...Enron Corporation case study • The Enron debacle created what one public official reported was a "crisis of confidence" on the part of the public in the accounting profession. Lists the parties who you believe are most responsible for the crisis. Briefly justify each of your choices. The debacle of Enron, a US firm is looked upon as the worst debacle and fall out in the history of US bankruptcy filed cases. There are many parties involved when it concern to Enron debacle, which was accorded to accounting instability and the compromising factor of accounting profession itself. Out of the many parties in the league and the major force behind the debacle of Enron concern Andersen's, the accounting and auditing firm that once deserved name in the industry for its conscience in accounting professional services and auditing. As the case relates to, accounting audit for Enron is attended by Andersen's since long enough. However, the interesting feature is that some compromise in the profession of accounting services by Andersen's was notable, given that there are noteworthy feature of stock manipulation, especially in financial statements of Enron attended and audited by Andersen's. The statement and restatement of Enron also gives some probable indication for manipulation of accounting, where debate and counter debate in that regard from the prying eye of the media was a common feature. Thus, the involvement of Andersen's in Enron consultancy and professional auditing makes it...
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...Enron Corporation (Case 1.1) Most of us work from rags to riches but this is not the case of the Enron Corporation. Instead of becoming the nation’s greatest company, Enron instead laid claim to being the largest corporate bankruptcy in the history. The greediness and egotism wiped out the honesty and integrity that should instill on the persons who were involved in this case. Arthur Edward Andersen built his firm, Arthur Andersen & Company, into one of the largest and most respected accounting firms in the world through his reputation for honesty and integrity. His motto was “Think straight, talk straight” and he insisted that his clients adopt that same attitude when preparing and issuing their periodic financial statements. Arthur Andersen’s auditing philosophy was not rule-based; instead he invoked a substance-over-form approach to auditing and accounting issues. He avidly believed that the primary role of the auditor was to ensure that clients reported fully and honestly to the public, regardless of the consequences for those clients. Ironically, Arthur Andersen & Co.’s dramatic fall from eminence resulted from its association with a client known for aggressive and innovative uses of “accounting gimmicks” to window dress its financial statements. Enron Corporation was the second largest client of the firm and was involved in large, complex transactions with hundreds of special purpose entities (SPEs) that it used to obscure its true financial condition and...
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...Running head: Ethics in accounting Ethics as an Accountant The main objective of this proposal is to gain insight into the unethical accounting practices of major corporations (with a majority of the focus on Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and Adelphia) and ultimately exposing the true perpetrators behind these scandals (the CEO's) in an effort to restore credibility in the once revered accounting profession. Many of the people responsible of these crimes are enjoying retirement in lavish homes while receiving ludicrous pension plans and company benefits at the expense of investors. If they are not brought to justice, they will realize they can get away with this sort of behavior, and the prevalence of unethical behavior will continue to rise. Research Question Are the accountants truly responsible for the fraudulent claims companies are making these days, or are they simply pressured by their bosses to fabricate figures that enhance the image of the company's profitability and fill the CEO's greedy pockets? Literature Review In the past 5 years, a plethora of articles and books have been released, dealing with ethical business practices. Balancing the books: The crooked E, is an article by Anita Peltonen, which examines Enron's practice of kiting (Illegally benefiting from altering the amount of money or time represented by checks that are in transit between deposit and payment, or credit card purchases that are between the purchase and the payment. For example...
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...itself suggests that it is an ethical approach which “depends on the consequences”. This view is also sometimes referred to as teleology (from the Greek word telos which means goal). Ethics is a branch of Philosophy that examines ethical concepts and issues. It inquiries into such things as goodness, right action, and moral responsibility. It answers the question, “What do I do?" It is the study of right and wrong in human endeavours. At a more fundamental level, it is the method by which we categorize our values and pursue them. Do we pursue our own happiness, or do we sacrifice ourselves to a greater cause? A proper foundation of ethics requires a standard of value to which all goals and actions can be compared to. Consequentialism, as its name suggests, is the view that normative properties depend only on consequences. This general approach can be applied at different levels to different normative properties of different kinds of things, but the most prominent example is consequentialism about the moral rightness of acts, which holds that whether an act is morally right depends only on the consequences of that act or of something related to that act, such as the motive behind the act or a general rule requiring acts of the same kind. Two people who figure large in any discussion of ethics are Jeremy Bentham and Immanuel Kant. Bentham, along with J S Mill, is the founder of a movement known as Utilitarianism and both have also significantly influenced economic thought. In...
