HR Experiential Problem Solving

I and two other individuals have agreed to start a business that will provide management consulting services to nonprofit organizations. Because of the increased scrutiny on actions of corporations and those who act on behalf of organizations, we have determined that it would be essential to have our ethics program developed before we start offering our services. A business as a moral agent must prove that it has an effective ethics program to protect employees, the corporation, and businesses that the company will serve. It is also important to have an ethics program to support the ethical values of our corporation and to make it clear to employees what is acceptable behavior, and to make clear what policies and standards are to be

Congress established the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which is otherwise called the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act, in the beginning of corporate and accounting scandals that prompted liquidations, serious stock misfortunes, and a loss of trust in stocks (Batten, 2010). The demonstration forces new obligations on corporate administration and criminal authorizes on those supervisors who spurn the law, and it

Sarbanes-Oxley Act was a game changer for corporations all across the United States. Prior to Sarbanes-Oxley Act, big name companies such as Enron, Kmart and Tyco were more inclined to have fraudulent activities happen internally. Having all these issues arise during the last decades, Congress was anxious to act and create Sarbanes-Oxley Act with the intentions to protect investors and have strict reforms to deter internal financial frauds from occurring again. Although, this reform has had a great amount of success in achieving its goals, it also has some holes that were not well though out, when it comes to the entirety of it. The main problem with Sarbanes-Oxley is the cost it has on smaller companies, which shifted the power from the investors and into the auditors. (Prince, 2005)

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passes in 2002 in response to a handful of large corporate scandals that occurred between the years 2000 to 2002, resulting in the losses of billions of dollars by investors. Enron, Worldcom and Tyco are probably the most well known companies that were involved in these scandals, but there were a number of other companies guilty of such things as well. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed as a way to crackdown on corporations by setting new and improved standards that all United States’ public companies and accounting firms were and are required to abide by. It also works to hold top level executives accountable for the company, and if fraudulent behaviors are discovered then the executives could find themselves in hot water. The punishments for such fraudulence could be as serious as 20 years jail time. (Sarbanes-Oxley Act, 2014). The primary motivation for the act was to prevent future scandals from happening, or at least, make it much more difficult for them to happen. The act was also passed largely to protect the people—the shareholders—from corporations, their executives, and their boards of directors. Critics tend to argue that the act is to complicated, and costs to much to abide by, leading to the United States losing its “competitive edge” in the global marketplace (Sarbanes-Oxley Act, 2014). The Sarbanes-Oxley act, like most things, has its pros and cons. It is costly; studies have shown that this act has cost companies millions of

The Sarbanes Oxley Act came to existence after numerous scandals on financial misappropriation and inaccurate accounting records. The nature of scandals made it clear there are possible measure that could be used to prevent future occurrence of financial scandals. And the existence and effectiveness of Sarbanes Oxley has caused

The reinforcement of the code of conduct takes form in a mandatory ethics tutorial once every quarter. The text, Managing Business Ethics, and other management texts suggest that a frequent lesson in ethics is the most efficient

After major corporate and accounting scandals like those that affected Tyco, Worldcom and Enron the Federal government passed a law known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 also known as the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act. This law was passed in hopes of thwarting illegal and misleading acts by financial reporters and putting a stop to the decline of public trust in accounting and reporting practices. Two important topics covered in Sarbanes-Oxley are auditor independence and the reporting and assessment of internal controls under section 404.

“Past research suggests that organizations must rely on their cultural environment to promote employee ethicality” (Sekerka, 2014). Corporate policies communicate organizational values and offer standardized guidance to employees for exhibiting acceptable behaviors and attitudes. In order for an ethics training program to be successful the following must be present, “help people understand ethical judgment philosophies and decision-making heuristics; address areas of ethical concern within their industry/profession; teach the organization’s ethical expectations and rules; help people to understand their own ethical tendencies; take a realistic view, while also elaborating on difficulties in ethical decision making; and have people use the material in the workplace, then

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) was enacted in July 30, 2002, by Congress to protect shareholders and the general public from fraudulent corporate practices and accounting errors and to maintain auditor independence.   In protecting the shareholders and the general public the SOX Act is intended to improve the transparency of the financial reporting.   Financial reports are to be certified by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) creating increased responsibility and independence with auditing by independent audit firms. In discussing the SOX Act, we will focus on how this act affects the CEOs; CFOs; outside independent audit firms; the advantages and a

Today’s business world presents numerous ethical issues. In today’s world above board/moral ethics in organizations do not often materialize intuitively. Organization must strive to provide employees with a clear understanding of the overall company vision. This will aid employees in practicing the code of ethics, policies and procedures in the workplace. Companies must be unwavering in continuously delivering the uppermost ethics of provision in which customers, applicants and employees are entitled to under fair business practices. One major core value is to uphold responsible and fair business practices.

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act states that any publicly traded company must have an independent audit committee that oversees the company’s and auditor relationship, and that more severe penalties and punishment for violating the Securities Exchange Committee (SEC) rules and regulations will be instituted such as; longer prison terms and larger fines for offenders. The SOX act also provides protection for whistleblowers; a whistleblower can provide information without suffering any repercussions. Some of the provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act include the assessment and divulgence of public companies’ effectiveness of their internal financial controls of which independent auditors must assess for quality control, All Financial reports must be certified by the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) which makes them accountable for the information contained in the company’s financial reports and are held accountable for any misinterpretations (Coates IV, 2007).

The heart of any organization is its employees and the businesses accomplishments are dependent on its employees. The objective of any organization is to increase productivity, expand, be innovative, and initiate new standards. In Enron’s case, the scandal led the downfall of the business, employees loosing not only his or her money, job, but trust in management. As a result, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was passed by Congress. This Act is meant to protect investors from the possibility of fraudulent accounting activities by corporations. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act mandated strict reforms to improve financial disclosures from a corporation and prevent accounting fraud of happening at the level of Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom ever again.

Having a code of ethics leads to improved employee behavior, which is a huge part of culture for a standard company. Because employees are the people who create value for the company, in which way, they need to have honest and candid altitudes to the company. Having a code of ethic is a useful tool to manage an organization’s values, responsibilities, and ethical duties. The code is also a way for employees to get advice about ethical problems or concerns. “In 2008-2009 Integrity Survey, published by KPMG Forensic, found that ethics programs, had a strong impact on how employees felt. Ninety percent of those

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) was enacted into law in 2002 in the wake of corporation financial reporting scandals involving large publicly held companies. SOX instituted new strict financial regulations with the intent of improving accounting practices and protecting investors from corporate misconduct. SOX requires corporate executives to vouch for the accuracy of financial statements, and to institute and monitor effective internal controls over financial reporting. The cost of implementing an effective internal control structure are onerous, and SOX inflicts opportunity costs upon an enterprise as executives have

Comprise a training plan for all employees regarding proper protocol and procedure in regards to any ethical issues that may arise