Implementing and Maintaining an Effective Code of Professional Conduct - Research Paper Example

According to Cassarino (2007), for the proper functioning of an auditing institution, there needs to be a code of ethics due to the intricate purpose that an auditor plays for any company or institution. Auditing is the one profession that can reveal a major fraud in a company. Therefore, they need to observe, maintain, and implement the latter in their mandate, and code of ethics. An organization like the American Society of CPAs relies so much on internal auditors. Such auditors need to apply and uphold ethical principles such as integrity to give a basis for reliance on their judgment. Secondly, they need to observe objectivity that makes them not to be led by their interest but by the truth.

Confidentiality and competency are other lots that need to be observed. The most important aspect of ethical principles is their consistent maintenance, implementation, and determination of their effectiveness in an institution such as the American Society of CPAs (Braxton, 2012). The maintenance of an ethical code of professional conduct is the most important in making sense of the codes to the institution. The maintenance is due to the ever-changing conduct of the professionals working at an institution.

It ensures that the most current code of ethics is consistent with the demands of the institution. To fulfill the maintenance of the code of ethics, surveillance needs to be done continuously on the auditor's behavior to note any aspect that may compromise the professionalism of auditing. An institution like the American Society of CPAs needs to update the code of ethics now and then as the demand arises (Cascarino, 2007). According to Braxton (2012), the presence of a sound code of ethics in any institution without implementation is as good as not having one.

In that light, the implementation now brings the essence of the code of ethics. The implementation comes with changes that the code of ethics is made to fulfill. For an organization such as the American Society of CPAs to implement the code of ethics, it has to come up with institutional policies that will safely guide the interest of the code of ethics. If any auditor goes against the policy of observing the code of ethics then disciplinary action should be taken. It is only through the institutionalization of policies that will ensure the code of ethics is implemented.

Evaluation is imperative at the end of it all. According to Arcadia (2008), it is only through evaluation that an institution can recognize where they were, where the institution is currently, and where they intend to move. On that note, it is important to determine the effectiveness of the code of ethics by coming up with some measurable means of determining it. Determining the effectiveness of the code of ethics is through developing a conceptual framework that guides the whole evaluation process. The conceptual framework is a stepwise deductive process of evaluation with the following steps.