Worldcom Essays (Examples)

By "spreading these large expenses over decades rather than years," WorldCom's appeared to do the impossible: "cut annual expenses, acknowledge all MCI revenue, and boost profits from the acquisition" (Moberg & omar 2008).

Who wouldn't want to invest in such a profitable company? Investors, mislead by such accounting data, flocked to buy the stock, Based upon analysts' recommendations, many people used the stock to bolster investment portfolios designated for retirement and college savings. While it is acknowledged that buying stocks always entails some risk, WorldCom's inaccurate financial reporting made an objective evaluation of its policy impossible. Upon acquiring companies, WorldCom management chose also chose to ignore credit department lists of customers who had not paid their bills for a long time, thus discounting the financial drain of non-collectable bills.

Management planning: Contingency planning and corporate social responsibility

The complete lack of contingency planning on the part of WorldCom management was…

References

Moberg, Dennis & Edward Romar. (2008). WorldCom. Mark Kula Center of Applied Ethics.

Santa Clara University. Retrieved January 3, 2010 at  http://www.scu.edu/ethics/dialogue/candc/cases/worldcom.html 

Planning function. (2009). Management study guide. Retrieved January 3, 2010 at  http://www.managementstudyguide.com/planning_function.htm

Betty Vinson was horribly unjust, especially considering that she cooperated completely with federal prosecutors. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine how their case against WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers could have proceeded as well as it did without the cooperation of Ms. Vinson. Certainly, if the federal government is to be expected to attract the small "fish" to give up the big "fish," then this certainly is counterproductive.

Certainly, Ms. Vinson made the decisions that she made due to the fact that she was fearful about losing her job if she did not engage in the activity that she did. After all, did the accounting agency pick up on the fraud? The above conviction is especially unbelievable since she took the stand not just against Ebbers multiple times, but also Troy Normand was only given three years' probation and did not impose a fine on him. This was especially the case…

References

McClam, E. (2005, August 5). Ex-worldcom exec vinson gets prison, house arrest. Retrieved from  http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/telecom/2005-08-05-vinson_x.htm

Bush, who declared that corporations which jeopardized the investments and jobs of millions of individuals should pay their dues. The United States Senate and the House of epresentatives also became involved and proposed numerous modifications.

The pillar of the changes occurred in financial reporting after the accounting scandals is based on increased transparency and more support in conducting audit operations. The XBL system for instance will allow the Securities and Exchange Commission to conduct analyses in a more efficient manner. All efforts to improve the financial reporting system have been condensed into the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. It represents the most important regulatory act of the past 70 years and it is applicable all around the world; it addresses issues that refer to all players in the corporate reporting chain.

eferences

Bautista, L.., 2004, Implications and Effects of Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Securities and Exchange Commission, etrieved at http://www.adbi.org/conf-seminar-papers/2006/03/30/1739.implications.effects.sarbanesoxley/onMarch 13, 2009

Cooper, C., 2007,…

References

Bautista, L.R., 2004, Implications and Effects of Sarbanes-Oxley Act, Securities and Exchange Commission, Retrieved at  http://www.adbi.org/conf-seminar-papers/2006/03/30/1739.implications.effects.sarbanesoxley/onMarch  13, 2009

Cooper, C., 2007, Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower, John Wiley and Sons

Lee, H., Effects of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 and SEC Final Rulings on Auditor Independence, SUNY Institute of Technology, Retrieved at http://www.sba.muohio.edu/abas/2003/vancouver/lee_auditor%20independence.pdfonMarch 13, 2009

Malpass, a., June 2, 2002, hp_:I/help animals.net/news artic/91719, Quoted by Hannon

NASDAQ v AMEX

NASDAQ is a U.S. electronic stock exchange that began trading in February 1971. At that time, it was the world's first electronic stock market. It is now the largest U.S. electronic stock market as it lists the most companies (approximately 3,300) and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. stock market.

The American Stock Exchange (AMEX), on the other hand, traces its origins back to colonial times when stock brokers created outdoor markets to trade new government securities; it is now the third largest stock exchange in the United States after NASDAQ and NYSE.

The AMEX is operated by American Stock Exchange LLC, a subsidiary of the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) who are also the operators of NASDAQ. Out of the three major American stock exchanges, the AMEX has the most liberal policies regarding company listing, and most of the companies…

References

"Bernard Ebbers." Article from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on October 13, 2005 from  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Ebbers 

"Fact sheet 2005." (2005). NASDAQ.Com. Retrieved on October 13, 2005 from http://www.nasdaq.com/about/CorporateFactSheet2005.pdf

'Trading on the Amex: Market Structure" (2005). AMEX.com. Retrieved on October 13, 2005 from  http://www.amex.com/ 

Average daily share volume in NASDAQ-listed securities for 2004 was 1.8 billion, more than both the NYSE and the Amex.

Though the director claimed to have no knowledge of the accounting fraud, analysts wonder what other than his silence could possibly warrant such a high compensation package (English 2002). This is yet another company where slews of jobs were lost, pensions and benefits disappeared, and yet many top executives received lucrative compensation and severance packages, five years before any TAP funds were available to provide them.

There is some hope that the situation might change, however. In the wake of the financial scandal, and even in the years leading up to it, many CEOs signed deals agreeing to limit their own pay should their companies hit troubled waters (Penttila 2009). Congress has also been considering legislation that would either directly limit executive compensation in public companies, or allow for direct shareholder say in the compensation of company officers, but often this type of "consideration" is really political double-speak for seeming…

References

English, Simon. "WorldCom Chief was Aware of Fraud." The Telegraph. Feb 27, 2009

Kopecki, Dawn & Goldman, Julianna. "Obama Calls Bonuses Shameful and as Dodd Vows to Reclaim Money." Bloomberg. Feb 27, 2009 .

Oliphant, James. "Stimulus' Cap on Executive Bonuses is Too Sweeping, Experts Warn." Los Angeles Times. Feb 27, 2009

Pentilla, Chris. "Rethinking CEO Salaries." Entrepreneur Magazine. Feb 27,2009

He is serving a twenty-five-year sentence for his conviction.

The reason Ebbers was found guilty of criminal fraud, despite being in a business, is because his actions met the above referenced elements of fraud. For example, his filing of false statement was an intentional act that contained an untrue representation of an important fact: WorldCom's accounting. Further, this untrue statement was believed by the company's investors, or in this case, the victims. Further, the investors relied upon Ebbers' statement as being true and thus acted on it in terms of their investment decisions. Finally, as a result of the investor's reliance and action upon Ebbers' false statements, they lost a significant amount of money. Thus, because Ebbers' actions satisfy the elements for criminal fraud, it does not matter whether or not he was acting within a business capacity.

ibliography

Associated Press (2005): "Former WorldCom Chief Signs Agreement Over Fraud Charges."…

Bibliography

Associated Press (2005): "Former WorldCom Chief Signs Agreement Over Fraud Charges."

Floyd, Nell Luter. (2006): "Ebbers Receives Prison Order." The Clarion-Ledger.

