Ethics Article Review Essay Example for Free

moral philosophy Article follow EssayEthics in accounting and financial decision-making has received increased attention due to medium-large somatic scandals such as WorldCom and Enron in recent years. Legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has assay to make corporations more transparent to internal and external stakeholders. After analyzing the 2005 article by Richard Bernardi and Catherine LaCross, Corporate hydrofoil Code of Ethics Disclosures, recommendations entrust be do to improve honest foundations at the San Quentin State prison based on the parameters outlined by Sarbanes-Oxley.In the Corporate Transparency article, the key point is made that along with changes in the accounting practices, disclosing a enter of morals to the public will ensure give internal compliance with ethical practices. Those organizations that did not publicly disclose edicts of moral philosophy were less likely to sincerely conform to ethical practices required in the Sarbane s-Oxley Act. The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 was legislation enacted in response to large unified scandals.The Act calls for public corporations to publicly disclose all financial statements, store all electronic records for fiver years and these rules are governed by the SEC (Spurzem, 2006). Sarbanes Oxley has impacted organizations in that accountants and financial decision makers are control surface to public scrutiny based on the public financial statement disclosures and IT departments must adequately wee-wee and maintain corporate archives that are cost effective and in compliance with legislation (Spurzem, 2006). Organizations pass water been impacted financially by having to add extra resources to maintain compliance and avoid fines.According to Bernardi and LaCross, . . . peerless example of a best practice in transparency is a corporation making its code of ethics readily available for public scrutiny on its website (par 1). Corporations increase legitimacy with open ly verbalise code of ethics and websites are an economically feasible avenue for making a particular code available to the public. The article argues that organizations that go beyond the basic requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley and declare a universal code of ethics show that the organization is willing to walk the talk of ethics.SEC chairman Donaldson is quoted as saying . . . deprivation beyond mere adherence or conformity to new dictates and of Sarbanes-Oxley responsibilities that rest at the very soreness of their obligation to create a corporate culture of transparency and accountability (Bernardi, 2005, par 6). Integrating ethics into a corporate culture is extremely effective in ensuring strong ethical compliance deep down organizations. At the San Quentin State Prison, ethics are important in many aspects of business including accounting, financial decisions, con game treatment, medical care, and general work environment.There are many opportunities for unethical practice s to take hold in a prison facility. Since the facility is closed off to the general public, self-monitoring is a crucial part of maintaining an ethical environment in all aspects of the prison business. San Quentin has the responsibility to use public tax dollars wisely and ethically as well as to maintain a corporate culture with high integrity. Based on the research findings by Bernardi and LaCross, the recommendation for a San Quentin State Prison public code of ethics will focus the entire prison cultural towards walking the ethical talk.All prison employees would be held one at a time responsible for maintaining the highest code of ethics across all job functions from accounting and financial decision-makers to medical employees. Ethics in business span larger than just accounting and financial-decision making. While these areas are extremely important, develop a code of ethics for all job functions in an organization is essential to maintaining an ethical corporate environm ent. At San Quentin Prison, an official code of ethics would guide the organization to best practices to ensure success.Referenceshttp//searchcio.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid19_gci920030,00.html