Exploring Ethical Dilemmas and their Impact on Decision-Making in Managerial Accounting

Abstract

This research discusses the ethical issues that the managerial accountants face and how such issues influence the organizational decision-making process. With the aim of identifying the common ethical dilemmas, understanding their causes, and offering recommendations, the scope of the research is to enhance the integrity of financial reporting and management decisions. Case studies and close examination of the literature are included in the research methodology. The case studies are centered on actual-life situations where there is a violation of ethics. This includes cost manipulation, performance reviews biased towards individual expectations, and expense misreporting. Literature review The paper views prior research on ethics in accounting. The study relies majorly on secondary data for its information. Information was gathered from industry publications and scholarly papers. The results show that conflict of interest, pressure to meet financial targets, and lack of well-outlined ethical standards are the frequent ethical problems are attributed to few common causes. Such moral slippery slopes often in  turn have been proven in research to result in business malpractices, monetary loss and  reputation loss. To reduce unethical behavior, the paper also endows with the essence  of ethics education and implementation of internal controls and procedures. The findings of the study point out the requirement for a coroner in hopes that companies will pay attention to ethical managerial accounting practice. Some of the proposals include the running of high numbers of transparent measures, professionalism and integrity education and stricter corporate governance measures.