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ACCA Applied Knowledge · Business and Technology · Ethical conflicts and dilemmas

An accountant is deciding whether to disclose a client's minor, unintentional error to a third party. She reasons that confidentiality is a duty that must be upheld whatever the outcome, unless law or professional duty requires disclosure. Which statement best describes her reasoning and its limitation?

Her reasoning is deontological because it rests on a duty, confidentiality, applied regardless of consequences. The limitation is that rigidly following rules may overlook harmful outcomes or conflicts between duties. Utilitarianism would weigh outcomes, and relativism would rely on local custom, neither of which she is using.

  1. AIt is deontological, and its limitation is that rigid adherence to a rule may ignore the consequences of the actionCorrect
  2. BIt is utilitarian, and its limitation is that it ignores the rules entirely
  3. CIt is a cultural relativist approach, and its limitation is that it follows only local custom

Explanation

Reasoning from fixed duties irrespective of outcomes is deontological. Its weakness is that strict rule-following can produce poor results when duties conflict or consequences are severe. A utilitarian approach weighs outcomes, and relativism relies on local norms, neither of which is described.

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