IMA® (Institute of Management Accountants) continues to introduce resources to help academic members teach the topic of ethics in the classroom. Offered free to academics as an exclusive member benefit, these resources can provide students with real-world insights into how to behave ethically amid conflicting priorities and pressures.
Facilitator-Led Ethics Workshop: Can We Count on You?
As part of its ongoing commitment to ethics education, IMA has developed a variety of free facilitator-led workshops on the topic. The latest offering is titled “Facilitator-Led Ethics Workshop: Can We Count on You?” and can help students understand how one’s personal values and the behavior of others can affect their own ethical decision making. The workshop is designed for classroom use and best of all, it can be adapted to be taught either in-person or virtually.
As part of the workshop, students analyze two IECJ® (IMA Educational Case Journal) case studies, “A Reporting Dilemma: Hiring Freeze Headcount" and "A Tale of Missing…Parts," as well as the IMA Statement of Ethical Professional Practice and other ethical theories and principles. They will learn to (1) define various ethical terminology and moral philosophies; (2) examine decisions made during uncertain economic times; and (3) analyze the transparency of a working relationship as they discover how to develop a strong foundation rooted in ethical behavior.
Academic members can access “Facilitator-Led Ethics Workshop: Can We Count on You?” as well as other free facilitator-led ethics workshops on the IMA website (remember to login with your IMA credentials as an Academic member to zero out the purchase price). Other titles include:
Facilitator-Led Ethics Workshop: Action Required–Navigating Ethical Dilemmas
Facilitator-Led Ethics Workshop: Blinded by Pressure
Facilitator-Led Ethics Workshop: House Out of Control
Facilitator-Led Ethics Workshop: Misplaced Trust | Devastating Fraud
Facilitator-Led Ethics Workshop: The Slippery Slope of Greed
Winners of the Carl Menconi Case Competition
Two professors from Western Carolina University, Thomas D’Angelo and Marco Lam, Ph.D., have won the 2021 Carl Menconi Ethics Case Writing Competition.
The competition, sponsored jointly by the IMA Committee on Ethics and IMA’s Professor-in-Residence, Raef Lawson, Ph.D., CMA, CSCA, CPA, CAE, works to develop and distribute teaching cases focused on business ethics. Submissions must focus on business ethics, with specific application to management accounting and finance issues, and reference the IMA Statement of Ethical Professional Practice. The competition is open to academics as well as practitioners, and joint submissions are encouraged.
D’Angelo and Lam’s winning entry was titled “Disclosure Strategy: A Case of Ethics in Financial Reporting.” It describes the fictitious dilemma of Nick Alexander, a CFO and one of the first employees hired in the early stages of Logistics Exchange Market (LEXM) Corporation, which has experienced explosive growth since its IPO five years ago. The case explores how Nick navigates pressure from the company’s CEO to follow a “selective disclosure policy” as he prepares the quarterly financial statements.
The team’s case study will be featured in the July 2021 issue of Strategic Finance. D’Angelo and Lam will also receive a $500 cash prize and be recognized by IMA.
Next year’s Carl Menconi Ethics Case Writing Competition will open in the fall. Stay tuned for additional information or see full submission details here.
For questions or additional information about the competition, please contact research@imanet.org.
Find More Cases in the IECJ
IMA academic members also have access to 100+ instructional cases and the associated detailed teaching notes in the IECJ, a quarterly online journal that publishes cases on a wide range of topics reflecting the skill set required of management accountants. Published cases take learning beyond mere “number-crunching” exercises to require interpretation of data in a decision-making context – making them ideal assignments and learning tools for graduate and undergraduate students.
The latest issue (Volume 13, Issue 4) includes three excellent teaching cases:
“Fair and Square? Ethical Dilemmas at Bexley Box Company”
“A Cash Cow?”
“Flex Budgets and Variances at Speedy Tire Co.”
Academics can also find a searchable IECJ database, which allows search by topic area.
Questions regarding the IECJ can be sent to research@imanet.org.