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...Case Study 1: Enron The story of Enron is one of corporate greed and intense competition. Former Enron executive Jeffrey Skilling appears to be the person that created such competition between employees. He created a system where employees are ranked every six months, the employees ranked in the bottom 20% were forced out of the company. This ranking system led to a belief that high performance meant everything to the company. Ethical behavior was falling by the wayside at Enron and top executives either failed to notice it, or were too blinded by the stacks of money they were collecting to care. Sherron Watkins was a vice president at Enron. At the time she had been employed there eight years. It was at this time she was given the task of finding some assets to sell off. Watkins was quite possibly the first person to become concerned by Enron’s shoddy accounting practices. What she found was that many of Enron’s transactions were unclear at best, and most of them appeared to be backed only by their deflating stock. Concerned about what she saw she took her concerns to Mr. Ken Lay. Lay assured her that her concerns would be looked into by Vinson & Elkins, the company’s law firm. However, it appears that Vinson & Elkins quickly dismissed any concerns brought forward by Watkins. In fact, the law firm may have helped structure some of Enron’s special-purpose partnerships. The law firm never did claim liability, but did pay $30 million to Enron for...
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...Business ethics is the principles and standards that determine acceptable conduct in business organizations. If there was any doubt that ethical standards can have a significant impact on work life, research has confirmed that such doubt is unwarranted. A multitude of research has demonstrated that ethics is related to a variety of important job related outcomes. For example, studies have shown that a higher ethical work climate (Mulki, Jaramillo, and Locander, 2008) and top leadership support for ethics and both positively relate to job satisfaction. Ethics codes (Valentine and Fisherman, 2008), ethics training, and perceived corporate social responsibility are also linked to job satisfaction. Unethical business research at work ranges from minor acts of deviance to immoral decisions that result in catastrophes such as the Enron and Merrill Lynch & Co Inc. These fields of research provide especially clear data on connection between unethical workplace acts and wellbeing: discrimination, bullying and injustice. Even though ethics is sometimes under looked in business it is an important conduct in the organization for a variety of reasons. Organizations have to ensure that they practice high standards of ethics in the organization to rip maximum benefits and avoid scandals such as the Enron And Merrill Lynch & Co Inc. Enron Corporation and Merrill Lynch & Co Inc, both practiced unethical business behavior, this is because two of their top officials were involved in fraudulent...
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...The Fall of Enron is a perfect example of management failure. Enron started off as a merger between Houston Natural Gas and Inter-North. A few years after the merger, Enron started changing the strategy and structure of the organization. Enron went from a raw materials management company to a company selling energy commodities. Enron proceeded to change from an energy company to a risk management firm that traded everything from commodities to derivatives. Enron failed for many reasons, ranging from organizational leadership, conflict of interest, and the off-book financials, which created an ethical disaster for the organization. Various organizational behavior lessons have learned from Enron’s fall from grace. The following paper will discuss some of the reasons for Enron’s internal combustion. Enron’s unethical organizational behavior was the main reason for allowing various illegal actions to take place, which killed the organization in the end. Organizational behavior is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within organizations, for the purpose of applying such knowledge toward improving an organization’s effectiveness ("Enron 101," 2002, p. 41). In the demise of Enron the leaders were producing behaviors contingent on demands, constraints, and choices that affected the behavior of the organization. In Enron’s situation the demands were for the company to be successful, which affected...
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...Ethics is the branch of study dealing with what is the proper course of life in human’s life or throughout society. It is the study of right and wrong in human endeavors. It is the value and pursue we categorize. It is regarding do we pursue for self interest or for the greater cause for society. One main culprit for Enron scandal was Arthur Anderson. It had served as Enron’s outside auditor since 1985. Not only did Anderson do external audits it also provided Enron internal auditing and consulting services. Anderson auditors helped Enron hides its earning manipulation. Arthur Anderson falsifying financial condition of the company and never disclosed it to the public. Anderson did all kinds of services for Enron such as external auditing, internal auditing and consulting services. This not only violates accounting services but because there are conflicts of interest among the services provided by Anderson. What we see from Enron case is that some people performed ethically and while others did not. Margaret Cecani who blew the whistle regarding the scandal Enron’s manipulation of the numbers in its finical report and the data. But, when we look at Kenneth lay the founder and the CEO of the company. Under his leadership he created a company with dishonest and lack of integrity among his employees and throughout company. Lay was not only caused investors to loose billions of dollars but he was also involved in fraud. One case was that telling his employees hard earned money...
