November 16, 2005
Gunz Urges Professionals to Follow Own Moral Compass
by Asher Garonzik
Where do an accountant’s responsibilities lie when employed by a
large corporation? Should professionals align with the company they
work for even when the organization doesn’t choose the most
ethical path? During her Nov. 11 Ethics Speaker Series talk, Sally Gunz, a business law professor at the University of Waterloo,
encouraged current and future business professionals to side with
good ethics when torn between conflicting obligations.
Gunz distinguished between two types of professionals: managerial
professionals, who usually identify with their company, and lawyerly
professionals who adhere closely to the ethics of their occupation.
“The more closely you work with senior decision-makers, the more
likely you are to make managerial type decisions,” Gunz said.
But too much managerial obedience can become a liability. If an
accountant’s client company is going down the wrong path, Gunz
argued, the professional has to be very careful not to follow it
down that slippery slope. However, she recognized that sometimes
it’s not that simple.
Gunz discussed a phenomenon called “client capture” where a
professional, under tremendous pressure from big name clients,
knowingly makes unethical choices. Gunz warned that not only does
client capture put the hired accountant in a position to take the
rap for unethical behavior, it puts the company in jeopardy as well.
“If there are things you know you cannot do, you do your company a
tremendous disservice if you don’t say so,” Gunz said.
Gunz closed the discussion with a clear-cut summary of her message.
“If push comes to shove, and your client is trying to make you do
something you know you shouldn’t do, don’t do it!”
Gunz is the director of the Center for Accounting Ethics at the
University of Waterloo and is a former president of the Academy of
Legal Studies in Business. She conducts research on the ethical
decision making of professionals and public accountants and lawyers
in particular. She is the author of “The New Corporate Counsel,” a
book about the role of corporate counsel in the organization.
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