...Running head: IMPACT OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR ARTICLE ANALYSIS Impact of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Donna Sutton University of Phoenix Financial Accounting II ACCT 363 VERN May 09, 2010 Impact of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis The impact of the financial crisis created by such companies as Enron gave a reason for Congress to address some of the unethical practices of accountants. The American public no longer trusted accountants after losing retirements and life savings after making investments in companies that were reporting false financial statements. President George Bush signed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act into law in 2002 to try to avert any future dealings of an unethical nature (Dummies.com) The Sarbanes Oxley Act states that companies must enact internal controls to counteract fraud, deceit and wrong doing by its auditors, CEO’s, financial personnel, and accountants when reporting the financial statements for their companies. CEO’s can no longer say they were unaware of deceitful financial statements. They will be held responsible for the company’s financials and also be penalized. This act will prevent companies from reporting inaccurate financial statements to the public and allow Americans to make informed investment decisions from accurate financial statements. Confidentiality is a huge concern for clients of companies. This issue was addressed in Ruling 112. A client is now given the choice of sharing their information with other companies...
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...Impact of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis ACC/291 Principles of Accounting II September 18, 2012 Thomas House Impact of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Reporting financial statements within a business or company is more than a must; it is a necessity to keep ones business up and running. If one were to report false information on any kind of financial statements it then could be costly for the company or business. This is known as unethical behavior in accounting. The unethical behavior in accounting would be to mislead financial analysis for personal gain, misuse of funds, overstating revenue, overstating the value of corporate assets, or even underreporting the existence of liabilities. The purpose of the Sarbanes-Oxley act is to, “Protect investors by improving the accuracy and reliability of corporate disclosures made pursuant to the securities laws, and for other purposes.” ("Sarbanes-Oxley Essential Information", 2003-2012). The Sarbanes-Oxley act was named after senator Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley. Sarbanes and Oxley drafted the Sarbanes-Oxley act of 2002; both wanted to make sure that any business or corporation would be held accountable for wrongdoings. Enron would be sure to be held accountable. Enron Corporation Enron Corporation was an American energy company located in Houston, Texas. Enron employed nearly 21,000 people and was one of the world’s leading electricity, natural gas, pulp and paper...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis Many occupations have the potential for unethical behavior in the workplace. The accounting profession specifically can have an enormous impact on an organization. In many cases this impact can affect other companies and even the general public. Unethical behaviors in the accounting industry are often difficult to detect. Some of the more common items include understating or not reporting liabilities, exaggerating income or other revenue, understating operating or other expenses, and exaggerating assets. These behaviors also include kickbacks, insider trading, embezzlement, and bribery. With individuals, the most common items are misuse of funds and providing misleading information on financial reports for personal gain. Many of the issues we face with the current economy are blamed on the unethical behavior in the accounting industry. Two of the most famous companies that were eventually caught and prosecuted for unethical accounting behaviors were WorldCom and Enron. The falsification of financial statements and fraudulent activity in the stock market causes thousands of public investors to lose money. During these scandals, some of the people inside the companies were earning millions of dollars at the expense of others. The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 or commonly referred to as Sox is named after Senator Paul Sarbanes and the Representative Michael Oxley. Sox was introduced...
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...Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance – LEG 500 | 201003 | Prerequisite: None | Quarter | Winter 2010 | Meeting Days/Time | Online course | Instructor | Dr. C. Phil Campos, MBA, JD | Instructor Phone | 214-202-8044 | Instructor E-mail | canuto.campos@strayer.edu | Instructor Office Hours/Location | 6pm – 7pm EST | Academic Office Phone NumberStrayer Online Technical SupportEcollege HelpDesk | 1-877-540-1733“As a student, you should choose 1 then 3 for academic issues from the automated menu.”1-877-642-2999“Used for problems entering the class”1-866-448-6703 or 1-303-873-0005“Used for problems once in the class” | INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL | Kubasek, N. K., Brennan, B. A., & Browne, N. (2009). The legal environment of business: A critical thinking approach (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Prentice Hall.Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2010). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases (7th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company/South-Western/Cengage Learning.PLEASE READ SYLLABUS PART II in the Course Home tab, it contains important University policies.GETTING TECHNICAL HELPTechnical questions regarding eCollege or classroom issues should be referred to helpdesk@strayeronline.net. Or you may phone the helpdesk at 1(866)448-6703.If the question regards a Strayer system, technical support can be reached at 1(877) 642-2999. Any technical inquiries sent to the instructor will, as a matter of course, be forwarded to the Helpdesk...
