Ethics and internal audit: Moral will and moral skill in a heteronomous field

doi:10.1016/j.cpa.2013.10.002

Critical Perspectives on Accounting

Volume 25, Issue 3, May 2014, Pages 181-196

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2013.10.002 Get rights and content

Abstract

This paper examines ethics in the field of internal audit. A set of in-depth interviews, the autobiography of ex-Vice President of Internal Audit of World Com, Cynthia Cooper, and the documents of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA) are all analyzed to shed light on the ethics—deontic, teleic, and aretaic—that characterize this weakly autonomous field. The paper further employs work in the field of economic sociology and Milan Kundera's literary ideas to highlight how internal auditors actively moralize markets and embrace a moral will that is ambiguous, if not conflicted. The paper further raises questions about the IIA's present offering of ethics-related resources and its ability to effectively develop moral skill in this field. In addition, and in keeping with our phronetic research approach, the paper provides suggestions aimed at improving the Institute's ethics resources.

Section snippets

Lightness vs. weight

In the novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera provides a simple yet provocative conceptualization of how one might choose to live in a world where choice is often constrained. For Kundera, life can be approached in a hedonistic and self-absorbed manner—even within the totalitarian system with which the author was familiar—or it can be approached with a weighty seriousness, as if our lives were going to be lived over and over, or eternally recurring, to use Nietzsche's words. For

Methodology

Our investigation blends instrumental- and value-rationality, an approach that falls under the rubric of phronetic research (Flyvbjerg, 2006, Cooper and Morgan, 2008). This approach explicitly asks us to consider ‘where [as accountants] we are going, whether the direction we are going is desirable, and, ultimately, what should be done’ (Flyvbjerg, 2006). Rather than simply pursuing ‘knowledge for its own sake’ or producing research that ‘yields commercial results,’ as applied knowledge is often

The ethical context of internal auditing

According to the website of the IIA, internal audit is “an independent, objective, assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization's operations.” This definition, while vague, suggests that internal auditing has a narrow, organization-focused, utilitarian end. By highlighting value and organizational improvement, it suggests the auditor's role is to ‘assess the comparative consequences of available actions and take as their ultimate criterion the maximization

Discussion and conclusion

It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on his not understanding it.
(Sinclair, 1994, p. 109)

In this paper, we provided an initial foray into the ethics of internal auditing, a professional sub-group that exists within a weakly autonomous or heteronomous field. Our exploration was carried out using three ethical lenses: deontic, teleic, and aretaic ethics. Our study examined diverse perspectives and employed a multi-method approach, consisting of a three-part

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Ethics and internal audit: Moral will and moral skill in a heteronomous field

Abstract

Section snippets

Lightness vs. weight

Methodology

The ethical context of internal auditing

Discussion and conclusion

J Account Educ

Account Org Soc

Account Org Soc

Crit Perspect Account

Crit Perspect Account

Account Org Soc

Crit Perspect Account

Accoun Org Soc

Crit Perspect Account

Manag Account Res

Crit Perspect Account

Account Org Soc

Account Org Soc

Account Org Soc

Account Org Soc

Crit Perspect Account

Crit Perspect Account

Account Org Soc

Account Org Soc

Account Org Soc

Crit Perspect Account

Account Org Soc

Crit Perspect Account

Crit Perspect Account

Account Org Soc

Crit Perspect Account

Two types of bureaucracy: enabling and coercive

Admin Sci Q

Heroes as a context for teaching ethics

J Edu Bus

The jurisdiction of internal auditing and the quest for professionalization: the Danish case

Int J Audit

The rhetoric and rationality of accounting research

Account Org Soc

Public science, private interests: culture and commerce in Canada's networks of centers of excellence

Defining moments: when managers must choose between right and right

Big 5 auditors’ professional and organizational identification: consistency or conflict

Audit J Prac Theor

Wild justice: reflections on empathy, fair play, and morality in animals

You can’t talk to me that way!: stopping toxic language in the work place

The field of cultural production: essays on art and literature

Practical reason

Pascalian meditations

Whistle-blowing: target firm characteristics and economic consequences

Account Rev

Seek the good life, not money: the Aristotelian approach to business ethics

J Bus Ethics

Nonhuman species’ reactions to inequity and their implications for fairness

Soc Just Res

Critical and interpretative histories: insights into accounting's present and future through its past

Account Audit Account J

Extraordinary circumstances: the journey of a corporate whistleblower

Case study research in accounting

Account Horiz

A ‘close reading’ protocol to identify perception fashioning rhetoric in website financial reporting: the case of Microsoft

Account Publ Interest

Determining validity in qualitative inquiry

Theor Pract

Virtue ethics and virtue epistemology

Metaphilosophy

Whistleblowing: a review of previous research and suggestions for best practices

J Forensic Account

The man question: visions of subjectivity in feminist theory

“Real-izing” the benefits of new technologies as a source of audit evidence: an interpretive field study

Account Org Soc