The concepts in this article relate and apply to my former organization because the organization did strive to maintain the highest ethical standards, and did treat their clients professionally and ethically. It was a good model for a young accountant to follow, and I do not believe they could improve on the organization's ethics, unless they held their accountants to even higher standards of excellence. Ethics is primary in accounting and financial decision-making, because it is not only the reputation of the firm that comes into question. When firms forget who they are representing and use questionable ethical practices, they are not only harming their reputations. They are harming the reputation and integrity of their clients, and this is inexcusable. It will only harm the firm in the end, because their clients will lose faith in them, and they will turn to other, more ethically sound organizations.

Passed in 2002, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act holds corporate executives accountable...

The Act's impact has been mixed. While it holds executives more accountable, and it affects accounting and financial decisions, it did not foresee the great Wall Street and mortgage loan influences that nearly bankrupted the country beginning in 2008 and it certainly did not aid in the ethics and accountability of those industries. While some people may feel the Sarbanes-Oxley Act went too far in corporate reform, many others may feel that it did not go nearly far enough in protecting the American people from unethical and underhanded business practices.
References

Longnecker, B.M. (2004, May). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: Altering the fabric of American business. USA Today (Society for the Advancement of Education), 132, 28+.

Smith, D.L. (2003). A fresh look at…