Ethics continues to be a hot issue in the business world. The focus on business ethics grew after several significant business scandals beginning in the millennium. These scandals prompted the government to pass new accounting regulations to increase the control and accuracy of financial reporting. A prominent piece of legislation is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which applies to publicly traded businesses. The basis of Sarbanes-Oxley is to increase the reliability and accuracy of financial reporting (Noreen). At the time of these scandals, many businesses and individual professions already had ethical and accounting standards in place. Subsequently, more businesses have developed ethical codes of conduct. The codes typically are broad in definition, seldom providing detailed, acceptable behavior. Essentially, the code of conduct expands on the right behavior definition of ethics, which is the study of right or wrong behavior (Miller). The Institute of Management Accountants (IMA) has adopted an ethical code called the Statement of Ethical Professional Practice that describes, in some detail, the ethical responsibilities of management accountants. All employees must follow ethical business practices to maintain a healthy economy built on trust in the reliability and fairness of everyday transactions (Noreen). Accordingly, management accountants must adhere to the standards established in the IMA’s Statement of Ethical Professional Practice, or they will lose the trust of their peers and customers and could risk prosecution. Consider a business case that challenges ethical behavior and standards. As the new controller for Mega Wheels, Inc., Julie Emerson needs to adhere to the IMA’s Statement of Ethical Profession... ... middle of paper ... ...quences when making decisions if they view senior management as unethical (Dubrin). As the controller, Julie can take an active role in communicating ethical standards and leading by example. The controller and accounting staff play a significant role in company ethics. Specifically, they manage all accounting transactions and are responsible for reporting earnings. Julie must demonstrate a strong ethical behavior and instill this value in her employees. In addition, senior management needs to lead their employees to build a company based on high morals and strong ethics. Without the appropriate leadership, the company will suffer as witnessed during the business scandals of a few years back. As stated by Sam DiPiazza, CEO of Prices Waterhouse Coopers, “It has become dramatically clear that the foundation of corporate integrity is personal integrity.” (2003)
Presenting the consequences of fraud and corruption within the code of conduct will enforce staff to align with the principles for professional practice. Murphy (2015) suggests providing employee handbooks with an overview of guidelines and procedures reduce the chances of employees engaging in unethical practices. This allows for management to have control of the performance and expectations of staff (Murphy, 2015).
Code of ethics is and organization’s written statement of its values and rules for ethical behavior is good starting point for supervisor to meet the challenges to ethical behavior.
In today’s global society, a Code of Ethics policy is used to label established, acceptable behaviors among that industry’s business associates, potential investors, and the corporation’s executive officers and employees, and most important, the consumer (Ethics Resource Center, 2003). In an attempt to promote an increased efficiency and productivity potential level, among employees and prospective clients, a corporation’s standard Code of Ethics should guide its members toward a more in-depth examination of their personal moral activity, and how these actions affect the people or acquaintances they encounter. A company should utilize this strategy as a model for the professional behaviors and responsibilities of its constituents, and proves the occupational advancement of that business. Ethics are important in every level of a corporation, but specifically in the day-to-day actions of its members, and the image the company broadcasts to its associates is fundamental in building a stable business foundation. These pledges are a vital communication tool used to covey the firm’s standards for business operations, and predominantly, its relationships with the surrounding communities (Ethics Resource Center, 2003).
Denise McNeil finds herself fronting ethical and moral issues that could turn into legal problems for her business, if not handled carefully and correctly. Mike Markel indicates that “organizations leaders can set the right tone by living up to their commitment to ethical conduct”, this forms the crooks of Denise’s problems, when it comes to the concerns she has about Crescent Energy.
For this paper Washington Mutual has been selected to show how the ethical decision making process can be achieve. When it comes to business ethics in the workplace Washington Mutual has designed what can be considered a well balanced workplace with behaviors that are aligned with their moral values and business ethics. Business ethics are sometimes depicted as resolving conflicts where one option can appear to be the correct choice. There are many different ethical dilemmas that are faced by managers and leaders everyday that are highly complex and have no clear choice or guidelines to assist in making the choices for resolution. There are times when an employee has to decide whether or not to cheat, lie, steal, or break their contract. These ethical decisions are real-life situations where they are forced to make on a daily basis. This is why it is ultimately important that all employee know the six steps to ethical decision making that the company uses.
In today’s business environment it has becomes essential for accountants to have a basic grasp of business ethics. Having the guidelines in places gives accountants a relatively consistent method of addressing ethical situation (based on interpretation). Even simply having a course dedicated to ethics shows accounting students that this is an issue which is an important part of the training and will at least give them a chance to address their own morality. As well as this, teaching morality also gives the company a level of deniability when it comes to any scandals or unethical behaviour.
