I have chosen to write my responses to chapter nine question 96, which was assigned, that exposes Sherron Watkins’s experiences that posed issues of business ethics during her employment at Enron. It was these events that were leading factors to her Time Magazine “Persons of the Year” 2002 nomination. Sherron Watkins, made a household name early on at the turn of the century, was the Vice President of Enron Corporation who forewarned the then-CEO Kenneth Lay, in August 2001, of accounting irregularities within the company. Some biographical information regarding Ms. Watkins, this woman entered employment with Enron in late 1993, she was initially employed to work for Andrew Fastow. Her initial function was to manage Enron’s $1 billion-plus
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Watkins under oath gave her testimony to the House that it was her believe that a confrontation, bringing the recent discovery and concerns to light, with Jeffery Skilling undoubtedly would lead to job termination. Therefore, Ms. Watkins was under pressure that as long as Mr. Skilling was at the helm of the company she had no choice to but remain quiet regarding her findings of inappropriateness of the Raptor assets. In spite of this Watkins had the option to resign and remain silent about her findings (option 8) or even to just do nothing and hope that the issue involving the Raptor asset would eventually resolve itself (option 9). Had Watkins disregarded the findings and completely dropped the cause, Enron’s executives and employees would benefit only in the short term, over time eventually the wrong doing and juggling of funds would become impossible to hide from the …show more content…
There is also various statements stating that soon after Watkins met with Mr. Kenneth Lay, she discovered “Enron’s lawyers were employed with the task of exploring the ramifications of firing her in relation to whistle blowing” (Morse & Bower, 2002, p. 53). After the August meeting with Mr. Lay, confides Ms. Watkins not only in her testimony to the House also in her interview for Time Magazine, “she had her hard drive seized, was forced to move from her executive suite to a plain office, and given work of little substance” (Morse & Bower, 2002, p. 53).Ms. Watkins also confided in Morse and Bower during her interview with Time Magazine that she “feared for her safety”
Watkins under oath gave her testimony to the House that it was her believe that a confrontation, bringing the recent discovery and concerns to light, with Jeffery Skilling undoubtedly would lead to job termination. Therefore, Ms. Watkins was under pressure that as long as Mr. Skilling was at the helm of the company she had no choice to but remain quiet regarding her findings of inappropriateness of the Raptor assets. In spite of this Watkins had the option to resign and remain silent about her findings (option 8) or even to just do nothing and hope that the issue involving the Raptor asset would eventually resolve itself (option 9). Had Watkins disregarded the findings and completely dropped the cause, Enron’s executives and employees would benefit only in the short term, over time eventually the wrong doing and juggling of funds would become impossible to hide from the …show more content…
There is also various statements stating that soon after Watkins met with Mr. Kenneth Lay, she discovered “Enron’s lawyers were employed with the task of exploring the ramifications of firing her in relation to whistle blowing” (Morse & Bower, 2002, p. 53). After the August meeting with Mr. Lay, confides Ms. Watkins not only in her testimony to the House also in her interview for Time Magazine, “she had her hard drive seized, was forced to move from her executive suite to a plain office, and given work of little substance” (Morse & Bower, 2002, p. 53).Ms. Watkins also confided in Morse and Bower during her interview with Time Magazine that she “feared for her safety”