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Business ethics practices
Ethical business practises
Enron responsibility crisis
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Ethical behavior, in a general sense, is a definition of moral behavior in regards to lawfulness, societal standards, and things of that nature. In the business world, ethics commonly refer to acceptable and unacceptable business practices within the workplace, and all other related environments. The acceptance of colleges regardless of ethnicity, gender, and beliefs, as well as truthfulness and honesty in relation to finances within the company are examples of ideal ethical business conducts. Unethical business behavior would include manipulating procedures based on bias or discrimination, engaging in activities that promote political gain, as well as blatant fabrication of monetary factors within the company and “can affect organizational performance and is costly to employers, employees, shareholders, and other organizational stakeholders” (Cox 263). When a corporation practices proper ethics, it is representing not only itself in a positive manner, but its partners, shareholders, and clients as well. On the other hand, when an organization partakes in unethical activities, all parties are negatively affected. The collapse of Enron is a major case of unethical conduct in the corporate world, because the circumstances surrounding the firm’s chaotic plunge where so scandalous that it left “creditors wrangling over Enron's skeletal remains” (Helyar) long after the company had seen its demise. There are numerous instances to be mentioned, including deliberate failure to properly report fiscal losses, insider trading, and overall relentlessness. The inclusive purpose of this paper is to further explore the underlining factors that contributed to the downfall of the once powerful Enron, and how a new way of approaching business ethi... ... middle of paper ... ...means of truly learning from history and applying such experiences, the business world will be able to strive to not witness another unethical calamity, such as Enron. Works Cited Catanach Jr., A.H., & Ketz, J.E. (2012). ENRON Ten Years Later: Lessons to Remember. CPA Journal, 82(5), 16-23. Cox, P.L., Edwards, A., & Friedman, B.A. (2009). Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room – Using the Enron Film to Examine Student Attitudes towards Business Ethics. Journal of Behavioral & Applied Management, 10(2), 263-290 Fusaro, P.C., & Miller, R.M. (2002). What Went Wrong At Enron: Everyone’s Guide to the Largest Bankruptcy in U.S. History. Hoboken, NJ: J. Wiley. Helyar, J., Mclean, B., Revell, J., Sung, J., & Varchaver, N. (2001). Why Enron Went Bust. Fortune, 144(13), 58-68. Probert, Lauren J. "Enron." Salem Press Encyclopedia (2013): Research Starters. Web. 19 Apr. 2014.
Another reason for Enron’s bankruptcy was the unnecessary personal spending by corporate managers. It was a direct loss to the company’s shareholders. In the later stages before its bankruptcy, the luxuries were paid from the company’s borrowing, as it had no real profits. Therefore in the later stages, the creditors were at a loss rather than its shareholders.
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
...FO at the Houston airport. While Mr. Fastow's parents were undergoing a random search, he stopped to chat with Mr. Schwieger. "I never got an opportunity to explain the partnerships to you," he said, according to Mr. Schwieger. Mr. Schwieger replied, "With everything that has come to light, I probably wouldn't like the answer I would have gotten."
Flynt, Sean. “Enron Whistleblower Tells Chilling Tale of Corporate Ruin.” Samford University. Ed. Donna Fitch. 19 Feb. 2004. 3 Mar. 2005.
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...
Enron. (2011, March 18). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved March 19, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Enron&oldid=419486167
Enron was in trouble because of something that almost every major corporation during this time was guilty of. They inflated their profits. Things weren't looking good for them at the end of the 2001-year, so they made a common move and they restated their profits for the past four years. If this had worked to their like they could have gotten away with hiding millions of dollars in debt. That completely admitted that they had inflated their profits by hiding debt in confusing partner agreements. Enron could not deal with their debt so they did the only thing that was left to do, they filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. This went down as one of the largest companies to file for bankruptcy in the history of the United States. In just three months their share price dropped from $95 to below $1.
Enron’s ride is quite a phenomenon: from a regional gas pipeline trader to the largest energy trader in the world, and then back down the hill into bankruptcy and disgrace. As a matter of fact, it took Enron 16 years to go from about $10 billion of assets to $65 billion of assets, and 24 days to go bankrupt. Enron is also one of the most celebrated business ethics cases of the century. There are so many things that go wrong within the organization, from personal (prescriptive and psychological approaches), to managerial (group norms, reward system, etc.). and organizational (world-class culture) perspectives.
The term “ethical business” is seen, by many people, as an oxymoron. This is because a business’s main objective is to make as much money as possible. Making the most money possible, however, can often lead to unethical actions. Companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Satyam have been the posterchildren for how corporations’ greed lead to unethical practices. In recent times however, companies have been accused of being unethical based on, not how they manage their finances, but on how they treat the society that they operate in. People have started to realize that the damage companies have been doing to the world around them is more impactful and far worse than any financial fraud that these companies might be engaging in. Events like the BP oil
The Enron scandal in the early 2000’s was a major scandal that was hard to miss (Ferrell, Hirt, & Ferrell, 2009). Enron has once ranked a Fortune 500 company with a network of $111 billion dollars (Ferrell, et. al., 2009). Enron dealt mainly with energy, but they also had interest in communications and paper (Ferrell, et. al., 2009). Enron was confident in their earnings and financial reporting, but after a year of gaining interest, Enron caved in and filed bankrupt (Ferrell, et. al, 2009).
Based on what you read in this chapter, summarize in one page or less how you would explain Enron’s ethical meltdown.
“When a company called Enron… ascends to the number seven spot on the Fortune 500 and then collapses in weeks into a smoking ruin, its stock worth pennies, its CEO, a confidante of presidents, more or less evaporated, there must be lessons in there somewhere.” - Daniel Henninger.
Enron was on the of the most successful and innovative companies throughout the 1990s. In October of 2001, Enron admitted that its income had been vastly overstated; and its equity value was actually a couple of billion dollars less than was stated on its income statement (The Fall of Enron, 2016). Enron was forced to declare bankruptcy on December 2, 2001. The primary reasons behind the scandal at Enron was the negligence of Enron’s auditing group Arthur Andersen who helped the company to continually perpetrate the fraud (The Fall of Enron, 2016). The Enron collapse had a huge effect on present accounting regulations and rules.
Enron Corporation was an American commodities, energy, and services company that was based out of Houston, Texas. This corporation was founded in 1985, resulting from the merger between InterNorth and Houston Natural Gas, these were both moderately small businesses in the United States. Before Enron’s bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, it had nearly 20,000 employees and was one of the global leaders in the communications, electricity, natural gas, and pulp and paper market, with declared earnings of approximately $101 billion during 2000. Enron was termed “America’s Most Innovative Company” by Fortune for six years in a row. It was discovered that Enron’s stated financial condition was prolonged by established, inventively, and methodically planned accounting fraud at the end of 2001.
Oppel, Richard A., Jr., and Andrew Ross Sorkin. "Enron's Collapse: The Overview." New York Times 29