The Loss of Ethics and Trust in Corporations Today

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Something that is widely down spread due to some of the current allegations within corporations is ethics and trust. Many individuals including myself look at shows such as Cops and Cheaters as drama and action but it is merely nothing more than ethics and trust right in front of our eyes. The effects of our daily lives not only affect us but so many others. I remember during high school that Enron, a huge corporation at the time, wasn’t doing so well and yet they had “cooked the books”. That means that basically that they were forging and falsify their records to perceive as if they were being successful. It is easy now to look back on it and say the company did it to seem attractive for potential investors. We know the outcome of their situation now and it didn’t turn out so well. The more important aspect her is trust and ethical dilemmas.
Enron lost tons of money and just as important they lost tons of respect. Just as a cheating spouse, in the show Cheaters, the spouse thought they could trust them until the occurrence happened. Trust at this day and age is hard to come by and runs hand in hand with ethics. Just at the conclusion of the fiasco that more companies fell into the same trap as Enron. Martha Stewart Living, and most recently MCI WORLDCOM which is now Verizon tried to get away with the same thing. “Senators Paul Sarbanes and Representative Michael Oxley became the authors of legislation. After the Senate vote of 99-0 the Sarbanes Oxley act of 2002 was born.”(Upland, 2014) The idea of the act is that all businesses large or small, must comply to the rules of that all accounting work must be done by certified officials.
There are many sections to this act and I would like to share with you my summaries of each se...

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...ties of fines and/or up to 20 years imprisonment for altering, destroying, mutilating, concealing, falsifying records, documents or tangible objects with the intent to obstruct, impede or influence a legal investigation. This section also imposes penalties of fines and/or imprisonment up to 10 years on any accountant who knowingly and wilfully violates the requirements of maintenance of all audit or review papers for a period of 5 years. (Keiko, 2007)
Nothing should ever discount the severity or significance of the Sarbanes Oxley Act. The act prevents and regulates corporate governances and financial compliance from here on out. Trust among people, spouses, and even corporations plays a major role in everyone’s lives. This may not stop the unethical decisions by these companies, but it will sure to reduce the headache for these companies to make the wrong decisions.

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