Module 6: Ethical Considerations

Internal Auditing

A control in which the company investigates and evaluates employees' compliance with company policies and procedures

Ethical Consumerism

A movement in which consumers make purchasing decisions based on a company's ethical profile

Whistleblower

A person who exposes any kind of information or activity that is deemed illegal, unethical, or not correct within an organization

Discrepancies

Accounting errors that occur unintentionally

Stakeholders

All parties who have a stake in the performance and output of the corporation

Grease Payments

A business practice of paying small inducements in order to expedite decisions and transactions

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

A company's obligations to society, including a wide range of stakeholders: people and places affected by company activities

Open Government Information Regulations

Chinese regulation (2008) that establishes limited rules for government information disclosure and public participation

Conflict of Interest (COI)

Ethical challenges in which multiple interests are at conflict with one another

Ethics

Field of philosophy that deals with the morality of what is considered right and wrong

Organizational Ethics

How an organization ethically responds to an internal or external stimulus

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002

Law aimed at increasing the level of ethical transparency within corporate America

Irregularities

Misrepresentations of accounting data with the intention to defraud

Power Distance

One of Hofstede's six dimensions of national culture. It describes how formal and authority-focused a society is.

Cultural Norms

Shared, sanctioned, and integrated systems of beliefs and practices that are passed down through generations and characterize a cultural group

Business Ethics

The contemporary standards or sets of values that govern the actions and behavior of individuals in the business organization and the actions of the business itself

Internal Controls

The redundancies that are build into a system to make certain that it accurately maintains material statements