The accounting profession in the Twilight Zone: navigating digitalisation's sided challenges through ethical pathways for decision-making

Tiron-Tudor, Adriana; Rodgers, Waymond; Deliu, Delia

Abstract

The paper aims to explore the sided challenges facing the accounting profession in an advanced digitalized future where humans and robots will collaborate in working teams.
Employing a qualitative approach, the paper conducts a reflexive thematic analysis to identify challenges and associated socio-ethical risks of digitalisation; it then introduces an ethical decision-making model aimed at addressing these challenges.
Key professional accountants’ sided challenges refers to autonomy, privacy, balance of power, security, human dignity, non-maleficence and justice, each of them possessing multifaceted dimensions that are interconnected dynamically to create a complex web of socio-ethical risks.
The ethical decision-making pathways corresponding to each detected challenges provide a useful reference and guideline for professional accountants in the digitalized future of the profession.
Using an anthropocentric perspective, the research addresses the sided challenges of accounting profession’s accelerated digitalisation; it contributes to fostering accountability and legitimacy of the accounting profession which serves the public interest.
By innovatively intertwining ethical positions with decision-making pathways, the paper offers a potential solution to address digitalisation’s sided challenges that might interfere with practitioners’ professional judgement and identity.

Citation

Tiron-Tudor, A., Rodgers, W., & Deliu, D. (in press). The accounting profession in the Twilight Zone: navigating digitalisation's sided challenges through ethical pathways for decision-making. Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal, https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-12-2022-6173

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 30, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jun 20, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jun 1, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 20, 2024
• Journal: Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal
• Print ISSN: 0951-3574
• Publisher: Emerald
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-12-2022-6173
• Keywords: disruptive technologies; Artificial Intelligence; transhumanism; ethics; professional accountants; decision-making
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4700988