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Effects of Unethical and Irrational Decision Making at Enron

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Submitted By jscardul
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Effects of Unethical and Irrational Decision Making at Enron

DePaul University

Managers and employees are often faced with ethical problems. The decisions that are made in regards to handling those problems can define an individual's career and determine the ultimate fate of their organization. In this discussion, examples of decisions that were made by Enron employees will be discussed that will exemplify this point. The first decision that will be discussed is the decision that Jeff Skilling, President and Chief Operating Officer of Enron, made when he decided to ask Enron's accounting firm, Arthur Anderson, to use the mark to market accounting method. It was a very intelligent and rational decision at the time that it was approved by Arthur Anderson and the Securities & Exchange Commission. However, it eventually opened the doors for greed and fraud and led to intentional misrepresentation. If Jeff Skilling's initial intentions were to misrepresent financial statements, then the decision would have been very unethical and irrational. The mark to market accounting method allowed the company to book revenue based on the present value of net future cash flows. Simpler put, the accounting method gave Jeff Skilling the opportunity to claim any amount of revenues that he wanted. Consequently, this gave Enron the power to control their own stock price which led to an escalation of commitment which is, "staying with a decision even when there is clear evidence it is wrong" (Robbins and Judge, 2012, p. 64). As time went along, there was more pressure to cover up losses and misrepresent fair value of the energy contracts otherwise their misrepresentations would have been exposed. Jeff Skilling’s bounded awareness was so clouded by increasing the stock price that he failed to seek information that could have helped the company avoid

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