a standalone accounting ethics course in 2015. This paper examines the opportunities and challenges experienced by the SOM to include ethics in the accounting curriculum, including addressing students’ moral and ethical development, evaluating and addressing ethical dilemmas faced by accounting professionals, understanding and applying ethical decision-making frameworks, understanding and applying accounting professional codes of ethical conduct, understanding U.S. federal ethics regulations, identifying and addressing signs of ethical collapse in organizations, and assessing students’ ethical decision making. Additionally, instructor tools and resources, class structure, and methods to mentor accounting professors to teach accounting ethics are examined.
Recommended Citation
Brands, Kristine and Lange, Linda S.. "Teaching Accounting Ethics: Opportunities and Challenges." Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal Vol. 5: No. 1 (2016) . Available at: https://epublications.regis.edu/jhe/vol5/iss1/6
