Ethics of Penn Square and Dow Corning Essay

In response to the movie, “Wall Street” there was many ethical dilemmas that violated the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934. There was an obvious disregard for the rules and regulations set forth by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Gordon Gekko and Bud Fox have no ability to comply within the regulations, and see each avenue whether it be legal, or illegal as a means to increase their wealth. The demise of Gordon Gekko and the gopher, Bud Fox was as a result of their lack of ability to comply within the regulations. This movie highlights several business ethics violations, which are very evident.

The Enron and WorldCom scandals were arguably the incidents that permanently changed the procedures for accounting controls. In response to these incidents, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) of 2002 was passed. Once the knowledge of these scandals was made public, a number of subsequent accounting scandals were discovered in public companies such as Tyco International, HealthSouth, and American Insurance Group. In addition, a then-employee-owned company, Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan, Inc. (dba PBS&J, now known as “Atkins North America, Inc.”), was also hit by a similar accounting scandal. Henceforth, a case study of PBS&J is presented where we will examine the fraudulent transactions that

This now bankrupt company, misappropriated investments, pension funds, stock options and saving plans after deregulation and little oversight by the federal government. However, with deregulation an increasing competitive culture emerged as the CEO Jeffry Skilling motto to his organization was to “do it right, do it now, and do it better” this was the rally cried that pushed ambitious employees to engage in unethical behavior as Enron use deceptive “accounting methods to maintain its investment grade status” (Sims, & Brinkmann, 2003, pp.244-245). As Enron continued to flourish and received accolades from the business community this recognition drove executives to continue the façade of bending ethical guidelines before their public fall from

There is a possibility of leakage of information by some or the other person in the organization. So, I doubt that nobody in Wells Fargo or in regulation did have any part to play in this, maybe they turned a blind eye. I believe that corporates always take the easiest way to get out of any imperative ethical issues, they blame their employees for the wrongdoings and keep top management safe. Like, in this case, Wells Fargo fired more than five thousand employees in response to the issue of cross-selling and no action was taken against the top officials of the company. It seems as if the top management is immune to such ethics-related issues.

Bank of America is one of the largest banks in the nation. It is a multinational company and it is recognized by its high revenue value. Unfortunately, Bank of America has endured many complaints and harsh views regarding their lack of ethics. Ethical issues occur when there is a blatant disregard to implement integrity, trust, and responsibility. In some financial institutions, ethical matters are displayed in the way the consumers are treated. Within the past nine years, Bank of America has diminished all of their ethical promises by revealing customer information without their permission; discriminating against consumers based on their race; and manipulating overdraft fees in order to benefit the bank. In order to assess these problems, it is vital to recognize what Bank of America claims to stand for and determine where their most concerning issues are generated from.

Nurse leaders face various moral, ethical, and legal issues in the workplace. Scenario four presented in the Potter-O’Grady and Mallock (2016) text illustrates an uncomfortable, yet not terribly rare instance of a nurse-nurse ethical dilemma (p.225). The background of the situation is that a unit is experiencing an issue with a nurse who is habitually late, expresses dissatisfaction with her assigned work and refuses to be a team player. She is also related to and very open about her relationship with a well-respected physician in the facility. Finally, the nurse in question has yet to be confronted by her nurse manager or any other staff members.

The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers and subsequent financial market crash ushered in a time where many financial service companies were bailed out because they were deemed “too big to fail”. This term describes the large, intertwined relationship that many of the top banking and finance institutions have on our economy, and the devastating consequences that would transpire if these institutions were allowed to fail and cease to exist. While controversial, bailing out banks and other financial institutions was absolutely necessary to maintain the economic integrity of our nation. Raising objections to the ethical nature of a business being “too big to fail” does not address the deep underlying issues that led to this sort of thing being a possible whatsoever. With this being said, the aspects

The recent push for approval of silicone implants is particularly problematic. Doctors and patients often prefer the silicone implants because they more closely mimic the look and feel of breast tissue ((1)). Although there is little evidence supporting the claims made against silicone breast implants in the 1980's (which said that they contributed to autoimmune and connective tissue disorders), it can be said that silicone implants cause more problems than saline implants. When a saline implant ruptures, it deflates almost immediately, creating visible evidence of the problem ((1)). Silicone implants may show symptoms of rupturing, but many women have a "silent rupture" in which the scar tissue around the implant holds in the saline gel. Since these women have no symptoms, the only way to identify the rupture is through MRI ((5)). What makes this particularly alarming is that the long term effects of having the silicone gel sitting indirect contact with scar and breast tissue is unknown, which is one of the reasons that the chairman of the FDA advisory panel, which voted in favor of approving silicone implants, asked that the FDA ignore the panel's advice ((6)). Long term safety of silicone implants has simply not been demonstrated by any studies presented to the FDA, yet many in the

