“To educate a person
in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society” (President
Theodore Roosevelt).
This short but
powerful quote by Theodore Roosevelt, the 26th President of the United States (1901–1909,)
and but one of our nations greatest presidents, is evidence that management
education alone has done more to contribute to the failure of todays leaders
and organizations in both private and public sectors alike, than any other
contributing factors combined.
This Reflection Blog
will discuss the issues and real-time concerns about how management education
can be correlated as a contributing factor toward the systematic failure of
leaders in accounting scandals of firms where people are driven into manipulating
results, continue to occur. The topic is based upon accounting yet, can easily
be adapted to any topic desired where corporate greed, government corruption or
when things go wrong and blame is placed on perceived weaknesses of
legislation and accounting standards, or is it formal education that is not
producing the caliper of accounting and business graduates needed to prevent
such scandals.
More importantly are a
person’s moral code and business ethics made up of certain elements such as
childhood development, religious faith, personal experiences, education and
philosophy identified as coming together to form an individual’s moral and
ethical code. I can personally attest that my upbringing with parental
involvement in activities including religious faith, scouting, ethics in the
field and later the masonic organization, which takes a good man and makes him
better, as well as military service including the military’s code of honor were
all influences toward my success. And quite possibly my downfall from attaining
certain life’s goals, due to my high moral character and intestinal fortitude, I
believe were direct influences from those in a position to be used against me.
Never the less, in the end, I still maintain those unwavering principles… in
spite of at times their unpopularity with those destine to advance at any and
all costs.
Strong calls from
diverse venues for the business community to adopt new ethical and moral
values, to develop sound practices and methods of corporate governance, and to
exercise better corporate responsibility of the shareholders investments. There are five factors that should be the
focus of any institution academic, corporate or government. 1.) Issues of
corporate transparency; 2.) Corporate values and behavior; 3.) Money culture;
4.) Vices of a capitalistic society; 5.) The prevalence of a legalistic
culture.
While the United
States has called for tighter and tougher reforms in accounting standards and
government regulations, elsewhere in the world discussions on the need for each
country to take its own measures to avoid the problems of Enron and WorldCom.
Which ultimately triggered legislation like the Public Company Accounting
Reform & Investor Protection Act of 2002 and the Sarbanes- Oxley Act 2002
that impose tougher sentences on corporate fraud. The United Kingdom has
responded with the “Turnbull Report on Internal Control: Guidance for Directors
of Listed Companies Incorporated in the UK” that has been published by the
Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
Our own government
holistically would do well toward adopting its own versions of the Public
Company Accounting Reform & Investor Protection Act of 2002, or the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act 2002. However, there will likely not be much activity on the
hill in adopting sustainable ethical and moral standards… at least until the
first pillar of government “We The People” eventually recall, impeach or vote
out of office those responsible that have set-up shop in the District of
Corruption.
As Plato put it,
“Good people don’t need laws to know they must act responsibly, while bad
people will always search for ways around them.” That said and considering no
matter many laws and regulations are passed, there’d always be someone out
there who will lie, cheat or steal on any scale stemming from the misguided
belief that risks are always outweighed by the potential gains.
Reference: Low, M.,
Davey, H., & Hooper, K. (2006). Accounting scandals, ethical dilemmas and
educational challenges. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, (19),
222-254. Retrieved from www.elsevier.com/locate/cpa
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