Dulek's Improper Professional Ethics

Jerry Mason, senior vice president and general manager at Morton-Thiokol, and Morton-Thiokol were on the brink of negotiating the booster’ rocket contract renewal with NASA. Although, it is not an acceptable reason, we could see how engineers and others below the authority of Jerry could be afraid to state something contrary to what he stood by. When someone’s self-interest and pride gets in the way of engineering, it can neglect the welfare of the public, and cause them harm. This case study highlights many irresponsible, and ethical failures in a professional work environment. Jerry Mason failed to abide by the following impediments for responsible action; self-interest, ignorance, and group thinking.

An implicit theme of this case that I want students to recognize is the contrast between the persistent and vigorous efforts of David Sokol to “get to the bottom” of the suspicious items he uncovered in JWP’s accounting records versus what Judge William Conner referred to as the “spinelessness” of JWP’s auditors. The JWP audits were similar to most problem audits in that the auditors encountered numerous red flags and questionable entries in the client’s accounting records but, for whatever reason, apparently failed to thoroughly investigate those items. On the other hand, Sokol refused to be deterred in his investigation of the troubling accounting issues that he discovered. The relationships that existed between members of JWP’s accounting staff and the Ernst & Young audit team apparently influenced the outcome of the JWP audits. Of course, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

being selfish, overbearing or taking credit for someone else’s work. It also shows customers and business relationships/partners

“ In order to prevent fraudulent financial reports and statements, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants(AICPA) has created ethical standards” (Ethical standards in a financial statement, 2011). These standards aim to make financial professionals accountable for their accounting practices. This includes the integrity of financial reporting and ensuring financial reporting is done fairly and factually. Financial accountants and professionals should maintain professional integrity, objectivity, and independence to reduce the risk of resulting legal action, loss of profits, and a poor reputation if improper financial reporting is done (Ethical standards in a financial statement, 2011).

Legitimacy in accounting practices is ensured by the check and balance of having independent auditors from registered public accountant firms reviewing financial practices. The report features eleven sections and these sections pertain to accounting overview, independence of auditors to reduce interest conflicts, corporate responsibility, financial disclosures, tax returns, criminal fraud and various elements of white collar criminal activity (107th Congress

To begin, I feel we covered the book in totality, professor Volk is a masterful lecturer and she explained the assignments in great detail. The most satisfying assignment are always the drafting assignments, it is critical for paralegals to draft documents on command. The drafting exercises allow us to practice and become more familiar with legal documentation. In addition, the ethical guidelines which paralegals are bound by. Confidentially, disclosure, integrity, and the Chinese wall are a few examples of the ethical guidelines. The topics of marriage and annulments rather confusing, however over time after preparing documents and completing weekly assignments I have gained a better understanding of marriages and annulments and the distinction

Professional values and ethics are based on the foundations of personal values, professional and, academic integrity. Integrity is the act of doing what is right even if there is no one is around. Personal values are comprised of an individual’s integrity, morals, and ethics, the standards in which, an individual holds him or herself to. One must exercise personal values which in turn become the foundation professional values.

Based on Client Confidentiality and Fraud the limited nature of review assumptions, together with the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants' (AICPA) customer confidentiality guideline, puts the reviewer in the position of needing to pick between procuring a job or settling on a fitting moral decision. Expert codes for U.s. bookkeeping morals are more prohibitive than those of most expert affiliations, even those for which the customer specialist benefit is decently perceived. Also, the idea of bookkeeper customer benefit has never been underpinned by the government courts including various U.s. Incomparable Court choices, which neglected to discover such a privilege. Changes in expert norms in regards to confidentiality are important

(Public Accouniting Oversighe Board, 1972) Fiedelman violated the due professional care standard when he allowed the misstatement and margin recognition to be posted. The misstatement was already noted but he himself should have been aware that the margin was not permitted and that the misstatement should have been corrected. It is also concerning that the increased sales from $90,000 to $3.9 million was not investigated more thoroughly, again indicating Fiedelmans lack of due professional care. Fiedelman also violated AU 326 Evidential Matter. With the violations of so many auditing standards the SEC had no other choice but to sanction Fiedelman. (Knapp, Rittenberg, Johnstone, & Gramling, 2012)

Experts have suggested that if Title II Section 203 of the SOX act existed 10 years earlier it may have prevented the hire of some of the key culprits in the $500 million fraud scheme. The legislative action was designed to incorporate an audit partner rotation to enhance the auditors independence and audit quality by reducing partner-client familiarity where it was evident that judgment may be impaired with situations like Phar-Mor Inc. whose management team responsible for committing fraud where in fact former employees of Cooper’s & Lybrand. (Williams, 2011)

As I enter my junior year in college I can see my career right ahead of me. I am attending Grand Valley State University to become a Physician Assistant. This makes me think about my involvement in people 's health. This also makes me think about the responsibilities I have my patients and their well being. To be prepared for all of the challenges I will need to focus my attention on biomedical ethics. There are morals that have been engrained into my character. These include what is right or wrong and how I will behave in certain situations. I will compare my personal and professional ethics in order to be ready for my healthcare career. My personal ethics are deeply implemented into my professional ethics. This could make conflicts arise between my professional workplace and personal ethical view because of differing perspectives on issues. My personal ethics govern how I behave and help me to navigate through ethical dilemmas. My professional ethics could be restricted however, because of a code of conduct put in place by my employer. A code of conduct states principles expressing responsibility, and defines rules expressing duties of professionals to whom they apply. (Pozgar, 2016) I rely on ethical theories including virtue ethics, utilitarian ethics and principles of ethics to make my judgements.

The autonomy of a competent patient is an issue not often debated in medical ethics. Refusal of unwanted treatment is a basic right, likened to the common law of battery, available to all people capable of a competent choice. These fundamental rules of medical ethics entered a completely new forum as medical technology developed highly effective life-sustaining care during the 20th century. Several watershed cases elucidated these emerging issues in the 1960’s and 70’s, none more effectively than that of Karen Ann Quinlan. Fundamentally, this case established that a once-competent patient without the possibility of recovery could have their autonomy exercised by a surrogate in regard to the

Investigation and discipline of registered public accounting firms for violations of relevant laws or professional standards.

With professions having this tremendous knowledge regarding a company’s financial standing and not being able to disclose the information to the public it can create major investment errors. With these restrictions in place by the AICPA the accountants and auditors “… in a position of having to choose between earning a livelihood or making a proper ethical choice” (Synder, 2011).

As one grows in power in their profession sometimes the BE-KNOW-DO principles become forgotten or ignored. For the BE principle, in my opinion, flexibility, commitment to professional ethic, and the ability to resolve complex ethical dilemmas are the most violated. As individuals become older, they can become stuck in their ways and inflexible to adapt to changes. This is especially true with technology. As for professional ethic and the ability to resolve complex ethical dilemmas we can look to the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Flint residents were failed by their government, the persons who are sworn in to protect them. The government was unable to maintain their loyalty/duty to the people and ignored a course of action to help avoid the problem from occurring despite being aware of the issue.