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...Running head: IMPACT OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR Impact of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis IMPACT OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR Impact of Unethical Behavoir The impact of unethical behavior in accounting can be tremendous. When people think of unethical behavior in the workplace whether it be accounting or any other division people often think of using the company phone for personal phone calls, or using the work computer to look at something like facebook or even to shop or something along those lines. However, when you think of unethical behavior when it comes to accounting there are so many different things that can occur and so many problems that it can create. You really need to be able to trust the people working in any accounting department and be able to trust them well. A few examples of unethical behavior would be: exaggerating revenue, misuse of funds (allowing them to go one way when in fact they should be going toward something else), misleading financial reports, and the big one that is often publicized when it occurs is inside trading. “Sarbanes-Oxley was precipitated by a slew of corporate scandals, including those at Enron (otc: ENRNQ - news - people ), Arthur Andersen, Tyco (nyse: TYC - news - people ), Global Crossing (otc: GBLXQ - news - people ) and WorldCom (otc: WCOEQ - news - people ). But it was meant to address systemic flaws in the way corporations have been reporting their numbers for decades.” (www.forbes.com) The...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis ACC/291 This paper will analysis different situations that might lead to unethical practices and behavior in accounting. This paper will also examine the effects of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 on financial statements. Accounting could be described as a type of instrument or dialectal put in order to provide information with regards to the financial position of an organization or business. This type of information is very important to investors as it gives them important and detailed information that could turn out to be the determining factor as to their decisions to invest or not to invest in a specific organization. Consequently, it is not unusual to find unethical behavior in accounting as unethical practices come in different practices. Different situations that might lead to unethical practices in accounting could include misrepresentative financial analysis in order to obtain personal gains, mismanagement of funds, embellishing revenue, purposely providing wrong information in regards to expenses, embellishing the value of corporate assets, purposely providing wrong information in regards to liabilities, bribery, manipulation of financial markets, and lastly inside trading. According to Osanyin 2008 “Two well-known examples of unethical practices in accounting are those of the 2002 Enron / Andersen and the WorldCom scandal. Both of these companies were involved in unethical accounting practices.” Although Enron...
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...make smarter decisions” (Cooper & Schindler, 2014, Chapter 1, Research in Business, Learning Objectives). It is important for managers to have access to as much information as possible in order to perform business research and it is equally important for management to do business research in an ethical manner. The following paper will discuss an article called Business research in India, summarize what unethical research practices should be avoided, which parties could face injury or what injuries could occur to these parties, how unethical behavior could affect the organization, individual, and society, and how unethical behavior could be monitored or resolved if found occurring. Business Research in India and Ethical Research Guidelines The purpose of the article, Business research in India, was to study the progress of business research done in India. The analysts use a biblio-metric approach which is a combination of multiple articles, publications, journals, etc. that are used to study. “Bibliometric analysis is based on the assumption that researchers publish their most important findings in scholarly articles which base their research predominantly on materials previously published in high quality outlets” (Mittal & Pillania, 2014, para. Research methodology). This helps each analyst better understand what resources are being used to perform...
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...Business Research Ethics Business Research Ethics Introduction There are many cases in which business researchers practice unethical behavior. The following article, The Case of Neurontin: Skewed Research in the Service of Selling, written by Annette B. Ramírez de Arellano, DrPH, gives insight to a perfect scenario. This article discusses how Pfizer illegally urged companies to prescribe a drug for off-label uses. Due to such behavior they were fined and penalized. Many companies that sold the drug made several attempts to convince the Food and Drug Administration, (FDA) to approve some of these uses. Pfizer and Parke-Davis skewed research results to get the FDA to extend the approved uses. Behavior Involved Many pharmaceuticals go through extreme lengths to prove that their product is not only safe but effective. This includes practices which are morally unethical. Neurontin is a drug manufactured by Pfizer and Parke-Davis and has been approved to treat epilepsy, and post-herpetic neuralgia (Annette B. Ramírez de Arellano, 2009). Despite there being only two approved uses, it’s often used for migraines, bipolar disorder, and restless leg syndrome. These uses have not been approved by the FDA. Physicians have been known to presribe Neurontin for other conditions such as hot flashes, insomnia, and ringing in the ears. As time went on and sales increased it was obvious that the unapproved uses by far exceeded the approved uses. Due to such a drastic increases in sales...