According to Pompper (2014), “incidents of high-profile deception over the past” four decades “have threatened the reputation of the … accounting function” (p. 131). For instance, an investigation was conducted into the financial audit and reporting process after the savings and loan banking crisis in the 1980s (Pompper, 2014). In addition, the criminal convictions of executives and bankruptcies of Fortune 500 companies such as Enron and WorldCom in the turn of the century motivated Congress to pass the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in 2002 to strengthen regulations within the accounting profession (Whittington & Pany, 2014). As a result, the SOX introduced provisions that changed the accounting function, such as the establishment of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) and other major elements; however, the SOX regulations subsequently resulted in consequences to its compliance.

Enron’s ride is quite a phenomenon: from a regional gas pipeline trader to the largest energy trader in the world, and then back down the hill into bankruptcy and disgrace. As a matter of fact, it took Enron 16 years to go from about $10 billion of assets to $65 billion of assets, and 24 days to go bankruptcy. Enron is also one of the most celebrated business ethics cases in the century. There are so many things that went wrong within the organization, from all personal (prescriptive and psychological approaches), managerial (group norms, reward system, etc.), and organizational (world-class culture) perspectives. This paper will focus on the business ethics issues at Enron that were raised from the documentation Enron: The Smartest Guys

The breast implants produced by Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) French company were banned in the year of 2010. PIP which was founded in year 1991 and was once the world’s third largest supplier of silicone gel breast implants was eventually shut down within the same year. This company had illegally produced and marketed the implants using unauthorized industrial grade silicone gel that meant for use in mattresses instead of approved and mandated medical grade silicone gel since year 2001. The implants were widely used across Europe, Britain and South America and estimated about 400, 000 patients in 45 countries around the world with PIP Implants. The scandal was surfaced in year 2009 due to medical device reports from surgeons on the abnormally high rupture rates of the PIP implants than other approved implants. France’s drug and medical safety agency (AFSSAPS) recalled the PIP implants and advised 30,000 women to have their implants removed due to this scandal in subsequent year of 2010.

The beginning of Dow Corning`s fraudulent and immoral actions actually started during this time when actual silicone breast implants had not even been developed and only the injection of silicone into women's breasts was being done. In 1954, Dow Corning found that silica in silicone had a high order of toxicity and they were informed by scientist H.C. Spenser that silicone caused health problems and by scientist V.K. Rowe in 1955 that silicone spreads throughout the body and could cause organ damage (Melvin, 2003). One can see that Dow Corning knew as early as the mid-1950's that silicone could be a source of health problems and potentially unsafe, but even with that knowledge Dow Corning moved in the next stage of silicone enhancement of breasts, the actual manufacture of silicone breast implants.

Business Industry has witnessed the outcomes of bad moral decisions taken by business leaders. Enron’s story is only one example of corporate scandals and cases of bad moral decisions, which has not only shaken the public trust in corporations, but also affected the bank accounts of investors and employees. Before the bankruptcy of Enron; it was included in one of the fortune 500 companies after its fraudulent accounting case the share went down to $1 (Enron scandal, 2010; PBS, 2002; Godwin, 2006; Godwin, 2008).

Silicon and silicon-based materials can be formulated to deliver unlimited range of uses. Silicon is durable enough for long lasting uses in the construction industry, yet can be gentle enough for uses in the healthcare and medical devices. Dow Corning has been pioneers in the development of silicones for commercial uses for the last 80 years, founded as a joint venture between Dow Chemical Company and Corning Glass. They became a global leader in manufacturers of silicon-based products with a 40% worldwide market share. Dow Corning was a pioneer producing fit for purpose market leading products.

This work will examine the case 'Banking Industry Meltdown: The Ethical Financial Risk Derivatives" and determine which moral philosophy is most applicable to an understanding of the banking industry meltdown and explain the rationale. The case study will be analyzed and white-collar crimes considered as to whether they are different in any substantive manner from other more blue-collar crimes. This study will determine and discuss the role that corporate culture played in banking industry scenario and the response will be supported with specific examples. This work will postulate how leaders within the banking industry could have used their influence to avert the industry meltdown.