Chair's corner.

• Author: Bunting, Robert L.
• Position: Experience of a business leader

Over the past 23 years as CEO of my firm, I have occasionally been called upon to play judge or referee in disagreements between my partners. This usually occurred when the disagreement had degenerated from a business issue into a personal one. In every case, I was struck by the fact that two people of great personal integrity had managed to lose trust and respect for one another over a matter that was nothing more than a difference of views.

In reading a recent survey of business leaders conducted by the University of Washington, I was in awe at the number of participants who believed they possessed integrity but doubted the integrity of others in their company with whom they had past disagreements. Many also expressed doubts about the integrity of their counterparts in competing companies.

For the past 18 months, I've spoken at annual CPA society meetings or industry conferences dozens of times. During the Q & A sessions, I have occasionally faced aggressive questioning from one or two members who are upset about an AICPA position, or the lack thereof. They seem to feel that the decision makers involved have some malevolent agenda or perhaps a loose screw. Sometimes they have their facts wrong or don't know the whole story, but that no longer matters to them because they have become convinced that evil is afoot.

Has our profession lost the ability to disagree with respect and civility? I don't think so.

In early May, one of the news wires featured an article on Newt Gingrich and Hillary Clinton's joint efforts to improve the quality and availability of health care in America. The article recalled the vicious and often personal fight that occurred between Clinton and Gingrich when she first tackled this issue as Bill Clinton's special appointee during his first term as president. If they can work together given their history and respective views of the world, there...