Conflicts of Interest and the Big Four

The idea of a few CPA firms that dominate the industry leads to cases of conflict of interests. The conflict of interest even increases with the fact these firms are few. The challenge will often arise from the idea that each firm would be focused on retaining its clients. With only a few companies trying to compete with each there is a clear case of the firms trying either to get new clients or keep the ones that it has. Besides, the CPA firms may have some individual financial relationship with the companies that they are auditing. The case that would seem to emerge here is that the firms would not be objective will doing the audits (Boatright, 2000). There will be clear cases where these firms might try to hide some things so that that they can keep the relationship that they have with some of the firms. Therefore the dominance of these few firms clear leads to more cases of conflict.

Shareholder Rights at Cracker Barrel

Shareholders play an essential role, and thus they should vote directly in the company’s employment policy. Some companies might have policies that are against the social sphere, and therefore the shareholders should come into play. For instance, in the case of Dow Chemical, the shareholders came in and forced the company to stop manufacturing napalm. There was also the case of general motors apartheid and racial policies. In looking at these two cases, it is evident that at times companies might have systems that are detrimental to the society (Boatright, 2000). Therefore, the shareholders should come in to correct some of these issues. Therefore I agree that the shareholders should have a huge says in the policies that the company makes in regards to the employment.

References

Boatright, J. R. (2000). Ethics and the Conduct of Business, 6/e. Pearson Education India.