Relationship Between Ethics And Business Performance

The story of Enron is truly remarkable. As a company it merely controlled the electricity, natural gas and communications sectors of the world. It reported (key word, reported) revenues over one hundred billion US dollars and was presented America’s Most Innovative Company by Fortune magazine for six sequential years. But, with power comes greed and Enron from its inception employed people who set their eyes upon money, prestige, power or a combination of the three. The gluttony took over sectors which the company could not operate proficiently nor successfully.

Business ethics encompasses beliefs and values that influence individual and group behavior in an organization. Generally, stakeholders decide these principles, which may

Business Ethics are defined as “moral principles that guide the way a business behaves” (Businesscasestudies, 2017). In order for any business or individual to act in an ethical

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

Every business develops a set of ethical principles that they abide by. The business ethical principles intentions: it construct the business certainty in the community , maintain the employees liveried in what the business attempt to have as structural conducts and aid the employees consume principles to make ethical choices that guards the business. In a culture with a diverse assessment structure and augmented judgment visibly by companies with changeable ethics and interests, there appears to be further difficulties on business individuals to make tougher ethical assessments. In our day-to-day performances, we depend on on our ethical principles to monitor us in the correct path and do the correct things. The substance of any efficacious and perpetual business is they segment a mutual ethical matter concentrating on presenting and generating value along with allocating their business values with the citizens they network with on a day-to-day basis.

Business practices, in addition to guidelines on the matter of probable controversial impediments are a component of organizational ethics. This type of ethics is frequently motivated by the law; a copious amount of organizations practice ethics in order to be accepted by the community, not to mention in order to ensure a successful business. Ethical values can have a focal point on organizational concerns which assist the company in adhere to respectable practices within their establishment or corporation.

When the President of Enron, Kenneth Lay, hires new CEO Jeffrey Skilling, a very energetic and a “dreamer” who joins Enron on the condition that they utilize mark-to-market accounting, allowing the company to book potential profits on certain projects immediately after the deals are signed. To keep its stock price going up par example Enron began a venture that might make $50 million 10 years from now, it could claim the $50 million as current income. However, this projects turn out to be successful. This gives Enron the ability to subjectively give the appearance of being a profitable company even if it isn't.

Business ethics is the principles and standards that define acceptable behavior in business organizations which is determined by customers, competitors, government regulators, interest groups, and the public, as well as each individual’s personal moral principles and values (Ferrell, Hirt, & Ferrell, 2013). Every business should present with ethical performance and socially responsible for the public.

Business Ethics is a set of moral principles applied in the commercial world. Business ethics provide guidelines for acceptable behavior by organizations in both their strategy formulation and day-to-day operations. An ethical approach is becoming necessary both for corporate success and a positive corporate image. Following pressure from

In the documentary video, Bethany McLean stated that Enron’s Financial Statements does not makes sense; “the company was producing little cash flow, and debt is rising”. Fraud was present. “The company's lack of accuracy in reporting its financial affairs, followed by financial restatements disclosing billions of dollars of omitted liabilities and losses, contributed to its downfall”(Effects of Enron, 2005). This is dishonesty at its best in accounting world.

Enron was a U.S. based energy-trading company. At its height of operation in the early part of 2001, it was booking revenues of about $140 billion (Enron Ethics). At the end of 2001 it declared bankruptcy. The Enron bankruptcy was the largest corporate economic failure at that time, and still remains an example of how corrupt practices magnify in the long run. What led to Enron’s failure was primarily a lack of ethics, and poor accounting practices. This scandal was one of the reasons that new regulations were passed for financial reporting standards, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was passed in 2002 as a means of stopping such a collapse in the future.

This paper explores the ethical dimension of the demise of Enron Corporation an reflection of author, placed in hypothetical situations. Accounting Fraud and Management philosophy will be the main discussion topics, along with the motivations of fraud. The fall of Enron can be directly attributed to a violation of ethical standards in business. This makes Enron unique in corporate history for the same actions that made Enron on of the fastest growing and most profitable corporations, at the turn of the 21st century, also bout about its destruction. This paper does not explore legal consequences, only the ethical dimension of Enron’s actions.

Business ethics refers to the consideration of moral decisions and responsibilities in the process of operating a business. Business ethics, practiced throughout the deepest layers of a company, become the heart and soul of the company 's culture and can mean the difference between success and failure. Values drive behavior and therefore need to be consciously stated, but they also need to be affirmed by actions. Ethical business environments are created with foundations of integrity, accountability and commitment.

Enron’s greatest tool for concealing their debt and in the end was their ultimate demise was called “mark to market accounting” (oppel). “Mark to Market Accounting” is not totally illegal if it is done correctly which is acknowledging future sales and revenue with a new operation or business venture. What the Enron executives did was when a new natural gas plant was still in production they would predict that their new plant will generate them one hundred million dollars over the next ten years. However instead of just using this number as a future goal they would register this as revenue for that year. This would greatly increase their numbers and allow their stock to rise and profits to be divided among the top executives. To the outside world Enron appeared to be very successful and a great investment when in fact they were digging their own graves.

Business ethics and values are closely related, their effect and application in business activities correlate and they make one to ask very important questions that may or may not guide an individual in an organisation to make an ethical decision.