The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires public companies to establish an effective whistle-blowing program. The intent is to reinforce the commitment of financial integrity from the top of the organization and to facilitate the reporting of improper acts within the organization by an employee without the threat of retribution. whistle-blowing is an act by an employee, or someone outside the organization that is knowledgeable about the entity’s activities, whereby the employee or other individual reports the wrongdoing by the organization (usually anonymously) to an independent group within the organization that has responsibility to follow up on the allegations to determine their authenticity. In many cases, a summary of the whistle-blowing complaints will be presented to the audit committee along with an analysis of the complaints and actions taken by management. There is a great deal of research that shows that many corporate frauds were first uncovered by someone utilizing the whistle-blowing function in an organization.

What are the consequences of the importance of being unethical?