...business culture has acquired the greed mindset, a look at what a corporation is and defining corporate behavior becomes the starting point. First a corporation is defined as “an association of individuals, created by law and having an existence apart from that of its members as well as distinct and inherent powers and liabilities (Webster Dictionary).” Although made up of people, being separate or apart from its members also equals unaccountability. The question of “who pays when a company goes under” is at the forefront of discussions today. Corporations are developed to serve society, meet a need or provide a service. Over the years, however, the good intentioned corporation has evolved into a greed machine that has lost site of the community that it serves and the people employed who ultimately perform the work. The steady parade of top executives confessing to engage in price gouging, tax dodges, accounting shams, employee rip-offs, and other shady unacceptable acts are coming to light daily. Unethical and illegal practices are documented from the RJR Nabisco scandals in 1988 to today’s Enron, WorldCom, Merrill Lynch, Arthur Anderson, Xerox, and endless other corporations. The world realizes now that corporate greed is not about one-bad company, but large companies in general that have adopted unacceptable guidelines for corporate behavior and an overall attitude that greed is acceptable. The bottom line, insatiable need for growth, amoral corporate behavior, expendable and exploitation...
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...Monsanto is an agricultural biotech corporate giant that genetically modifies animals and crop seeds. On their website, they come across a deeply committed humanitarian organization that provides an ecologically sustainable answer to global hunger and malnutrition. The sad reality is that Monsanto is a wolf in sheep's clothing, and perhaps one of the most unethical corporate giants in the world today. In this essay, I will argue that Monsanto is on a power trip, and that they have a hidden agenda that has nothing to do with compassion, ecology or human hunger, and everything to do with greed. In the following paragraphs, I will provide a brief history of Monsanto. Then I will examine some of the promises made in their marketing propaganda, and provide evidence that these promises are little more than blatant lies.Monsanto is an agricultural biotech corporate giant that genetically modifies animals and crop seeds. On their website, they come across a deeply committed humanitarian organization that provides an ecologically sustainable answer to global hunger and malnutrition. The sad reality is that Monsanto is a wolf in sheep's clothing, and perhaps one of the most unethical corporate giants in the world today. In this essay, I will argue that Monsanto is on a power trip, and that they have a hidden agenda that has nothing to do with compassion, ecology or human hunger, and everything to do with greed. In the following paragraphs, I will provide a brief history of Monsanto. Then...
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...Corporate greed essay To fully understand how the business culture has acquired the greed mindset, a look at what a corporation is and defining corporate behavior becomes the starting point. First a corporation is defined as “an association of individuals, created by law and having an existence apart from that of its members as well as distinct and inherent powers and liabilities (Webster Dictionary).” Although made up of people, being separate or apart from its members also equals unaccountability. The question of “who pays when a company goes under” is at the forefront of discussions today. Corporations are developed to serve society, meet a need or provide a service. Over the years, however, the good intentioned corporation has evolved into a greed machine that has lost site of the community that it serves and the people employed who ultimately perform the work. The steady parade of top executives confessing to engage in price gouging, tax dodges, accounting shams, employee rip-offs, and other shady unacceptable acts are coming to light daily. Unethical and illegal practices are documented from the RJR Nabisco scandals in 1988 to today’s Enron, WorldCom, Merrill Lynch, Arthur Anderson, Xerox, and endless other corporations. The world realizes now that corporate greed is not about one-bad company, but large companies in general that have adopted unacceptable guidelines for corporate behavior and an overall attitude that greed is acceptable. The bottom line, insatiable need...
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...Corporate crime is carried out all over the globe and there are many aspects to the crime. This paper only focused on three reasons why an offender might commit a white collar crime. CEO is the person with power and if he appoints this executive team, hence his team will feel obligated to be loyal to him. The loyalty created strong connectedness between the CEO and the executives, as this bond can be misused by the CEO. David and his manager were able to perform a corporate crime with the help of their team. An offender rationalizes its choice to commit a crime and that rational decisions can be affected by self interest. The paper explained self interest comes from materialistic needs of a person. When individuals need to fulfill their materialistic...
