The Fall of Enron-An Analysis of Ethical Issues
ENRON & ARTHUR ANDERSEN ETHICS ESSAY
The Fall of Enron
An Analysis of Ethical Issues
Xiaomeng Wang
1. Introduction
Although Enron went bankrupt and disappeared ten years ago, the impacts it has made on the ethical standards never faded. It took Enron 16 years to go from about ten billion dollar assets to more than sixty-five billion dollar assets, and took twenty-four days to go bankrupt. (McLean & Elkind, 2004)
Enron, which once ranked as the seventh-largest company on the Fortune 500 and ranked as the sixth-largest energy company in the world, on December 2, 2001, filed for bankruptcy protection in the biggest case of bankruptcy in the United States up to that point (Jennings, …show more content…
As discussed in the third part, Enron’s culture brought many bad results and contributed to its fraud and bankruptcy. Enron had competitive environments and rigorous performance evaluation standards. Besides that, Enron only focused on its financial goals. If Enron gave more job securities to their employees, there might be less cheating on work. Additionally, employers could not make so many decisions if they cared about the interests of their employees and other stakeholders. Therefore, companies should build a healthy corporate …show more content…
Only having ethical codes is far from enough. Enron had a well written code of ethics, but many unethical behaviors still happened. So companies should write a code of ethic and communicate it to all the employees. If you have an ethical code, you should try your best to follow it. Don’t make your code of ethics be window dressing. Instead, companies should make ethical standards common sense in every person’s mind.
Thirdly, companies need to learn business ethics theories and models because they are the ethical basis in all the situations. For example, in these theories and models, the impacts of your decisions and the interests of related parties are emphasized. These ethics and models give out good ways of balancing the interests of all the related parties, so they can help you make the right decisions when you face ethical dilemmas. Executives of business should have a good knowledge of business ethics. Then when they encounter dilemmas, they can know what to do.
Therefore, to avoid another Enron, companies should consider whether they have a healthy business culture, whether they have a well-written code of ethics and also follow the code, and whether the employers and employees have enough knowledge about business
ENRON & ARTHUR ANDERSEN ETHICS ESSAY
The Fall of Enron
An Analysis of Ethical Issues
Xiaomeng Wang
1. Introduction
Although Enron went bankrupt and disappeared ten years ago, the impacts it has made on the ethical standards never faded. It took Enron 16 years to go from about ten billion dollar assets to more than sixty-five billion dollar assets, and took twenty-four days to go bankrupt. (McLean & Elkind, 2004)
Enron, which once ranked as the seventh-largest company on the Fortune 500 and ranked as the sixth-largest energy company in the world, on December 2, 2001, filed for bankruptcy protection in the biggest case of bankruptcy in the United States up to that point (Jennings, …show more content…
As discussed in the third part, Enron’s culture brought many bad results and contributed to its fraud and bankruptcy. Enron had competitive environments and rigorous performance evaluation standards. Besides that, Enron only focused on its financial goals. If Enron gave more job securities to their employees, there might be less cheating on work. Additionally, employers could not make so many decisions if they cared about the interests of their employees and other stakeholders. Therefore, companies should build a healthy corporate …show more content…
Only having ethical codes is far from enough. Enron had a well written code of ethics, but many unethical behaviors still happened. So companies should write a code of ethic and communicate it to all the employees. If you have an ethical code, you should try your best to follow it. Don’t make your code of ethics be window dressing. Instead, companies should make ethical standards common sense in every person’s mind.
Thirdly, companies need to learn business ethics theories and models because they are the ethical basis in all the situations. For example, in these theories and models, the impacts of your decisions and the interests of related parties are emphasized. These ethics and models give out good ways of balancing the interests of all the related parties, so they can help you make the right decisions when you face ethical dilemmas. Executives of business should have a good knowledge of business ethics. Then when they encounter dilemmas, they can know what to do.
Therefore, to avoid another Enron, companies should consider whether they have a healthy business culture, whether they have a well-written code of ethics and also follow the code, and whether the employers and employees have enough knowledge about business