Ethics

When I think of ethics I think of being honest in everything I do. I believe I would never do anything to be dishonest. However, I also ask myself if I would give into doing something unethical if enough pressure and stress was put on me. I was reading in my Intermediate Accounting textbook when I found a section on ethics. In this section, Robert Sack, a noted commentator on ethics, said,” It’s very dangerous to think that your armor is all in place and say to yourself, ‘I would never give in to that.’ The pressures don’t explode on us; they build, and we often don’t recognize them until they have us.”

Most of my business classes at USU teach about ethics. My first accounting professor, Ryan Larkin, said that some people who are faced with desperate situations usually make poor decisions and act unethically. Robert Sack reemphasizes this point about those in the accounting profession. He said, “Companies that concentrate on ‘maximizing the bottom line,’ ‘facing the challenges of competition,’ and ‘stressing short-term results’ place accountants in an environment of conflict and pressure.”

This opened up my mind when I read this section. Business classes at USU teach about ethics and now I understand why. By studying ethics I should be able to make tough ethical decisions when they arise in the future. Before reading this I thought I could just ignore ethical decisions, but even ignoring a situation can be unethical. Robert Sack stated, “Doing the right thing is not always obvious. The pressures to ‘bend the rules’, ‘to play the game’, ‘to just ignore it’ can be considerable.” My accounting textbook also says, "Ethical considerations are presented to help sensitize you to the type of situations you may encounter in the performance of your professional responsibility." I know ethical decisions will arise and I hope I will be prepared to do the right thing.