In other words, people's opinion on accounting companies can be easily distorted by accounting scandals and unethical activities that harm clients. The importance of ethics in accounting is also revealed by the legal actions that can be taken against individuals or companies in the accounting field that behave in unethical manners. There are several examples that reveal the importance of ethics in the accounting field, and their repercussions (ENotes, 2010). The legal actions in such cases are various.

There are numerous accounting scandals that can be studied in order to understand the phenomenon and its effects. One of the most important accounting scandals that are considered to be partly responsible for the economic and financial crisis is represented by scandal involving Fannie Mae. In this case, senior executives are accused of manipulating accounting in order to collect important sums of money that rook the form of undeserved bonuses and to deceive investors (MSNBC, 2006).

Another important accounting scandal is represented by the Enron scandal. In this case, the unethical behavior is represented by fraud (Buondonno et al., 2010). The company's managers committed significant frauds that led to the bankruptcy of the company and its owners. Fraud is also the reason that determined the Tyco scandal. Same as in the case of Enron, the executive managers at Tyco serve time in jail.

In order to ensure that the accounting profession follows high ethical standards, it is recommended to include ethical codes in the strategy of the company in case. This way, employees understand that ethics are an important part of the business and must be respected. This applies to both managers and their...

The fact that these organizations also establish punishments in cases where ethical standards are not respected, determines their members to be more careful in this direction.
Another strategy refers to the authorities and the rules and regulations that they establish regarding the ethics of each profession. They are responsible for ensuring the necessary codes of ethics that apply to such professions. They must also establish the actions that must be taken in cases where ethical standards are not respected by individuals and companies.

Reference list:

1. Ethics (2010). Thesaurus. Retrieved November 14, 2010 from http://thesaurus.com/browse/ethics?__utma=1.367159324.1289731426.1289731426.1289731426.1&__utmb=1.2.9.1289731425937&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1289731426.1.1.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=ethics&__utmv=-&__utmk=32503230.

2. Kidder, R. (2009). Ethics in Accounting. Retrieved November 14, 2010 from http://www.articlesbase.com/ethics-articles/ethics-in-accounting-1276428.html.

3. Ethics in Accounting (2010). Retrieved November 14, 2010 from http://www.enotes.com/business-finance-encyclopedia/ethics-accounting.

4. Report: Fannie Mae Manipulated Accounting (2006). MSNBC. Retrieved November 14, 2010 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12923225/.

5. Buondonno, J. et al. (2010). The Enron Accounting Scandal. Retrieved November 14, 2010 from http://www.crazymonkies.com/papers/Accounting%20-%20Enron%20Scandal.pdf.