Impact of Unethical Behavior

Depending on the firm, some unethical practices may occur and even go unchecked based on the practices by the management or executives of that said firm or organization. A common issue involving management is the fear of negative reactions from coworkers or peers; this may force employees to act as if things are normal and purposely not notice unethical behaviors. Any form of altering or falsifying business documents (receipts, invoices, accounting reports, etc.) are considered unethical business practices. Whilst the general public believes when a company is unethical it is because of one individual, but at the same time a company as a whole can have unethical practices.

These practices can truly hurt a firm or organization causing countless hours to fix and repair the damage to produce accurate reading. According to an article written by Aveta Business Institute (Six Sigma Online), "An employee working for an employer or company with unethical, deceptive, and dishonest conduct will be directly affected physically and mentally, and may even come down with emotional and health related problems because of it." To me this can also mean certain companies produce unethical practices and it can cause good employees to practice some poor unethical business behaviors. The main issue here is the loss of sales if consumers find out about an employee or company with bad business practices, the general public will not want to purchase goods or services from an organization with known unethical behavior.

In 2002 the Sarbanes-Oxley act was enacted to protect some of the existing unethical behaviors. This legislation is mainly in place to ensure businesses and organizations follow all existing accounting laws, it allows the system to hold leaders of companies and organizations accountable and also forces said organizations to be accurate with financial statements. Executives are faced with criminal charges including jail time and their accountants as well if they are non-compliant. The main purpose of this act was put into place to promote ethical conduct, honest financial statements that an organization needs to provide, and full and accurate disclosure for their periodic reports. Compliance with their respective government rules and regulations is key and the core of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act.