The public accountant, as a professional and social manager, must acquire principles and rules of conduct attached to the accounting activity on a large scale, to apply them in the aid and timely improvement of the quality of life of the community. In addition, you must study thoughts and generate ideas that raise your intellectual power, taking the past to expand your knowledge and visioning the future to globalize the concepts from an analytical-progressive perspective, standardizing social concepts to improve the environment in which accounting is developed.
Scope and contribution of the accounting professional for the growth of society.
1. Accountant and society
A basic principle of the professional ethics of the public accountant is the responsibility that he must have before the company and society, guaranteeing transparency, generating trust in each of the processes that involve him and make him participate in the daily events of his business life..
It is of vital importance that the public accountant in the dimension of the theoretical-practical development of his profession acquires on a large scale principles, values and rules of conduct attached to accounting activity, showing himself as an individual capable of contributing through his behaviors, teachings and beginnings of growth on a par with the profession; In this way, a clear respect for accounting will be generated.
"To respect a profession is to recognize the sphere of individuality in learning and knowing, the starting point of pedagogical discourse." (Suarez, 2001, p. 153)
In this way, little by little, society has recognized the importance of the accountant in the normal development of its processes, encompassing not only the structural part directed by a technical accounting path, guided towards bookkeeping, but the social being, identifies with the accountant, thanks to the vision of help and timely improvement of the quality of life of the man who is a member of the community.
That is why this society, grouping individuals in order to meet the objectives and ends of life through cooperation, approaches the accountant, since he is the direct visionary of capital and its subsequent destination. "Accounting must be conceived as a discipline at the service of humanity."
To have a good study on Social Responsibility, it is necessary to delve into the changes and attitudes that society presents, which allows us to give some concepts about Social Responsibility:
"Increased awareness of the level and quality of life, as a characteristic guideline for our culture. Today's society has begun to demand from the public authorities and also from companies, more adequate solutions to problems hitherto ignored or little considered: leisure, culture, the environment and, ultimately, concern for the standard of living. It is the relation that exists between the economic conformation and the community; how it affects them, benefits them and relates them to each other ”. (Tua, Gonzalo, 1989, p. 13)
Little by little in business thinking, the idea of improving the social environment has been generated, generating projects that strongly attack the decomposition of society, but at the same time the notion of a company that gives itself to others will be sold, waiting receive great fruits from the same members of society, when making the close alliance of a collaboration in exchange for advertising force.
2. Importance of the principle of responsibility
Responsibility indicates that every act requires the obligation to answer for it, which is equivalent to the fact that the behaviors of those who act in a certain environment will be evaluated in accordance with the rules that regulate their exercise. The principle of responsibility requires first and foremost optimal performance.
In society, the global scandals of the large multinationals in North America have generated unrest in the business sector, attacking the accountant head-on and leaving the good name of the accounting profession on the brink of public opinion.
On repeated occasions, the information presented by the company to external users is manipulated without giving clear details of the accounting information, thus controlling resources against possible pressures, carrying out an optimistic view to the partners, as a strategy of financial difficulties within the business.
Accounting is made up of accounting principles and standards whose main objective is reliability and verifiability, but it really shows the opposite, creativity when it comes to showing Financial Statements in order to publicize their management for a certain time without think about the possible causes involved.
From this it is conceptualized that the accounting discipline contracts a responsibility with the company, with the users, with the directives and the society in general. Large companies separate the ownership and management of corporations, thus obtaining greater reliability in delivering real results.
In some cases, the accountant is directly responsible, but the application of his knowledge is not a crime for technical management, but does affect individual morality, generating uncertainty about his ethical and moral capacity.
It should be borne in mind that in some cases when a company generates large profits, those responsible, for the general opinion, for this correct management and excellent operation are and will always be its directives and manager. Another point is when the company enters a state of crisis, when its accounting development shows high losses in its accounts; In this case, the person in charge is the accounting professional who does not fully apply his knowledge and little contribution to the harmonious development of the economic entity.
"Professional duties are, to a large extent, specific to each profession, but there are duties that are recognized and shared by most professions." (Álvarez, 2002, p. 148).
The accountant always responsible in the application of his professional activity must bear in mind various elements of the profession:
"Personal activity, service to others, professional stability, personal benefit, professional honesty, respect for personal dignity, vocation." (Cadavid, 1996, p. 166)
The profession is not only an individual matter, the accountants carry out a public and useful activity to the society, whose monetary remuneration for the accountant, given by the value received from his fees, is for his personal subsistence.
