From: Dans_SECemails@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, May 28, 2007 7:03 PM
Subject: Directors, managers set company's ethical tone
Nothing great in the world has ever been accomplished without passion.
- George Wilhelm Hegel.
"You must constantly ask yourself these questions: Who am I around? What are they doing to me? What have they got me reading? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me going? What do they have me thinking? And most important, what do they have me becoming?
Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay?" Jim Rohn
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Contrary to a popular saying, ignorance is not bliss.
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The business scandals of the 1990s and early 2000s revealed ignorance by business leaders and employees about ethical and legal behavior.
Congress responded by passing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, which all but mandates corporate codes of conduct for the top managers of publicly traded corporations. The New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq require those same corporations to create corporate codes applicable to all employees.
To encourage compliance and ethics training, Congress amended Section 8B2.1(B)(4) of the federal sentencing guidelines. (see below for more information).
All organizations are to take reasonable steps periodically to communicate their standards and procedures to employees, high-level personnel and members of the governing body.
Compliance with the guidelines is valuable to organizations. Effective compliance and ethics programs impact employee behavior and often prevent illegal and unethical actions. If wrongdoing occurs, compliance with the guidelines can lessen penalties by 95 percent.
The article is at:.
http://www.sbj.net/article.asp?aID=89132349.3215556.1007188.40424702.2217355.090&aID2=77467
Information regarding the Federal Sentencing Guidelines is at:
1. Federal Sentencing Guidelines Manuals
http://www.ussc.gov/guidelin.htm
2. Site Map
http://www.ussc.gov/Sitemap.HTM
3. An overview
http://www.ussc.gov/TRAINING/GLOverview04.pdf
4. Organizational Guidelines
http://www.ussc.gov/orgguide.htm
Regards.
Dan
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