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Personal
ethics
. These derive from a person's upbringing, religious or non-religious beliefs, 
political opinions, personality, and so on. 
(b) 
Professional ethics
. These include ACCA's code of ethics and medical ethics. 
(c) 
Organisation cultures
(eg 'customer first'). We discussed culture in an earlier chapter; culture, in 
denoting what is normal behaviour, also denotes what is the right behaviour in many cases. 
(d) 
Organisation systems
. Ethics might be contained in a formal code, reinforced by the overall 
statement of values. A problem might be that ethics does not always save money, and there is a 
real cost to ethical decisions. Besides, the organisation has different ethical duties to different 
stakeholders. Who sets priorities? 
Ethical problems can be approached from several directions, as we have attempted to show. 
Unfortunately, this means that difficult problems rarely have clear solutions and it is usually possible for 
the opportunist manager to find authority to support any decision. The Chartered Certified Accountant 
must make an effort to do the right thing bearing in mind the variety of ethical assumptions that other 
people may make; the varying expectations of legitimate stakeholders; and the attitudes of legislators and 
pressure groups. 
4.1 Leadership practices and ethics 
The role of culture in determining the ethical climate of an organisation can be further explored by a 
brief reflection on the role of leaders in setting the ethical standard. A culture is partly a collection of 
symbols and attitudes, embodying certain truths about the organisation. Senior managers are also 
symbolic managers; inevitably they decide priorities. They set an example, whether they like it or not.
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CHAPTER 19
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ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS