ASSESSMENT OF THREATS TO PROFESSIONAL ETHICS IN THE PRACTICAL ACTIVITY OF ACCOUNTANTS

The article is devoted to the study of issues of identification and determination of the level of threats to the professional ethics of professional accountants. Based on the study of the International Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (including the International Standards of Independence), a description of the threats to compliance with the fundamental principles of ethics of professional accountants, which are divided into five types: threats to self-interest, self-assessment, protection, personal interests and pressure. We have systematized the circumstances that cause these threats, the diversity of which is related to the following situations: preparation and submission of information; offer to provide or receive incentives; the presence of financial interest of a professional accountant in the organization-employer; pressure from managers, management of the employer organization on non-compliance with applicable law and in the event of a conflict of interest. As a result of our research, we proved the nonlinearity of the relationship between circumstances, threats and ethical principles of professional accountants: one circumstance can create several threats, while one threat can affect compliance with several fundamental principles. For example, requiring management to prepare and provide misleading information poses a threat to self-assessment, pressure, and self-interest. At the same time, these circumstances pose a threat of non-compliance with the fundamental principle of objectivity. According to the Conceptual Basis of the Code, a professional accountant must not just follow specific rules, but identify, evaluate and eliminate threats of violation of fundamental principles of ethics. The study of the sequence of actions of the accountant and detailing the factors that should be taken into account, allowed us to visualize the decision-making procedure of the accountant in identifying threats to his ethical behavior and present it as an algorithm. We have proposed a method of differentiated quantitative assessment of acceptable levels of threats, which allows to take into account the probability of their negative impact on compliance with the principles of ethical behavior and the significance of threats for a professional accountant. The use of the provided proposals in practice will promote a more conscious attitude of accountants to the fundamental principles of ethics, will monitor the circumstances that pose a threat to their ethical behavior and will allow more efficient performance of professional tasks.

Effects of Interview Training with Simulated Patients on Suicide, Threat, and Abuse Assessment

Mental health practitioners as often not provided sufficiently effective interview training to assess for suicidality (Schmitz et al. 2012), to evaluate for abuse (Young et al. 2001), or to respond effectively to suicidal risk (Mackelprang et al. 2014). The current study examined the efficacy of general interview training using simulated patients to increase clinician competency in assessing for threats to self or others and abuse. Data were collected from doctoral clinical psychology students, who received weekly instruction for a number of interview-relevant topics. Each participant completed pre- and post-test videotaped interviews with simulated patients. The interviews evaluated using the Skills in Psychological Interviewing: Clinical Evaluation Scales. In addition, all participants completed the Suicidal Ideation Response Inventory, Second Edition at pre- and post-test to assess their skill in responding to suicidal clients. Paired samples t-tests were used to determine differences in trainees’ skills before and after the training. The tests revealed significant increases in competence for all assessment skills (p<.001) as well as for response to suicidal verbalizations (p<.001). Present findings suggest broad spectrum training with simulated patients has significant implications for the efficacy of future clinicians. The implications of using simulated patients is also discussed. Keywords: Training, Suicide, Abuse, Assessment, Competency

Collective Self-Determination without Isolation

This chapter addresses the self-determination objection to reform intervention (that it is impermissible because it undermines recipients’ collective self-determination) and argues that a commitment to self-determination doesn’t require (as is often assumed) shoring up the boundaries between different societies. Rather, it requires investing in those political projects—including certain reform interventions—that serve to mitigate both local and international threats to self-determination. The chapter considers three ways in which reform intervention might undermine recipients’ self-determination: by dominating them, by subjecting them to neocolonial power dynamics, or by making their institutions more responsive to interveners’ interests at the expense of recipients’ interests. It identifies which kinds of reform intervention risk undermining recipients’ self-determination in these ways and which don’t. This analysis reveals that reform intervention need not undermine recipients’ self-determination and may sometimes bolster it.

Social Status, Self-Respect, and Opportunity

This chapter extends the requirements of liberal relational egalitarianism by way of an account of esteem-based norms of social status, analysing three kinds of injustices that such norms can engender or constitute. First, they can enable or aggravate domination. Second, they can harm self-respect. However, a closer analysis of self-respect and its crucial role for individual autonomy reveals that not all inegalitarian status norms can be classified as threats to self-respect without threatening precisely that role. Third, they can be unjust simply by depriving individuals of significant social opportunities, because losing such opportunities due to norm-coordinated, self-sustaining disesteem by others is a threat to one’s equal standing in social cooperation not present when they are foreclosed in other ways. This is an independent rationale for combating these norms which is fully accessible to liberals, and does better at capturing the distinct evil of status hierarchy than rival views.

Coping with COVID-19-induced threats to self

Whereas the COVID-19 pandemic induces in people both uncertainty and angst, the latter may not be a direct consequence of uncertainty as such, but rather of the possible negative outcomes whose subjective certainty increased under the pandemic. From this perspective, we discuss the psychological determinants of people’s reactions to the pandemic and their modes of self-affirmation in response to pandemic-implied threats. Those reactions are guided by value-oriented narratives that may variously drive people’s pro- and anti-social behaviors during the pandemic.

