CULTURES POISON COMPANIES THE RISE AND FALL OF ENRON, WORLDCOM, HEALTHSOUTH, AND TYCO INTERNATIONAL David R. Lease, Norwich University Abstract This paper presents an analytical and comparative study of four recent corporate scandals involving organizations that had previously been recognized as both ethically and organizationally sound. Based on these case studies, the following issues are discussed: (1) The role of leader behavior and organizational/leadership styles in shaping the corporate organizational
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practicing globally. The firm ran into many ethical issues when becoming involved in the Enron scandal, which affected the company globally. The ethical perceptions across cultures affected the employment of many people that ended up losing their jobs or transferring to other firms. There were many risks and consequences involved in the demise of Arthur Andersen. All of the risks involved affected the firm as a whole, around the world. Ethical Issues Ethical issues involving the demise of Arthur
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Kenneth Lay, former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Enron Corp., claimed to be a moral and ethical leader and exhorted Enron’s officers and employees to be highly ethical in their decisions and actions. In addition, the Enron Code of Ethics specified that “An employee shall not conduct himself or herself in a manner which directly or indirectly would be detrimental to the best interests of the Company or in a manner which would bring to the employee financial gain separately derived
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Business Failure in Enron and The Organizational Behavior Theories That Explain the Company’s Failure Name: Institutional Affiliation Enron Corporation was one of the world’s top electricity corporations that underwent a financial indignity, which involved Enron and its bookkeeping company. The scandal comprised of the detection of unbalanced accounting techniques, which occurred through the 1990s. This resulted in Enron filing for insolvency in December of 2001 (Thomas, 2002). The aim of this
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Examining a Business Failure: The Downfall of Enron Team D: LDR/531 2012 Eric Heard In December of 2001, Enron was forced to file for bankruptcy after an investigation of their finances. This investigation uncovered a history of conspiracy, money laundering, and inside trading that led to one of the largest fraud scandals in history (Cernusca, 2011). As a result, businesses should examine exactly where this powerhouse faltered. The areas to be studied specifically
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greater cause for society. One main culprit for Enron scandal was Arthur Anderson. It had served as Enron’s outside auditor since 1985. Not only did Anderson do external audits it also provided Enron internal auditing and consulting services. Anderson auditors helped Enron hides its earning manipulation. Arthur Anderson falsifying financial condition of the company and never disclosed it to the public. Anderson did all kinds of services for Enron such as external auditing, internal auditing and
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Ethics Paper Ethics along with other components are key in ensuring a company’s success in the end. Nowadays more and more companies have to deal with either unethical employees or unethical business practices being overseen by its CEO’s or senior leadership. It is a company’s responsibility to ensure its employees and its stake holders are taken care of in regards to how the company runs its everyday duties. What is meant by that is, the company has to ensure it business practices are in line with
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The fall of Enron: Corporate Culture, Governance and Ethics Written By: Bilge-Kagan Ozturk 2007 Abstract This paper examines the critical importance of an ethically based corporate/organisational culture to ensuring company-wide ethical conduct. Testament to this topic I use the case of Enron and its ethical demise to successfully support my argument and highlight the need of top level management to be the main proponents of this culture to allow lower level employees to adopt a behaviour
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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
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are dealing with money and accounting there is always a myriad of ethical issues. Some people will do anything to propel themselves into financial wealth. However in today’s accounting world I believe there are numerous standards and policies that lend themselves to create an ethical rich environment. One endeavor known as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act revolutionized the accounting industry adding such measures as requiring the leadership of corporations to certify the accuracy of each individual financial
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