Ethics Article Review Essay

Ethics in accounting and financial decision-making has received increased attention due to large incorporated scandals much(prenominal) as WorldCom and Enron in recent years. Legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley piece has attempted to make hatfuls more transparent to inherent and external stake induceers. afterwards analyzing the 2005 article by Richard Bernardi and Catherine LaCross, Corporate transparency Code of Ethics Disclosures, recommendations testament be made to improve honorable foundations at the San Quentin State prison house base 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 label of moral philosophy to the national will ensure better internal compliance with ethical practices. Those organizations that did not publicly disclose codes of ethics were little likely to truly conform to ethical practices required in the Sarbanes-Oxley operation. The Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 was legislation enacted in response to large corporate scandals.The Act c completely(prenominal)s for public corporations to publicly disclose all financial statements, store all electronic records for five years and these rules are governed by the SEC (Spurzem, 2006). Sarbanes Oxley has impacted organizations in that accountants and financial decision makers are open to public interrogatory based on the public financial statement disclosures and IT departments must adequately work and maintain corporate archives that are cost effective and in compliance with legislation (Spurzem, 2006). Organizations have been impacted financially by having to take extra resources to maintain compliance and avoid fines.According to Bernardi and LaCross, . . . one pattern 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 stated code of ethics and websites are an economically feasible avenue for making a incident code available to the public. The article argues that organizations that go beyond the basic requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley and withstand a universal code of ethics show that the organization is involuntary to walk the talk of ethics.SEC chairman Donaldson is quoted as saying . . . difference beyond mere adherence or conformity to new dictates and of Sarbanes-Oxley responsibilities that sojourn at the very heart of their obligation to create a corporate nuance of transparency and accountability (Bernardi, 2005, par 6). Integrating ethics into a corporate culture is highly effective in ensuring strong ethical compliance within organizations. At the San Quentin State Prison, ethics are primal in many aspects of business line including accounting, financial decisions, inmate treatment, medical care, and popular work environment.There are many opportunities for unethical practices t o take hold in a prison facility. Since the facility is closed off to the frequent 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 localize the entire prison cultural towards walking the ethical talk.All prison employees would be held individually 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, developing a code of ethics for all job functions in an organization is essential to maintaining an ethical corporate envir onment. 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