I agree with the statement of “corporate wrongdoing could be easily detected, investigates and eliminated if everyone did their part in trying to stop corporate wrongdoing”. This is because in order to stops corporate wrongdoing, every person in an organization itself must be united which is encourage and reward the activities of whistle-blowing that would helps in the detection, the investigation and also the elimination of corporate wrongdoing that essential to overcome this issues. So that, the person that being investigated do not capable to hidden behind the company and delegate its responsibility for a fault or wrong to it which the person will have to face the embarrassment of the unethical actions that has the potential of collapsing …show more content…
Corporate wrongdoing in the workplace can be ranges from theft by rank and also file workers to corporate pillaging by senior executives. Aside from the apparent pilfering, common robbery by employees at all intensity including by working fraudulent expenses, diverting cash and stealing goods and services. ("Corporate Wrongdoing", 2010) First of all, the operating expenses fraud is where can be range from a person using company funds to pay false invoices. A deed is to putting higher business expenses through than actually incurred. Next, diverting cash which is the employee controlling funds that received from customers which deposited into bank account. Stealing goods or services can be said the employee creates controlled by them another billing system, acquire a client, provides a service, and invoices in the name of a similarly named company.("Corporate Wrongdoing", 2010) Corporate wrongdoing do not just entail direct stealing from a company. There are also involving activities such as decisions action by directors or employees that are in their own best interest rather than the companies. For an example, designating a contractor that gave the employee a nice holiday rather than on the basis of fitness for the job. At the critically, it could be corporate wrongdoing repercussion in deaths of employees or members of the public.("Corporate Wrongdoing", …show more content…
The costs of designing, implementing and sustaining a corporate code of conduct also has to be taken into account. Moreover, in a hypothetical scenario whereby a Company is suspected of corporate misconduct, but it is found that there was no breach or any wrongdoing after thorough investigations, it could still ruin the reputation of the Company and consequently cause a loss to them. This issue would be disastrous if the media is involved in the investigation of the Company because news would be spread, consumers would then lose confidence in the Company and hence there would be loss of loyal regulars and profit. The careers of the Company directors and employees may also be drastically affected if they are being investigated on suspicion of involvement in corporate misconduct because it would be as if their privacies are being robbed and transparent to the
However, it may not be the best solution to be used first when dealing with unethical corporate practices. From more of a Utilitarian approach one should seek to do the greatest good. An approach that gives the company a chance to change its unethical behavior internally would follow this idea. Having the ability to change practices internally before outside intervention can have many positive effects. The company is able to make the changes, reestablish its integrity, maintain business, and retain employees. The whistleblowing option brings in outside forces that could lead to repercussions for the company which may include restitution or even being closed down. If the business is closed it effects more than just the corporate entity, all of the employees are also negatively impacted by this as well when they would lose their jobs. Sometimes however, when the company is unwilling to change its practices and do business in a more ethical manner people are left with little choice but to report to outside sources what is occurring within the business. Many see whistleblowing as law-breaking when employees are contractually obligated to
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.
While this is a type of corporate culture, it plays a significant enough role in corporate crime that I’m going to touch on it individually. The goal of most every company is to make a profit, but when corporate profit is put above all else, it can easily lead to corporate crime. The phrases ‘profit over people’ and ‘money over morality’ come to mind here, especially when thinking about Enron. One example of Enron putting company profits above all else occurred during the California Energy Crisis. Enron traders learned that by manually shutting down power plants they could create artificial power shortages during California’s already occurring energy crisis. This would send energy prices sky rocketing. These traders would then bet on the price of energy rising, which it did, making them around 2 billion dollars. While those at Enron were fixated on the drive for profit, they were unconcerned with the consequences these outages had such as people getting stuck in elevators, fatal car crashes due to traffic light malfunctions, and deadly
Once the workers comprehend the business and how it works then they can assess the distinctive budgetary records as to if the enterprise is really doing and suspected. Be that as it may, on account of Nortel this would be troublesome as they were not precisely reporting their profit. This is the place the direction of discipline would have been viable so that when an association was observed to be dishonest then they would be issued a discipline or a fine to keep them working in a moral way. This would be the last need for cures as you can expect by then that the association has effectively accomplished something incorrectly or off base which is prompting the discipline. Through utilizing business instruction first you can permit representatives to completely comprehend the association and stop deceptive practices. This is finished by having the representatives screened and enlisted as moral individuals and additionally being prepared in morals. This prompts workers considering each other responsible for their activities and not enduring a dishonest domain or practices. Using the Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct workers can be considered responsible to make sure they are carrying on in a moral way. In the event that they are observed to mishandle this then they can be rebuffed. The organization can be controlled by assessing the monetary records furthermore
Their organizational initiatives are often self-serving; however, the emerging workforce isn’t motivated by selfish managers. This selfish behavior often turns into unethical conduct. Unethical dealings in the workplace are always wrong. It is crucial to promote ethical behavior. Everyone must understand that once caught, unethical behavior is not just a problem for those directly involved, it is everyone’s problem.