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...Corporate greed, by definition, is when a company chooses to place significance on increasing profits in a way that harms employees, consumers and the environment. It occurs when making money becomes the only goal, and the other company’s social responsibility is ignored. There is some debate with companies over whether they are being greedy versus looking for the best business practice. How can one tell if a company’s practice is defined as corporate greed or if the company is just working to reduce costs in order to increase profit growth? How much social responsibility does a company have to society and the environment? An article written by Edmund Bradley, about the problem with corporate greed, gave a perspective on these questions stating that “However greedy or altruistic a business person happens to be, the institutions of the market channel his or her motivation to a social end. Business must serve society in order to thrive,” (Bradley, 2003). In order for a business to grow and expand, they need to make a positive impression on society. Especially in today’s market, with consumers focusing on what companies are doing to the environment and how to find ‘green’ products. Society want to know that the companies making millions of dollars are using their influence and power to do good things in the world around them. Another perspective, however, is that companies have to only focus on the growth and profit of the company. They should work to please shareholders...
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...Enron was portrayed as an innovative company and was featured on covers of magazines a few times. They were put on a pedestal that was so high that no one could see that the company was failing and committing fraud. Enron used a different accounting method that allowed them to report potential profits, not actual profits. A company will always look good if it is reporting potential profits, because the potentials are limitless. No one wanted to neither admit nor believe that there was something seriously wrong at Enron. Greed was such a big player and no one wanted to lose money. There were many big players involved in the corruption, so they would do whatever it took to hide the truth. At the end, companies just pointed the finger at Enron and claimed innocence. 2. Describe the Enron corporate culture. Explain how the following reinforced the Enron corporate culture and the notion of “survival of the fittest?” The corporate culture in Enron was greed, lavish lifestyle, overspending, risk taking, and competitive. In the film, an analyst described workers doing whatever it took to get ahead, even if that meant trampling over their colleagues. Top executives knew that they had to get everyone in the company excited and sucked in the same mindset in order for Enron to keep up its...
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...implications are the essentially what is right or wrong This paper looks at the moral and ethical implications related to the movement and uses some common ethical theories to determine which applies best to the issues surrounding the movement. The Occupy Wall Street Movement began in Zuccotti Park in New York City. Being that the park was private police did not have the right to kick the group of protesters out. The pretest was the people’s reaction to cooperate greed, social inequality, and the power of big business over the democratic process. Their slogan was heard across America, “we are the 99 percent.” They believed that one percent of the population; the banks, the mortgage industry and large corporations were controlling all of the countries wealth and preventing the ninety nine percent from prospering (The Occupy Wall Street Movement, 2012). Thousands of people organized across the United States in major cites and college campuses. To get there message heard. They sought to expose cooperate greed and unethical business practices and put an end to the unequal financial distribution of wealth (The Occupy Wall Street Movement, 2012). The movement was supported by democrats and was critiqued by republicans, however both parties agreed that the movement was changing public debate. Now people were being exposed to the idea...
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...Later after some time with the rebels, Nat learns from Kate that the list of numbers Sam had was the amounts of people the corps have killed. Kate notes “they mostly used sneakier weapons, like gases and chemicals that killed people but left buildings intact” (243). This is a result of corporate greed and a consequent willingness to sacrifice citizens to achieve their goal. Most normal democratic governments do everything in their power to protect and serve their constituents. However, these service corporations do not imitate nor compare to a typical government as they are fueled by greed and money, which inhibits their moral obligations to the people. These corporate massacres did not affect Nat, Sam, or their family considerably, but the corps have another way to reduce population size – contracts. The contracts can be seen as a smaller scale version of the exterminations. These death contracts affect the main characters directly. Nat’s parents, who for a majority of their lives fought the corps, fall victim to the corps mass brainwashing and choose to take out contracts on themselves. The corps true power is shown in their act. The influences of the corps may be even more significant on citizens who have tendencies to rebel. Both the mass killings and the contracts occur because the corps need to hit their quotas and reduce threats. Even though Nat is conditioned by the corps to not feel too much grief due to her parent’s contracts...
