the cima student

The CIMA Code of Ethics is one of those areas you tend to gloss over when studying. It’s not really something I focused on particularly when studying for my E1 exam but after preparing for the Operational Case Study I realised that you can score easy marks by thinking about Ethics in pretty much any scenario.

But trying to remember all of the models and accounting standards can be a minefield. But I found a useful acronym on remembering the key principles of the CIMA code of ethics.

It’s OPPTIC.

I remember this by thinking of alcohol (which usually comes to mind after hours of study and revision) and the drinks optic that’s attached to a bottle of gin or vodka. It stands for:

Objectivity – to look at things from a fair and unbiased point of view and not allowing personal factors to influence decision making.

Professional Competence – having the knowledge and skills required to adequately perform the tasks expected of you.

Professional Behaviour – acting in a manner that is befitting of a professional organisation.

Technical Standards – meeting the standards required by working at a specific organisation.

Integrity – an uncompromising and predictably consistent commitment to honour moral, ethical, spiritual and artistic values and principles.

Confidentiality – an expectation to keep sensitive information private.

Ethics in action

Ethics can cover such a broad range of areas too. Almost any topic in the CIMA syllabus you can relate back to ethics. Whether it’s a decision on the product mix of a company or the proposed outsourcing of an area of the business – you can tie it all up with ethics and score some marks in the process.

It wasn’t until I was watching some of the case study preparation videos from Astranti until I realiased that I could be missing out on easy marks by not covering ethics properly.

In fact the title of this post was mentioned in the Astranti text when I was preparing for the OCS “Good ethics is good governance!” was mentioned, And it’s a great point to remember – especially if faced with a governance question in the exams – as it’s the ideal time to refer back to the CIMA code of ethics.

I am also sure (well, maybe more hopeful) that the CIMA exam marker would be a happy marker if they saw students can refer back to the CIMA code of ethics. And a happy marker will hopefully be a generous marker.