CONFIDENTIALITY DECISIONS - THE REASONING PROCESS OF CPAS IN RESOLVING ETHICAL DILEMMAS

As in other professions, such as law and medicine, accounting has a Co de of Professional Conduct (Code) that members are expected to abide b y. In today's legalistic society, however, the question of ''what is t he right thing to do,'' is often confused with ''what is legal?'' In m any instances, this may present a conflict between adhering to the Cod e and doing what some may perceive as proper ethical behavior. This pa per examines (1) the reasoning process that CPAs use in resolving ethi cal issues related to confidentiality; and, (2) whether or not there i s a perceived conflict in adhering to the Code and the moral values of some CPAs. The results indicate that although most CPAs sampled resol ve ethical issues in accordance with the Code, such decisions do not a lways reflect their belief of what is morally right. Although the resu lts are useful in understanding how some CPAs reason in making moral c hoices involving confidentiality decisions, care should be exercised i n drawing further inferences from this study due to the limited sample size.