Moritz, Scott. (2003): "Judgment Day Coming Sooner for Ebbers." The Street. 27 Aug. 2003.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

administration as also a majority of other western administration witnessed the collapse of corporate giants like Enron & Worldcom in the aftermath of noticeably fraudulent executive actions of these companies. This led to shareholders losing confidence and stringent laws was felt necessary in the form of new legislation to avoid repetition of Enron and Worldcom like incidents. The then President George W. Bush entrusted Senator Paul Sarbanes and Congressman Mike Oxley to come up with stringent new laws which would arrest or at least diminish probability of corporate scandals from repeating which came to be known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, of 1992. (Holt, 2008)

Key components of SOX Act covered under major Sections of the Act:

Sec 406 of the Act mandates every senior Financial Executive to be signatories of a Code of Ethics. Sec 409 mandates that companies make adequate disclosure regarding material financial alterations…

References

Coates, John C. (2007) "The Goals and Promise of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act" Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 21, no. 1, pp: 91-116.

Holt, Michael F. (2008) "The Sarbanes-Oxyley Act: Costs, Benefits and Business Impact"

CIMA Publishing.

Mehera, Madhav. (n. d.) "Sarbanes-Oxley Three Years On" Retrieved 9 May, 2012 from www.wcfcg.net/Sarbanes-Oxley%20Three%20Years%20On.pdf

And the ability to know when to sell shares made the executives careless in their management, as they would know when they could "cut their losses."

Critics of insider trading laws would contend that the problem with Enron and WorldCom was insufficient oversight of these corporation's accounting procedures, not insider trading. The criminal behavior was not the fact that key executives knew when to buy and sell their shares, but their manipulation of company profits. Even many sophisticated investors were duped. And finally, the credit crisis of 2007 shows how no human being can perfectly predict market behavior, and is often duped by misleading indicators. Inside information is no guarantee of financial largess.

Legally, insider trading can be difficult to prove -- it must be demonstrated that the person sold their stock in an irregular fashion based upon non-public information he or she demonstrably possessed prior to the "fire sale"…

Reference

Boatright, John. (2009).Ethics and the conduct of business. 6th edition. Prentice Hall.

Dishonesty in either could result in disaster for companies. Communication is the element that unites everything else. Employers should encourage employees to communicate either grievances or suggestions. This opportunity will result not only in better mutual understanding, but also in loyalty that arises from being valued as an employee.

4. I certainly would want to do homework on any company I enter for the first time - and particularly one where my predecessor left under a cloud. It could mean many things, which my investigation is obviously meant to reveal. It could mean that the person who left was him- or herself not honest and brought about an unsavory situation. It could also however mean that working conditions became such that the person had no other choice than to leave, even if it meant that unsavory reputations would remain. I would want to thoroughly investigate to determine what the situation…

Sources

Greenberg, Josh. (2005, Jan 24). Diversity in the Workplace: Benefits, Challenges and Solutions.  http://ezinearticles.com/?Diversity-in-the-Workplace:-Benefits,-Challenges-and-Solutions&id=11053 

Information Guide. (2006). Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.  http://www.sarbanes-oxley-101.com/sarbanes-oxley-compliance.htm 

Jung, Kim Dae & Wolfensohn, James. (1999, Feb. 26). Economic Growh Requires Good Governance. International Herald Tribune.  http://www.iht.com/articles/1999/02/26/edkim.t.php

Most companies are today setting up certain 'ethical codes of conduct', which the employees, right from the top echelons, are expected to follow; in fact, it is considered a business imperative to follow a code of ethics within the various operations of the firm. (Ethics in Business)

hat prompted this sort of measure was the fact that not only were quite a few companies suffering losses from the breach of trust that the lack of ethics was inflicting, but also because of the fact hat investors and consumers were also suffering. The recent wave of scandals that rose from the series of frauds and the feeling of a lack of ethics among the top personnel in companies on all Street that came to light has brought the attention of the entire world on the changing ethics in the major companies of today, and this has led to a need to…

When Enron wanted to develop its company, and became involved in the concept of the 'new growth model', it was decided that the company would only take the lower road to attaining profits and to expand its business. (Geisst, 398) Kenneth Lay, one of the most important people of Enron, in other words, the Chairman and the Chief Executive had to prepare to appear before the Court in order to prove his innocence and proper behavior according to the existing code of ethics followed by any company of Enron's standing, which had come under question in 2002. (Enron Lapses and Corporate Ethics)

What was his crime, and what was he accused of? Kenneth Lay was accused, in a 11 count indictment, of lying to the public, including investor in the company, and also of indulging in 'wire frauds', as well as in 'security' frauds, and in making false statements to the general public. He then pleaded 'not guilty' to all the charges, and was subsequently released on a $500,000 bail. However, the Securities and Exchange Commission further accused Lay in another civil complaint of more than $90 million. Though Lay continued to deny all the charges that were being heaped upon him, and also said that he was sad that he was not able to save his company, the government felt that there must be severe punishment awarded to the perpetrators of corporate crime wherein there is a breach in ethics, and therefore, Lay, who had been caught quietly selling 918,000 shares of Enron to unsuspecting shareholders, giving false reports of the company's real health, and of defrauding three Banks in order to obtain stock. (Lay surrenders to Authorities)

The result of Kenneth Lay's dishonesty was that 4,000 people were left without jobs, all of a sudden, and the life savings and pensions of a great number of people were also completely wiped out. The Company Enron went bust, and it owed its creditors more than $65 billion. The punishment that Lay faces today is a maximum sentence of 175 years of imprisonment. (Enron's Ken Lay: I was fooled) the 'WorldCom' Boss, Bernie Ebbers, was accused of masterminding the gigantic, billion dollar corporate accounting fraud that was perpetrated in WorldCom. As for the question "Why did Ebbers have to perpetrate such a fraud," the only answer is that he was the only individual within the company who had the capacity and the capability of planning

crime doesn't pay sometimes is a whole point which can't be applicable, especially when you're trusted with the management of multi-billion dollar corporation, and to be in charge of the well -- being of thousand of people. It's so difficult to criminalize someone's action, if such action doesn't cause any harm to anyone or if someone doing a lot of critical charity works. The case of Richard M. crushy can be described as one of the most important scenario which can acts as one of the success stories, showing how far most of these business ethnical values can be abused to hurt everyone for a period of time. As stated by Jennings (2012) in his book "Business Ethnics Class" unethical practices can only last for a short time, and nothing helpful can be found out of it.

However, the carpenter teachings regarding people who do not pursue wisdom that are…

Sense of entitlement

Jennings (2004a) identified that many corporate cultures are less concerned about their fraud because of their philanthropic endeavors. These good works seem to blind them to their culpability and cause them to both "overestimate their ability and underestimate the risk of being found out" (p. 17). This sense of entitlement constitutes two of the factors that Jennings identifies as "Wild West behaviors" (p. 13) that are common to organizations that ethically collapse; A "culture of innovation like no other" and a "culture of social responsibility" (p. 17). She notes that "the attitude develops slowly as the other factors of iconic status and high levels of success consume the individual right up to a feeling of invincibility" (p. 17). This is amply demonstrated in the behavior of Richard Scrushy, who despite all of the evidence arrayed against him continues to proclaim his innocence of any wrong doing.

