Hollow men and women at the helm. Hollow accounting ethics

ABSTRACT: Until business schools teach future accountants and leaders how deep the connections are between business, society, nature, and the world, corporations will continue to be run by hollow leaders who have no sense of ethics or responsibility. Accounting for performance is likely to remain too narrowly focused to be helpful in todays demanding environment. We are the hollow men We are the stuffed men Leaning together Headpiece filled with straw. Alas! Our dried voices, when We whisper together Are quiet and meaningless As wind in dry grass Or rats feet over broken glass In our dry cellar Shape without form, shade without colour, Paralysed force, gesture without motion T. S. Eliot, The Hollow Men The hollow men and women of T. S. Eliots poem might double as some of todays corporate leaders, who seem to be lacking both substance and heart. The collapse of Arthur Andersen in the wake of the Enron scandal suggests that there are troubling issues facing the accounting profession and accounting education. If we consider the numerous financial restatements that have been re-quired in recent years, we must ask some pointed questions about the training and education of companies top financial executives. What did they learn as basic business principles? Why have they, their businesses, and their financial statements been so prone to scandals? Did widely held beliefs and attitudes at major business schools contribute to the corporate disasters that opened the decade of the 2000s? The collapse of giants like Enron and Arthur Andersen signaled a major turning point in the conversation about corporate ethics and integrity. The creation of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to oversee the audits of publicly owned companies represents a serious loss of professional autonomy for accountants. The accounting scandals and subsequent Congressiona