When I hear the name Enron, I think of an organization full of corruption, greed, dishonesty, and deceit. The demise of Enron will be talked about, researched, and case studied for decades to come. In reviewing Enron’s code of ethics it’s clear that the company had established rules of conduct for how the company was to facilitate business. The key components of Enron’s code of conduct are based on vision, values, integrity, communication and excellence. With this diverse code of conduct what are the factors that led to the development of the culture of profit before principle at Enron?
The answer to this question seems to be rooted in a combination of the failure of top leadership, a corporate culture that supported unethical behavior,
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Creating my own personal code of ethics is important because it can help provide me with guideance in my professional and personal decision making. When discussing the ethical frameworks related to my personal code of ethics Jerry White’s five guidelines for conducting business activities and the Caux Principles for business come to mind. In my personal code of ethics I will address the following, relationships, honesty and integrity, work ethics, transparency and diclosure of information, fairness and how they/if any of these ethical frameworks compare to Jerry White’s five guidelines for conducting business activies or the Caux principles for business. My personal code of ethics reads as follows:
• Relationships-my personal relationships will be built on trust, honesty and loyalty. My business relationships will mirror my personal relationships while remaining professional in all interactions. Being accountable for my actions and behavior. Caux Principle number one-the responsibilites of corporations. Corporations have a resonsibility to improve the lives of everyone they come in contact with starting with employee, shareholders, and suppliers and then extending out to local, national, regional and global communites (Johnson,
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Remaining diligent, reliable, forthright, and dedicated to the task at hand Jerry White’s third principle is being a servant. Someone has said Christians like to be called servants, but don't appreciate being treated like servants. To serve God sounds glorious, but to serve others is another matter. As usual, Jesus Christ is our example (Johnson, 2015).
• Transperancy and disclosure of information- I will conduct business in a truthful manner. Avoid decpetive acts and practices and keep accurate records. Release information that should be shared in a timely fashion but maintain confidentiality and privacty as necessary. Caux Principle number four, respect for rules. Businesses ought to promote honesty, transparency, integrity, and keeping promises (Johnson, 2015).
• Fairness-I will remain fair in all my personal and business relations. Being deligent in my decision making. Making ethical decisions takes moral awareness, moraj judgement, and moral character. I will take these guidelines into account when making personal and business decisions. Jerry White’s first guideline of just weight. The principle of a just weight is to give a full amount in exchange for a fair payment (Johnson,
My personal code of ethics all started with my family, especially my father, who taught me right and wrong. He said “You should always be a phone call away for the people in your life, and not just your friends and family, but those who you haven’t spoken to in years.” My mother raised me in a house to where you took responsibility for your actions, no matter the consequences. A final example would be what my grandfather told me when I was real young, about never quitting anything, even if you fail the first few times. Now a personal code of ethics and morals should always include things like, do not lie to one another, harm one another, and never steal. Yet, when you read the Code of Ethics, it is much more sophisticated than lying and what
My personal code of ethics outlines the values and principles, which I believe in and rely on in life; the code determines the decisions I make concerning my daily activities and my association with family, colleagues, and the society. The values and principles also act as my main point of reference when I am faced with a dilemma and need to make a sound dec...
The Enron Corporation was founded in 1985 out of Houston Texas and was one of the world 's major electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies that employed over 20,000 employees. This paper will address some of the ethical issues that plagued Enron and eventually led to its fall.
Many organizations have been destroyed or heavily damaged financially and took a hit in terms of reputation, for example, Enron. The word Ethics is derived from a Greek word called Ethos, meaning “The character or values particular to a specific person, people, culture or movement” (The American Heritage Dictionary, 2007, p. 295). Ethics has always played and will continue to play a huge role within the corporate world. Ethics is one of the important topics that are debated at lengths without reaching a conclusion, since there isn’t a right or wrong answer. It’s basically depends on how each individual perceives a particular situation. Over the past few years we have seen very poor unethical business practices by companies like Enron, which has affected many stakeholders. Poor unethical practices affect the society in many ways; employees lose their job, investors lose their money, and the country’s economy gets affected. This leads to people start losing confidence in the economy and the organizations that are being run by the so-called “educated” top executives that had one goal in their minds, personal gain. When Enron entered the scene in the mid-1980s, it was little more than a stodgy energy distribution system. Ten years later, it was a multi-billion dollar corporation, considered the poster child of the “new economy” for its willingness to use technology and the Internet in managing energy. Fifteen years later, the company is filing for bankruptcy on the heels of a massive financial collapse, likely the largest in corporate America’s history. As this paper is being written, the scope of Enron collapse is still being researched, poked and prodded. It will take years to determine what, exactly; the impact of the demise of this energy giant will be both on the industry and the
middle of paper ... ... They had complete disregard for ethical standards that they should have looked towards when making their decisions. They allowed greed, and notoriety, to take over their basic perceptions of what is right, and what is wrong. So in conclusion, I have provided my analysis of ethical behavior that surrounded the financial events of Bernie Madoff, and the events that surrounded Enron.
