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Moral will, accounting and the phronemos

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  • Lehman, Glen

Abstract

This commentary examines the work of Everett and Tremblay (2014) and their contribution to critical accounting. They examine three key ethical dilemmas that confront modern accounting practice. They examine a set of in-depth interviews, the autobiography of the former Vice President of Internal Audit of WorldCom, Cynthia Cooper, and the documents of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) to shed light on accounting and audit ethics. The dilemmas confronting the accounting profession are complex and multi-faceted, which they place in their socio-economic context using ideas from Pierre Bourdieu. I add ideas from Lovibond (2004),MacIntyre (1984) and McDowell (1993) as well as audit work by Jere Francis. My solution involves accountants acting like the phronemos. The phronemos is Aristotle's term for a wise and ethical person who has the capacity to judge and act appropriately. This ideal of the phronemos is used to examine the ethical ambiguities in accounting that involve analyzing the critical role that accounting curricula, education and pedagogy play in making better judgments. This critical accounting focus was also a focus in Chabrak and Craig's work on accounting education. They examined professional credentialing and professional education. Like Everett and Tremblay, they also point us toward the public interest role of accounting and our societal need for better and informed judgments. The comment concludes with the observation that Aristotle's notion of the phronemos is an ideal type that promotes virtue ethics to address the drift in accounting away from ethics and its public interest role.

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  • Lehman, Glen, 2014. "Moral will, accounting and the phronemos," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 210-216.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:crpeac:v:25:y:2014:i:3:p:210-216
    DOI: 10.1016/j.cpa.2013.10.004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Glen Lehman, 2010. "Interpretive accounting research," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(3-4), pages 231-235, September.
    2. Lehman, Glen, 2010. "Perspectives on accounting, commonalities & the public sphere," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 21(8), pages 724-738.
    3. Hopper, Trevor & Storey, John & Willmott, Hugh, 1987. "Accounting for accounting: Towards the development of a dialectical view," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 12(5), pages 437-456, August.
    4. Everett, Jeff & Tremblay, Marie-Soleil, 2014. "Ethics and internal audit: Moral will and moral skill in a heteronomous field," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 181-196.
    5. Lehman, Glen, 2010. "Interpretive accounting research," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 231-235.
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    Cited by:

    1. Boyce, Gordon, 2014. "Accounting, ethics and human existence: Lightly unbearable, heavily kitsch," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 197-209.
    2. Everett, Jeff & Tremblay, Marie-Soleil, 2014. "On hypocrisy, the phronemos, and kitsch: A reply to our commentators," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 222-225.
    3. Panagiotis M. Kyriakogkonas, 2017. "Exploring the Usefulness of Codes of Ethics in the Postmodern Era through Transmodernism: Evidence from an Internal Audit Professional Body," Eastern European Business and Economics Journal, Eastern European Business and Economics Studies Centre, vol. 3(3), pages 223-244.
    4. Dillard, Jesse & Vinnari, Eija, 2017. "A case study of critique: Critical perspectives on critical accounting," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 88-109.
    5. Burrell Nickell, Erin & Roberts, Robin W., 2014. "Organizational legitimacy, conflict, and hypocrisy: An alternative view of the role of internal auditing," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 217-221.
    6. Tamara Poje & Maja Zaman Groff, 2022. "Mapping Ethics Education in Accounting Research: A Bibliometric Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 451-472, August.
    7. Frémeaux, Sandrine & Puyou, François-Régis & Michelson, Grant, 2020. "Beyond accountants as technocrats: A common good perspective," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 67.

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