Can you explain how the Sarbanes-Oxley Act impacts organizational culture and why federal oversight like this is needed?

The
Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002 (Sarbanes-Oxley) was a
congressional response to the accounting scandals at a number of major corporations, most
infamously, the energy company Enron.  By the time the scandal had played out, Enron was out of
business, and one of the country's largest and most prestigious accounting firms, Arthur
Anderson, was also on the rocks.  And Enron was only one of a handful of major firms to be
caught up in the scandal.  Investors lost billions of dollars and public confidence in the
securities industry and in the government's diligence in policing that industry was seriously
diminished.

Upon signing the bill into law, President George W. Bush noted
that Sarbanes-Oxley would mandate the "most far-reaching reforms of American business
practices since the time of Franklin Roosevelt.  The era of low standards and false profits is
over; no boardroom in America is above or beyond the law."

SOX
represented a major...