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Buisness Ethics

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The purpose of this discussion is to analyze the decision making process of the Adelphia Communication’s executive board, namely John Rigas, and how his decisions not only violated the basic trust of their shareholders but violated the ethical framework of what should have been a successful, solid, honest family business. Ethics is loosely defined as rules of behavior based on ideas about what is morally good and bad (Webster’s on line dictionary). As morality and Ethics are defined as one in the same for the purposes of commonality, the professional liberties taken by Rigas violated what any professional and/or layperson would consider good business practices. The examination of the ethical breaches made by the executive board, namely having motives that were self-serving and actions that contradicted acting dutiful to the wellbeing of the company which was composed of various family members. This not only paved the way for ongoing bad decisions, but ultimately corrupted the fabric of the company so much that when the corruption was finally discovered the company was destroyed in more ways than just financial. The company had lost all public trust from which they could not recover. From the perspective of the deontological framework, the exclusion of the basic principles of proper ethical behavior proved that attempting to create a structured entity without these basic principles may have be personally beneficial in the short term but the reality of unethical business practices did not survive public or in house scrutiny. In 1952 John Rigas partnered with associates and began a business venture. Soon after Rigas bought out his two partners and enlisted the partnership of his brother and son. Together they bought out communication franchises and created a parent company named Adelphia Communications. This corporation, over time, became one of the largest

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