Impact of Unethical Behavior Article Analysis
IMPACT OF UNETHICAL BEHAVIOR
Impact of Unethical Behavoir The impact of unethical behavior in accounting can be tremendous. When people think of unethical behavior in the workplace whether it be accounting or any other division people often think of using the company phone for personal phone calls, or using the work computer to look at something like facebook or even to shop or something along those lines. However, when you think of unethical behavior when it comes to accounting there are so many different things that can occur and so many problems that it can create. You really need to be able to trust the people working in any accounting department and be able to trust them well. A few examples of unethical behavior would be: exaggerating revenue, misuse of funds (allowing them to go one way when in fact they should be going toward something else), misleading financial reports, and the big one that is often publicized when it occurs is inside trading. “Sarbanes-Oxley was precipitated by a slew of corporate scandals, including those at
Enron (otc: ENRNQ - news - people ), Arthur Andersen, Tyco (nyse: TYC - news - people ),
Global Crossing (otc: GBLXQ - news - people ) and WorldCom (otc: WCOEQ - news - people ).
But it was meant to address systemic flaws in the way corporations have been reporting their numbers for decades.” (www.forbes.com) The effect of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act that President Bush signed into law July 30, 2002
(www.forbes.com) has had a very positive effect on financial statements. According to forbes.com "It 's causing companies to be distracted--really spending a lot of time solely for the purpose of creating systems," says David Hardesty, an accountant at Wilson, Markle, Stuckey,
Hardesty & Bott and author of Corporate Governance and Accounting Under the Sarbanes-
Oxley
References: http://www.forbes.com/2003/07/22/cz_af_0722sarbanes.html