Misbehavior of Ceos

In “The Overpaid CEO” Susan Homberg and Mark Schmitt bring to attention how CEO pay in America is ridiculous in numbers as opposed to other parts of the world. Looking back, in the nineteen hundreds CEO pay was relativity average. As businesses and companies began to expand there was a demand for higher pay. Between 1978-2012 CEO pay increased by 875%! Many rules and regulations were put in to place to limit the pay of a CEO, such as the Securities Exchange Act that I will explain later on, regardless CEO pay kept getting higher and higher as many loopholes were found. Bonuses pay a large part in the salaries of CEOS’, as an effect CEOS’ tend to partake in risky behavior in order to score those big paychecks.

One very public issue arose when the personal relationship shared between Debra Lee and Robert Johnson. This relationship brought to light the use of illegal accounting methods and allegations of using corporate funds for personal purposes.

This case analysis is based on the events that occurred on March 13, 2001 and the days that followed at Cerner Corporation. On that day the Chief Executive Officer of Cerner Corporation, Neal Patterson, sent a memo to the company’s managers via e-mail. In the message he advised the managers of his disgust with their disregard of punctuality and work ethic which he felt was as a result of the managers’ lack of leadership skills. The e-mail message was later obtainable for viewing on the Yahoo website to the public, including existing and potential investors and stock market analysts.

People often question whether corporate boards matter because their day-today impact is difficult to observe. But, when things go wrong, they can become the center of attention. Certainly this was true of the Enron, Worldcom, and Parmalat scandals. The directors of Enron and Worldcom, in particular, were held liable for the fraud that occurred: Enron directors had to pay $168 million to investor plaintiffs, of which $13 million was out of pocket (not covered by insurance); and Worldcom directors had to pay $36 million, of which $18 million was out of pocket. As a consequence of these scandals and ongoing concerns about corporate governance, boards have been at the center of the policy

authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised

3. Has the board established a nomination committee which consists of a majority of independent directors? The board should be structured in such a way that it ensures an appropriate mix of skills and expertise to govern the company and enhance its performance role. The committee should be structured in such a way that a majority of independent directors can enhance the board’s

The ability to identify and solve a workplace problem is an integral managing ability. Cliffe et al.’s article, “What a Star—What a Jerk,” (2001) focuses on a manager in a new position who is having problems with an aggressive, but talented, employee. Though the difficult worker in the article is a subordinate, I view the manager, Jane, as the cause of most issues. Jane demonstrates that she is not manager material by running to her old co-worker with every problem, gossiping about her subordinates, complaining about basic managerial duties, and handling insubordination poorly. Through her behavior as a manager, Jane reminds me of Susan , a manager whom I recently had to suffer through working under. Although my situation is not exactly like that in the article, I understand how it feels to work for someone who acts inappropriately, causes conflict in the workplace, and lacks crucial leadership skills.

This scenario is difficult to understand. The utilitarian debate argues that the status of bringing helpful financial consequences is something that is worth obtaining (Mill, 2007). Bill Gates thereby must be permitted to attain the corporation and manage it as he deems it appropriate. Nonetheless, ethical leadership grows into all factors of management. For instance, it’s

Another major event in the case was Levy’s decision to fire his COO. When he first took the job in January, many board members urged him to fire her. He declined, and as of April 9th, he was happy with her performance and said he would not be making any major organizational changes. Less than a month later, however, he asked her to step down saying, among other things, that she never “got anything done” and that she exerted too much control over “people and data.” Structurally, her dismissal reinforced the hierarchy and role definition he had been working hard to establish. Additionally, he appeared to operating from the symbolic frame because, had he fired her immediately based on the advice of the board, it would have looked as though he wasn’t in charge. By waiting to fire her, he made it appear as though it was strictly his decision because deciding who the COO should be is not the “board’s job.”

“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” shows us how basic human nature does not change, whether it is firing as a means to resolve disputes, or in the

The executives are accountable to the board of directors. Instead of protecting the investors, the board enticed the culture of financial fraud in the company for selfish gains. It failed in its duties in keeping the executives in check.

There are few, if any other positions that put an employee in this situation. Important decisions are made by them everyday, many of which decide whether a company will prosper, or go under. Many of these men had to work their way to the top. They usually have extensive business backgrounds, and know their field well. There are very few people qualified, or knowledgeable enough to perform well in executive positions. That makes the ones that are, a hot commodity. Thus allowing them to demand the high pay that they earn.

“It is important for leaders to tell a compelling and morally rich story, but ethical leaders must also embody and live the story. This is a difficult task in today’s business environment where everyone lives in a fishbowl—on public display. So many political leaders fail to embody the high-minded stories they tell at election time, and more recently, business leaders have become the focus of similar criticism through the revelations of numerous scandals and bad behaviours. CEOs in today’s corporations are really ethical role models for all of society.”

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Mr. Stonecipher was hired to “clean up” Boeing, and to keep the company out of the “ethical spotlight.” It was therefore his duty to live by the standards he enforced. If he was unable to do that, then he should have stepped down as CEO before this extra-marital affair was brought to light. Hypocrisy is no way to lead a company. It will only cause dissension among peers and employees.