The accountants' ethical code of conduct from an Islamic perspective: Case in Yemen

An ethical code of conduct is developed to guide behaviors of members in or of organizations. Accountants, in this context, are not an exception. The availability of such ethical code of conduct is extremely important for both accountants and users of accounting information. However, currently in Yemen, there is no ethical code of conduct for Yemeni professional accountants. Hence, a study was conducted to develop an ethical code of conduct for Yemeni professional accountants from an Islamic perspective, given that Yemen is an Islamic country.In particular, the study sought to address the question of what constitutes the ethical code of conduct among Yemeni professional accountants. To address the question, data were collected from 386 users of accounting information in four main cities of Yemen i.e. Sana’a, Hadhramout, Taiz, and Aden. The participants were asked to indicate their expectations about what should be included in the ethical code conduct for Yemeni professional accountants. The study employed interdependency analysis, specifically exploratory factor analysis, to reveal the domains of ethical code of conduct. Results show that the ethical code of conduct consists of seven constructs, i.e. acting responsibly, honoring the public trust, acting with integrity, maintaining objectivity and independence, exercising due care,following the limits of scope and nature of services, and complying with Islamic principles. The findings could be used by policy makers to develop an ethical code of conduct for Yemeni accountants to assist them with their professional work. In addition, recommendations for future research and the limitations of the study are highlighted