AAAJ
8,3
60
Moral reasoning and moral
atmosphere in the domain
of accounting
Alan Lovell
Nottingham Business School, Nottingham Trent University,
Nottingham, UK
Introduction
Much criticism has been levelled at the accountancy profession, ranging from
the failure of accounting documents to reveal a more accurate reflection of the
financial wellbeing/ill health of organizations and the collusion of accountants
in the preparation and validation of those documents, to the failure of the
accountancy profession satisfactorily to take account of the public interest in
the determination of the future of accounting and auditing practice[1]. At the
heart of these issues is the moral base of the profession and accounting practice,
a base which displays contradictory values at a normative level, while at an
empirical level the available evidence gives cause for concern. The contention of
this article is that accounting practice cannot be isolated from broader social
practices; rather it is shaped by, but also helps sustain, wider social, economic
and political developments.
Human behaviour is a function of many influences, and the transition from
moral reasoning to moral behaviour is both tenuous and troublesome. The
framework which has been employed most consistently in contemporary
assessments of moral reasoning is that of Lawrence Kohlberg, and this
framework is employed in this article as the basis for locating the assumptions
of human behaviour which are either explicit or implicit within a number of
significant accounting theories of organizational practice. The influences which
mark the territory through which moral reasoning must pass before it
manifests itself in actual behaviour can be referred to as the “moral
atmosphere” (Kutnick, 1984), and assumptions on which accounting theories
are based form part of the socialization processes of prospective accountants
and the subsequent moral atmosphere in which they practise. The ethical codes
of conduct which are produced by all the professional accountancy bodies for
their members to respect can also be positioned within Kohlberg’s framework,
and, given the socially relevant nature of accounting practice, a broader political
science orientation has been introduced into the analysis to reflect
accountancy’s broader social context.
The article begins with a consideration of Kohlberg’s framework of moral
reasoning, but then develops the analysis by linking it to the additional
dimension of individualism. This provides a structure within which the
Accounting, Auditing &
Accountability Journal, Vol. 8
No. 3, 1995, pp. 60-80. MCB
University Press, 0951-3574