Jennings (2004b) identified common red flags that would point to corporate counsel that an investigation into the accounting of the firm might be in order. She indicated that in HealthSouth's case legal counsel "fits the inaction mold" (p. 45), and "like executives at WorldCom, Enron, and Tyco, executives at HealthSouth, particularly Scrushy, lived lavish lives" (p. 46). She concludes that "the presence of many elaborate perks is a red flag all can see" (p. 46). It is these perks that, according to Neeley & Boyd (2010) "encourage[s] executives to take excessive risk with other people's money" (p. 548).

Values and Morals in the Accounting Industry

The important questions to be addressed are taken from the "…business ethics/corporate social responsibility literature, oriented towards business enterprises but also of relevance to professional bodies: whether being ethical 'pays' in financial terms; and whether formal codes are useful in promoting ethical behavior…" (Cowton, 2009, p. 177).

Accountants are charged with carrying out ethical and moral decisions in their everyday work, but judging from some of the scandals in recent years (Enron, orldCom, the Anderson Accountancy, etc.) not all accountants are up to speed with those ethical and moral decisions. This paper reviews the judgments that accountants should be making based on morality and ethical values, whether the accountant is working for a multinational corporation or for a small business with only half a dozen employees.

Accounting Students and Moral Decision-Making

Deborah Leitsch writes in the Journal of Business Ethics that auditors are…

Works Cited

Brown-Liburd, Helen L., and Porco, Barbara M. (2011). It's What's Outside that Counts:

Do Extracurricular Experiences Affect the Cognitive Moral Development of Undergraduate Accounting Students? Issues in Accounting Education, 26(2), 439-454.

Cooper, Barry J., Leung, Philomena, Dellaportas, Steven, Jackling, Beverley, and Wong,

Grace. (2008). Ethics Education for Accounting Students -- a Toolkit Approach.

Hastie Group Governance Failure

Hastie Group Corporate Governance

Hastie Governance Failure

The downfall of the Hastie Group reads much like the other major corporate failures around the world including Enron and MCI Worldcom in the United States. There is general pattern emblematic to more corporate scandals. That pattern is when figures are "massaged" or even completely made up. This pattern manifested itself yet again with the Hastie Group. Once someone caught on to the massive amount of lies and misdeeds, it was too late for most workers and the company itself.

Deficiencies & Circumstances

It was reported in August 2012 that the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) by the administrator of Hastic, that being PPB Advisor, and its receiver, that being McGrathNicol, the substance and extent of the misdeeds of Hastie relative to the allegations that were levied. Even though the review at that point was in its nascent…

References

ASIC examining misconduct in Hastie Group collapse' n.d., Am (Abc), Newspaper

Source Plus, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 March 2013.

ASIC reviews Hastie amid misconduct claims' n.d., ABC Premium News, Newspaper

Source Plus, EBSCOhost, viewed 9 March 2013.

Nortel Case Study

Nortel Networks Corporation, more commonly referred to as Nortel, was a global company of Canadian origin that at its peak in the early 2000's had comprised of one-third of the total valuation of the companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). Nortel was founded in 1895 in Montreal, Quebec, with its manufacturing headquarters currently located in Mississauga, Ontario. The company manufactured data networking equipment along with offering telecommunication services. It employed over 94,500 employees worldwide.

Nortel's troubles began in the 1990's when under CEO John Roth, the company expanded into the internet technology market. Roth used media to alter public perception of the company. The sale of the optic fibre networking gear by the company from then on was hyped up by the speculators in the market, driving the share price of the company up, even though the company failed to produce overall annual profits. This…

corporate ethical breaches in recent times, assess whether or not you believe that the current business and regulatory environment is more conducive to ethical behavior. Provide support for your answer.

Unethical behavior has drawn the attention of the public for the few last decades in all kinds of business. Many transformations in the business environment have taken place, including immoral conducts and the tendency for corruption. Unethical accounting behavior is also included as a consequence. So the government has been forced to increase regulations and inspect actions taken in business, most especially after the Enron, Tyco, WorldCom and other unethical accounting scandals. As a result of the mentioned scandals, the government then passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002 providing regulatory requirements for better precision in business action, accountability and assurance of ethical accounting behavior by publicly held companies and accounting firms. According to Calle (2000), the total number of boards…

References

Academy Of Management Learning & Education, Beenen Gerard, & Pinto Jonathan (2009). Resisting Organizational-Level Corruption: An Interview with Sherron Watkins. Academic Management Learning & Education, 8(2), 275-289.

Calle, J. (2000). Ethics in Business. Retrieved January 26, 2013, from  http://www.pro2net.com 

Gilman, S., Harned, P., Navran, F., & Brown, J. (2009, May 29). Ten Things You Can Do to Avoid Being the Next Enron. Retrieved January 26, 2013, from  http://www.ethics.org  / resource/ten-things-you-can-do-avoid-being-next-enron

Krugman, P. (2002, January 18). New York Times. System Corrupted., pp.A-23.

WorldCom (CEO Bernard Ebbers) supported by years of profitability arising from the deregulation of phone companies was a fast moving stock that was highly toted by stock specialists as a must buy, even while it was seriously hemorrhaging from bad and fraudulent business deals and its own shoddy accounting, cover ups and bad investment deals.

WorldCom quickly supplanted at&T as the favorite of many investors, based heavily on Grubman's recommendations. The investment world quickly sang WorldCom's praises as a result. A technology magazine, Network World, named it one of the ten most powerful companies, behind only Cisco and Microsoft. After listing its virtues, the magazine went on to conclude that, "MCI WorldCom will probably be a keeper on this list." 18 as for its investment virtues, Grubman claimed that it was a traditional "widows and orphans" stock, to be held for the long-term. Based partially upon his recommendations, Fortune listed…

References

Beauchamp, Tom. L. Bowie, Norman. E. Ethical Theory and Business 7th Ed. New York: Prentice Hall, 2003.

Dalla Costa, John. The Ethical Imperative Why Moral Leadership Is Good Business. Reading, MA: Perseus Publishing,1998.

Fox, Loren. Enron: The Rise and Fall. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2003.

Geisst, Charles R. Wall Street: A History: from Its Beginnings to the Fall of Enron. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004.

This strategy was successful for some time but when WorldCom tried to acquire MCI (a company with two times more revenues than WorldCom), the binge of acquisitions was ended due to objections from antitrust and other stakeholders.

WorldCom's strategy was to display revenues and profits in extremely positive basket; for which the company had to make false misstatements in their accounting records. I think, it was the social and ethical responsibility of WorldCom to avoid misinterpretations in their financial statements and to show clear picture of the company to its stakeholders.

This strategy resulted in expansion of WorldCom through acquisitions and the expansion became so huge that the management of WorldCom was unable to handle the business. The debt of the company touched $41billion with $11billion of accounting frauds and misinterpretations. These all were the fruits of strategies implemented by Ebber just to display a very sound and positive picture…

References

Besser, T. And Miller, N. (2008). Is the good corporation dead? Journal of Socio-Economics, 30 (3). 221-241.

Crawford, K. (2005). Ex-WorldCom CEO Ebbers guilty: Faces up to 85 years in prison after being convicted on all nine counts in accounting fraud. Retrieved on May 7, 2011, from http://monev.cnn.eom/2005/03/l5/news/newsmakers/ebbers/index.htm?cnn=yes

Sidak, J.G. (2003). The failure of good intentions: The WorldCom fraud and the collapse of American telecommunications after deregulation. Yale Journal on Regulation, 20(2), 207-267.