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...Effects of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis ACC/291 Principles of Accounting II (AXIA) November 12, 2012 Effects of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis The impact of unethical accounting behavior can be devastating, often leading a company to closure or bankruptcy. Some examples of internal unethical accounting practices include under and overstatement of expenses, revenue, liabilities, and corporate assets, misuse of capital (possibly for personal gain), etc. Examples of external unethical practices would include fraud regarding trade and investment, bribery, and kickbacks, and manipulation of financial market regulations. Enron Corporation is one of several companies who have committed unethical and illegal accounting actions. Enron started in the 1990s in Houston, Texas. This American company concentrated on the energy sector. In the highlights of Enron’s success, it has about 21,000 employees and considered the leading supplier of electricity, natural gas, communication, and paper. Enron’s perceived success was a mask for the cast schemed fraud called the “Enron Scandal” (Kadlee et. al. 2002). Enron Corporation not only committed financial fraud but also may have been brining people for contracts on South America. Later, this accumulated, and reports started to appear regarding the fishy accounting structure of Enron and its partner in crime, Arthur Anderson (accounting firm). Consequently, Enron resulted in bankruptcy. This bankruptcy would be the world’s...
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...1. Discuss how personal differences and preference can impact organizational ethics. To discuss how personal differences and preference can impact organizational ethics, one must first define organizational ethics. According to Wikipedia, organizational ethics is defined as “how an organization ethically responds to an internal or external stimulus.” Personal differences and preference of people can create biases and conflict of interest since people have different likes and dislikes as well as different attitudes about culture, morals, and the way an individual carries theirself. If organizational ethics are not clearly defined within an organization, then chaos can occur. Companies need to make sure that there is a set standard of ethics and codes of conduct to assure an organization remains consistent and compliant. For example, preferences of a high-level manager on the gender of the people of whom he/she would like to work with, a specific type of educational background, or a certain income bracket of a person can lead to discrimination and prejudices against employees within that company. Personal differences of one’s culture, race, or even their appearance or characteristics should not come into play when working at a company. Diversity of an organization is vitally important and if someone is bias to a person’s personal difference, then someone can be treated unfairly or overlooked when that said person may have valuable input and resources that could help a...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior ACC/291 September 2, 2012 Effect of Unethical Behavior A quote from Ray Beier, a partner of PricewaterhouseCoopers, puts the idea of ethical behavior and its effect on financial statements into perspective. He states, “From the corporate scandals, we now realize that accounting was too rules-based, where it needs to be more principles-or objectives-based” (Bisoux, 2005, p. 24). Corporations had been so concerned with financial gain that the idea that there was a need for better internal controls did not exist. As long as the corporation was providing financial statements that presented the picture of a company continuing to grow and make money, it was assumed that the company ran smoothly. As a result, it was far too easy for corporations to overstate the value of assets or understate liabilities causing the true value of a corporation to be undiscovered. Some unethical behavior on an individual level, would be insider trading, kickbacks fraud and, as seen far too many times, the manipulation of the financial markets. The Enron Corporation was the perfect example of this unethical behavior and its discovery led to the implementation of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. The company used systematic and planned accounting fraud to misrepresent the corporation’s financial standing and, as a result, led to its shocking downfall. The company’s stock fell so sharply and quickly that many stockholders were caught off guard and lost millions of dollars...
