Auditing the truth, or so you thought

The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of auditors in the financial crisis and the level of responsibility, if any, that should be placed on audit firms. The paper will analyse the ethical implications of the decisions made by auditors when issuing their audit opinions for their clients. Utilising the ethical paradigms developed by Rushworth Kidder in How Good People Make Tough Choices, this paper will assess the reasoning behind the decisions made by auditors and audit firms as a whole. The auditors did not intentionally choose to commit the wrongdoings the critics have accused them of.