NSome of the key questions that were presented in the article include; How could a company as successful as Enron meet such a demise? What lessons can be learned from the Enron Debacle? Was the Bush administration aware of the problems at Enron before they became apparent to the rest of the country What can be done to prevent this from occurring again? Why did WorldCom collapse? Can the collapse of WorldCom interrupt internet connections? Why did Arthur Anderson ignore the discrepancies with Enron's business practices? Is Arthur Anderson to blame for the problems with Enron? Have the actions of Arthur Anderson tainted the profession of accountants? Why wasn't there more accountability for the practices of the companies? Why didn't the SEC know that these problems were occurring?

What is the most significant question?

The most significant question is What can be done to prevent this from occurring again? This…

REFERENCES

Bahls, Steven C., Jane Easter Bahls. Dec, 2002. Shred of evidence: learn a lesson from Arthur Anderson: destroying documents makes you look bad -- Legal. Entrepreneur,  http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0DTI/is_12_30/ai_96892308 

McConnel, Steve. The Enron Debacle. Open Space Magazine.  http://www.open-spaces.com/article-v4n4-mcconnel.php 

Nyberg Alix. Jan, 2003. After Anderson: surviving the demise - Your Move - Arthur Andersn LLP. CFO, Magazine for Senior Financial Executives

 http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3870/is_1_19/ai_96379106

SAS Number 99 and the Corporate Audit

This report attempts to explain how the new SAS No.99 will change the way accounting firms will be required to conduct corporate audits. News about the collapse of Enron continues to dominate the American media circuits and in the wake of the now infamous Enron accounting scandal, accounting firms will be required to pay more attention then ever. Since the recent American Institute of Certified Public Accounts issue of SAS 99, the approach of auditors in the United States will for ever more be greatly enhanced. ith SAS 99 for example, external auditors will be required to discuss and gather facts with internal auditors. As of SAS 99, corporate America will now be required to monitor and share the findings of internal auditors who may be privy to critical fraud-related data residing with their clients. SAS 99 will therefore provide new opportunities for…

Works Cited

BBCi. "Enron finance chief denies charges" BBC International. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2756345.stm6 November, 2002..

BBCi. "Ex-WorldCom Finance Boss Indicted." BBC International. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/2222137.stm28 August 2002.

SAS 99. Ed. AICPA. AICPA.  http://www.aicpa.org/index.htm .

" hile there are factors like peer pressure and authority that come into play, some research claims to have isolated significant features of an individual's character that make them more likely to commit acts of fraud, bribery and falsification in the corporate context (27, 2009). For example, those people with "high levels of ambition were more likely to transgress moral codes, competitively stab colleagues in the back and make dubious decisions relating to asset-stripping, disinvestment, and so on" (27, 2009).

Trevino's (1986) work is relevant when it comes to understanding individuals and corruption. There are a couple questions regarding moral personality that come up: first of all, whether or not a person sees an event or issue as a moral problem; the second is how they decide to act in relation to that problem. Kohlberg's theory of cognitive moral development emphasizes the cognitive or reasoning aspect of moral-decision making (604,…

Works Cited:

Bratsis, Peter. The Construction of Corruption, or Rules of Separation and Illusions of Purity in Bourgeois Societies. Social Texts, 21(4), 9-33.

Burke, Ronald J. & Cooper, Cary L. Research Companion to Corruption in Organizations

(New Horizons in Management). Edward Elgar Publishers, 2009.

Fleming, Peter. & Zyglodopoulos, Stelios C. Charting Corporate Corruption: Agency,

ehavioral Finance and Human Interaction a Study of the Decision-Making

Processes Impacting Financial Markets

Understanding the Stock Market

Contrasting Financial Theories

Flaws of the Efficient Market Hypothesis

Financial ubbles and Chaos

The stock market's dominant theory, the efficient market hypothesis (EMH) has been greatly criticized recently for its failure to account for human errors, heuristic bias, use of misinformation, psychological tendencies, in determining future expected performance and obtainable profits.

Existing evidence indicates that past confidence in the EMH may have been misdirected, as the theory's models do not show a thorough understanding of trading operations in a realistic light.

Researchers have suggested that a variety of anomalies and inconsistent historical results demand that traditional financial theories, namely the EMH, be reconstructed to include human interaction as a key decision-making process that directly affects the performance of financial markets.

This research paper aims to determine whether or not there is a…

Bibliography

Barrett, Larry. (January, 2001). Emotional investing a recipe for disaster. CNET News.com.

Bernstein, Peter. (1998). Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Brennan, Phil. (March 12, 2002) The Great Stock Market Scam. NewsMax.com.

Business Week. (September 29, 1997) The Perils of Investing Too Close to Home.

Sarbanes-Oxley.

The political pressure of the past several years following the dot.com bubble and the collapse of several major companies created a need for new securities legislation, which culminated last year in the Sarbanes-Oxley Investor Protection Act, which establishes new guidelines for the securities industry. Initially a Democratic brainchild, the act became favored by epublicans in the House when it was realized that such adjustments would be of great benefit to shareholder value in that they enhanced general financial stability. This is the most prominent piece of financial legislation since the establishment of the Securities and Exchange Commission in the early 1930's. The most widely recognized feature of the new legislation, which was introduced in 1992, is that board members are held personally and criminally liable for the accounting practices that the company employees. This act also establishes guidelines as to the coverage of securities by sell-side analysts who face…

Resources and Authority

Studies and Reports

Corporate and Criminal Fraud Accountability

White Collar Crime Penalty Enhancements

Corporate Tax Returns

Sidney Dolce

For Sidney, there are two points of concern. The first is identifying the potential ethic issues in the finance and accounting departments. The second is evaluating the cost and benefits of the ethics department. The latter is not the primary focus on the meeting, and the decision appears to be a fait accompli so Sidney is going to let it rest. The focus of Sidney's position will therefore be on eliminating potential risk of ethical violations in the finance and accounting departments.

Sidney has a significant stake in this meeting. Many of the high profile scandals outside of PIE, such as those at Enron and orldCom, involved the accounting and financing departments. The CEO was involved in the ethical problems in each of those firms. Thus, Sidney needs to ensure that his department not only has strong procedures and training programs to ensure compliance with all regulations regarding…

Works Cited:

Aguilar, M. (2009). Whistleblower policy a necessity during weak economy. Compliance Week Retrieved April 26, 2011 from  http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0198-601109/Whistleblower-policy-Necessity-in-weak.html 

Cone, E. (2006). Compliance: Is Sarbanes-Oxley working? CIO Insight. Retrieved April 26, 2011 from  http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Trends/Compliance-Is-Sarbanes-Oxley-Working/ 

Heathfield, S. (2010). How to change your culture: Organizational culture change. About.com. Retrieved April 26, 2011 from  http://humanresources.about.com/od/organizationalculture/a/culture_change_2.htm 

Knowledge @ Wharton. (2002). Drawing lessons from WorldCom. CNet News. Retrieved April 26, 2011 from  http://news.cnet.com/2009-1022-943517.html

It has been shown that the acquisition of talent not an area specific to each individual position at top companies. The highest-performing companies build pools of talent from which they can draw as needed (Michaels et al., 2001). Thus, there will inevitably be talented people who are at times underutilized. Their higher-order needs are not being met and thus they must be generously compensated. Otherwise, when the time comes to move someone from the organization to a fulfilling, higher-order executive position, the talent will not be there.

