Ethical Dilemmas and the Twenty-first Century Finance Practitioner

The purpose of ethics in business is to direct men and women to abide by a code of conduct that facilitates, if not encourages, public confidence in their products and services. Fraudulent financial reporting, financial statements with errors so material as to require restatement, and biased reporting marred by defects such as managed earnings have plagued financial reporting in many countries in recent years. All of such failures represent breaches of fiduciary duties by individuals who accepted responsibilities but did not fulfil them. Institutions, companies, and organizations led by top management, are increasingly adopting ethical codes of conduct. Using the secondary data research method, this paper discusses the fact that the 21st century auditors, accountants, tax practitioners, and people in business now face more ethical dilemmas in their professional services more than ever before. It concludes that there have been professional standards, which have been developed to help accounting and business professionals make such dilemma based decisions and assess their situations from time to time. The paper thus contains proffered viable suggestions as way out of the challenge