Ethics and Accounting - Financial Decision-Making
Ethics in Accounting and Financial Decision Making
The article Ethical guidance and constraints under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 by R.M. Orin (2008), espouses the belief that the Sarbanes-Oxley Act did not go far enough in its desire to stop unethical financial practices by businesses. The article addresses what the Act actually does, which is to help companies practice more due diligence and lessen the chances of getting involved in unethical financial practices. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act involves important legal issues. The due diligence is one of those issues, but another is the need for accountants and lawyers to report the corporations they work with for wrongdoing if they see or suspect a serious financial issue (Coffee, 2002). This has been a concern for some because it technically compromises the attorney-client privilege. This was necessary, though, in the face of all of the corporate scandals that came to light (Koehn & Del Vecchio, 2004). If those scandals had not been so serious and all-encompassing for such a large number of people, the issues that were covered by the Act may not have been nearly as significant and may not have left such a lasting impression on the financial world.
Even though the Act was written quickly, it was designed to protect as many people as possible. For example, the pension plans of people who work for companies that collapse (in the way that Enron did) are now protected. The reason the issue was so bad for the Enron employees is that all of the money that was put into the pension...
Ethics in Decision-Making Clegg, Stewart Martin Kornberger & Carl Rhodes. (2007). Organizational ethics, decision making, undecidability, ethical decision-making. The Sociological Review, 55:2. According to Stewart Clegg, Martin Kornberger and Carl Rhodes' article, "Organizational ethics, decision making, undecidability, ethical decision-making" from the Sociological Review, ethical decision-making is not optimized with either an outcome-driven consequentialist approach nor a rule-bound deontological approach. "We suggest that rules for ethical decision making, rather than ensuring ethical outcomes,
Decision Making Ethics is a philosophical term derived from the Greek word "ethos," meaning character or custom (Sims, 1994, p. 16). Ethics, therefore, is not just an ethereal concept belonging to the domain of philosophers and theologists, but a universal phenomenon that pervades the very functioning of individuals and society. Indeed, ethics can be said to be the guiding set of principles, based on which individual character, social and organizational custom
According to Halpern (1996, p. 197), arguments that utilize irrelevant reasons are fairly common: "The Latin word for this sort of fallacy is non-sequitur, which literally translates to 'it doesn't follow.' In other words, the reason or premise is unrelated to the conclusion." Since relevant premises are a key criteria for building sound arguments, it follows that critical thinkers must learn to recognize and avoid such fallacies. However, in the
Education on ethics must be wider compared to "moral development" in that it must tackle the broader consideration of a wide-ranging vocation, and constricted in that it must tackle problems particularly to the accounting vocation. (Research on Accounting Ethics) Definite duties of the accounting profession are put forth in the different code of ethics circulated by important establishments like the AICPA. The AICPA's foremost rule of professional conduct declares: In
Training is part of this process, so that people explicitly understand the ethical culture of the company. Ethical cultures tend to be self-perpetuating because the people within the organization will hold themselves and their co-workers accountable. When you look at a company like Enron, large parts of that company were devoid of ethical standards, so it was much easier for the frauds to occur. Enron also highlights the need
Ethics Consider the three purposes of morality treated in Chapter 1. Which of these would it be easier for utilitarianism to fulfill and which could well be more difficult for that system to fully meet? Of the three purposes of morality treated in Chapter One, perhaps the easiest purpose for the ethical system of utilitarianism, as developed by the Englishman Jeremy Bentham, to meet would be to create a functional system of
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now