Ethical Obligations and Decision Making in Accounting: Text and Cases I'm proud to announce that McGraw-Hill Education has just published the 5th edition of my Accounting Ethics textbook, Ethical Obligations and Decision Making in Accounting: Text and Cases. I'd like to thank two reviewers of the book and the the... Read more →

Where's the Moral Outrage? The events of last week where at least 50 people were killed and 50 wounded in an attack targeting two mosques in the New Zealand city of Christchurch was despicable. The admissions cheating scandal in the U.S. raises serious questions whether the large group of people... Read more →

What is Moral Courage? Courage. What is it? Is it bravery? Is it the strength of one’s convictions? Is it the same as integrity? Is it an ethical value that we all should aspire to achieve? Ayn Rand said in her classic book The Fountainhead that “Integrity is the ability... Read more →

Has President Trump gone too far? Has President Donald Trump gone too far with his “America first” program? Is he ignoring the needs of other countries including our historic allies? Has Trump’s actions violated the very values we seek to aspire including fair treatment, empathy and caring and concern for... Read more →

On Being an Ethical Person “Actions speak louder than words.” – It has been reported that this phrase dates back as far as the 1550s, when the French writer Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) said, “Saying is one thing and doing is another.” There are a variety of definitions of actions... Read more →

Should You Keep Extra Money From an ATM? A good philosophy to live by is stated as follows: “Ethical behavior is doing the right thing when no one else is watching." This partial quote from Aldo Leopold (1887-1948), an American author and philosopher, instructs us to act in ways that... Read more →

Rest’s Model of Ethical Behavior How do we make ethical decisions? James Rest[1], a well-known cognitive-developmental researcher, developed a model of ethical behavior that is based on the presumption that there are four steps in moral development that lead to ethical action. Rest asserted that ethical actions are not the... Read more →

How to Know What the Right Thing to Do Is The Moral Point of View suggests that sometimes people have to set aside their own interests and act in the best interests of others. This notion of doing what’s best for others – at least some of the time –... Read more →

Virtue + Practical Wisdom = Human Flourishing We gain practical wisdom through the choices we make in life. Aristotle refined the idea of practical wisdom in his classic book, Nicomachean Ethics. Ethics, said Aristotle, was not mainly about establishing moral rules and following them. It was about performing a particular... Read more →

Do You Value, Values? Values are basic and fundamental beliefs that guide or motivate attitudes or actions. They help us to determine what is important to us. Values describe the personal qualities we choose to embody to guide our actions; the sort of person we want to be; the manner... Read more →