Sarbanes-Oxley Act Of 2002 Case Study

After the debacle of major corporations such as Enron, WorldCom, and Hollinger International, lawmakers sought to provide regulations that provide oversight on the way corporations report financial data and to ensure that stockholders were protected. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 was put in place to combat deceit, improve the consistency of financial reporting, and reestablish the confidence of investors (Wagner & Dittmar, 2006). One of the declaring regulation within this major law is that the management of a company is responsible for its internal control structure and that a company’s executive staff as well as its independent auditors have to attest to the reliability of the overall financial control system of the company. Even though the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 attempts to regulate business ethics, the question still remain. Can regulations and laws actually govern ethics?
Ethics is the study of moral principles or values that determine whether actions are considered correct or incorrect. More to the point, as per the discussion post, regulatory requirements only set the bare minimum and there is a consensus that companies should go beyond the necessities that are needed in order to satisfy obligatory obligations. If one treats the other person as they would like to be treated and decide to do the right thing simple because it is the right thing to do is biblical. According to the Scriptures, a person ethical guide is to treat people the way one would like to be treated, because this an expectation of the Christian Worldview (Matthew 7:12, New American Standard