CEO pay proponents also point out that the bulk of the "excessive" executive compensation comes in the form of stock or options. These instruments were brought into executive compensation packages specifically to align the interests of management with those of the shareholders. It was the shareholders and the boards of directors who initiated this, as a means to protect shareholder wealth. There have…

Works Cited:

Taub, Stephen. (2006). CEO Pay is Too High, Directors Say. CNN. Retrieved May 1, 2009 from  http://www.cfo.com/article.cfm/8027003/c_8027107 

FASB Statement 123 (1995). Retrieved May 1, 2009 from  http://www.fasb.org/st/summary/stsum123.shtml 

FASB Statement 123R (2004). Retrieved May 1, 2009 from  http://www.fasb.org/st/summary/stsum123r.shtml 

Case: Compensation and Governance at WorldCom. (2002) NYU Stern. Retrieved May 1, 2009 from  http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~lcabral/teaching/worldcom.pdf

In the company it has ushered in a better accounting and the management with upgrades in technology and competence, there will be a requirement for training and upgrading managers and staff to meet the contingencies of the proposed systems and controls. The Sarbanes-Oxley section will help the companies on the other hand gain a lot of investment and support from the investors by providing a quality and timely information, with a competitive advantage. (Shanley, 2004)

For the officer and the shareholder and those dealing with the company it ensures that the financially literate directors at the helm and will have internal controls which make the company relatively safe. It is however to be noted that the act is for public companies and many companies have cut issues to escape the provisions of the act. The Auditing firms and the auditing process all have undergone vast changes in the process of…

References

Anderson, David R. (2006) "Modern Business Statistics"

Thomson South-Western.

Bullock, Jane a; Haddow, George. (2006) "Introduction to Homeland Security"

Butterworth-Heinemann.

Another expample, as Dahlin (2007) notes, WorldCom was in the heart of one of the largest accounting scandals in history. Add to this the Wal-Mart effect of business in general, with companies having to compete with Wal-Mart's low costs, made possible partially due to their low wages, failure to pay overtime, nonexistent benefits, and resistance to unionization, and a ripple effect has been cast on the waters, causing other companies to follow suit, in an effort to be competitive.

Changing Society Equals a Changing Demand for Corporate Social esponsibility:

Today's changing society has increased the demand for corporate social responsibility. The decades of ethical abuse, coupled with the recent financial soul shattering scandals, has called for businesses to renew their social contract with society (Basu & Palazzo, 2008). Society now demands that corporations take responsibility for their interactions with the world.

A generation ago, most people didn't think tobacco was…

References

Basu, K. & Palazzo, G. Jan 2008, "Corporate social responsibility: A process model of sensemaking," Academy of Management Review vol. 33, no. 1, pp. 122-136.

Daboub, a. & Calton, J. Dec 2002, "Stakeholder learning dialogues: How to preserve ethical responsibility in networks," Journal of Business Ethics vol. 41, no. 1/2, pp. 85-98.

Dahlin, L. 2007, "Where have all the ethics gone? Business ethics and corporate social responsibility through the years," Proceedings of the Northeast Business & Economics Association pp. 360-366.

Porter, M. & Kramer, M. Dec 2006, "Strategy & society: The link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility," Harvard Business Review vol. 84, no. 12, pp. 78-92.

However, because of the costliness of this requirement, many believe it is especially unfair to small businesses who are already struggling to be competitive in an increasingly hypercompetitive, globalized economy.

As such, small, public companies have been given a temporary reprieve from some of Section 404's strict and costly requirements. In addition, there have been new guidelines set forth for auditors, with a hopes of reducing the cost of compliance of the Section, for all companies (Basilio, 2007; Grumet, 2007).

Bradford and Brazel (2007) note that these costs due indeed seem to be decreasing. In research they quote from AM, organizations spent $4.5 million on compliance with the Act, in 2004. This was reduced to $3.8 million in 2005, and further decreased to $2.9 million in 2006.

However, despite these decreasing total costs of compliance, the Act is still a costly requirement for public companies. Bradford and Brazel (2007) further…

References

Basilo, T. (Jan 2007). Reducing Sarbanes-Oxley compliance costs. The CPA Journal, 77(1). Retrieved December 11, 2007, from ProQuest database.

Bigalke, J. & Burrill, S. (Aug 2007). Time for a second look at SOX compliance. Healthcare Financial Management, 61(8). Retrieved December 11, 2007, from Business Source Complete database.

Bradford, M. & Brazel, J. Flirting with SOX 404. Strategic Finance, 89(3). Retrieved December 11, 2007, from ProQuest database.

Bumiller, E. (31 Jul 2002). Bush signs bill aimed at fraud in corporations." New York Times. Retrieved December 11, 2007, from Business Source Complete database.

The statute of limitation for the discovery of fraud is increased to two years from discovery date and five years following the act. Criminal penalties for securities fraud was increased to 25 years, by SOX.

Each public company's CEO and CFO must certify financial statements and reports. Personal loans are banned, to executive officers and company directors, with the enactment of SOX. It is also now required to accelerate reporting of insider trading ("H.. 3763").

In addition, SOX now prohibits insider trading during pension fund blackouts. Compensation and profits for the CEO and CFO must be made public.

Auditor independence is now specifically required. and, American companies must have an internal audit function, that is certified by external auditors. Audit firms are prohibited from providing services, unrelated to their audit work, to clients. One of the most important provisions is an increased accountability, holding CEOs and directors accountable, for crimes…

References

Beard, D. & Wen, H. "Reducing the Threat Levels for Accounting Information Systems." The CPA Journal. May 2007. New York State Society of CPAs. December 3, 2007  http://www.nysscpa.org/cpajournal/2007/507/essentials/p34.htm .

Collins, J. "15 Key Provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley." Microsoft Dynamics. 10 Nov 2004. Microsoft. December 3, 2007 http://www.microsoft.com/dynamics/nav/product/navision_15_major_sox_provisions.mspx.

H.R. 3763. 23 Jan 2002. Government Printing Office. December 3, 2007  http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=107_cong_bills&docid=f:h3763enr.tst.pdf .

Lucci, J. "Enron - the Bankruptcy Heard Around the World and the International Riccochet of Sarbanes-Oxley." Albany Law Review 67(1) 2003: pp. 211-249. Academic Search Premier. EBSCOHost. University of Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ. December 2, 2007  http://web.ebscohost.com .

here are three primary factors that influence the company's current strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning. he first factor is the increase in competitiveness within the industry in general. he rise in private and small scale CPA practices within the United States now makes almost all of Anderson's clients institutional in nature. Although this is sustainable at the current level, the concern is that Anderson will not be able to grow its organization at a grassroots level. he implication is that if small to midsized companies are now employing private companies and individual CPAs rather than large accounting corporations, then Anderson must compete exclusively with the other four major corporations for large-cap companies. his is a strategy concern that has influenced Anderson's current tactical decision making. As a result, it has jettisoned many subsidiary operations in order to focus on its core auditing and financial services offerings. his was represented…

There are three primary factors that influence the company's current strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning. The first factor is the increase in competitiveness within the industry in general. The rise in private and small scale CPA practices within the United States now makes almost all of Anderson's clients institutional in nature. Although this is sustainable at the current level, the concern is that Anderson will not be able to grow its organization at a grassroots level. The implication is that if small to midsized companies are now employing private companies and individual CPAs rather than large accounting corporations, then Anderson must compete exclusively with the other four major corporations for large-cap companies. This is a strategy concern that has influenced Anderson's current tactical decision making. As a result, it has jettisoned many subsidiary operations in order to focus on its core auditing and financial services offerings. This was represented by the spin-off of Anderson Consulting in 2000 into Accenture, and the slow increase in focus on its core business development.

