Ethics Article Review of Accounting

Ethics Article Review of Accounting

Moral principles in the financial industry in recent years has been under scrutiny because of corporate financial disasters of "Adelphia Communications Corp., Tyco International Ltd., Global Crossing, WorldCom Inc., FINOVA Group Inc., Enron Corp., and HealthSouth Corp" (Jennings, 2003, para. 1). The failure of these corporations was because of poor ethical discussions made by the executives and accounting officials within the company; causing investor to lose billions of dollars to mis-management. In this paper the subject to describe is ethics by means of a suitable article on ethics in accounting; how it relates to this week's assigned reading; its relationship within the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory with recommendation, and final point the significance that ethics plays in the decision-making finance and accounting with focus on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOA).

Accounting Ethics

The article Ethics in Accounting by Katherine Norton brings to the front the need and importance for ethics in the accounting field. The two organizations that criterion for accountants in America are the "American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA)" (Norton, 2009, para. 3). These two accounting organizations establish how the profession is to maintain its reliability to its clients. The AICPA establishes the code of conduct, "Principles of Professional Conduct, General Accounting Standards Principles, and a section on Independence, Integrity, and Objectivity" (Norton, 2009, para. 3). The IMA publishes the "Leadership Strategies and Ethics as well as IMA's Statement of Ethical Professional Practice" (Norton, 2009, para. 3). IMA just as AICPA encourages and supports the independence, integrity, and objectivity of accountants.

Accounting Information: Users and Uses

The article's relation to the text Accounting Concepts and Applications can be found in chapter 1 with a focus on ethics in the accounting profession. The text explains the actions taken by the security and exchange commission (SEC) on the before mentioned accounting scandals on the 2000s. Arthur Levitt the Chair of the SEC gave a speech in 1998 titled The Number's Game in which he identified numerous accounting methods that weaken the integrity of the financial reports from corporations (Albrecht, Stice, Stice, & Swain, 2007, para. 3). However, it was perception and the pressures of Wall Street, investors, creditors, and the prospective investors and creditors of a company. These pressures to impress and live up to the profitability of a company from different directs can because the unethical actions of individuals to report inaccurate numbers. Assumptions and forecast amounts can also cloud the integrity accountants to meet high expectations of executives and investor. The accountant's actions are a choice and judgment of doing the right or wrong thing. An accountant's judgment is critical when in a dilemma to report accurate numbers versus fudging the numbers to show a profit.

Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory

Ethics has not changed it is still the right and wrong with a moral responsibility to duty and obligation. Accounting and budgeting information is more accessible to the organizations and the individual through Intranets and the Internet. The Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) has instituted knowledge management as part of the business strategy, information technology (IT), and human resources management divisions. It is a culture that the command must develop through training, mentoring, and experience. The MCWL mission statement and policies facilitates the organization with a common approach to how the company thinks, develops, and processes. "A culture supportive of knowledge management has strong professional ethics and pride supported by well-honed skills in teaming, including cross-functional teams" (Regan & O'Connor, p. 190, 2002). Training and education is a key component in dealing with the ethical issue in a fast moving global market. At the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab there is a mix of Active Duty and Reserve Marines, Government Service Workers, and Contractors; quarterly the command schedules reset or back-in-the-saddle training with a focus on ethics. Because we work with the science and technology industry outside the military and in the process of acquisition we must maintain the highest of stands and not cross the line of unethical behavior of acquiring technologies and allocation of funds.