IMPORTANCE OF ETHICS IN THE EDUCATION OF ACCOUNTANTS.

Confidence in the financial statements as well as in presented business results is of particular importance when assessing the financial position and performance of an enterprise. One can assume that the level of confidence in the presented results of operations will be even greater if the society in which the company operates qualifies as unethical or one in which it is common not to comply with high ethical standards. The question is whether ethics can be learned. There are different views on the above issue but what certainly is true is the fact that it is not harmful if education on the importance of applying high ethical principles in business is provided through the education system. Several research questions have been posed in this paper. The first question is to what extent are prospective professionals in the field of economics being educated on business ethics through their system of higher education? Therefore, educational programmes of selected economics faculties were analysed. Furthermore, due to the important role of accountants in financial reporting, as well as the fact that there is an increasing awareness of the requirements of ethical conduct, the main objective of this paper is to examine how future accountants perceive ethics. The results of the empirical research conducted using the survey method are encouraging as they indicate a relatively high level of awareness of future professional accountants on the importance of applying the highest ethical standards in business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Povjerenje u financijske izvještaje, odnosno prezentirane rezultate poslovanja, od osobite je važnosti pri ocjeni sigurnosti i uspješnosti poslovanja nekog poduzeća. Za pretpostaviti je kako će razina nepovjerenja u prezentirane rezultate poslovanja biti još i veća ako se društvo u kojem poduzeće posluje kvalificira kao neetično ili ono u kojem je uobičajeno da se ne poštuju visoki etički standardi. Jedno od važnih pitanja koja se nameću je i pitanje može li se etika naučiti? Postoje različiti stavovi o navedenoj problematici no ono što sigurno vrijedi jest činjenica da nije naodmet i kroz sustav obrazovanja osigurati edukaciju o važnosti primjene visokih etičkih načela u poslovanju. U radu je postavljeno nekoliko istraživačkih pitanja. Prvo pitanje je u kojoj mjeri se budući profesionalci iz područja ekonomije educiraju o poslovnoj etici kroz sustav njihova visokoškolskog sustava obrazovanja? U tom smislu su analizirani obrazovni programi odabranih ekonomskih fakulteta. Nadalje, zbog važne uloge računovođa u financijskom izvještavanju, kao i zbog činjenice kako postoji sve veća svijest o zahtjevima etičkog ponašanja, glavni cilj ovog rada je ispitati kako budući računovođe percipiraju etiku. Rezultati provedenog empirijskog istraživanja primjenom metode anketnog istraživanja ohrabruju budući da ukazuju na relativno visoku razinu osviještenosti budućih profesionalnih računovođa o važnosti primjene najviših etičkih standarda u poslovanju. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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