Another major factor that has influenced the company has been the increased complexity of financial legislation. This can be evidenced in several areas; the most prominent is the recent Sarbanes-Oxley Act. This act was passed in the wake of Enron in order to create greater accountability for public companies. As a result, it means that it is harder than ever to become public in the United States. This means that there is much more business for the major accounting companies, and Anderson has begun positioning itself as one of the key industry leaders in helping companies become public entities.

The final factor has been the increasing competitiveness for top notch financial talent on a global scale. The globalization market has changed significantly the market for accounting and financial services, the opening up of China have especially been important to the new reality of the global market. As a result, Anderson had changed its tactical decision to including the expansion into a transnational corporation; the only way to fully account for this change is to understand exactly what is necessary in order to develop strong international relationships with emerging talent. Anderson has already taken major steps in these endeavors as it changed its global outreach initiative by pushing for a more universal agenda towards rewarding clients from all sectors of its business development equally. Overall Anderson has engaged in many different processes that impacts its global outreach.

Pattern of inductive reasoning is as follows: Theory ?Tentative Hypothesis ?Pattern ?Observation. While inductive approach is concerned with the open-ended explanatory, deductive reasoning chooses a narrow perspective by testing or confirming the hypothesis. (Trochim, & Donnelly 2007). Typically, inductive reasoning chooses qualitative approach to test the hypothesis. However, the deductive approach employs quantitative method to test hypothesis before arriving at confirmation. In qualitative research, it is not necessary to generate hypothesis to begin research, however quantitative studies make use of hypothesis to begin research. One of the advantages of deductive approach is that the researcher is able to test the hypothesis by using data. The limitation of quantitative approach is that the hypothesis could only be tested when there is enough data. (Ali, & Birley, 1998).

In accounting research, testing the hypothesis with the use of the statistical analysis is the common method to arrive at confirmation. The validity of…

References

Ahmed, A.S. McAnally, M.L. Rasmussen, S. et al. (2009). How costly is the Sarbanes-Oxley Act? Evidence on the effects of the Act on corporate profitability. Journal of Corporate Finance 16: 352 -- 369

Ali, H & Birley, S. (1998). Integrating deductive and Inductive Approaches in a Study of New Ventures and Customer Perceived Risk. Imperial College of Science, Technology and Management,

Boot, A.W.A. Gopalan, R. & Thakor, A.V. (2004). Go Public or Stay private: A Theory of Enterpreneurial Choice: CEPR Discussion Papers 4219, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.

Boot, A.W.A. Gopalan, R. & Thakor, A.V. (2008). Market Liquidity, Investor Participation, and Managerial Autonomy: Why Do Firms Go Private?, The Journal of Finance. LXIII (4): 2013: 2059

Removing losses from the company's books made the main corporation look more attractive. Enron appeared to be operating at a profit; a key factor in the valuation of any company's stock. By virtue of this "success," Enron was able to raise even more money for more investments.

The architects of all this "growth" profited accordingly. Ken Lay and his associates held large amounts of exceedingly valuable and overvalued stock. hen Enron's cheating was finally exposed, it became painfully apparent to what extent Ken Lay, Jeff Skilling, and other Enron executives had been making vast sums of money on the backs of gullible workforce, and a gullible public:

The "Enron Nine" (if we may call them that) are J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Credit Suisse First Boston, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Lehman Brothers. These financial institutions collaborated with the now-bankrupt energy company…

Works Cited

 http://www.questia.com/ PM.qst?a=o&d=5001896979' target='_blank' REL='NOFOLLOW'>

Economic Globalization

Has the 2008 financial meltdown in the U.S. And the ongoing economic crisis in Europe have practically ended the era of economic globalization?

Following the financial crisis that marred the U.S. economy along with other global economies as well as the ongoing Eurozone debt crisis, there have been projected concerns that this predicament would end economic globalization. The purpose of this paper is to assess this claim. Going by Immanuel Wallenstein's World Systems Theory, the political economy of Third World economies and developed economies of the West are mutually dependent. Wallenstein's conjecture is that the growth and expansion of Third World economies relies on constant interaction with Western developed economies seeing as the world is characterized by a structural division of labor where the developing nations of the Third World provide cheap labor and raw materials while the developed economies are the holders of capital and controllers of…

References

Ebrahimi, H, 2012, "John Lewis warns Amazon's tax avoidance 'will drive UK companies out of business" The Telegraph

Held, David; The Open University, eds. (2004). A Globalizing World?: Culture, Economics, Politics (2nd ed.). London; New York: Routledge, in association with the Open University. p. 84.

Katz, I & Christie, R (2011) "Geithner Called Housing Giants Biggest 'Moral Hazard'" Bloomberg

Lynch, Katherine (2003). The Forces of Economic Globalization. Kluwer Law International

Insider Trading

On June 4, 2003, the Securities Exchange Commission announced that it was pursuing charges against investor Martha Stewart and stock broker Peter Bacanovic for securities fraud. The fraud occurred on December 27, 2001 when Stewart sold stock in ImClone Systems, after receiving an unlawful tip from Bacanovic, who at the time was working for Merrill Lynch. The SEC also accused the two of attempting to cover up the insider actions, and of making false statements regarding the ImClone trades to SEC investigators (SEC, 2003). Stephen Cutler, the SEC director of enforcement said in the SEC's press release about the charges that "It is fundamentally unfair for someone to have an edge on the market just because she has a stockbroker who is willing to break the rules and give her an illegal tip. It's worse still when the individual engaging in the insider trading is the Chairman and…

Works Cited:

AP. (2004). Martha Stewart convicted on all four counts. Fox News. Retrieved April 13, 2013 from  http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,113417,00.html 

Heminway, J. (2003). Save Martha Stewart? Observations about equal justice in U.S. insider trading regulations. Texas Journal of Women and the Law. Vol. 12 (247).

Moohr, G. (2006). What the Martha Stewart case tells us about the white collar crime. Houston Law Review. Vol. 43 (2006).

Podgor, E. (2005). Jose Padilla and Martha Stewart: Who should be charged with criminal conduct? Penn State Law Review. Vol. 109 (Spring 2005).

