ENRON – SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM

ENRON – SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM
SHORT ANSWER QUESTIONS/QUIZ
YOUR NAME: ___________________________________________
1 In reality, this was a story about people. Explain why, explain how ethics or lack thereof played a role, and include some elements about the company's organizational culture.
From being the 7th largest cooperation to sinking into bankruptcy, Enron indulged in unethical and underhanded business practices, including misappropriation of funds, fraud, and intolerance. Enron traded in the stock market with its employee's savings and at the end of the day, leading to a great human tragedy to its employees who lost billions in pension benefits. The company's unethical conduct led to over 4500 employees losing jobs and citizens losing trust in the country's economic system. The company's culture was that of greed, intolerance, arrogance, less regard for ethics, or the law.
The company's toxic culture led to this cooperation's bankruptcy and stock collapse. Enron's top executives created a culture of corruption and greed and failed to keep an honest and open relationship with its employees and shareholders. Questioning the company's practices would lead to getting fired or ignored. The management was more concerned with how to become rich than with the affairs of its employees. They were deceitful and used structured financial techniques that later led to Enron's collapse. There was no trust or honesty between employees and employers, which brought much suspicion, dictatorship and dangerous competition in the workplace.
2 Jeffrey Skilling explained, "Every decision I made was in the interest of the shareholders of the company." Which ethical decision-making principle does this sound like? Nonmaleficence and Beneficence. However, what is th...