Therefore, the professional and personal integrity that the public accountant must have in the exercise of his profession, must be of high indicators, seeking with his intellectual capacity the common benefit, but it is very difficult to act with great integrity if it is taken into account the type of society in which we find ourselves; therefore, social responsibility has changed course for its own benefit and also society encourages non-compliance with ethical management.
3. Responsibility and professional ethics.
Ethics is shown in the behavior or responsibility of each person, facing facts or actions in a society. It is a daily knowledge that we all exercise at some point. "The important thing for the accountant is to make commitments to society and to apply professional ethics in his career."
The structural link between the social environment and accounting ethics is not a question to be spared. Social and economic actors have a great role to play in shaping a social culture of ethics and contributing to a moral construction of the exercise of the accounting function.
The formation of a responsible culture with the application of ethical principles is cultivated through the sowing of values and their roots, through the application of knowledge, greatly contributing to the formation of a collective conscience. "The correspondences between social responsibility and training can be summed up in three points: extension of training in certain areas, training to judge situations in accordance with the social context in which they occur, incentive for permanent professional training". (Tua, Gonzalo, 1989, p. 32)
The professional human being constant in nourishing himself with ideas and thoughts that elevate his intellectual power, taking the past to raise his knowledge and visioning the future to globalize the concepts from an analytical-progressive perspective, is the call to standardize social concepts to improve in good Measure the environment in which you move in your discipline.
The accountant must direct his thoughts to a macro perception of the future benefits of applying social projects. "With the expression social responsibility, it refers to the obligation that the accounting professional has to assume the consequences of the performance of their work in the social context." (Tua, Gonzalo, 1989, p. 28)
Accounting discipline has been found in a balance locating the interests of ethics-truth and professional performance. Among the qualities of accounting information we find the truth, but an exact truth regarding the usefulness of users and truth with a degree of accuracy, to provide greater certainty, to be efficient in achieving objectives.
4. Social responsibility of the accounting professional towards the management of the company
Talking about Social Responsibility according to the economic conformation leads us to examine all the concepts inherent in the company; An economic entity, in addition to carrying out tasks through technological, human and technical resources, to subsequently carry out activities related to the administration of capital, must be involved in the factors that allow us to raise our name and prestige. The community plays an important role, since its members are the ones who determine the subsequent growth and stability of the organization, showing that the company unites various interests through which it satisfies many needs.
The main thing is to take into account that the company operates and works hand in hand with society, which shows that it develops in it and for it, involving all the living sectors of the community to broaden the notion of social compliance of the company. "Social accounting must continue to advance and generate breaks with traditional accounting and administrative thinking: for this it requires the assistance of individuals from various professions who provide their intellectual support" (Machado, 2004, p.194).
Social Responsibility is related to other sources that make up the company, we can see that Commercial Law is aimed at the protection of society, since it is governed through a contract through which the company has different obligations with each individual who acted for the benefit and development of the Mercantile activity.
When a corporation is formed, it is created through a contract, which is assigned the autonomy raised by the individuals in that society for their benefit and progress, it is possible to frame that it is their partners who give life and future to that company that is represented through an economic entity or commercial activity.
It is clarified that the society was created by a contract, but that contract has given birth to the creation of a relationship that exists between individuals and the community, that is why the Corporation becomes part of the National economy with responsibilities before the society.
The economy of a company also plays a very important role in the face of Social Responsibility since the businessman seeks to obtain a surplus of his capital in order to increase his business activity, but it must be borne in mind that this business activity is carried out thanks to to the community, which with its different agents participates in the life cycle of the company. This is how the entrepreneur must seek the permanence and stability of the company, taking into account that social needs must be met, raising the possibility of holding meetings with the community, to develop the different activities proposed.
The company has creative owners who are the capital contributors, for them their main goal is their own satisfaction, which is achieved through high profit. All economic objectives are achieved through costs and income, but with the direct participation of citizens, this is how the company contributes to the comfort and care of society.
Social Responsibility is aimed at the growth of companies, since the greater the growth, the greater their responsibility, expanding the concept of monitoring damages that may be caused by commercial, industrial or service processes.
