"We can't mandate morals - We ask employees to bring their ethics to work with them". This is an interesting statement in light of the recent proliferation of the Sarbanes Oxley ruling throughout the telecommunications industry. Specifically, [Company 1] has intensified its efforts towards increased documentation and controls to the point that almost one-third of a finance manager's job responsibility is now tied in one way or another to this law.

My initial reaction to Paul Towne's statement is to wholeheartedly agree under the premise that we live in a free market economy and to mandate morals would be to regress towards a communistic environment. However, that opinion is too extreme when considering the scandals associated with Enron and WorldCom. As was evident with these companies, a complete delegation of ethics to the employees can result in the abuse of this privilege by a few that produces a widespread negative effect. With this in mind, my reaction shifts slightly towards agreeing with his statement, but with a caveat. I believe that it is acceptable to expect individuals to bring their morals with them to work, but there should be controls in place to randomly check that this empowerment is producing justifiable results.

While the new requirements set forth by [Company 1] in response to Sarbanes Oxley are cumbersome, they serve the purpose of reinforcing an already clean reputation. If a process or procedure is deemed questionable, it is thoroughly investigated and improved if necessary. As I stated earlier, these types of activities may seem to contradict our country's norm of conducting business, but a free market economy operates on the premise of freedom of choice. And the public is free to choose not to buy a certain stock.

По материалам сайта www.businessweek.com.

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