Professional Judgment – The Mark of a Profession

The Rules of Professional Conduct are part of the Member’s Handbook of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario. The Foreword states that the Rules are comprehensive in their scope, practical in application and addressed to high moral standards. They serve not only as a guide to the profession itself, but as a source of assurance of the profession's concern for the public it serves.

According to those Rules, “It is a mark of a profession that there is a voluntary assumption, by those who comprise it -- the professional community -- of ethical principles which are aimed, first and foremost, at protection of the public and, second, at achieving orderly and courteous conduct within the profession.”

The rules of professional conduct presume the existence of a profession. Since the word "profession" has lost some of its earlier precision, through widespread application, it is worthwhile reviewing the characteristics which mark a calling as professional in the traditional sense.

Much has been written on the subject and court cases have revolved around it. The weight of the authorities, however, identifies the following distinguishing elements:

·       there is mastery by the practitioners of a particular intellectual skill, acquired by lengthy training and education;

·       the traditional foundation of the calling rests in public practice -- the application of the acquired skill to the affairs of others for a fee;

·       the calling centres on the provision of personal services rather than entrepreneurial dealing in goods;

·       there is an outlook, in the practice of the calling, which is essentially objective;

·       there is acceptance by the practitioners of a responsibility to subordinate personal interests to those of the public good;

·       there exists a developed and independent society or institute, comprising the members of the calling, which sets and maintains standards of qualification, attests to the competence of the individual practitioner and safeguards and develops the skills and standards of the calling;

·       there is a specialized code of ethical conduct, laid down and enforced by that society or institute, designed principally for the protection of the public;

·       there is a belief, on the part of those engaged in the calling, in the virtue of interchange of views, and in a duty to contribute to the development of their calling, adding to its knowledge and sharing advances in knowledge and technique with their fellow members.

By these criteria, chartered accountancy is a profession. It is essential to recognize that a profession does not cease to be a profession because a proportion of its members enter salaried private employment. These members continue to belong to the profession and to be subject to the rules of professional conduct. It should be recognized that some members of the profession might acquire the required skills outside of public practice.