Email: c.tejura@qmul.ac.uk
Is Accounting education/training overly focused on profit/wealth maximisation at the expense of ethics, and if so, what are the ramifications for society? UK study
Profit, wealth and ethics are aspects taught in mainstream Business School courses, through various modules including Accounting and Economics. However, is there an over-emphasis of the former, at the expense of the latter?
In the non-academic world, ethics itself has its pride of place as one of the tabs on the ‘Home’ webpages of most professional accounting bodies. The ethics section contains a variety of information for the user, such as the Code of Ethics (CoE). However, ethics is not a merely rule-based such as a code. As a 2015 report by the British-based Institute of Business Ethics (IBE, 2015) states: ‘Ethics begins where the law ends…”
The exploration of ethics in Accounting comes from the eyes of those forgotten by research- early career professionals (ECP) working in Accounting. Also, final year students (FYS) provide a point of comparison. Both represent the future of Accounting. With the aid of the two sets of questionnaires aimed at each cohort and a semi-structured interview of ECP, From which a tapestry will emerge.
As such, the findings will provide food for thought for the trilogy that are the business schools, professional accounting bodies and employers of accountants. The discussion cannot ignore areas such as the profession, philosophy and the conceptual framework- legitimacy theory- the taken-for-granted licence from society
1st Supervisor: Professor Sean McCartney2nd Supervisor: Dr Amit Rai and Dr Gherardo Girardi
I pursue two main areas of research; both stem from the 2007/08 financial crisis:
1. PhD area: Is Accounting education/training overly focused on profit and wealth maximisation at the expense of ethics, if so, what are the ramifications for society?
Here, I am currently exploring the dynamics of ethics in accounting and its relationship with society. In particular, he is focused on the perception of final year Business School students and recent graduates, within Transformative Learning Theory as the conceptual framework.
2. In relation to the above, I have been keen to explore CSR, Accounting and Higher Education. In 2015, this resulted in producing a book chapter with one of my PhD supervisor’s titled: 'Accounting education and CSR in developing countries – the case of India.'