Preview

Enron Scandal

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
880 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Enron Scandal
Ethics are values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions. If all people lived by this code the world would be a much better place. Having business ethics in the workplaces is very significant to having a truly successful business. Many companies have been forced to suffer losses or even forced to enter bankruptcy.

Enron is one of the biggest examples of when making business ethical decisions go wrong. An American energy, commodities, and services company based in Houston, Texas Enron was a big deal. Employing approximately 20,000 staff and was being one of the world’s leading electricity, natural gas, communications, and pulp and paper companies. Enron was a company on top on of the reason the fall was so drastic. Since Enron was the largest corporation contributor to the first presidential Bush campaign some people believed it to be a political conspiracy. The people in charge of Enron you can say lost their way, they became more worried about the money instead of the wellbeing of their company and employees. If Enron had stayed in the gray areas or at least the moral minimum then thing might have turned out different for them. Staying in these areas they would have made sure that all there business dealing was in compliance with the law. However just because a business deal is in compliance with the law does not mean it is ethical. Enron is the largest bankruptcy reorganization in American history and also the biggest audit failure of that time. With the using of accounting loopholes, special purpose entities, and poor financial reporting, Enron was able to hide billions in debt from failed deals and projects. Many executives at Enron were indicted for a variety of charges and were later sentenced to prison. Employees and shareholders received limited returns in lawsuits, despite losing billions in pensions and stock prices. As

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The collapse of Enron back in 2001 shows a number of unethical practice. This company shows unethical practice in accounting as well as business. This company is a perfect example on how unethical behavior of a few people can affect millions of individuals. This also affected these individuals for many years after. Enron was the first business to have nationwide gas pipeline networks. On November 8, 2001 Enron made an announcement in a SEC filing that they were restating its earnings since 1997, and this would reflect a $586 million dollar reeducation. They reported this only a couple months after there first quarterly loss, this loss was the first in four years. In this case a;; the accountants were charged with preparing inaccurate information. This lead the investors to invest in something that was not there and something that was not true. All investors are relying on a company to have accurate financial information. This is how investors can see management and the resources of the company. Then with this information the investors will make a decision weather or not to invest in the company. I feel that in today's industry its a lot more common to find unethical managers in there positions. These managers are the type that will effect millions of individuals, and can harm allot of peoples finances. The manger of Enron bad the bad unethical decision to give false information on the income statement figures. Due to this unethical decision it turned into a multi-billion dollar disaster. Once this step was made to bring in new investors they could back track and fix what they did. This decision is what led the collapse of Enron and the loss of billions of dollars for investors. IN this company there were managers that made unethical decision and also accountants. If I were to work for this company as an accountant I think that I would have resigned from the company but also let them know what was going on. I…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Best Essays

    Ethics is a word we all hear often, whether it’s on the news, in class or at work, ethics is associated with the way people act. Being ethical is similar to being right or wrong. Ethics as is an organized analysis of values relating to human conduct, with respect to their rightness and wrongness (Fieser, 2012). So what do ethics mean in business? Ethics in business has the same meaning, except it applies to the operations of whole company including executive managers, employees, and stock holders. The decisions made by all of those mentioned affect the ethical sense of the company.…

    • 2508 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Enron Case Study

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages

    What happened to Enron was just its founder at the time Ken Lay was greedy and unethical right from the beginning, and that was how he steered the boat to that direction. Instead of firing traders who were pocketing profits for themselves, manipulating reports which showed steady financial trends, he managed to keep them, because they were making a lot of money for the company. So he was giving opportunities for this staffs to do underhand works and he only cared if it made profits for the company. Later, when Jeff Skilling joined Enron, he developed what Lay had…

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Enron's Ethics Breakdown

    • 2754 Words
    • 12 Pages

    It is perhaps the most compelling business ethics case in a generation—a textbook version of what can go wrong in an organization that lacks a true culture of ethical compliance. Investors and the media once considered Enron to be the company of the future, but as its demise suggests, it was in reality not a particularly modern business organization, especially in its approach to ethics. On the surface, at least, it appeared to reject progressive innovation in governance and ethics programs and instead sought to circumvent systems that were designed to protect the company and its shareholders. The purpose of this report is not to comment on the legal or political ramifications of the case but rather to focus on the business ethics issues raised by the conduct of the company’s directors and officers, its accountants, and lawyers as it is known to date. It is meant to be a reminder that simply having a detailed code of ethics on the books (as Enron certainly did) is not enough. Organizations need to infuse ethics and integrity throughout their corporate culture as well as into their definition of success.…

    • 2754 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One may ask what do we need ethics in business for? To answer this question, we need to know what ethics is, as well as, what impact it has on businesses, people and relations. Ethics is often defined as a set of rules, principles governing a group or a person; determining his/her behavior. It imposes a social responsibility on people.…

    • 298 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Enron Scandal

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Enron was established in 1930 as Northern Natural Gas Company and joined with three other companies to undertake this industry. The four companies eventually began to break apart between 1941 and 1947 as a result of a public stock offering. In 1979, Northern Natural Gas was placed under new management when it was bought by InterNorth Inc. In 1985, Kenneth Lay, CEO of Houston Natural Gas Company devised a transaction for InterNorth to purchase Houston Natural Gas. Lay was named CEO of the new company and changed InterNorth 's name to Enron Corporation. This newly developed company originally was involved in distributing gas and electricity throughout the United States, and operation of power plants and pipelines worldwide. In fifteen short years Enron became the nation 's seventh largest company, but the company 's growth was due to several illegal activities. During 2001, Enron shares fell from eighty-five dollars to thirty cents. The devastating results occurred after it was revealed that many of its profits and revenue were the result of deals with special purpose entities (Carson, 7).…

