Unethical Business Case Study

1049 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The importance of consumer protection

Unethical behavior by American businesses
"Where 's my money in 2016"
The Introduction (Rebuttal). The Introduction (Rebuttal). American publicly traded companies, investment firms, and our elected officials continue to make bad decisions and mistakes with normal citizen’s retirement/college funds or investment money. Does success in business necessarily mean you need to cross the boundaries between good and evil? I certainly don’t believe that, However, in my business career I have seen both. There are a few senior executives with character traits frequently associated with the darker side of human nature. Some companies still have the mindset of "Profit at Any Cost” and are still doing unethical business and losing investors’ money.

Summary …show more content…

Several acts of unethical behavior by upper-level Management large organizations have made it very difficult to know who to trust with your money. Especially, when our government officials did not act with normal citizens in mind. Both, the company 's and our government officials are driven by the need for money. However, businesses continue to lose investors and taxpayers’ money. As recently as, 2015, large companies have lost investors finances, due to bad decisions or …show more content…

That’s why in the wake of the crisis, the President fought to create the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Since then, the CFPB has cracked down on many of the abusive lending practices that led borrowers to lose their homes.

According to a new report released by Senator Elizabeth Warren this week, a growing number of citizens are being swindled out of their life savings. Because of outdated rules protecting retirement savings," we’re seeing similar types of bad incentives and bad advice lead to billions of dollars of losses for American families saving for retirement every year—with some families losing tens of thousands of dollars of their retirement

Show More
Related

  • The Role of the Community Reinvestment Act on the 2007 Housing Bubble Collapse

    1664 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... could have such an impact after three decades of virtually innocuous existence. Pundits point to the 1995 CRA regulatory changes passed by congress and signed into law by President Bill Clinton. These changes strengthened the standards by which CRA regulators were able to judge banks on how well they were serving the credit needs of their local community. However in 2004, President George Bush repealed most of these changes, and weakened the CRA to where it had been in the early-90’s. It is simply implausible that the CRA had no negative ramifications until 30 years after it was passed. If it were a substantial cause of horrific lending standards, the financial crisis would have occurred much earlier than 2007. There must have been other, much larger contributing factors that arose in the 30 years after the CRA was enacted that led to the housing crash.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Jpmorgan Chase, Bailouts, And Ethics

    601 Words  | 2 Pages

    Jake Clawson Ethical Communication Assignment 2/13/2014. JPMorgan Chase, Bailouts, and Ethics “Too big to fail” is a theory that suggests some financial institutions are so large and so powerful that their failure would be disastrous to the local and global economy, and therefore must be assisted by the government when struggles arise. Supporters of this idea argue that there are some institutions that are so important that they should be the recipients of beneficial financial and economic policies from government. On the other hand, opponents express that one of the main problems that may arise is moral hazard, where a firm that receives gains from these advantageous policies will seek to profit by it, purposely taking positions that are high-risk, high-return, because they are able to leverage these risks based on their given policy. Critics see the theory as counter-productive, and that banks and financial institutions should be left to fail if their risk management is not effective.

    Read More

  • Reactionary Essay To If Aristotle Ran General Motors, By Tom Morris

    1257 Words  | 3 Pages

    It's difficult not to be cynical about how “big business” treats the subject of ethics in today's world. In many corporations, where the only important value is the bottom line, most executives merely give lip service to living and operating their corporations ethically.

    Read More

  • White Collar Crimes in America

    3036 Words  | 7 Pages

    Throughout history there have been many white collar crimes. These crimes are defined as non-violent and financial-based crimes that are full ranges of fraud committed by business and government professionals. These crimes are not victimless nor unnoticed. A single scandal can destroy a company and can lose investors millions of dollars. Today, fraud schemes are more sophisticated than ever, and through studying: Enron, LIBOR, Albert Wiggan and Chase National Bank, Lehman Brothers and Madoff, we find how the culprits started there deception, the aftermath of the scandal and what our country has done to prevent future scandals.

