Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons^™

Ethics And Executive Compensation, Brittany Silvey

Honors Program Theses

To investigate the ethics behind compensation plan calculations, to determine if unaudited measures are being used in publicly traded companies, and how often unaudited measures are being used I considered twenty-six companies from a variety of industries. These included technology, agriculture, retail, finance and insurance, health care, natural resources, and others. Industry leading companies were selected to be studied as well as some of personal interest. Companies that have been speculated by financial analysts, recent published articles, or studies as companies that have unethical compensation plans and have used unethical accounting practices in determining executive compensation were also considered. These …