Ethics and Social Responsibility
Companies constantly face the struggle between ethical and unethical behaviors. The line differentiating ethical and unethical actions is not always clear. An ethical company also strives to exude social responsibility. A well-developed strategic plan will help protect a company against the pitfalls of unethical behavior and increase their level of social responsibility. In 2000, the unethical behaviors at Enron became public knowledge. A strategic plan with appropriate preventive measures could have saved Enron from the crumbling effects of CEO Jeffrey Skilling and others within the company.
Social Responsibility
In the struggle between ethical and unethical behaviors is the idea of social responsibility. Archie Carroll offers the idea that companies have four responsibilities economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary. Economic and legal responsibilities are required for the operation of the company. Ethical and discretionary responsibilities are what …show more content…
“Enron 's collapse affected the lives of thousands of employees; many pension funds and shook Wall Street to its very core” (Seabury, 2002). Enron hid significant loss in profits resulting in a dramatic end. Enron could have done three things as preventive measures. The first is creating a moral culture by communicating values. Creating and holding employees to a core set of values is one way to accomplish this. The second is having a good communication network where operational leaders remain informed of business actions. The third is maintaining openness between all levels of the company to expose and discuss problems (Seeger & Ulmer, 2003). These three things do not guarantee Enron would not have met the same fate, but a culture geared towards values, communication and openness are less likely to fall into unethical
Companies constantly face the struggle between ethical and unethical behaviors. The line differentiating ethical and unethical actions is not always clear. An ethical company also strives to exude social responsibility. A well-developed strategic plan will help protect a company against the pitfalls of unethical behavior and increase their level of social responsibility. In 2000, the unethical behaviors at Enron became public knowledge. A strategic plan with appropriate preventive measures could have saved Enron from the crumbling effects of CEO Jeffrey Skilling and others within the company.
Social Responsibility
In the struggle between ethical and unethical behaviors is the idea of social responsibility. Archie Carroll offers the idea that companies have four responsibilities economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary. Economic and legal responsibilities are required for the operation of the company. Ethical and discretionary responsibilities are what …show more content…
“Enron 's collapse affected the lives of thousands of employees; many pension funds and shook Wall Street to its very core” (Seabury, 2002). Enron hid significant loss in profits resulting in a dramatic end. Enron could have done three things as preventive measures. The first is creating a moral culture by communicating values. Creating and holding employees to a core set of values is one way to accomplish this. The second is having a good communication network where operational leaders remain informed of business actions. The third is maintaining openness between all levels of the company to expose and discuss problems (Seeger & Ulmer, 2003). These three things do not guarantee Enron would not have met the same fate, but a culture geared towards values, communication and openness are less likely to fall into unethical