    Read More

  • Leadership Briefing: Poor Ethical Practices Of Pharmaceutical Companies

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    LEADERSHIP BRIEFING PAPER Leadership Briefing Paper After spending your entire working life in one giant corporation that went down overnight; investing most of your retirement in stock options that plummet to zero; you are suddenly jobless and your retirement money is gone. Yet, perhaps even more threatening; our skilled and managerial jobs are steadily going abroad, due to poor corporate ethics. The crisis of poor ethics has jeopardized public trust, caused an erosion of organizational cultures, created human suffering, caused unemployment, and profit losses. Poor ethics

    Read More

  • Unethical Behavior Essay

    599 Words  | 2 Pages

    Unethical behavior is a behavior which is not morally correct. When one is encouraged to embrace unethical behavior and actions, they are "trapped." They are psychological in nature, and such traps distort perceptions of what is wrong and what is right. One actually ends up believing that his or her unethical behavior is right and ethical. If one is not aware of their behavior it is hard for them to tell if their behavior is actually acceptable and ethical. Just like in the Stanford Prison Experiment, the volunteer guards adopted to their new roles. Within hours of beginning the prison experiment, some of the guards began to abuse their power and harass prisoners in that experiment. The volunteer guards behaved in a sadistic and brutal manner.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The NASW Code Of Ethics

    700 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many organizations have been destroyed or heavily damaged financially and took a hit in terms of reputation, for example, Enron. The word Ethics is derived from a Greek word called Ethos, meaning “The character or values particular to a specific person, people, culture or movement” (The American Heritage Dictionary, 2007, p. 295). Ethics has always played and will continue to play a huge role within the corporate world. Ethics is one of the important topics that are debated at lengths without reaching a conclusion, since there isn’t a right or wrong answer. It’s basically depends on how each individual perceives a particular situation. Over the past few years we have seen very poor unethical business practices by companies like Enron, which has affected many stakeholders. Poor unethical practices affect the society in many ways; employees lose their job, investors lose their money, and the country’s economy gets affected. This leads to people start losing confidence in the economy and the organizations that are being run by the so-called “educated” top executives that had one goal in their minds, personal gain. When Enron entered the scene in the mid-1980s, it was little more than a stodgy energy distribution system. Ten years later, it was a multi-billion dollar corporation, considered the poster child of the “new economy” for its willingness to use technology and the Internet in managing energy. Fifteen years later, the company is filing for bankruptcy on the heels of a massive financial collapse, likely the largest in corporate America’s history. As this paper is being written, the scope of Enron collapse is still being researched, poked and prodded. It will take years to determine what, exactly; the impact of the demise of this energy giant will be both on the industry and the

    Read More

  • The Ethical Breakdown In Wells Fargo

    653 Words  | 2 Pages

    Such a betrayal of their customer base indicates exactly how ingrained this culture of profit was within the company and has now come full circle to bite them when they lost the trust of the nation following the investigation reports. Actions on the banks part such as demoting Ms. Wardell-Smith while disregarding her concerns show the initial lack of concern regarding the corruption within the organization. There are many courses of action the company could have taken to correct the corrupt behavior of its employees, including but not limited to: eliminating commission-based financial incentives, getting rid of or revising the daily quota system, and encouraging good work ethic in the workplace to emphasize quality over quantity. If the commission-based financial incentives were removed, there would be not as much pressure on the employees to keep trying to sell as many products as possible. This would help reduce employees’ aggressive sales tactics by lowering competition in the workplace and creating a less hostile work environment.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Wells Fargo Scandal

    1308 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this paper I will identify and analyze the Wells Fargo scandal as it pertains to the breakdown of leadership and ethics. I will first identify and analyze the event and discuss the challenges and conflicts the scandal presented. Then I will evaluate the issue by explaining why the issue has interest and concern to stakeholders followed by discussing the challenges presented to individuals and/or organizations around this case. Lastly, I will recommend action steps that should be taken to those involved as well as discuss what I have learned from exploring this topic.

