The Corporate Culture In Enron's Case

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Corporate culture refers to an organization that shares the same values or beliefs that are usually instilled or passed down by example from the upper level executives throughout the organization (Thorne, O. Ferrell, & L. Ferrell, 2011, p. 191). Most organizations are molded from ideals set in place by the founders or upper level executives of an organization. In Enron’s case, they believed in doing whatever it took and unfortunately it bread competitiveness throughout the company, which forced employees into making unethical decisions in order to save their jobs. The CEO, Jeffrey Skilling, decided to implement a program that evaluated employees every six months and the bottom twenty percent of employees would be terminated. This created a …show more content…

The CFO, Andrew Fastow, systematically falsified there earnings by moving company losses off book and only reporting earnings, which led to Enron’s bankruptcy. Any safeguards or mechanisms that were in place to catch unethical behavior were thrown out the window when the corporate culture became a situation where every person was looking out for their own best interests. There were a select few employees that tried to get in front of the unethical accounting practices, but they were pushed aside and silenced. The corporate culture at Enron became a place where if an employee would not make unethical decisions then they would be terminated and the next person that would make those unethical decisions would replace them. Enron executives had no conscience or they would have cared for the people they ended up hurting. At one time, Enron probably was a growing company that had potential to make a difference, but because their lack of social responsibility and their excessive greed the company became known for the negative affects it had on society rather than the potential positive ones it could have had. Enron’s coercive power created fear amongst the employees, which created a corporate culture that drove everyone to make unethical decisions and eventually led to the downfall and bankruptcy of

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