Setting an Ethical Tone at the Top I have previously blogged about the importance of having a code of conduct for all organizations. A code of conduct establishes the ethical principles upon which the behavior of employees will be judged. It helps to distinguish right from wrong. A code provides... Read more →

One’s Motive for Acting is the Key Is whistleblowing a moral practice? Different views exist on this important issue. Generally, the act of whistleblowing should be motivated by good intentions – i.e., to right a wrong. On the other hand, if the motive is to gain a financial reward or... Read more →

Book Review I want to share with my readers a review of my accounting ethics textbook that was just published in The CPA Journal. I am proud to say the review highly recommends the book. This is the sixth edition of my book that spans more than twenty years of... Read more →

What Should Be Included in Your Code of Ethics? I have previously blogged about the importance of establishing an ethical culture in an organization to support the code of ethics. A code is meaningless unless top management models ethical behavior in every action and decision made. Purpose of a Code... Read more →

Has COVID Caused a Decline in Corporate Governance The case for business ethics has been well demonstrated through the costs and impacts of the repeated high-profile cases of corporate greed and misconduct. Often those integrity failures are a result of individuals crossing ethical boundaries as well as ignoring or circumventing... Read more →

Will Whistleblowers Still Come Forward? A new SEC rule interpretation threatens to weaken the incentive for external whistleblowers to come forward with details about potential corporate fraud. The clarification states that a whistleblower’s tip has to offer insight “beyond what would be reasonably apparent” to the agency from publicly available... Read more →

Building an Ethical Workplace Environment By Victoria Delgadillo, September 30, 2020 The following guest blog was written by Victoria Delgadillo, a student at Pepperdine University. The Broken Window Theory has recently been applied to enhance organizational culture in the workplace. It holds that a company should take care of the... Read more →

Fraud: Behavioral Attributes and Detection No one can deny that fraud is increasing in organizations. Most recently, there have been multiple disclosures of fraud in the government's loan program that is designed to help small businesses navigate through the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals who are engaged in occupational fraud schemes often... Read more →

Workplace Ethics and Doing the Right Thing I have blogged before about why good people sometimes do bad things in the workplace. Otherwise ethical people make the wrong turn or are influenced by others that are ethically-challenged. Perhaps people take the easy way out and don’t stand up for what... Read more →

ACFE 2020 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse The 2020 Report to the Nations on Occupational Fraud and Abuse developed by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners examined 2,504 cases of fraud in 125 countries causing $3.6 billion losses. The results are an eye-opener with respect to... Read more →