Professional accounting body ethics: In search of the private interest

Abstract

This paper expounds the hypothesis that protection of the accounting profession's self-interest is a primary latent rationale for its promulgation and maintenance of ethics codes. The sociological literature on professional body ethics provides the basis for a private interest model of the accounting profession's ethical claims. The model is subject to amplification via an exploratory examination of published Australian accounting body disciplinary cases. Finally, it is hypothesized that the private and public interest rationales of professional accounting body ethics may be to a degree interrelated.