The course was challenging and rewarding. My view on the
understanding of accounting ethics has changed since the beginning
of the course. I never realized how many different ethical frameworks
can be used to understand the decision-making process and that the
decision-making models are built on principles of ethical behavior. I
experience some difficulties in gaining comprehension of some of the
moral philosophies such as teleology and deontology and applying
these models to our case studies and milestones. Deontology is an
approach to ethics which adheres to the theory that an end does not
justify the means while teleology is an approach to ethics that
adheres to the theory that the end always justifies the means. The
case studies were challenging in a way that I had to do a lot more
critical thinking to apply the ethical models to everyday usage.
The usage of Rest’s four-component decision-making process was
very relevant to me since the model reflects how I should be thinking
critically about how I make my decisions everyday to be an ethical
person in today’s society. I like the fact that Rest concluded that
ethical action is the product of psychological processes of moral
sensitivity, moral judgement, moral motivation, and moral character.
Moral sensitivity is the recognition that an ethical problem exists. The
recognition requires being aware of how our behavior impacts others,
identifying possible courses of action, and determining the
consequences of each potential strategy. Moral sensitivity is key to
transformational ethics. We can’t solve a moral dilemma unless we
know that one is present.
