Ethical Ethics At Enron: Ethics, Ethics And Ethics

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Enron, one of our nation’s greatest success stories, was riddled with fraud, insider trading and a complex account scheme amongst other things. The board of directors set a standard of business that honored the values of respect, integrity, and excellence. The issue was, the company didn’t follow what it preached and corruption trickled down the corporate ladder. Enron set such a high level of intense competition that it used a system referred to as “rank and yank” which promotes employees to compete not only with rival companies but also with each other. While the board of directors attempted to set ethical business standards they weren’t complying with anything other than their non-existent ethical values. Allowing their employees greed and need for power to overstep the need for ethical compliance throughout the company. This lack of corporate culture at Enron was based off individual factors such as an apathetic culture, intense competition and a lack …show more content…

The utilitarian does what is best for the greatest number of people. Enron laid off 4,000 people who lost everything from their retirement to their sense of security. The company acted not as a utilitarian but rather as an egoist. A utilitarian would have never switched to market-to-market accounting because in actuality it does not show the real profit of a company, but opens the door for accounting flaws. A utilitarian would not have allowed a rank and yank system because it creates more opportunity for the employee to act unethically in order to get ahead. The board of directors was caught selling off shares in order to cover themselves when in the future they would end up laying off 4,000 employees and destroying these employees’ retirement plans. A utilitarian would not have to make this choice because he or she would not allow things to escalate to this

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