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Ethics in the corporate world
Ethics and corporate performance
Enron Scandal
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a) After Cliff Baxter committed suicide, a note was found. In the note to his family he wrote with shame of how he once took great pride in doing the right thing. He wrote that the pride was gone and he felt he could be of no use to his family. He expressed love and asked for his family's forgiveness. I believe the film tried to make Baxter look like the initial voice of morality that was being moulded into the “corporate bad guy”. Baxter committed suicide because he felt as if he was becoming greedy, dishonest and going against his morals. Unlike the other Enron elites, he couldn’t deal with the person he had become and his guilt took over his thoughts and he could no longer continue on.
b) I believe that Enron’s top executives, mainly Lay and Skilling, are mainly to blame for the Enron collapse. Lay and Skilling were surely able to lead an effective and efficient company, but they lacked self- control and let their greed get the best of them. They encouraged a competitive environment that, a survival of the fittest mentality, causing employees to constantly worried about their j...
Tommy Douglas was a remarkable Canadian whose contributions have helped to shape our nation. During his forty two years in politics, Tommy Douglas proved himself to be an outstanding Canadian leader. He is largely responsible for our central banking, old age pensions, unemployment insurance, and our universal medicare. Though he never became Prime Minister, he is highly regarded by the general public. Tommy Douglas was one of the greatest Canadians that ever lived.
I read How Vince Carter Conquered the NBA Drive, by Chris Young. I learned a lot of things about the NBA problems and the way the players really think not just how they show them in T.V. One of the things I learned about Vince Carter was that he had a lot of problems with his first manager. An example is when Richard Peddy his first manager got put in prison for stealing money from An NFL player. Vince Carter changed his manager and sued his old manager. I also learned that the first year that Vince Carter played he was underestimated the manager though he would be like a helping hand for Tracy Mcgrady his cousin and Ex-player for the Raptors. I also didn’t know that Vince Carter quit the contract with his sponsor Puma because the shoes were hurting his toes. I also found out that Vince Carter the second choice For the Raptors the Raptors first choice was “Tractor” Taylor a big center something the Raptors needed really bad. Another thing I learned was that the Raptors had to pay 27 million to get into the NBA. The last thing I learned was that Vince Carter did not want to do the NBA Dunk contest he was convinced to do it by his friend Kevin Garnett.
Wilton Norman Chamberlain was a basketball player who played in the NBA from 1959 to 1973. He went to college at the University of Kansas, and was drafted into the NBA in 1959 by the Philadelphia Warriors. Wilt went to high school at Overbrook in Pennsylvania. Wilt Chamberlain was born on August 21, 1936 in Pennsylvania, and he passed away on October 12, 1999 in Los Angeles at the age of 63. Wilt Chamberlain played for three teams in his NBA career, The Philadelphia Warriors, The Los Angeles Lakers and the Philadelphia 76ers. Wilt Chamberlain was at his best when he was with the Los Angeles Lakers, Where he won the NBA Championship in the 1971 – 72 season. While in his career, Wilt set many records while in his career, such as scoring one hundred points in one game, which has not been broken to this day, He lead the league in scoring for seven seasons in a row, was the only player to score 4,000 points in one NBA season, average 50.4 points per game for an entire season, average 48.5 minutes per game for an entire season, have eighteen consecutive field goals in a single game, have f...
Simmons, Charles James (1893-1875), politician and evangelical preacher, was born on 9 April 1893 at 30 Brighton Road, Mosley, Birmingham. His father, James Henry Simmons (1867-1941), was a master painter and his mother, Mary Jane (1872-1958), a schoolteacher. They were Primitive Methodists, temperance advocates, and Liberals. His maternal grandfather, Charles Henry Russell (1846-1918), a Liberal, Primitive Methodist lay preacher and friend of Joseph Arch (leader of the Agricultural Labourers’ Union and MP), shared the family home. Simmons described him as ‘the greatest influence during my formative years’, the well-spring of the religious and political activism that was to characterize his career (Simmons, 6). Educated at Board schools, Simmons left formal education at the age of fourteen for employment in an assortment of jobs, including a tailor’s porter, telegraph messenger and salesman.