Grieving the Living: The Social Death of Former Jehovah’s Witnesses

Addressing a relative lack of research investigating the experiences of individuals who have left the Jehovah’s Witnesses (JW), this research utilizes a social identity approach to examine qualitatively, the process of transitioning towards post-JW life, experiences of ostracism and perceived threats to self-identity. Semi-structured interviews were carried out in the homes of six former JWs, and transcripts were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. Narratives suggest that experiences of ostracism following religious exit can be associated with diminished mental health, while having a sense of agency and establishing new (online) social connections may help mitigate adverse consequences. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Dual path effects of self-worth on status consumption: evidence from Chinese consumers

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of self-worth on status consumption, focusing on the mediation of self-enhancement and self-compensation and the moderation of power distance belief (PDB) in the relationship of threats to self-worth and consumer choice. Design/methodology/approach Experiments are used to collect data. Three studies are designed to test the relationship between self-worth, self-enhancement and self-compensation, PDB and status consumption. In total, 180 MBA students participate Study 1, 186 and 244 undergraduate students participate Studies 2 and 3, respectively. ANOVA and bootstrapping method are adopted to analyze the data by using SPSS version 19.0. Study 1 tests the influence of self-worth on status consumption; Study 2 examines the mediation role of self-enhancement and self-compensation; and Study 3 tests the moderation role of PDB. Findings Results indicate that situational self-worth perception has dual path effects on status consumption. Both improvements in – and threats to – self-worth have a positive impact on status consumption. Improvements in self-worth affect status consumption through the mediation of self-enhancement motives. Threats to self-worth affect status and non-status consumption through the mediation of the self-compensation motive. In the context of a threat to self-worth, compared with consumers with a low PDB, high-PDB consumers have higher purchase intention for status goods but not non-status goods. Research limitations/implications In this study, improvements in – and threats to – self-worth are momentarily manipulated. The authors present one product in each experiment, but what would happen if both status goods and non-status goods were shown to participants? Which one will the authors choose under different self-worth manipulations? And how long can the effects last? These questions should be answered in future research. Practical implications This research provides a venue for marketers to introduce and advertise status goods. Marketing practitioners should establish the link between self-worth and status consumption appeals. In the Asia-Pacific markets, Confucian value is important to consumers, and high power distance is important in Confucianism. Thus when developing markets in China, international companies should emphasize Confucian values in the design of advertisements or other promotional items. Further, marketing for status goods should attach importance to the expression of their symbolic meanings. Originality/value This study contributes to the literature on self-worth and status consumption. It also explores the dual path of the effect of self-worth on status consumption. The motives of self-enhancement and self-compensation are first proposed and tested to explain the mechanism, which differentiates the study from prior work and gives a more reasonable explanation for status and compensatory consumption. The moderation role of PDB delineates the boundary for the effect of a threat to self-worth on status consumption.

Impact of Zones with Special Status on the Environment (Experience of Russia and Kazakhstan)

In the article the issues of establishing and functioning of the zones with special economic activity conditions are addressed and their impact on the environment in Russia and Kazakhstan is assessed. The relevance of the subject of the research is determined, on the one hand, by a qualitative change in the role of the environmental issues in the system of values of population of the post-soviet countries and, on the other hand, by cumulative increase of the negative impact due to the irrational environmental management. Information about the types of special status zones established in these countries is systematized. The key characteristics of these institutional entities are compared, which includes goals and specifics of their development, implemented organizational mechanisms, measures for support of business activities, offered tax incentives and preferences. The authors demonstrate that the adopted accelerated economic growth strategy within the framework of zones with special status is implemented disregarding the environmental effects of their development, which poses serious threats to self-preservation of the society and environment. Common and country-specific risks of functioning of the zones with special economic activity conditions are justified. Factors contributing to inadequate assessment of the negative impact on the environment of industries, created in SEZ were revealed. It is emphasized that the current legal and regulatory framework of these zones in Russia and Kazakhstan is aimed not at the prevention of environmental threats but at the easing of requirements for entities in the field of environmental management. Finally, conclusion is made about the greening opportunities of development of the zones with special economic activity conditions, a necessity to enhance the environmental legislation and mutual “best practices” adoption opportunities in this field in Russia and Kazakhstan. The empirical basis of the analysis is constituted by the results of the studies carried out within the framework of the research work “Enhancement of the State Regulation Policy of Accelerated Clustering of the Industrial Regions” implemented on the grounds of the grant funding of the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The effect of others’ outcome valence on spontaneous gift-giving behavior

Purpose In social networking services gift giving, the decision to send a gift is often initiated by spontaneous news about others, who may have recently experienced fortune or misfortune. The purpose of this paper is to show that the valence of the other’s event can affect the empathy experienced by the giver and that the level of empathy affects gift selection behavior. Design/methodology/approach Study 1 investigated the relationship between empathy and valence of other’s event and the underlying mechanism of changes in self-esteem. Study 2 explored how different levels of empathies lead to different gift selection behavior. Study 3 replicated the results of Study 2 using a different measurement approach. Findings Across the three studies, findings consistently suggest that the empathy arising from unexpected news of the others’ fortune was lower compared to that of the others’ misfortune because of threats to self-esteem. In addition, greater empathy prompted gift givers to spend more time and effort in gift selection. Practical implications Understanding how valence of event experienced by others might motivate givers to engage in selecting a gift online can help retailers increase predictive insights for recommendations. Originality/value While past research focused on ritual gift giving, this research examined spontaneous gift giving. The study is also unique in that the empathy gap between the giver and the receiver is a result of the changes in the psychological state of the giver.