The Corporate Culture Of Enron : Corporate Ethics And Corporate Culture

Before going into an analysis on the organizational culture at Enron, I will first elaborate on the severity of the unethical behavior that existed at Enron. The problem can best be shown in the words of an Enron employee who said “If I’m going to my boss’s office to talk about compensation, and if I step on some guy’s throat and that doubles it, then I’ll stomp on that guy’s throat”(Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room). This culture of greed and corruption can also be seen through Enron’s mark to market accounting system, in which Enron cashed in on ideas and “future profits” without actually making anything. Furthermore,

Enron was considered to be one of the most innovative companies at its time because of its fast growth, and unique commodities. Little did most people know, Enron was abusing this power. Enron’s executives created a corporate culture that promoted cutthroat competition between employees. These extreme cutthroat environments can easily brainwash employees

Enron made greater use of social control as a means of guiding employee action, however, the company did have limited methods of formal control in place. By using social influence tactics, limiting dissenting opinion, and inflicting a sense of high cohesion among employees, Enron deceived millions into believing the company was more profitable than it actually was. Because Enron’s values and norms were not conducive to a successful, ethical company, the employee’s targets, attitudes, and behaviors led to Enron’s undesirable outcomes. (O’Reilly and Chatman 165) Enron’s downfall can be largely contributed to its norms and values, of which were not strategically appropriate. Enron valued money above all else, which was

Enron was named the most admired company for six years in a row, and it was widely considered one of the best companies to work for by Fortune magazine. Enron shocked the world, and it's stockholders when it was revealed at the end of 2001 that the company’s “reported financial condition was sustained substantially by institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud”. (Enron, 2011, para. 1) Enron maximized it’s long-run profits for itself, but not within the limits of the law. Enron disregarded it’s social responsibility to it’s stackholders when the company only strive for it’s maximized profits, and didn’t strive

Although Enron rated poorly on people and team orientation, they rated very highly on risk taking, aggressiveness and outcome orientation. The most salient aspect of Enron’s organizational culture is their risk-taking proclivity. Enron throughout the span of 24 months transformed from being the “Forbes most innovative company” to a company that was forced to file for bankruptcy and lay off almost 20,000 employees in part due to the risks they took. The corporation encouraged its employees to take risks at all costs as long it either improved the balance sheet or could be treated as a profit. The Darwinian culture at Enron cultivate a fiercely competitive environment. Employees saw one another as competition that they must beat to earn promotion and lucrative bonus. Due to this the traders at the company took numerous ill-advised risks and eventually gambled the company’s reserves away. The company’s emphasis on outcomes regardless of the steps taken presented a unique conundrum. Per one scholar, “If corporate leaders encourage rule-breaking and foster an intimidating, aggressive environment, it is not surprising that the

The entire downfall of the giant Enron was brought about due to various ethical lapses that, in the end, would muddy the reputation of anyone who had a connection with the company. Even according to Gibney (2005), it was widely known that Enron’s CFO Andy Fastow would tend to implement and use less than ethical financial practices. The unethical behavior, though, does not usually just occur with one person or one position. Gibney (2005), throughout the entire documentary, hints at the idea that all Enron management/leadership knew of and were complicit in the unethical practices. In the end, Enron had betrayed the trust of thousands of employees and investors. Both of these betrayed parties would try to seek some level of justice in what had become one of America’s worst economic blunders (Gibney, 2005).

Enron is viewed by many as the quintessential corrupt corporate juggernaut. Corporations are nothing more than a collection of people. If a corporation is corrupt than it must be filled with corrupt employs, and led by a front office devoid of moral standards, right? Perhaps this is not entirely true. Certainly an element of corruption was present in the case of Enron, the number of corrupt employees may not have been as encompassing as presumed. When asked to rate their level of honesty, most would respond that they are honest. In actuality, most people are not completely honest, and their level of dishonesty is correlated with their ability to rationalize the dishonesty and preserve their self- image as an honest and admirable person

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.

Now, let’s switch to negative part of the Enron and see what led this company to ethical violations. Because of an increased tough competition Enron started using international investments and diversification in order to keep its position. Some faulty decisions in management

Enron’s code of ethics was supposed to be based on respect, integrity, communication and excellence…most of the upper management failed on one or all of the codes. Lay and Skilling had little or no integrity based on their approval of the shoddy accounting practices. They had their own corporate culture driven by greed and intimidation. The top management was continuously aggressive in getting its employees to meet the sales objectives irrespective of ethical behavior. This aggressive earnings management style forces employee to try to accomplish goals regardless of the moral and ethical cost.

I would describe the organizing ethical values at Enron as unethical from the perspective of the employees and customers of electricity in California. Jeff Skilling knew exactly what he was doing when he left the company. Skilling didn't have any compassion for his employees knowing that Enron was on its downfall. In the Dalai Lama, it states that we, as humans, naturally are biased towards our family and friends when it comes to compassion. It says that there is danger if "we neglect our responsibilities toward those outside the circle." In every interview, Skilling had a political way of answering every question he was asked. According to Seeger, leaders play the central role in forming the "ethical climate." This made me think of the part in the movie where

At the beginning of Enron’s existence, ethics and integrity were important to the company. They had a code of ethics and mentioned integrity as one of their principles of human rights. That began to change when Ken Lay hired Jeff Skilling to be put in charge, who in turn hired Andrew Fastow. Skilling and Fastow were only concerned about

Heavily influenced by the culture to compete rather co-operate, employees at Enron were motivated and driven by huge bonuses and they became scared of the ranking criteria. They were also scared by being asked to leave the company of they did not perform well. All this resulted in unhealthy business activities, which drove colleagues to push each other backwards rather than to help each other to finalize the deal or execute the sale

Enron is a company infamous for one of the largest scandals in American corporate history. Over twenty thousand employees and thousands of outside investors had billions of dollars worth of shares in the company that positioned the company to be valuated at about 70 billion dollars with shares trading at about 90 dollars a share in 2001. However, from August to November 2001 Enron 's stock value dropped to $0.26, and those who had invested in

Ethics is something that is very important to have especially in the business world. Ethics is the unwritten laws or rules defined by human nature; ethics is something people encounter as a child learning the differences between right and wrong. In 2001, Enron was the fifth largest company on the Fortune 500. Enron was also the market leader in energy production, distribution, and trading. However, Enron's unethical accounting practices have left the company in joint chapter 11 bankruptcy. This bankruptcy has caused many problems among many individuals. Enron's employees and retirees are suffering because of the bankruptcy. Wall Street and investors have taken a major downturn do to the company's unethical practices. Enron's competitors