This paper is an analysis of the ethical business decision matrix developed by The George S. May Company (May), a management-consulting firm. The paper will also compare how these guidelines were used by John D. Beckett (Beckett) in his company and how the author’s firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLC (PwC), uses them. The guidelines are meant to be used by employees. These guidelines are specifically a measure of moral and ethical principles tied to business ethics in acceptability of right and wrong behaviour in the workplace.
After news of the scandal of Enron, one of the hottest items on e-Bay was a 64-page copy of Enron’s corporate code of ethics. One seller/former employee proclaimed it had “never been opened.” In the forward Kenneth L. Lay, CEO of Enron stated, “We want to be proud of Enron and to know that it enjoys a reputation for fairness and honesty and that it is respected (Enron 2).” For a company with such an extensive code of ethics and a CEO who seemed to want the company to be respected for that, there are still so many unanswered questions of what exactly went wrong. I believe that simply having a solid and thorough code of ethics alone does not prevent a company from acting unethically when given the right opportunity.
Enron Corporation was based in Houston, Texas and participated in the wholesale exchange of American energy and commodities (ex. electricity and natural gas). Enron found itself in the middle of a very public accounting fraud scandal in the early 2000s. The corruption of Enron’s CFO and top executives bring to question their ethics and ethical culture of the company. Additionally, examining Enron ethics, their organization culture, will help to determine how their criminal acts could have been prevented.
Ethical standards that evolved over the history of Western civilization deal with interpersonal relationships. What is right or wrong? What one should do and not do when dealing with other people. Ethical behavior in a business environment has not been as clearly defined. When businesses were small and the property of a few individuals, traditional ethical standards were applied to meet different situations. However, as businesses became larger, the interpersonal ethical relations did not provide any clear behavioral guidelines. Likewise, the principles of ethical relationships were even less pertinent to the corporate environments.
Nowadays, society is governed by the implications of rules and legal restrictions. All of these rules were created to uphold and maintain the idea of ethical and moral values. Even children growing up were taught by some very important codes of ethics at school. These lessons learned as a youth growing up carry over into adulthood, as an employee or manager. Managers and workers both follow a similar code of ethics within the work place. Today, as a management consultant, I am going to prepare a code of ethics for my clients as they have recently started a restaurant called Knox, it is important to have a code of ethics in every company for their employees and also a circular by explaining the purpose and benefits of a good ethics. And finally, a brief report on the steps of strategic formulation and implementation.
As an individual and ambitious accounting student with plans to pursue a career in public accounting, I recognize the importance of understanding my core personal values and behaviors that guide the ethical principles of my everyday actions. I recognize that I have a responsibility to myself, family, future colleagues, future clients, and the general public to follow certain guidelines and conduct myself in an ethical manner. Furthermore, I acknowledge the idea that ethical dilemmas will occur, but I am committed to my “Personal Code of Ethical Values” (as seen above) that represent my desire to live ethically in every facet of my life.
In many circumstances, employees’ behaviors are likely to follow their leader. Enron’s leadership has been extremely influential due to exemplified charismatic. For example, Heffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay, CFO and one of executive member in Enron, greatly encourage employees to follow their lead. Their incompetence accounting profession directly affects lover level of employees. Eventually, those manipulating accounting activities affect company collapse. Once leadership has done unethical professional accounting behaviors, unethical acts become accepted. Employees have many reasons for remaining quiet. While Enron still have ethical internal rules, when leadership in Enron did not abide and did not provide corresponding example of employees to follow (Prentice 2003, p. 417). Which eventually make Enron’s become one of the largest corporate scandal frauds.
Through an organizational culture that focused on financial greed for self, illegal accounting practices, conflicts of interest partnerships, illegal business dealings, fraud, negligence, and massive corruption at all levels, the Enron scandal help to create new laws and regulations with stiff penalties if violated (Ferrell, et al, 2013). The federal government implemented the Sarbanes Oxley Act (SOX) (Ferrell, et al, 2013).
In the aftermath of Enron, Washington Mutual Bank, TYCO, and World Comm these companies went against the grain of what good ethical behavior is and what their respective company’s code of ethics were. The criminal justice system has made it clear that it will not allow companies and their executives to get away with the misuse of public trust by allowing them to make themselves rich at the expense of the employee. Where these crimes are both ethically and morally wrong, the CEO’s of major corporations are being punished by a ...
When an ethical dilemma arises within an organization, it is difficult to separate right and wrong with what is best for the majority. Sometimes the answer is not a simple “yes” or “no.” In 2002, Enron Corporation shows us just that. By 2002, the sixth-largest corporation in America filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The case of the Enron scandal is one of the best examples of corporate greed and fraud in America.