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...Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility Professor Dr. Dana Legette-Traylor Unit 5 Case Study Accounting for Enron By Accounting for Enron 1. Donald Duncan had responsibilities to everyone mentioned and he definitely failed by acting negligently and by showing a complete lack of ethics throughout his involvement with Enron. Due to the fact that Donald Duncan was the head auditor he had a responsibility to maintain the highest professional accounting and auditing ethics, and to lead his team morally as possible. When people are seeking wealth without thinking about who they hurt in the process they will continue to cheat and wait until there is no going back to correct the issue. Auditors were taught to maintain ethics and to be as unbiased as possible and to be very aware that fraud can present its self at any time. Duncan should have made sure that he provided the shareholders with a detail audit report that is accurate to ensure them that everything is okay or if something is needs attention. But Duncan in this case was deceiving the shareholders because his boss instructed him to do so for a very large amount of payment. When Duncan got rid of the documents he incriminated himself right away because he was trying to hide the evidence that he played a part in the scandal. 2. There is nothing wrong with aggressive tactics when it comes to accounting because companies can lose when this practice is unethical. A person can be as aggressive as possible so as...
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...A Literature Review: Incorporating Ethics Training in Business Abstract As the need for showing the importance of ethical behavior standards has become more prominent of the past decade, this review intends to show the need for standards of ethics in businesses based on previous research. Ethical training within a business is a topic that has been debated on importance. It has been discussed as a benefit and as more of a cosmetic topic. There are many articles written that discuss what business ethics is, and then there are articles that talk about the need for or against training of business ethics by businesses. This review is aimed towards showing the pros and cons of ethics training by businesses as discussed in current or recent surveys, studies, and articles. Introduction Business ethics has been a controversial topic for many years. It is said to be a double-edged sword and is seen as both an evil and as a proactive approach to preventing lies and motive good behavior (Bayley, 2012). There have been many surveys and articles that have been written on the subject matter. Many of these show the importance of ethical standards and training within a business. There seems to be controversy on whether training on ethics in a business is a benefit or just a cosmetic cover. It has been shown through several surveys and discussed in many articles of the benefits of providing ethics training within a business. However, some still believe that it is a short-lived...
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...about the Enron Corporation and Arthur Anderson. This assignment is to identify the background of Enron and Arthur Anderson and Enron fail. Other than that, identify the business risks that faced by Enron. Moreover, determine the responsibilities of board of directors and steps to improve corporate governance. Besides that, differentiated between rules-based accounting and principle-based accounting and the uses. In addition, there are discussion about auditor should allowed to provide non-audit services. There are also critical discussion on the reason audit partners struggle with making tough accounting decisions and a good recommendation of changes to be made. 1.0 Background of Enron Corporation and Arthur Anderson and fall Of Enron. 1.1 Background of Enron Corporation Enron was established in the middle of a recession in 1985, when Kenneth Lay CEO of Houston Natural Gas Company (HNG), persuaded a joining among Inter North Incorporate (Peterson). There was a young consultant named Jeffrey Skilling who had a background in banking organization (Peterson). He planned an innovative solution for Enron profit in the natural gas business (Sridharan, Dickes, & Caines). For instance, Enron buy natural gas from suppliers and sell to customers with the higher price (Sridharan, Dickes, & Caines). It is because the demand of natural gas increased (Peterson). Kenneth Lay was very impressed with Skilling’s new solution in 1990 and employed Skilling to handle the Enron Finance...
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...Are Ethics in the Workplace Disappearing? By CATHERINE VALENTI Feb. 21, 2012 Enron executives allegedly made millions selling company shares while urging employees to buy the soon-to-be-worthless stock, and set up private partnerships that cloaked huge losses as they touted their successes to investors. While investigators struggle to determine who knew what when in the Enron debacle, the giant energy firm's implosion promises to be a virtual case study in corporate ethics. Was the downfall the fault of a few executives who knowingly misled others, the outcome of a distorted corporate culture, or mere incompetence? Bad Actors, Peer Pressure The history of business in the United States is littered with tales of fraud, deceit and corruption, not only by the hands of a greedy few at the top, but also with the help of employees willing to go along with the charade. Unethical behavior at the office can sometimes stem from a few "bad apples" among the bunch, people like Nick Leeson, the young stockbroker whose huge losses from illegal trades led to the downfall of the venerable Barings Bank. But experts note that ethical breaches are often the result of the corporate culture or pressure from management, pressure that can emerge when a company finds itself unable to live up to financial forecasts or expectations and tries to bend the rules to achieve them, says Linda Treviño, professor of organizational behavior at Penn State's Smeal College of Business Administration...