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...Ethical Behavior and the Sabarnes-Oxley Act of 2002 Ethical Behavior and the Sabarnes-Oxley Act of 2002 Sometimes the most difficult part about running a corporation is not the day to day operations, but how to achieve the desired results while maintaining ethical standards within the corporation. This is evident by some of the more recent scandals of Enron and Worldcom. These organizations sacrificed their ethics for the sake of profits. This is why the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was instituted. Many situations lead unethical behavior especially in accounting, however, the most promising way of limiting the effects unethical behavior has on the corporate structure is to create an ethics culture that is supported throughout the organization. In their article, “How to instill a strong ethical culture,” Bannon, Ford, and Meltzer analyze the effect that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 has on ethical behavior in order to determine if it is having the desired effect. According to Bannon, Ford and Meltzer a “significant correlation exists between the strength of the ethical culture and an increased ethical behavior.” They go on to say that this increase of ethical behavior is directly correlated to the economic downturn (Bannon, Ford and Meltzer). This is to say that the economy played a crucial role in the development of workplace ethics, almost forcing corporations to take a hard look at their ethical structure and begin developing a stronger ethical core from the executive...
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...This article review is about an article entitled “What can Psychology Tell us About Business Ethics?” by David Messick (2009). This article was published in the Journal of business ethics. The article explores the relationship between business ethics and psychology through examining the concepts of discrimination and conflict of interest and how they influence ethics in business settings. The article affirms that as much as numerous studies have explored these two concepts from a psychological perspective; there is very limited information on how they influence decision making in business settings. The researcher explores various circumstances related to the two concepts while highlighting scholarly positions to position his arguments. The article is concluded by asserting that analysis of business ethics from a psychological perspective can enhance the ability of promoting high ethical standards business decision-making The position taken by the author is well founded as it is generated through amalgamation of relevant scholarly sources in the positioning of the relationship between business ethics and psychology (Fassin et al., 2011; Shakeel et al., 2011). The author also highlights individual circumstances where his individual unconscious thoughts may have influenced his decision-making. This not only enhances the authenticity of the work, but also its effectiveness to address the research issue. For this reason, it is a good read both in writing and content. Based on...
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...Effect of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis ACC/291-Principles of Accounting II June 24, 2013 Dale Wilson Having the correct accounting information in a financial statement gives a business owner certain advantages, such as information on financial transactions. If a business owner has information on when the sales or expenses are increasing or decreasing, he can make decisions that can benefit the company’s bottom line. The same cannot be true if he does not have accurate, or reliable, accounting information. There are also times when having accurate accounting information can lead to unethical practices in accounting because the information in the financial statement may not be beneficial for the business or the shareholders. Such instances made it necessary for the government to enact legislation that makes such practices illegal. There are many situations that might lead to unethical practices and behavior in accounting. Misuse of funds, insider trading, bribery and providing misleading financial information for personal gain are all examples of how businesses participate in unethical practices and behavior in accounting, all of which can lead to the inclusion of incorrect information in a financial statement. Prior to 2002, investors had no protection against corporations that failed to fully disclose financial information. This led to some of the biggest corporate fraud cases, involving companies like Enron and WorldCom. In 2002, because of the unethical practices...
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...and misunderstood. In this article I begin to remedy this oversight about the past, and I suggest how it can be beneficial in the present. Using both published and unpublished primary sources, I argue that the business ethics field emerged in the early twentieth century, against the backdrop of the establishment of business schools in major universities. I bring to light four important developments: business ethics lectures at the University of California and Yale University, Leon Marshall's curriculum at the College of Commerce of the University of Chicago, and the William A. Vawter Foundation on Business Ethics at Northwestern University. Conflict resolution [electronic resource] Team Publications. (n.d). Amherst, Mass. HRD Press c2002. This article contains team building exercises. The exercises build strength and team cohesive functions. It teaches about working together and compromising in a team setting. It details conflict resolution tactics while defining conflict resolution in a modern world. Bibliography Annotated BADEN, D. (2014). Look on the Bright Side: A Comparison of Positive and Negative Role Models in Business Ethics Education. Academy Of Management Learning & Education, 13(2), 154-170. doi:10.5465/amle.2012.0251 This study explores how positive and negative role models (PRMs and NRMs) of business affect students' attitudes, expectations, and behavioral intentions relating to their future business behavior. A thematic analysis of student reflections based...
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