Impact of Unethical Behavior

Unethical practices and behaviors in accounting tend to go unnoticed since often the actions may be the result of management or executives of the business. Due to the position of those who are executing the unethical practices a "blind eye" may be turned for fear of negative repercussions. Falsifying or altering business documents such as sales receipts, or tampering with reports may lead to unethical practices. According to Anonymous Employee (n.d.), "Among the most common unethical business behaviors of employees are making long-distance calls on business lines, duplicating software for use at home, falsifying the number of hours worked, or much more serious and illegal practices, such as embezzling money from the business, or falsifying business records." (para. 1). Among those situational exampleswhich include embezzlement of funds by an accountant from their employers for financial gain also include accountants receiving corporate pressure from their client to report false information and have unrealistic objectives and deadlines. "An accountant may decide to work for a company even though a conflict of interest may exist. If the accountant is owed money or has a significant stake in a firm, he or she may not be the ideal individual to prepare certain companies' financial statements." (Jacobsen, 2008, para. 10).

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 is legislation that is in place to prevent unethical behaviors. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act puts rules in place to hold executives accountable for the accuracy of financial statements. The rules that are in place with the legislation lend to harsher punishments and criminal penalties for non-compliance. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act does its best to ensure financial statements be true and correct."Section 406 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires that publicly traded companies disclose their code of ethics for senior financial officers. The Act was designed to promote honest and ethical conduct; full and accurate disclosure in periodic reports; and compliance with applicable government rules and regulations." (Jacobsen, 2008, para. 10). Though it is in place to prevent unethical practices it is not 100% successful. There will always be those that go about with unethical practices regardless of what the repercussions are.

References

Jacobsen, R. (2008, January). Unethical Behavior In The Workplace. EzineArticles, (), . Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Unethical-Behavior-In-The-Workplace&id=954264

Anonymous Employee.(n.d.).Unethical behavior in the workplace. Retrieved from http://www.anonymousemployee.com/csssite/sidelinks/unethical_behavior.php