(b) Anne is experiencing some tension due to the conflict between her duties and responsib

Question

(b) Anne is experiencing some tension due to the conflict between her duties and responsibilities as an employee of

Fillmore Pierce and as a qualified professional accountant.

Required:

(i) Compare and contrast her duties and responsibilities in the two roles of employee and professional

accountant. (6 marks)

Answer 1

正确答案：
(b) (i) Contrasting roles
Joint professional and organisational roles are common to most professionals (medical professionals, for example).
Although the roles are rarely in conflict, in most cases it is assumed that any professional’s primary duty is to the public
interest rather than the organisation.
Organisational role
As a member of the staff of Fillmore Pierce, Anne is a part of the hierarchy of an organisation and answerable to her
seniors. This means that under normal circumstances, she should comply with the requirements of her seniors. As an
employee, Anne is ultimately accountable to the principals of the organisation (the partners in an audit firm or the
shareholders in a company), and, she is subject to the cultural norms and reasonable expectations of work-group
membership. It is expected that her behaviour at work will conform. to the social and cultural norms of the organisation
and that she will be efficient and hard working in her job.
Professional role
As an accountant, Anne is obliged to maintain the high professional and ethical standards of her profession. If her
profession is underpinned by an ethical or professional code, she will need to comply with that in full. She needs to
manage herself and co-ordinate her activities so as to meet professional standards. In this, she needs to ensure that she
informs herself in current developments in her field and undertakes continuing professional development as required by
her professional accounting body. She is and will remain accountable to her professional body in terms of continued
registration and professional behaviour. In many cases, this accountability will be more important than an accountability
to a given employer as it is the membership of the professional body that validates Anne’s professional skills.