CPAs Take Lead in Personal Integrity
Compared to most other workers in America, CPAs share more common values in their everyday dealings with co-workers, bosses and top management.

by Rick Telberg
for Career Insider

Underpinned by a culture of professional values and standards, CPAs may be emerging as the ethical beacons for business -- the "go-to" guys and gals when the tough calls need to be made.

A new study of Career Insider readers, for example, shows readers like you are far more likely to be working with and for colleagues of deep-rooted personal integrity.

For instance, a Watson Wyatt survey recently revealed U.S. workers in general are far more likely to cite hypocrisy and favoritism as the biggest ethical problems in the workplace -- not headline-grabbing- financial scandals.

"This is mixed news for employers." Watson Wyatt said in its study. "While most employees do not believe there are concrete ethical breaches in the workplace, some clearly feel compromised by day-to-day hypocrisy and broken promises."

But by the same measures, CPAs rate the everyday ethics of their co-workers, immediate bosses and top management significantly higher than does the average worker.

"At the end of the day, everyone in the company is committed to doing the right thing for the customers and stockholders," commented a middle manager in large private company.

We asked, "How often do others in your company or firm behave with honesty and integrity in their business activities?"

Eighty-seven percent of CPAs said their co-workers "often" or "almost always" conducted themselves with the utmost in personal integrity. By contrast, in the Watson Wyatt survey, only 60 percent of average worker would agree.

How about your immediate boss? Supervisors scored an 85-percent confidence rating among CPAs. In the Watson Wyatt survey, only 72 percent gave a favorable rating to their boss.

"Despite loss of a major customer and large losses last year," said a controller at a mid-sized company, "I have never been pressured to 'doctor' the financial results."

And top management? Three in four, or 75 percent, of CPAs rated top management highly. In the general population, Watson Wyatt said only 56 percent of workers trusted top management.

"Ethics are at the top here," according to a middle manager at a small local CPA firm. "I believe each person in our office works and lives their lives ethically. It is a super environment to work in."

But even in the breach, when "the boss tends to look at people and circumstances through 'rose-colored' glasses," said the respondent, middle and upper managers are free to keep the chief executive on the right track.

Now that's what CPA professionalism is all about -- not just finding and communicating the "correct" answer, but also the "right" answer.