Resetting the ethical compass

Ethical issues used to be a lot easier to navigate. We lived in a world where matters of integrity were usually clear-cut. If a particular activity looked wrong, felt wrong, smelt wrong, then it probably was wrong. Accountants could largely guarantee that the advice to ‘just do the right thing’ was sufficient to cover most situations.

When finance professionals did take a wrong turn – the collapse of Barings in 1995 and Enron in 2001, the global financial crash of 2007–08, the VW emissions scandal in the past decade – it had more to do with negligence or even outright criminality than any ethical failure. Almost always, there was a path to follow that was obvious to anyone who was determined to work with honesty, according to the highest standards of professional conduct.

Off the map

Now, though, it’s not so simple. The rapid spread of automation, big data and artificial intelligence, and much greater sensitivity to issues such as sustainability and fairness in business, have made the old maps irrelevant.

In a world where decisions and processes are increasingly delegated to machines, bots and algorithms, it isn’t so easy for accountants to bring their professional judgment to bear on every aspect of business activity. Human intuition and experience are, by themselves, no longer enough.

All this means that accountants must take a much more active role in insisting that the human element remains at the centre of business activity, despite the temptations to cut costs and corners and to let technology take the wheel.

A better world

It’s why we are launching our new spotlight theme next month ‘Ethics for a better world’, which includes the publication of two hard-hitting and fascinating ACCA reports: Public trust in tax and Ethics considerations in the sustainability reporting era: a global guide for professional accountants (the latter due out on Global Ethics Day on 18 October).

The theme gives us a splendid opportunity to share our message that professional accountants are perfectly placed to provide the strong ethical leadership and decision-making that business needs now more than ever.

Our activity centres on a week-long celebration we have planned around Global Ethics Day. It features a series of fiImed interviews entitled ‘Ethics for a better world: our daily talks from around the globe’, with contributors from the UK, India, Singapore, Nigeria and the US. The talks will investigate ethical questions connected with an array of areas including AI, leadership, the public sector, sustainability and the workplace, and you can catch them between 16 and 20 October.

I can promise that it will be a brilliant way to re-examine these crucial issues. I know it will be priceless asset for all of us as we reset our ethical satnavs to pilot the uncertain road stretching ahead through to the middle of the century and beyond.