CODE OF ETHICS AND LEGAL RESPONSIBILITY ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
As a leader in your organization, it is vital that you are familiar with the laws that regulate your industry. Sparked by the dramatic corporate and accounting scandals of Enron, Arthur Andersen, Adelphia, and WorldCom, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was implemented in 2002 in an effort to restore confidence in the stock markets. Sarbanes-Oxley represents the most important securities legislation since the original federal securities laws of the 1930s as it increased governmental regulation and oversight of publicly traded companies and established protections for whistleblowers. The False Claims Act and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act provide a financial incentive for those who blow the whistle to report fraudulent activity within their organization.
select and analyze an established company’s code of ethics, analyze how an employee would raise an ethical concern within an organization, and consider current laws with respect to whistle-blowers.
SCENARIO
You are an experienced ethics officer who has recently been hired by an established company. You have been tasked with analyzing the company’s current code of ethics and identifying areas in need of improvement.
Prepare a report (suggested length of 6–8 pages) in which you do the following:
A. Choose a company’s code of ethics from the Web Links section below and analyze that company’s code of ethics by doing the following:
1. Analyze how well the chosen company’s code of ethics covers the topic of corporate social responsibility (CSR).
2. Analyze how well the chosen company’s code of ethics covers the topic of compliance with legal mandates.
a. Describe the ramifications for an organization when it is noncompliant with legal mandates.
b. Describe two legal or ethical safeguards the chosen company has in place or could put in place to prevent illegal or unethical acts.
3. Analyze how well the chosen company’s code of ethics facilitates the development of an ethical culture.
4. Explain how an employee would raise an ethical concern in the chosen company and provide three resources available to employees to use when raising an ethical concern.
a. Discuss which resource(s) you would most likely use to report an ethical concern.
