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1、AUDITORS VIRTUE: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS AND CATEGORIZATIONTheresa LibbySchool of Business and EconomicsWilfrid Laurier UniversityWaterloo, ON N2L 3C5tlibbywlu.caLinda ThorneSchulich School of BusinessYork University4700 Keele St.Toronto, ON M3J 1P3lthorneschulich.yorku.caJune 2000We would like to ex
2、press our appreciation to the interview participants and members of our expert panel who provided us with invaluable assistance. Funding for this project from the Center for Accounting Ethics, University of Waterloo is also gratefully acknowledged.AUDITORS VIRTUE: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS AND CATEGORI
3、ZATIONThis paper reports on a qualitative study that investigates virtue in the auditing context. The research involved the qualitative analysis of rich descriptions of auditors virtues obtained through in-depth interviews with ten professional accountants, including auditors, standard setters, regu
4、lators and members of the professional institutes. The objective of these interviews was to obtain a better understanding of the virtue of auditors in their professional capacity. In addition, we use an expert panel to help identify character traits distinctive to auditors virtue, and to consider th
5、e usefulness of the framework developed by Pincoffs (1986) for providing insight into the relative importance of particular categories of virtues for auditors. This study identifies auditors virtues that have connotations similar to that identified by Pincoffs, but are denoted in the language of the
6、 auditing community. This is useful for identifying and for communicating the importance of virtue to the auditing practitioner community. Further, this study identifies the importance of moral and instrumental virtue to the auditors role, and revises Pincoffs framework to bridge the connotations us
7、ed between academics in the accounting-ethics and virtue-ethics communities.AUDITORS VIRTUE: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS AND CATEGORIZATION1. IntroductionBoth the Securities Exchange Commission and the Ontario Securities Commission have issued a challenge to the accounting profession to maintain public t
8、rust in audited financial statements. To do this, the accounting profession must ensure its membership possesses an appropriate level of virtue. Accountants virtue is comprised of character traits that increase their tendency to “act with integrity, objectivity and a commitment to excellence and the
9、 public interest” (Mission Statement of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants). Some professional accountants “do the right thing” regardless of contextual pressuresthese accountants are virtuous. Other professional accountants propensity to do the “right thing” varies with circumstance. I
10、n the highly competitive audit environment that exists today, it is particularly important to understand those attributes that distinguish virtuous auditors from those auditors that are not virtuous and to develop a comprehensive understanding of what can be done to encourage the development of virt
11、ue in all auditors.Virtue is the inner strength or “good” in an individual which is reflected by his or her tendency to do the “good” thing for its own sake (Wallace, 1978). According to an Aristotelian perspective, virtues are dispositions that describe an individuals concern to act in the interest
12、s of others, even when self-interest is involved (Soloman, 1992; 1993). Virtues are the characteristics of the decision-maker, the possession and exercise of which tend to increase his or her propensity to exercise sound ethical judgement (MacInytre, 1984). Virtue-ethics theory provides a theoretica
13、l foundation based upon Aristotelian moral philosophy which describes the role and importance of personal virtue to ethical decision-making (MacIntyre, 1984; Pincoffs, 1986; Wallace, 1978). Falk (1995) describes the four basic attributes of virtue ethics theory: 1) the notion of virtue, 2) ethical j
14、udgement, 3) nurturing community, and 4) moral exemplars. The first two attributes are concerned with the personal dimension of ethical decision making and the second two attributes are concerned with the community from which an individuals definition of virtue is based (Solomon, 1993). It is the pe
15、rsonal dimension of virtue-ethics theory that identifies the importance of virtue to individuals and to auditors ethical actions (Dobson & Armstrong, 1995; Thorne, 1998).Accounting researchers (e.g., Dobson & Armstrong, 1995; Francis, 1990; Mintz, 1995; Moizer, 1995; Thorne, 1998) recently have adop
16、ted the virtue-ethics perspective to draw attention to the importance of virtue to the exercise of auditors professional judgement. However, empirical work examining the virtues of auditors is in its infancy. A review of the accounting-ethics literature identifies only three studies that empirically investigate virtue in an accounting context (e.g., Douglas