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...Perhaps some of what was written in Breaking Bad was over kill. A story of an average now middle class family, with a full time mother, and a father that works two jobs, goes haywire. Walter discovers that he can cook meth and make more money in a short time than he could in a full career as a chemistry teacher. Setting a dollar amount on his new career choice, telling himself he will quit when he reaches that amount. Yet every time he has a new reason to continue. All the while keeping his new life hidden from his family, essentially living a double life. It can be said that Breaking bad accurately portrayed today’s society in regards to families suffering from the economic decline, health care system, money laundering, greed and self-destruction from power. Success is sometimes measured in different ways and Mr. White’s story is an example of this fact. He started out as a successful scientist and business man with a promising future. He was persuaded to believe that the company he owned with is partner was failing and he decided to sell his portion to get out only to find that he would struggle to replace his former income. Working two jobs to support his family, neither of them what he imagined he would be doing with his master degree in Chemistry. He was over qualified by his standards to be a Chemistry teacher in a local high school by day and a car wash cashier by night. Mr. White became angry and bitter, he like so many others in life that have had to downsize...
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...Perhaps some of what was written in Breaking Bad was over kill. A story of an average now middle class family, with a full time mother, and a father that works two jobs, goes haywire. Walter discovers that he can cook meth and make more money in a short time than he could in a full career as a chemistry teacher. Setting a dollar amount on his new career choice, telling himself he will quit when he reaches that amount. Yet every time he has a new reason to continue. All the while keeping his new life hidden from his family, essentially living a double life. It can be said that Breaking bad accurately portrayed today’s society in regards to families suffering from the economic decline, health care system, money laundering, greed and self-destruction from power. Success is sometimes measured in different ways and Mr. White’s story is an example of this fact. He started out as a successful scientist and business man with a promising future. He was persuaded to believe that the company he owned with is partner was failing and he decided to sell his portion to get out only to find that he would struggle to replace his former income. Working two jobs to support his family, neither of them what he imagined he would be doing with his master degree in Chemistry. He was over qualified by his standards to be a Chemistry teacher in a local high school by day and a car wash cashier by night. Mr. White became angry and bitter, he like so many others in life that have had to downsize...
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...regulations to ensure legal business practices remain ethical. Unfortunately, rules and regulations must be made because regrettable actions from large corporations are tainted with greed and power. Corporate Governance Within the past few years headlines have told distressing stories of unethical practices from large corporations such as Merrill Lynch, Enron, Martha Stewart, Adelphia, Boeing, Rite Aid, Xerox, and many more (Arjoon, 2013). According to Arjoon (2013), the definition of corporate governance, “is the system by which business corporations are directed and controlled. The corporate governance structure specifies the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation, such as, the board, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders and spells out the rules and procedures for making decisions in corporate affairs. By doing this, it also provides the structure through which the company objectives are set and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance.” The object of corporate governance is to ensure that a corporation is held to strict guidelines that promotes fairness, transparency and accountability, and that any action taking by a manager is of the interest of the major stakeholder groups. The key component to corporate governance is to maintain strong relationships and trust from within and outside the corporation. Because of the scandals that have taken place, many companies have facilitated...
