The Impact Of Ethics On The Enron Corporation Essay -- Business Ethics

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 and the industry have also both been affected by the bankruptcy. The U.S. economy took a sudden downturn for the worse, do to just this one company's unethical behavior. Employees Ethical decisions are guided by the underlying values of the individual. "Values are principles of conduct such as caring, honesty, keeping of promises, pursuit of excellence, loyalty, fairness, integrity, respect for others, and responsible citizenship" (Bateman, 2004). Numerous employees lost their jobs and retirement funds because of Enron's bankruptcy situation. While top executives were cashing in their stock options, knowing the company was going to fall, employees and shareholders were the ones who would take the biggest hit. One of Enron's principles was to offer their employees fair compensation through wages and other benefits; yet that did not end up being the case. While executives were selling their stock options, employees were going to be losing the money in their 401K policies since most of the emplo... ...volume (9), p. 29. Retrieved September 20, 2005, from Proquest database. Enron's Missed Opportunity. Retrieved September 19, 2005 from, http://brie.berkeley.edu/~briewww/publications/WP152.pdf Flood, M. (2005, April 26). The Fall of Enron. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved September 19, 2005 from http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/enron/broadband/3153199 Kadlec, Daniel. (2002, January 13) Enron: Who's Accountable? Retrieved on September 23, 2005, from http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,193520,00.html Lashinsky, A. (2001, July 13) Enron's Own Dot-Com Bubble Finally Popped. The Street. Retrieved September 19, 2005 from http://www.thestreet.com/comment/siliconstreet/1489696.html Malveaux, J., (2002). Enron serves as wake-up call. Retrieved on September 20, 2005 from http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2002/01/25/ncguest1.htm