    Read More

  • Ethical Business Case Study

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    The term “ethical business” is seen, by many people, as an oxymoron. This is because a business’s main objective is to make as much money as possible. Making the most money possible, however, can often lead to unethical actions. Companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Satyam have been the posterchildren for how corporations’ greed lead to unethical practices. In recent times however, companies have been accused of being unethical based on, not how they manage their finances, but on how they treat the society that they operate in. People have started to realize that the damage companies have been doing to the world around them is more impactful and far worse than any financial fraud that these companies might be engaging in. Events like the BP oil

    Read More

  • Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior Case Study

    720 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to Umphress and Bingham (as cited in Graham, Ziegert & Capitano, 2013), unethical pro-organizational behavior refers to “actions that are intended to promote the effective functioning of the organization or its members (e.g. leaders) and violate core societal values, mores, laws, or standards of proper conduct” (p. 423). One of the typical examples of unethical pro-organizational behavior is accounting fraud. Accounting fraud is purposeful act of changing the financial statement to increase the investors’ incentive to invest in the company. In 2001, avoiding reporting expenditures to increase the asset in its financial statement, Enron’s accounting scandal led to catastrophically consequence. Many employees lost their jobs, retirement funds, health benefits, and stock option. Investors lost billions of dollars. Unethical pro-organizational behavior not only adversely affects the managers and workers of the organization, but also affects investors and the economic in

    Read More

  • Ethics In Steve Jobs

    1416 Words  | 3 Pages

    Recall the tale of an impoverished man who steals a loaf of bread to feed his starving family. In the instance when two moral obligations collide, the only way to comply with one is to violate the other. No matter which course is chosen, the other must be ignored.”(Freeman, Engels & Altekruse 2004) Stealing and breaking the law challenges the philosophy of breaking the responsibility of caring for one’s family. Accountants need to think clearly, challenge the possibilities, understand the options, and acknowledge the consequences. The choice to steal bread will vary from one person to another, but as Christians, dying of hunger is more of a reward than a consequence. Accountants can learn from examples of people and companies who have been faced with pressing ethical dilemmas. Accountants can learn from Bernard Madoff and his $61 billion ponzi scheme that ruined thousands of people’s life savings (Freshman 2012), or Enron “circumventing the rules, temporarily changing or suspending the rules, and outright thievery to achieve his objectives” (Gini 2004). Knowledge about the past will lead people to make wise ethical decisions. The world can clearly see the consequences that these people and firms have undergone and do not want to follow in that path. There are responsible businesses, like Frito-Lays who have a major go green campaign. They have a better business by reducing their natural

    Read More

  • Unethical Business Practices in Glengarry Glen Ross

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    The movie “Glengarry Glen Ross” presented a series of ethical dilemmas that surround a group of salesmen working for a real estate company. The value of business ethics was clearly undermined and ignored in the movie as the salesmen find alternatives to keep their jobs. The movie is very effective in illustrating how unethical business practices can easily exist in the business world. Most of the time, unethical business practices remain strong in the business world because of the culture that exists within companies. In this film, the sudden demands from management forced employees to become irrational and commit unethical business practices. In fear of losing their jobs, employees were pressured to increase sales despite possible ethical ramifications. From the film, it is right to conclude that a business transaction should only be executed after all legal and ethical ramifications have been considered; and also if it will be determined legal and ethical to society.

    Read More

  • Analysis of the Movie, The Insider

    1442 Words  | 3 Pages

    It seems obvious that large corporations have a tendency to ignore the negative effects of their actions in favor of profit. This example, although sensationalized, still says to me that with power comes responsibility. It affirmed my belief that a corporation’s goal cannot be just to provide profit to shareholders, but there must also be an element of social responsibility.

    Read More

  • Enron's Code Of Ethics Essay

    1265 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Enron case is very intriguing case of corporate corruption and greed. As we review some of the company’s facts and history along with other areas of the corporation, we can see that this case is filled with great examples of business ethics put to the

    Read More

More about Unethical Business Case Study

Open Document