In his essay titled, “The Transformation of European Society”, Gary Nash argues how seventeenth and eighteenth century United States (U.S.) witnessed the birth of a distinct “democratic personality”. This personality had numerous effects on American society. Mr. Nash believed a society having democratic personalities exhibited the following qualities: individualization, competitiveness, and opportunity. Many factors led up to the creation of each of these traits. Americans wanted their own, distinct life, where they were not told how to act and what to think. Unfortunately, this was idealistic thinking. Reality was that they were swaying from the original goal of working towards the better of community, the Puritan way. Through the traits mentioned above in many ways could help society, they constantly went against it also. For example, many businesses, even parts of the government, were accused of being corrupt, and performing illegal acts in order to get ahead. U.S citizens were given so many options in life, many learned they could do better than what they were born to. The immense amount of land in the West led to many of these options. The land was cheap and unoccupied, meaning that it was relatively easy to gain success and achieve a higher social standing through the land. This was followed by the mindset of the “me” personality in much of American history. This also led to how competitiveness became ingrained into daily rational and overall life. A multitude of people were motivated to achieve more and become the vision of success that was driving their fellow man. Many of their visions were of owning land, and of being able to live a comfortable lifestyle. As Nash states, “living in a place where the ratio of people to ...
In the essay written by Gary Nash, he argues that the reason for the American Revolution was not caused by the defense of constitutional rights and liberties, but that of “material conditions of life in America” were not very favorable and that social and economic factors should be considered as the driving factor that pushed many colonists to revolt. The popular ideology which can be defined as resonating “most strongly within the middle and lower strata of society and went far beyond constitutional rights to a discussion of the proper distribution of wealth and power in the social system” had a dynamic role in the decisions of many people to revolt. The masses ideas were not of constitutional rights, but the equal distribution of wealth in the colonies that many felt that the wealth was concentrated in a small percentage of the population in the colonies. The Whig ideology that was long established in English society had a main appeal towards the upper class citizens and “had little to say about changing social and economic conditions in America or the need for change in the future.” The popular ideologies consisted of new ways of changing the distribution of wealth. Nash in his essay continued to give good evidence to prove his point that the American Revolution was not caused by the defense of constitutional rights and liberties, but by improper distribution of wealth. During the pre-American Revolutionary times, the “top five percent of Boston’s taxpayers controlled 49 ...
Many say that the best things in life are free, like family and love. But without health, nothing in this world matters. Thomas Clement "Tommy" Douglas, known as "the Father of Medical Healthcare", was one of Canada's most captivating politicians who was not elected as Prime Minister. (Canadian Health Coalition: Tommy Douglas). He was born in Falkirk, Scotland, and moved to Winnipeg when he was 15 years old. (The Canadian Encyclopedia). He never gave up on his dreams and persevered until his voice was heard. (The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan). Many described Tommy Douglas as a small man with a huge personality. His impressive interaction skills, lightheartedness and support from millions of Canadians aided him in giving Canadians something that stronger and more powerful nations could not provide: universal Medicare. (Douglas-Coldwell Foundation). Besides introducing universal healthcare to Canada, he established several legislations such as the Trade Union Act, which improved workers’ compensation and also increased minimum wage. (CBC: Canada, “A People’s History”). Tommy Douglas was the best Canadian because he introduced universal healthcare to North America, was the head of the first democratic socialist government in North America, and established several labor legislation laws that helped average Canadians live a higher quality of life.
