Ethics and public accounting firms: Something old, something new

This chapter addresses the old and current issues in relation to accountants’ professional ethics. Beyond traditional understandings of accountants’ professional ethics, we uncover two other perspectives that are equally, or even more important: first, a perspective concerned with the accounting profession’s role at the political scene and whether this role furthers public or private interests. We label this as “political ethics”. Second, a perspective concerned with the accounting profession’s role in fulfilling the needs of society in terms of the profession’s social responsibilities. We label this as “societal ethics”. Our observations suggest a move within the ethical commitments of the accounting profession from a strict focus on accountants’ conduct in the performance of their work to a consideration of the profession’s wider influence on and impact in society.