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...Ethical Scam Every organization to function smoothly and efficiently and to achieve its long term goal needs to behave in a ethical manner. Hence ethics are guiding principles or expectation of conduct governing the behavior of an individual or a group. In the increasingly conscience-focused marketplaces of 21st century , the demand fore more ethical actions is increasing. But greed overcomes principles , for earning huge profits in a short run businessmen do adopt unethical practices , leading o ethical scams. Reasons for ethical scam - Single minded focus - Social bond theory - Acceptance of small theft - Pygmalion effect - Environmental influence - Obedience to authority One such ethical scam had been a part of Indian corporate market i.e the “2G Scam” Indian telecommunication industry has witnessed unprecedented growth in recent years. The rapid expansion of the mobile telephony market has been simultaneously accompanied by allegations that government manipulated its rules and policies to benefit few firms . The main accused of this fiasco is former Union Minister A.Raja. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has contended that by :- a) under pricing 2G spectrum , b) by allowing the companies of using GSM and CDMA technology with same license c) allocating companies more spectrum than specified in their licenses the total loss to the country would be in excess of Rs.176000crore On 10th January 2008 announcement...
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...2 pg. 3 pg. 4 pg. 7 pg. 9 pg. 11 pg. 12 pg. 14 1|P a ge Introduction Corporate Scandals are business scandals that initiate from the misstatement of financial reporting by executives of public companies who are the ones trusted to run these organizations. Corporate scandals are derived in many ways and these misrepresentations happen through overstating revenues and understating expenses, overstating assets and understating liabilities, and use of fictious and fraudulent transactions that gives a misleading impression of the company’s financial status. There were a few corporate scandals that took place in the last decade that forever changed investment policies in corporate America. The companies that are most commonly known for these scandals are Enron, Adelphia, and WorldCom. These companies had hidden their true financial status from creditors and shareholders until they were unable to meet the financial commitments which forced them reveal massive losses instead of the implicated earnings. The ultimate result cost investors billions of dollars when the share prices of the affected companies had collapsed. According to Hopwood, Leiner & Young (2002), pg. 130, “the public outcry from the corporate scandals were enormous, and congress responded by implementing the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). The main reason for the implementation of SOX was to restore public confidence in corporate America.” In this statement, the authors are implying that the Sarbanes-Oxley was...
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...(Douglas), a wealthy, unscrupulous corporate raider. Stone made the film as a tribute to his father, Lou Stone, a stockbroker during the Great Depression. The character of Gekko is said to be a composite of several people, including Owen Morrisey, Dennis Levine, Ivan Boesky, Carl Icahn, Asher Edelman, Michael Ovitz, Michael Milken, and Stone himself. The character of Sir Lawrence Wildman, meanwhile, was modelled on the prominent British financier and corporate raider Sir James Goldsmith. Originally, the studio wanted Warren Beatty to play Gekko, but he was not interested, and Stone wanted Richard Gere, though Gere passed on the role. Stone went with Douglas even though he had been advised by others in Hollywood not to cast him. Efficient-market hypothesis Within the Efficient-market hypothesis, the Strong form of EMH additionally claims that prices instantly reflect even hidden or "insider" information. This is what was demonstrated within this video being that it focused on insider trading. However, The SEC believed in the Semi strong Version because this version claims both that prices reflect all publicly available information and that prices instantly change to reflect new public information. Themes and Culture The film has come to be seen as the archetypal portrayal of 1980s excess, with Douglas advocating, "greed, for lack of a better word, is good."(Ross) Wall Street defines itself through a number of morality conflicts putting wealth and power against simplicity and honesty...
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...Although it is seen as a “children’s book,” nothing more that literature for the undeveloped mind, The Lorax is a piece of work that is perfect for this discussion. Through the amusing (and sometimes downright silly) diction of Dr. Seuss, the tale of the little boy listening to the Once Ler not only gives an environmentalist message but, it also gives insight into the bullying issue. Within the story, in a similar way to how fracking companies work, the Once Ler continues to abuse the resources around him (which are the truffula trees) despite what it does to the residents of the forest. Why does he do this? This question leads to the theme of greed. Like the Once Ler, many corporate CEOs have been blinded by greed and ambition, resulting...
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