ABSTRACT
Sociologists define a profession as an occupation whose practitioners must master a specialized body of knowledge, satisfy formalized admission requirements, adhere to a code of ethics, and serve the public. Public service distinguishes a profession from a business. Society grants
professionals the exclusive right to perform certain services. Only licensed physicians may prescribe medication. Registered attorneys, alone, may practice law. Certified public accountants (CPAs) possess an exclusive franchise to sign audit reports. In return, society expects professionals to promote the public good. Physicians must heal the sick. Attorneys should promote justice. CPAs are expected to protect the public from erroneous or fraudulent financial information. The founders of the American public accounting profession readily
acknowledged their obligation to serve the public. Price Waterhouse chief George O. May explained the auditor’s public responsibility as follows:
The high-minded accountant who undertakes to practice in this field assumes high ethical obligations, and it is the assumption of such obligations that makes what might otherwise be a business, a profession. Of all the groups of professions which are closely allied with business, there is none in which the practitioner is under a greater ethical obligation to persons who are not his immediate clients.2