Ethics and Financial Reporting

Role of ethics

In financial reporting, ethics assumes a key role. Shareholders must feel confident enough to trust a company with their money. Financial reporting is the representation of all information about a company's historical, current and projected health. In most cases, shareholders and investors depend on the financial statements available to make educated and informed decisions. o support entities maintain financial reporting and adhere to business regulations, shareholders tend to trust the current firms designed to supervise various aspects of the accounting field. he basic organizations include the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC) and the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). In collaboration, these bodies guarantee financial reporting is reliable, available and fair to all investors.

he usefulness of ethics in financial reporting and business is to promote investor and public confidence in businesses. In the absence of a powerful…

To discuss ethics and financial reporting in a better way, we must look at some of the greatest scandals in a recent decade: the WorldCom and Enron. In the corporate world, Enron was a huge symbol of the widespread economic problem because its growth and collapse were unique. Formed in 19985, Enron was under the leadership of Ken Lay. In 1990, the company hired Andy Fastow and Jeffrey Skilling. In 2001, Enron was listed as one of Fortune's best admired firms, sending its stock prices up to at least $90 per share. Next was a $1 billion write-off that marked the onset of an SEC investigation. Soon, Enron was declared bankrupt, and the share price dropped to $26 per share. Enron was not alone so concerns could not dissipate quickly and confidence in capital markets plummeted. Before Enron, firms like Sunbeam and Waste Management acted as a warning of what happened to Enron. The closure of Enron led to constant disclosures. World.Com had been entangled in the practice of capitalizing expenses. On one hand, Enron was trying hard to outshine capital markets and accounting regulators while WorldCom was making accounting errors that even novice accounting learners would identify as inappropriate. For many, the most disturbing factor is the collaboration among top executives. Following these scandals, the then President Bush and Congress took a tough position in the version of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Causes of Financial Reporting Problems

A confluence of situations opened eyes to the issues. The bursting of the economic bubble significantly contributed to the realization of the abuses. When all things seemed bright, no one questioned the financial reports of corporations. The new economic could not last forever. Therefore, when the economy changed, investors started to pose tough questions. Companies could not answer many of these questions; there were only cover-ups and denials. The world of accounting is facing a challenging period. The reputation that it acquired over decades has been lost in a day. People thought that accountants were individuals of great integrity occupying interesting positions. In today's situation, their occupation has become even more interesting but at the expense of their reputation for integrity. The profession must fight to restore public trust and maintain their belief in the significance of accounting.

The claim that a board member familiar with forensic accounting would have been able to uncover such a fraud holds little water given that it took a team of experts working in secret many months to uncover the fraud. However, the argument generally holds that better board composition, and more engaged board members, would have prevented such a fraud. Nadler (2004) argues that better boards are less important for preventing frauds as they are for driving better performance. This then shifts the emphasis of the board away from governance and towards performance enhancement.

Nadler's argument supports Nohria's claims about the relative irrelevance of strong corporate governance. No matter whether the boards take a strict shareholder approach or the expanded stakeholder approach proposed by Post et al. (2002), there are limits as the impact that they can have over a company's performance, no matter how well-composed the board is. If the…

Works Cited:

Bowden, P. & Smythe, V. (2008). Theories on teaching & training in ethics. Electronic Journal of Business Ethics and Organizational Studies. Vol. 13 (2) 19-26.

Nadler, D. (2004). Building better boards. Harvard Business Review. May 2004, 102-111.

Nohria, N. (2004). What really matters. Harvard Business School. Retrieved February 28, 2011 from http://info.umuc.edu/mba/HBS/realmathi/presentation/title/start.html#play

Post, J.; Preston, L. & Sachs, S. (2002). Managing the extended enterprise: The new stakeholder view. California Management Review. Vol. 45 (1) 6-28.

190). The Act also helped to create a "too-big-to-fail" mindset (Walter, 2004) that would have profound implications during the economic downturn of 2008 and beyond.

6.

Why did you include this piece of legislation in your list? The Act is described by Sammin (2004) as being "the biggest revision in financial services law since the Great Depression" (p. 653).

iegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994

1.

What were the problems/conditions giving rise to the legislation? apid consolidations among the nation's banks were creating the potential for diverting needed banking resources from communities (ose, 1997).

2.

What were the major provisions of the Act? The iegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994 (hereinafter "the Act") contained the following major provisions:

A. Bank holding companies that are adequately capitalized and managed can acquire a bank anywhere in the United States one year after this law is enacted.…

References

Alexander, K., Dhumale, R. & Eatwell, J. (2006). Global governance of financial systems: The international regulation of systemic risk. New York: Oxford University Press.

Coustan, H., Leinicke, L.M., Rexroad, W.M. & Ostrosky, J.A. (2004). Sarbanes-Oxley: What it means to the marketplace; from support to apprehension, accounting professionals express their thoughts. Journal of Accountancy, 197(2), 43-44.

Feinberg, R.M. & Reynolds, K.M. (2010). An examination of entry and competitive performance in rural banking markets. Southern Economic Journal, 76(3), 624-625.

Gup, B.E. (2003). The future of banking. Westport, CT: Quorum Books.

The stock was trading on pink sheets at $0.165 per share at the end of April 2003" (8).

As noted above, one of the key factors involved in what happened at HealthSouth was the enormous pressure to perform in the increasingly competitive for-profit healthcare industry, pressure that directly affected the decisions that were made concerning the types of accounting practices that were needed to "deliver the goods," at least on paper. Although absent from the foregoing list, Scrushy's name appears time and again in the investigation that followed. According to Jennings, "Like Enron, orldCom, and Tyco, HealthSouth placed tremendous pressure on employees to 'meet the numbers.' In April 1998, CEO Richard Scrushy told analysts that HealthSouth had matched or beat earnings estimates for 47 quarters in a row" (8). The role played by Scrushy in engineering the corporate culture that would allow these estimates to be reported with a straight…

Works Cited

Brickey, Kathleen F. 2006. "In Enron's Wake: Corporate Executives on Trial." Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 96(2): 397-399.

Geyman, John P. The Corporate Transformation of Health Care: Can the Public Interest Still Be

Served? New York: Springer, 2004.

Jennings, Marianne M. 2004. "Incorporating Ethics and Professionalism into Accounting

According to these analysts, "The implicit assumption underlying the price-to-earnings method is that the fair market value of the closely held business can be approximated from the market value of comparable publicly traded businesses. To implement this method, the valuator must be able to identify a set of presumed-to-be comparable publicly traded companies and obtain sufficient information on each to verify the extent of comparability from an economic, management, and financial perspective. No publicly traded company will be precisely comparable to the closely held business being valued, so informed judgment must be exercised" (p. 81). As a general rule, the smaller in size and the more limited the scope of activities of the business being valued, the less likely there will be a set of publicly traded companies that are comparable, or even a single comparable publicly traded company. Publicly traded companies are for the most part large, measured in…

References

Allen, M.F. & Cote, J. 2005, "Creditors' Use of Operating Cash Flows: An Experimental

Study." Journal of Managerial Issues 17(2): 198-199.

"Asset/equity ratio." 2009, Investor Glossary. [Online]. Available: http://www.investorglossary.

com/asset-equity-ratio.htm.

2009).

Engle (2009) also notes that the costs of compliance in both monetary and human terms are greatly reduced by a willingness to embrace the regulation as a tool rather than shunning it as a "necessary evil." Though stating the obvious, he says what many in the business world simply couldn't bring themselves to hear just over a year ago, namely that "smart managers approach compliance before there is a problem that impacts the company and its stakeholders" (Engle 2009, p. 18). The issues at Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers could have been prevented with regulation, but those at Enron and WorldCom were exacerbated by outright fraud, and the regulations provided by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act would have prevented such egregious mistreatment and mis-management of the company and its shareholders.