A documentary film released in 2005 called the Smartest Guys in the Room reveals the shocking collapse of Enron. The Smartest Guys, Kenneth Lay, Jeff Skilling, Andrew Fastow, Lou Pai, Clifford Baxtor, and Arthur Anderson, were all involved with America’s ultimate Corporation Scandal. But who do we blame? Enron had over 20,000 employees and was founded by Kenneth Lay, CEO of Enron, in 1985. Lay wanted to push his views of deregulation which pushed him to start the company (SGR). The first event that happened leading up to the downfall was the president, Mr. Borget, and his traders manipulating the company’s earnings and exporting the profits to their personal account. When Lay made the decision to not fire them, it definitely raised the
The dilemma shows that although there are leading people in all corporations most leaders cannot be trusted with big responsibilities. Choosing this real life scandal educates me in what is happening in my major of business and it also opens my eyes to what essentially can happen in big corporations like Enron. Pondering on this dilemma allows me to bring up a different approach. Asking why those leaders weren’t caught in the beginning? In a small business like a sporting store or grocery store thefts are caught at hand and penalized for their wrong doings. This turns into a leadership dilemma we are faced with the questions of, what those leaders of Enron believed to be right and wrong or in their heads what was right and right.
However, there are more questions to ask than were answered by the court case. Were the executives making moral decisions? Whose fault was it; the individuals, the company culture, or the system of capitalism as a whole? What were the most nuanced causes of Enron 's failure? Throughout Enron 's history, Lay hired people who were willing to take risks until the line. The people he formed his team with, Skilling, Fastow, and more, we 're only concerned with making money and nourished to cut-throat survival-of-the-fittest culture that encourages employees to break the law. Skilling created a wild risk-taking environment by often taking dirt-biking and racing trips in exotic far out places. More often than not, the men were hospitalized for near-fatal injuries from collisions and crashes. These stories became urban legends at Enron and the team of men was soon idolized as macho men who knew no limits. Recklessness and risky behavior began to be seen as a positive, and led to an unhealthy company culture. The culture created by the executives led to incredibly immoral decisions by many of the lower-tier
Bill Russell grew up in an extremely racist time in America in an extremely racist state. Born in Louisiana and raised both there and in Oakland, California; Russell and his family battled the every day hardships that most black people faced at that time. But Russell always had a set of morals and guidelines that he led his life by, many of which he learned from his father, who he says was his hero and biggest role model. These morals revolved around independence and a very classic “ I will not allow anyone to impose their will on me.” (Page 56, paragraph 1) These morals followed and shaped him in his playing and coaching career.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room shows us how basic human nature does not change, whether it's in the easy fall into killing as a means to resolve disputes, or in the incessant human obsession to acquire for acquisition's sake. This all makes for terrible human actions.
Chang, H. (2003). What led to Enron, WorldCom, and the like? Stanford Graduate School of Business. Retrieved October 20, 2007, from http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/headlines/2003alumniwkend_mcnichols.shtml
...ron created an environment that rationalized the hiding of key information. Andy Fastow managed to hide key accounting records showing subsidiary losses by creating prop companies that conducted business with Enron. These fake companies diverted the losses from Enron while maintaining Enron’s current profit expectations. Reporters were given very little information about the true state of the company when they questioned key personnel. Until the very end when Enron was subject to an SEC investigation Enron’s stock price stayed at an artificially high level even when the company was highly in debt. This allowed top executives to cash in their stock rights and make money in a highly unethical fashion. As a whole, the tone at the top caused the fraud that initially occurred to develop into an elaborate pump and dump scheme that benefited few at the cost of many.
Louis Borget, the president of Enron, stole $3M from the company and transferred into his personal offshore account. The men of this company never considered the consequences their actions would have on stakeholders, such as the employees. Step #3 tells us to consider all stakeholders involved in a decision, but we saw that Enron was clearly blinded ethics. The company encouraged all employees to put all of their money into stocks, even though they knew the company was collapsing. 4. List the points of the movie you agreed with and state why. a. Rappaport said, “ Ultimately, the fatal flaw with Enron was a sense that brains and wiliness could out think the way that system will eventually work.” I agreed with this assumption because throughout the movie this was a common theme. For example, Enron made a deal with Blockbuster to try and sell movies online. When a Canadian bank heard about this they gave Enron a loan of 115 million dollars, in exchange for the profits. When the plan tanked, they counted the loan as a profit from the venture. 5. List the points you disagreed with or found unhelpful. a. The whole was able to give me a general understanding of what happened to