| Over time, business ethics and the U.S. government's outlook on controlling unethical and illegal behavior have varied. Although business ethics has been discussed for several decades, it has only come to the forefront in the past several years. This has been especially true over the past decade, with the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX) to help protect employees and investors. This research effort addressed the question of whether the money spent on the SOX Act has affected upper management and employees' awareness of ethics and compliance plan components as they relate to written ethics standards, ethics training, and the mechanisms for reporting unethical behavior. This study also investigated the measures that have been taken to protect employees and investors, and the financial impact of these measures on an organization. |
