# Ethical Decision Making for Auditors Course (Self-Paced)

Canonical URL: <https://www.graduateschool.edu/courses/ethical-decision-making-for-auditors-course-self-paced>

## Overview

Are you faced with tough decisions about how to handle sensitive situations in your mission to uncover fraud, waste, and abuse? Explore the ethical hazards and dilemmas facing auditors and review methods of analyzing and resolving them in this participative workshop. Come away with a skill set for dealing with the common, right vs. wrong hazards (temptations) and the more difficult right vs. right conflicts or dilemmas that auditors face. Also, learn ways to mitigate the risks, fortify the courage associated with carrying out ethical decisions, and review how to integrate effective ethics control systems into an organization.

## What you'll learn

- Anticipate and recognize ethical dilemmas as well as distinguish right vs. wrong temptations from the right vs. right ethical hazards and dilemmas that auditors face in their work.
- Select, describe, and use the appropriate ethical decision-making process from a survey of widely accepted models.
- Describe the causes of unethical behavior and methods of discouraging that behavior.
- Mitigate the internal and external inhibitors to carrying out decisions when there are potential risks involved.

## Curriculum

#### Module 1: Introduction to Concepts

- Define ethics in the auditing context and why it matters in practice.
- Contrast right-vs.-wrong temptations with right-vs.-right dilemmas.
- Introduce ethical decision-making frameworks (e.g., PLUS, Josephson, Kidder).
- Discuss the auditor’s role amid advancing technology.

#### Module 2: Moral Values and the Causes of Unethical Behavior

- Identify core moral values and draft an effective code of values.
- Explain ethics control systems (compliance vs. values orientation).
- Analyze common causes of dishonesty and remedies (pledges, reminders, supervision).
- Connect values to everyday audit decisions and culture.

#### Module 3: Critical Hazards that Auditors Face

- Review key ethical hazards (e.g., pressures from management, disclosure issues, independence).
- Discuss impairments to independence (personal, external, organizational) under GAGAS.
- Differentiate temptations from complex dilemmas in real audit settings.

#### Module 4: Analyzing and Framing Personal Examples

- Apply a selected framework to past dilemmas and temptations.
- Practice articulating facts, stakeholders, options, and likely consequences.
- Structure cases for group discussion and peer feedback.

#### Module 5: Dilemma Resolution Using Traditional, Ethical Decision-Making Theories and Principles

- Work through resolution strategies: utilitarianism, deontological duty, and the Golden Rule.
- Test options against principles (e.g., legal/code tests, stakeholder impact).
- Document rationale linking facts, values, and chosen actions.

#### Module 6: Methods to Mitigate Factors that Inhibit Carrying Out Ethical Decisions when Risks are Involved

- Define moral courage and distinguish external vs. internal fears.
- Use tools to fortify courage (experience, character, support networks, reflection).
- Plan concrete steps to implement ethical choices under pressure.

#### Module 7: Post-Assessment and Summary

- Reassess understanding of hazards, frameworks, and independence.
- Synthesize lessons into practical commitments for future audits.
- Identify ongoing habits to sustain ethical decision-making.

## Pricing

**Tuition:** $649