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

Adriana Tiron-Tudor, Waymond Rodgers and Delia Deliu

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 2024, vol. 38, issue 3, 990-1018

Abstract: Purpose - The paper aims to explore the sided challenges facing the accounting profession in an advanced digitalised future where humans and robots will collaborate in working teams. Design/methodology/approach - 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. Findings - Key professional accountants’ (PAs) sided challenges refer 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. Practical implications - The ethical decision-making pathways corresponding to each detected challenges provide a useful reference and guideline for PAs in the digitalised future of the profession. Social implications - 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. Originality/value - 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.

Keywords: Disruptive technologies; Artificial intelligence; Transhumanism; Ethics; Professional accountants; Decision-making; Professional judgement (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:aaajpp:aaaj-12-2022-6173

DOI: 10.1108/AAAJ-12-2022-6173

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