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...ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURES POISON COMPANIES THE RISE AND FALL OF ENRON, WORLDCOM, HEALTHSOUTH, AND TYCO INTERNATIONAL David R. Lease, Norwich University Abstract This paper presents an analytical and comparative study of four recent corporate scandals involving organizations that had previously been recognized as both ethically and organizationally sound. Based on these case studies, the following issues are discussed: (1) The role of leader behavior and organizational/leadership styles in shaping the corporate organizational culture of an organization, and (2) The extent to which this culture renders the organization and its members (including the top executives) prone to ethical misbehavior. The four companies selected for this case analysis are: Enron Corporation, WorldCom, Inc., Tyco International, Ltd., and HealthSouth Corporation. Each case is considered individually. The basic elements in the scandal are outlined and the principal aspects of each organization’s corporate culture discussed, with special emphasis on the influence of leadership styles and leadership behavior/practices on organizational culture. The four cases are then compared and contrasted in the light of the existing evidence on the relation between corporate culture and ethical misbehavior. PRELUDE “We were doing something special. Magical. It wasn’t a job – it was a mission. We were changing the world. We were doing God’s work.” – Jeffrey Skilling, former Enron COO, President and CEO in the immediate aftermath of...
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...Ethical Breaches ACC 557 Name Date Instructor Introduction In recent years, accounting ethical breaches has emerged as a major problem for most of the organizations. With growth of businesses, the number of accounting ethical breaches has also increased in organizations. Accounting ethical breaches may be defined as the misappropriation and misconduct of financial data by the auditors and accountants of the company (Duska & Ragatz, 2011). The accounting ethical breaches not only affect the organization, but also the stakeholders involved with the organization. The paper will discuss the accounting ethical breach in Enron. The paper will also discuss the ethical issues, accounting ethical breaches and the recommendations to prevent such breaches. Ethical Behavior in Current Business and Regulatory Environment With increasing number of corporate ethical breaches, the role of ethical behavior has increased in organizations. The organizations are more supportive to ethical behavior ensuring risk, compliance and governance culture within organization. As a part of this culture, effective communication around ethical practices has been followed by the organization. Since ethical breaches are mainly done for the sake of money, rewarding and ethical practices has effectively helped organizations to minimize the ethical breaches (Ferrell & Fraedrich, 2009). At the same time, ethical breaches have not only affected the image of the company, but are also responsible for...
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...Making in Accounting Text and Cases Steven M. Mintz, DBA, CPA Professor of Accounting California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo Roselyn E. Morris, PhD, CPA Chair and Professor of Accounting Texas State University-San Marcos Boston Burr Ridge, IL Dubuque, IA Madison, Wl New York San Francisco St. Louis Bangkok Bogota Caracas Kuala Lumpur Lisbon London Madrid Mexico City Milan Montreal New Delhi Santiago Seoul Singapore Sydney Taipei Toronto Table of Contents Chapter 1 Integrity: The Basis for Ethics in Accounting 1 What Is Ethics? 1 Definition 1 Application of Ethical Reasoning in Accounting DigitPrint Case 33 32 Conclusion 34 Discussion Questions 34 Endnotes 36 Chapter 2 Cases 37 2 Case 2-1: A Faulty Budget 38 Case 2-2: Better Boston Beans 39 Case 2-3: Eating Time 40 Case 2-4: Is Internal Whistle-Blowing "Right"? Case 2-5: Play Ball 43 Case 2-6: Supreme Designs, Inc. 44 Case 2- 7: The City of West Buckle 46 Case 2-8: The CPA Review Course 47 Case 2-9: The Ethics ofiPod-ing 48 Case 2-10: The Tax Return 49 Distinguishing between Ethics and Morality Religious and Philosophical Foundations of Ethics 3 Teleology 4 Deontology 6 41 Acting with Integrity Personal Integrity 8 7 The Moral Point of View 7 The Six Pillars of Character.... 8 Trustworthiness 8 Respect 10 Responsibility 10 Fairness 11 Caring 11 Citizenship 12 Chapter 3 Ethical Decision Making in Business 50 What Is Business Ethics? 51 Ethical Issues in Business...
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