Accounting must also introduce Social Responsibility in its different activities and approaches so that the reports presented are no longer only necessary for its partners, but also for different users, as they are; customers, suppliers, workers and the entire community as a whole. "Social responsibility is causing the expansion of financial information and contributing to social accounting."
In the planning of projects the help of the social achievement of the company is related taking into account the costs and benefits to detect how social groups are affected, determining strategies and practices with the intention of taking into account the aspirations of the individual.
This can be done by making all the information available to society with the direct study of the different objectives, policies and strategies towards social ends.
Social Responsibility is related to the activity of the Public Accountant for which the professional has the obligation to carry out his work through the social context. Caring for social welfare and the proper functioning of everything that operates in the society to increase its degrees and levels of efficiency in the manipulation of the resources it has and primarily to maintain its stability.
It would be very useful for the best operation of the company if the activity carried out by the Accountant went beyond the books, such as: relating more to the different customers and suppliers that the entity manages, since their information is to disclose how it is It relates the company to each of the third parties that affects it in one way or another. To ensure better information, it is good to maintain social relationships.
It is also important that the Accountant become more related to the company's workers, so that a better performance of the activities aimed at preparing the reports can be carried out. In this way, the financial information of a company would be more complete and comparable.
What is sought in depth with the Accountant - information users relationship, is that more social conflicts are avoided such as: conflicts between workers and employees, between individuals and companies, between different companies.
The Accountant enters to play a service role with the community, seeking that each process improves the approach through the consultants, to reach a better deal and good understanding.
Accounting discipline is essential for the socio-economic development of any country, since it promotes the development of SMEs and large international capitals, giving confidence for the sustainable operation of economic institutions, encouraging markets through of a reliable economy and stimulating the generation of employment in the country.
And although some businessmen, in the correct management of the company feel calm with the generation of employment, it is necessary to exchange concepts to teach that it is not only through the expansion of jobs that social development is promoted. "People are social objects as well as physical objects, they are centers of action and intention." (Jones, Gerard, 1980, p.274)
Only when society and each one of its members leave invisibility aside before the problems that grow and accentuate daily in the environment, will it be possible to create an integral harmony in the activities of economic events.
Conclusions
Social responsibility is a truth of the present. Its application occurs through the application of projects that benefit and at the same time improve the quality of life of the communities.
The accounting professional through the constitution of ethical principles that complement his practical development, contributes to the future of social aids that inject in all areas of the company an expansion of the factors that elevate the growth of society.
When creating a company, an arduous and difficult action that is courageously started, to carry out important businesses or projects, the idea of integrating community agents to carry out studies that allow focusing on the damages that the development of business activities can generate; But if the business activity does not generate social damage, works can be carried out that contribute to improving the quality of life in the environment in which the company operates.
Business growth must go hand in hand with social contribution, seeking the collective well-being generated by businessmen, harmonizing relations with the environment.
The scope and contribution that the accounting professional makes to achieve the growth of society, is harmonized in each of the accounting processes that it applies in the development of professional practice, giving the business environment a new concept of social awareness in search to raise, improve or contribute to the quality of life of the community.
Bibliography
Alvarez, Martha Cecilia. The Public Accountant and his social responsibility. In: University of Antioquia Magazine. No.41 (Sept. 2002); p.154.
Jones, Edward E, Gerard, Harold B. Foundations of social psychology. Ed. Limusa. Mexico 1980.
Machado, Marco Antonio. Dimensions of social accounting. In: International Journal of Accounting and Auditing Legis. No.17 (Jan.-Mar. 2004); p.194.
Suarez Pineda, Jesús Alberto. Social worldview of accounting as a scientific discipline. In: Magazine Legis del Contador. No.5 (Jan.-Mar. 2001); p.153.
Tua Pereda, Jorge; Gonzalo Angulo, José Antonio. Auditor's social responsibility. In: University of Antioquia Magazine. No.15 (Sept. 1989); pp. 13-24-28-32.
Machado, Marco Antonio. Dimensions of social accounting. In: International Journal of Accounting and Auditing Legis. No.17 (Jan.-Mar. 2004); p.194
Álvarez, Martha Cecilia. The Public Accountant and his social responsibility. In: University of Antioquia Magazine. No.41 (Sept. 2002); p.154
Tua Pereda, Jorge; Gonzalo Angulo, José Antonio. Auditor's social responsibility. In: University of Antioquia Magazine. No.15 (Sept. 1989); p.2