Organisational illegalities or rather corporate crimes on the other hand, are individual or collective illegalities that are perceived as helping to achieve the organisational goals set by the dominant coalition within an organisation. Kramer (1984: 18) in Gary and Slapper (p.16) describes the concept of corporate crime: By the concept of corporate crime, then we wish to focus attention on criminal acts (of omission or commission) which are the result of deliberate decision making (or culpable negligence) of those who occupy structural positions within the organisation as corporate executives or managers. These decisions are organisationally based – made in accordance with the normative goals (primarily corporate ... ... middle of paper ... ... ealt appropriate justice and indicates that corporate crimes and the people involved in them are the most violent parasitical, and dangerous of all criminals.
Although Hollate introduced a compliance program and code of conduct when it went public, the programs were put on “the back burner”. This outcome is not surprised for that the company does not pay attention to the programs. It is, therefore, important to “reinforce the values” and “employee a boundary system when actions are inconsistent with the code of conduct” for the purpose of early detection. Tyco provides a good example after its scandal, by initiating “mandatory annual compliance training for all its employees worldwide” and creating the Tyco Guide to Ethical Conduct to familiarize employees with company expectations and help them make ethical decisions. As tips is the most useful method for internal and external sources to detect frauds, the whistleblower hotline should be well communicated with encouragement on reporting any suspicious activity. In addition, to improve the effectiveness of the compliance program and code of conducts, Hollate should implement management monitoring and evaluation on a regular
The company has a culture of unquestioning when something wrong surfaced in the company. Take for example the Lockheed documents incident, where the 25000 documents were seen in the company for nearly 3 years before someone voiced his concerns regarding it. This unhealthy culture not only allows unethical practices to prevail, it also hinders company’s growth.
Though many ‘people are aware of what corporate crimes are there are still many who do not know’. A corporate or white-collar crime can be described as “a crime committed by any person through the venue of his or her employment that benefits the business”, ‘this can mean that a corporation does an illegal act of indifference to better the corporation’. It is argued that corporate crimes are more harmful to the general public than acts of intention. When it comes to these ‘crimes it can be said that many of the victims that it affects do not realize, that they are being affected and if and when they do know it is argued that they are told that it is due to a misfortunate accident and that there is no one to blame for the Act’. Many criminologists such as Sutherland argued that corporate crime is something
Another reason it can be difficult to detect corporate crime is that directors within a corporation are unlikely to report the criminal activity of their colleges for the fear that it will hinder their own career success and could even lead to them losing their jobs. Within a company illegal practices could be seen by many as the “in thing” and the people work...
Many other businesses may not want to do business as the company was involved with immoral behavior. The unethical business practices of the company will also gain exposure in the media and to the public (Nicol, 2015, n.p). Employees no longer keep unethical activities of the company to themselves. As a whistleblower, they may be perceived as a traitor, but in this case the senior executives are being traitors. They are taking money from immoral behavior and tarnishing the name of the company (Nicol, 2015, n.p).
When an ethical dilemma arises within an organization, it is difficult to separate right and wrong from what is best for the majority. Sometimes the answer is not a simple “yes” or “no.” In 2002, Enron Corporation showed 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.
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.
Some of the common causes of unethical behavior in the workplace are: 1) extreme emphasis on profits, 2) loss of corporate loyalty, 3) fixation on personal advancement, 4) probability of not getting caught, 5) immoral quality set by top management, 6) indecision about whether act is wrong, and 7) reluctance to stand up for what is right
Morality is the biggest and best reason for this act because people generally want to do the good moral thing. If a person should have to blow the whistle on a company they should know that for every action there is a reaction, and the reaction of whistle blowing might lead to getting fired. One of the most controversial types of whistle blowing is that of impersonal. If a company is making products that are unsafe because they are trying to save a few dollars, an employee could see this as immoral and tell the public about it. The whistle blower would do this based on Kant's theory. It would be following the moral law to do so. If a company is cutting corners and hurting others, it would be morally unacceptable not to blow the whistle on this company. To knowingly let innocent people get hurt because of something that you could have stopped is morally wrong. A lot of people would blow the whistle on a company that is making unsafe products, but not all. A number of people would not inform the public of the company's wrongdoings. They would not do it out of fear that they might loose there job or even be blacklisted from the industry altogether. If they are not fired they will most likely be outcasts at their job and looked over at promotion time.