Reference no: EM132387430 , Length: word count:500

Question 1 - Accounting Theory and Concepts

Please respond the below statement. 200 words and reference.

Professor Greenfield and classmates, This week we are asked to discuss the impact of corporate culture on preventing earnings management and other financial shenanigans. Organizational culture represents the company's ethical identity. If is formulated from the sum total of shared values, assumptions, morals and beliefs that governs the behavior of individuals within a company. Individuals essentially come together to form a society where the company's code of ethics serves as the guiding values or "laws" of the society. As new individuals join the company, they will be indoctrinated or socialized into the group. Through these social forces, employee behavior will be directed to align with the company's organizational culture. When the organizational culture places value on high ethical standards, and fosters a high ethical working environment the employee will sense this and be more committed to make appropriate decisions. In Burchart's model, when there was low-low organizational fit, the likelihood of unethical behavior was elevated but when organizational fit to individual ethics was high-low, the employee adopted the higher organizational ethics.

Management's role is to set a positive tone to maintain the ethical working environment, promote a shared bond of ethical behavior, integrity and individual accountability. Management must do more than add lip-service to the organization's code of ethics. The fundamental concept of leadership by example is that "Leaders of integrity act on the knowledge that their actions are ethical and provide the basis for others in the workplace to follow their lead" (Mintz & Morris, 2017).

All companies want to be successful and management wants to prove its value to the company's shareholders and outside world. In some cases, failure to meet business objectives can mean the end of a career. Executive management incentive systems are often detrimental to corporate culture. Good companies as well as bad can turn to financial shenanigans if management sets the wrong example" (Schilit, 2015). It sends the wrong message when top management sets aside ethical principles to achieve business objectives and then is highly rewarded for their unethical behavior. Employees will discount the need for ethical action when pressured by result-oriented management or they witness unequal enforcement of ethical standards. KPMG's 2013 Integrity Survey bears witness to this. A key finding of the survey was that "some of the driving forces behind fraud and misconduct in the corporate environment include pressure to do "whatever it takes" to meet targets, not taking the code of conduct seriously, believing employees will be rewarded based upon results and not the means used to achieve them, and fear of losing one's job for not meeting performance targets" (Mintz & Morris, 2017).

Earnings management distorts the company's true economic reality and compromises the financial reports it provides to shareholders and the outside world. Its fraud, not a little white lie and it can snowball. Financial statement fraud is not easy to detect. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. The most effective means of preventing earnings management (and financial statement fraud) is through a strong corporate culture with strict enforcement of ethical conduct by all employees regardless of rank. Having worked in an environment where a large portion of an employee's compensation was linked to achieving business target, I can attest to the need for an ethical work environment fully supported by top management dedicated to high ethical standards. Our textbook (Mintz & Morris, 2017) cites 10 measures that can help to establish an ethical culture:

1. Establish clear policies on ethical conduct including a code of ethics.

2. Develop an ethics training program that instills a commitment to act ethically and explains code provisions.

3. Assign a top-level officer (i.e., Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer) to oversee compliance with ethics policies.

4. Use the internal auditors to investigate whether ethics policies have been followed in practice

5. Establish strong internal controls to prevent and detect unethical behaviors, such as fraud.

6. Establish whistleblowing policies including reporting outlets.

7. Establish an ethics hotline where employees can discuss questionable behavior on an anonymous basis.

8. Have employees sign a statement that they have complied with ethics policies.

9. Enforce ethics policies fairly and take immediate action against those who violate the policies.

10. Reward ethical behavior by including it in the performance evaluation system.

Question 2 - Accounting Theory and concepts

Please respond the below statement. 200 words and reference.

I have worked at a large variety of places such as grocery stores, factories, bakeries, fast food restaurants, accounting firms, shared service centers, mortgage companies, and multiple corporate offices where each was for a different industry. Although these various roles didn't always have much (if anything) in common, the one thing that I realize has remained constant at each place of employment is the effect that management had on the culture of the business.

From my experience, I can confirm that leadership has a direct impact on the company as well as the manner in which the business operates. This is also explained to be the case in our reading of chapter seven which focuses specifically on management. One quote within this chapter that I found to be extremely true is that "earnings can be as pliable as putty when a charlatan heads the company reporting them" (Mintz). Comparing company results to putty is very clever because if you put hard work, accountability, and a positive culture into the company, you will get positive results in return. This quote also "emphasizes the importance of having an ethical person at the head of a company because a CEO who practices fraud can twist earnings to make them look better than they really are, thereby deceiving the users of the financial statements.

Having accountability places visibility on the work that is being done so that management can see which areas aren't pulling their weight or can use some improvements. It also encourages employees to take pride in their work and give it their all so they can see how they directly contribute to the successfulness of the company. When it comes to organizational ethics in the workplace, I view it as a mountain where management is at the top. Whatever management exerts will trickle down the mountain into the rest of the company. Their values, their morale, their desire to meet goals, and the pride they show in behaving ethically is contagious. On the downside, their negative traits and unethical behaviors can trickle down as well.

"Organizational culture is the sum of the values and rituals which serve as 'glue' to integrate the members of the organization" (Watkins). Because it is the glue that binds that employees at all levels of the organization together, it is very important part at preventing financial shenanigans from being used to manage earnings. A system of checks and balances is a great example of why organizational culture is so important. Although fraud can be committed by one person, having systems in place where a second set of eyes must review the work done prevents the opportunity for fraud to take place. If a company is really big on behaving ethically, it is less likely that fraud will take place.

Question 3 - Nursing

Dietary Changes (100 words)

Dietary and lifestyle changes can be difficult to make, especially when you are not completely ready to accept your current disease process. Please list some diabetic resources within your community that would benefit your patients with diabetes.

Note - First two question is accounting theory and concepts (200 words each) 3rd question is nursing.

Attachment:- Assignment File.rar