Taking a stand against unethical behaviour
ICAS has published two new reports to support members in speaking up against unethical practice.
Research funded by ICAS investigated, through a survey supplemented by interviews, the experiences of ICAS members when encountering ethical dilemmas. The resulting reports Speak up? Listen up? Whistleblow? offer some suggestions to individuals and organisations for tackling ethical issues based on these experiences.
The reports are now available to download:
Speak up? Listen up? Whistleblow? A survey of ICAS members
Key findings from the research
The research project examined how ICAS members respond to ethical dilemmas, but its findings and recommendations are relevant to a much wider audience. The particular focus of the research was:
- Speaking up – occasions where individuals chose whether or not to speak up;
- Listening up – whether individuals were listened to when they raised issues and also whether they listened when others raised issues with them; and
- Whistleblowing – whether, and in what circumstances, they decided to “whistleblow” outside the organisation.
Two-thirds of CAs surveyed said they had encountered an ethical dilemma, either of a technical and/or behavioural nature, at least once during their career.
Technical dilemmas reported by CAs relate mainly to accounting irregularities, fraud, theft and bribery, taxation, auditing, bonuses, incentives and executive pay. Behavioural issues relate mainly to bullying, pressures from managers and clients, or because of workload or work-life balance issues.