Özet:

Accounting professionals face daily dilemmas and challenges in the exercise of their activity. This situation results from several factors, for example, the constant changes in the tax system and the overgrowing requirements to fulfil the national tax authority obligations. There is a market saturation regarding the number of accounting professionals and the low business creation rate in Portugal. These factors minimize and depreciate the accounting career leading it to be underestimated by the society. This research studies the relations between professional ethics, professional commitment and society’s recognition regarding the certified accountant profession, among accounting professionals and accounting students (future professionals), and confronting their perceptions. It was possible to verify that professional ethics influences the commitment in the accounting profession, the higher the level of ethics is, the higher is the professional commitment. The results suggest that society recognition influences professional commitment, since the more recognition is felt by the individuals, the greater is their professional commitment and the higher is the recognition by society, greater is their professional ethics. In the confrontation, between professional and future professionals perceptions, there were no significant divergences regarding professional ethics and professional commitment. However, it was verified that, from the professionals’ point of view, the level of recognition by the society is inferior to the one presented by the students.

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