    • 844 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Enron Scandal

    • 2940 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Two years after Enron filed for bankruptcy in 2001, Nancy b. Rapoport wrote this essay expressing her unique perspective on the real cause of Enron’s demise. This essay catches the reader’s attention instantly, because unlike abundant other articles written on the biggest corporate scandal in American history, the author here rejects Jeff Skilling’s (former president of Enron) argument1 of what brought about Enron’s downfall. She instead uses another metaphor, arguing that Enron’s downfall was more like Titanic’s- hubris and over reliance on checks and balances that led to its demise rather than a ‘Perfect Storm’ of events. The purpose behind her preference of the metaphor ‘Titanic’ over ‘Perfect storm’ clarifies and warns readers about not being misled into believing that Enron’s downfall was based on factors ‘outside of the company’s control’ rather was caused by a ‘synergetic combination of human errors’. In justifying the Titanic as a more apt analogy to the downfall of Enron, the author offers strong arguments such as how the Enron is in some sense a larger-than-life disaster much like the Titanic. While Titanic’s failure was tied to the unrealistic faith in technology to protect passengers, Enron’s failure was tied to the unrealistic faith that formal and informal checks and balances could always keep the market honest. However, her strongest argument of ‘hubris’ found both in the top executives of Enron as well as the officers of Titanic is not convincing. As much as the greed for money is evident in Enron employees and their arrogant behavior, her equivalent assertion that the Titanic can trace the loss of life directly to human arrogance (pg 209) lacks adequate evidence. Whether her proof of…

    • 2940 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the first scandals in Enron involved President Louis Borget and two traders were discovered betting on Enron Stocks. The company books were altered to inflate profits so that the company appeared to be more profitable that it actually was. Borget was diverting company money into personal offshore accounts. Auditors tried to uncover the problem, but Borget and the traders had a separate set of books that they kept from the auditors. Kenneth Lay, who was aware of this unethical practice, and encouraged Borget to continue “making us millions”, two months later the separate set of books were brought to the investigators and Enron fired the two traders and Borget had to serve one year in jail.…

    • 1422 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Throughout the growing size of the business Enron’s actions were morally wrong betraying there own stakeholders and employees. In no moral point of view can…

    • 2736 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Ethics Paper Wk.2

    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Business Ethics is a form of ethics, which examines the ethical principles, and moral problems that occur in a business. Ethics plays an extremely vital role in business today due because of policies, procedures, and practices. Policies are in place to administer order and structure in an organization. Employees oftentimes undermine these rules and regulations due to acquiring a little or no respect for his or her supervisors and the management team.…

    • 673 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Walt Disney Code Of Ethics

    • 1390 Words
    • 6 Pages

    To properly define business ethics it would be the proper policies, practice and conduct to follow in a business this would be the regarding potential issues such as bribery, discrimination, and corporate responsibility. In most cases ethics can be thought of as the law, or basic framework some businesses that choose to follow to ensure the acceptance of the public and society. This law is implemented to set a level of trust between the consumers and the service/product. Ethics is directly associated with the principles and standards, it sets boundaries, and…

    • 1390 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Enron Personal Ethics

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In late 2001, the United States economy experienced a shock as Enron, the country's 7th largest corporation, declared bankruptcy. Many people lost their jobs, and even more investors lost billions of stock dollars as shares collapsed. As the rubble was removed, many signs of unethical acts surfaced, and were found to be carried out by some of the principal parties in the company. This debacle not only affected the employees and investors of the company, but also affected the regulations and the credibility of corporations today.…

    • 758 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ethics are a personal set of values used by an individual to guide their actions, and to recognize any obligation. They are a continuously evolving code of conduct dependent upon circumstances and the life experiences of the individual. With actions that can be measured by “right” and “wrong”. Ethics are not primarily concerned with the description of moral systems in societies but are more or less the backbone of the American industry, whether an organization has good or bad ethical standards ethics is an issue for all people.…

    • 1298 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ethics Paper

    • 1200 Words
    • 4 Pages

    One of the main questions when talking about ethics, is the very general question of: What are Ethics? Business Dictionary describes ethics as: “The basic concepts and fundamental principles of decent human conduct. It includes study of universal values such as the essential equality of all men and women, human or natural rights, obedience to the law of the land, concern for health and safety, and increasingly, also for the natural environment.” Ethics can be considered a fundamental stepping stone to become a leader in a company as well as a great starting point for any company to see how a person would conduct themselves while they are representing a company or organization. In a company or an organization, a code of ethics can be a set of principles that guide the programs, policies and decisions for the business. The way a person or company uses their ethical philosophy can affect the reputation, productivity and bottom line of a business.…

    • 1200 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    AMRE

    • 2960 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Ethics is moral principles that govern a person 's behavior or the conducting of an activity. "Ethics in business" is the behavior that a business adheres to in its daily dealings with the world. The ethics of a particular business can be diverse. They apply not only to how the business interacts with the world at large, but also to their one-on-one dealings with a single customer.…

    • 2960 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics