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Roles of Ethics and Compliance in Starbucks

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Submitted By gbaker2002
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The role of ethics and compliance in Starbucks is set in place to ensure that all of Starbuck’s staff from the baristas working the front counter to the corporate staff are all abiding by federal laws and regulations. Ethics in financial practices are sometimes hard to believe. The agency problem is the result of conflict of interest between stockholders and the managers of a firm (Titman & Keown, p. 15, 2011). “A conflict of interest is a situation in which a person has a private or personal interest sufficient to appear to influence the objective exercise of his or her official duties (“Business Ethics”, n.d.). An example of a conflict of interest would be if the CFO attempted to acquire a property or investment from a friend or family member without acting in the best interest of Starbucks and it’s shareholders. Corporate advisors, in this case a CEO or CFO are legally required to make fair and ethical financial decisions. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act or SOX, passed by Congress in 2002 holds corporate advisors that have access to influence company decisions legally accountable for any instances of misconduct (Titman & Keown, p. 11, 2011). The SOX act is in effect in order to protect corporate shareholders against financial misconduct and accounting fraud. According to Starbuck’s Code of Ethics for CEO and Finance Leaders are required to follow the following seven duties: act with honesty and integreity, avoiding actual or apparent conflicts of interest, provide internal and external constituents with appropriate and objective information that is full, fair, accurate, timely and understandable, comply with all applicable governmental laws, rules and regulations , and other appropriate private and public regulatory agencies’ requirements, to act in good faith, responsibly, with due care, competence and diligence without misrepresenting material facts or allowing

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