To provide an example of a breach of ethical conduct in the workplace, we may remember the case of a financial manager in a corporation that decided not to pay overtime to some employees. After a deep outside investigation, the company was summoned with thousands of dollars to remedy the payment that was supposed to be paid to all employees who worked more than forty hours per week. Again, it is needed more than just a booklet stating that the company adheres to the code of business ethics. It is needed serious managers that can run the company with the most seriousness as possible. Consequently, any written codes of business ethics, regardless of how well it has been crafted, need people that adhere to its internal content with a serious desire to do the right thing.
Corporate governances actually illustrate that no entity or agent is immune from fraudulent practices (Arjoon, 2005 p 342-344). Therefore, it is crucial for an organization to have a stable ethically healthy corporate culture, Patagonia is "doing things right" by influencing the actions of the workforce. Through the integration of ethical conduct in an organization, employees see the complexity of making ethical choices; also, it helps the staff understand what an ethical decision entails and how to talk about hard ethical choices and taking responsibility for making moral choices carefully and
With Jacob’s financial pressure, his integrity is shaken because he wants to use the money to pay off the bills and Jacob did not mention it to Krystal. Jacob needs to put his personal matter aside and communicate his medical situation and the bonus money to Krystal. By doing so, Jacob will maintain his honesty and not let his personal interest be in the way resulting trust within the workplace will be maintained. Additionally, the bonus money can be fairly divided between the two. Employees have the responsibility to follow and maintain business ethics and the code of ethics in the workplace. Employees have to be honest, communicate at all levels of the organization, deal issues at the lowest possible level, and avoid conflict of interest that would lead to unethical decisions. Also, employees should be educated with the policy and regulations set by the company in order to maintain ethical practices in the workplace. Jacob and employees in general are bombarded by ethical issues and by abiding by their roles and responsibilities will guide them in making an ethical decision. The following five-step model can help employees make appropriate decisions when faced with an ethical dilemma. First step is to recognize the issue. Knowing what is the root cause and the main
Corporations have in the recent decades been cracking down on ethical issues in the workplace, however, there are frequent issues that arise which question the values of the business versus legality of common issues where decision making is involved. One section of everyday
From reading this case, we realize the company did not apply the managing ethics competency in building its goals and structure. Managing ethics competency involves the o...
In the business field, the importance of ethics takes another level of importance. Here, the stakes are higher, and the motives are stronger for people to act unethically in order to score gains. Stakeholders including investors, stockholder, employees, customers, government agencies, and even secondary stakeholders, are demanding high level of transparency and ethical commitment from businesses. This demand led to the development of many codes of ethics and conduct in the different fields of business and within
This paper discusses the role of ethics in corporate governance. I seek to show the application of moral and ethical principles in corporate governance. Ethics is a topic that has generated a lot of interest in the last decade especially after high profile scandals. The failures of prominent companies such as WorldCom, Enron, Merrill lynch and Martha Stewart portrays the lack of corporate ethics. The failure of such business has seen an increased pressure to incorporate ethics in corporate governance. The result of corporate scandals has been eroding investor and public confidence. The entire economic system has experienced some form of stress from loss of capital, a falling stock market and business failures.
Corporate codes of ethics are established to guide and govern the personal ethics of the individuals that comprise the organization. Like the individuals it seeks to govern, a code of ethics is itself a living document that must be periodically reviewed, revised, and renewed, in an effort to remain current with the needs and priorities of an organization, least they become outdated (BOMI n.d.). The way that organizational structures integrate and embody the code of ethics clearly demonstrates the importance of personal ethics in the organizational context. Organizational structures then provide the platform from which managers can work in shaping the corporate ethical climate that in turn, serves to influence the personal ethics of the individual employees throughout the organization. Ethics are as much a personal issue as they are an organizational issue and they have everything to do with management. If management does not exhibit proper leadership and institute the organizational structures that promote ethical conduct at the personal level, then they can ultimately bear the responsibility for those in the corporation that tread into the realm of corporate misconduct.
For a business to be effective and running, ethics and values are important factors. Both of these factors work in correlation with one another and they are central to any organization. We then define ethics as moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour. This can be identified on how stakeholders (consumers, customers and shareholders) behave in the organisational environment. Edward Westermarck (Lee and John 1986 37-38) agrees in saying that ‘ethics are concerned with doing good or the right thing in a given human situation’. In the business context, ethics has to do with the extent to which a person's behaviour measures up to such standards as the law, organizational policies, professional and trade association codes, popular expectations regarding fairness and what is right, plus one's own take on moral standards (Sauser, 2005: internet).