Through managerial accounting, organizations receive the information they need so that that they can plan, make decisions, and oversee business processes. Although an organization's accounting statements (both internal and external) should fully and transparently reflect the organization's actual financial situation, sometimes they do not. Sometimes there is intentional deception or fraud. Yet, even when an organization uses legal and accepted accounting practices, accounting statements may fail to present risks or explain unusual costs, profits, or assumptions. Consider your professional experience to recommend ways to ensure ethical responsibility within an organization.

To prepare for this Discussion:

• Think about a time in your professional experience when a decision was made based on inaccurate accounting information or unethical behavior resulting in fraudulent information. If you do not have professional experience directly related to accounting and decision making, research a situation in which inaccurate or fraudulent accounting information was provided by a company. Consider the outcomes of utilizing fraudulent accounting information for decision making and research how to avoid such situations.

Post your proposedrecommendations for ensuring ethical responsibility within an organization, to include the following:

• Describe the situation from either your professional experience or your research in which unethical or fraudulent behavior occurred. If you are describing an example from experience, please do not report real names of either the company or individuals. If you are using an example from research, you must include the reference and citation of the source.
• As a manager, explain the steps you would have taken or did take to address the described unethical behavior. What methods or techniques could have been used to both detect and mitigate the described situation?
• As a manager, propose what actions you could take to help prevent situations of unethical or fraudulent behavior in managerial accounting.