Transparency in corporations and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act : A qualitative study of leaders' perceptions

Transparency is known to be an important factor when fighting corruption in governments, companies and organizations. When the scandals in the USA came true in the beginning of 2000, there was a need for more transparency and regulation. Phoenix did not arise, but instead the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and more transparency from the corporations. This led me to the need to find out more what leaders think about transparency and SOX. My research question became: - How do leaders perceive transparency and do they believe SOX to be an important support in achieving more transparent corporations? To answer this question, I conducted this thesis in the USA, gathering both theory and empirical data there. This thesis is based on a qualitative method, making interviews to gather empirical data. The results of this thesis are that the leaders' perception of transparency is similar to each other even though they differ in some ways. They also believe that SOX has helped in many ways, but that there are certain aspects of it that are undesirable