Professional Accountants' Ethical Intent - The Impact Of Job Role Beliefs And Professional Identity

Abstract

Although ethics is commonly defined as the science of the moral, the present paper shows that the larger part of contributions to the emerging innovation ethics discourse rather does than studies moral communication. Instead of descriptevely analyzing how moral dilemmas are soleved and decision-making refers to moral communication, contemporary innovation ethicists try to solve moral dilemmas by moral communication. In doing so, the larger part of innovation ethics is subject to a self-confusion with its own research fiels. As as result, ethics subordinates its own code of truth to the codes of power, health, law, money, and further function systems of society. Challenging this thrend, the paper argues for a shift from an ethics as a moral science to and ethics as the science of the moral, which also allows for observing rather than following trends in moral preferences for specific function systems and (their) innovation.