Strangely, the detection and prevention of fraud is not a benefit often perceived in the regulations of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act by…

References

Chang, H.; Choy, H.; Cooper, W.; Parker, B. & Ruefli, T. (2009). "Measuring productivity growth, technical progress, and efficiency changes of CPA firms prior to, and following the Sarbanes-Oxley Act." Socio-economic planning sciences 43(4), pp. 221-8.

Engle, P. (2009). "Making compliance effective." Industrial engineer 41(8), p. 8.

FEI. (2008). "FEI Survey: Average 2007 SOX Compliance Cost $1.7 Million." Financial Executives International. Accessed 25 September 2009. http://fei.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=204

corporate form of "the business corporation," its structure, prerogatives, and procedures, leads to ethical problems arising, or being difficult to resolve. Ethics in business has always seemed to be a struggle, because the main purpose of a business is to turn a profit, and for some businesspeople, that may be at any cost. However, after scandals such as Enron, WorldCom, and Bernie Madoff, among others, business ethics has emerged as an important part of a healthy business environment. The smart business corporation knows ethics and corporate social responsibility (CS) are an important aspect of their daily operations, and yet, businesses still seem to overlook that ideal at the most inopportune times.

The Business Corporation

What is a business corporation? To begin a discussion on ethics, it is important to first define a business corporation. A business corporation is a company doing business that enjoys certain legal protections as a corporation.…

References

Bomann-Larsen, Lene and Oddny Wiggen, eds. (2004). Responsibility in world business: Managing harmful side-effects of corporate activity. Tokyo: United Nations University Press.

Dilenschneider, R.L. & Salak, J. (2003) Do ethical communicators finish first? Walking the straight and narrow information path. [Online]. Available at:  http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4422/is_4_20/ai_103672846/pg_2/?tag=content;col1  [Accessed 17 June 2009].

Duska, R.F. (2006). Contemporary reflections on business ethics. New York: Springer.

Grace, Damian. 2006. For business ethics. Australian Journal of Management 31, no. 2: 371+.

However, when a shock happens that changes that pattern, the information is no longer relevant. In periods of turmoil, only the most up-to-date information is relevant. The usefulness of the information wanes quickly as the behavior of the company becomes more erratic. After a period of erratic behavior and change, the company may be forced to make internal changes that affect the way they do business. They may make changes that affect their inventory management, sales cycle, stock levels, supply chain, distribution network or other fundamental business functions. New patterns may emerge and the old information no longer applies.

The term "relevancy" can have many different meanings depending on what is happening with the company. A new accounting regime may need to be instituted when a change takes place. Looking at the most recent historical information is one way to determine the relevancy of the accounting information. The analyst needs…

References

Cadwalader, Wickersham, & Tact LLP. 1999. Application of the Safe Harbor for Forward-

Looking Statements. Findlaw. Accessed April 23, 2009

.

Giroux, G. (n.d.). American Big Business and Cost Accounting. In a Short History of Accounting and Business. Accessed April 23, 2009

It should not be treated as a separate exercise undertaken to meet regulatory requirements." (ICA, 29) Here is expressed a philosophical impetus that drives the focus of this research, that such compliance which will generally concern matters such as corporate accounting, the practice of internal oversight and the practice of financial transaction must be considered inextricable from other aspects of practical, procedural and legal operation in terms of its relevance and necessity.

Chapter 3-Practice

The practice of corporate governance may perhaps best be understand from the perspective that deregulation has largely defined the processes and direction of the global economy across the two decades following the Cold ar and its inevitable opening of economic channels. This is because in practice, corporate governance is a concept which has suffered much neglect. To the point, the statistics availed by organizations such as the orld Bank and the International Monetary Fund illustrate that…

Works Cited:

Aguilera, R.V. & Yip, G.S. (2004). Corporate Governance and Globalization:

Toward an Actor Centred Institutional Analysis. University of Illinois: College

of Business. Online at .

ASB. (1999). Reporting Financial Performance. Financial Reporting Council. Online at

The statement regulating accounting for stock-based compensations defines a fair value-based method of accounting for an employee stock option or similar equity instrument and encourages all entities to adopt that method of accounting for all of their employee stock compensation plans. However, it also allows an entity to continue to measure compensation cost for those plans using the intrinsic value-based method of accounting prescribed by APB Opinion No. 25, Accounting for Stock Issued to Employees. The fair value-based method is preferable to the Opinion 25 method for purposes of justifying a change in accounting principle under APB Opinion No. 20, Accounting Changes. Entities electing to remain with the accounting in Opinion 25 must make pro forma disclosures of net income and, if presented, earnings per share, as if the fair value-based method of accounting defined in this statement had been applied.

Stock options are the most frequently used method in…

Reference List

Cadbury, Sir a. 1992. Committee on the Financial Aspects of Corporate Governance. London, Gee.

Combined Code. 2003. The combined code on Corporate Governance. London, Financial Reporting Council.

Directors' Remuneration Report Regulations. 2002. Available at  http://www.opsi.gov.uk 

Girma, S., Thompson, S. And Wright, P.W. 2007. Corporate governance reforms and executive compensation determination: evidence from the UK, the Manchester School, vol. 75(1): pp. 65-81.

" A unified strategy begins at the fundamental education level, students who will become the future corporate leaders and operators must be taught at an early age to have strong business ethics and values. The lack of such education is an essential cause for why corporate abuse is rampant in the world today. In 1980, a survey conducted USA Today asked Harvard Business School graduates what their top career priority was, an overwhelming 85% answered to "make money." This statistic is emblematic of the corporate culture for the past two decades. Changes within the education system to reinforce the importance of values at the collegiate and graduate level will have a profound impact on corporate leaders of the future. Evidence of this can be seen in another recent USA Today survey. When the same survey was presented to Harvard graduates in 2004, only 42% answered that money was their number…

Roe, Mark J. A Political Theory of American Corporate Finance, Volume 91:10, Columbia Law Review, pp. 10-67

Shinn, James, Nitwits in Pinstripes vs. Barbarians at the Gate, September 2000

Thompson, Tracy a. And Gerald F. Davis. The Politics of Corporate Control and the Future of Shareholder Activism in the United States, Corporate Governance: An International Review, July 1997.

Premeaux's investigation into ethics and business behavior resulted in four categories that can lead to ethical problems: a) coercion and control (the use of threats or extortion to force a manager to make a certain decision); b) conflict of interest (a manager has more than one interest and if he pursues both, harm may come to the company); c) physical environment (this relates to conflict of interest that can harm the environment); and d) personal integrity (making a decision based on one's own needs can raise a red flag in terms of right and wrong even if the law doesn't specifically spell out a guideline to follow) (16).

In a survey of managers, Premeaux received 413 questionnaires to test ethical responses. The results of those surveys (there is not enough room in this paper to report appropriate data) showed that managers have "…a heightened sense of ethical awareness with most…

Works Cited

Bringinshaw, John. (2006). Addressing Possible Conflicts of Ethical Management. Interbeing,

3(2), 1-4.

Minkes, a.L., Small, M.W., and Chatterjee, S.R. (1999). Leadership and Business Ethics: Does

It Matter? Implications for Management. Journal of Business Ethics, 20(4), 327-335.