...Social Science Vol. 1 No. 15 [Special Issue – October 2011] A Corporate Hero with Scandal: Lessons Learned from Martha Stewart’s Insider Trading Crisis Shuhui Sophy Cheng Assistant Professor Department of Communication Arts Chaoyang University of Technology 168 Jifeng E. Rd. Wufeng District Taichung 41349, Taiwan Abstract Martha Stewart places her name on her products. She becomes the face of her company and the voice of her brand. When her personal misconduct occurred, she made her company vulnerable and risky as well. This casestudy examines how Martha Stewart managed her corporate communication when her public image and reputation were tarnished on trial for alleged insider trading scandal. The trial not only led her to prison but also hurt her brand equity. The study shows that Stewart’s early response to her crisis demonstrated lack of situation awareness. In the beginning of her investigation, she kept her public persona intact, ignoring or downplaying her role in it. As a result, what Stewart called “a small personal matter” later became a full-blown crisis. If she had managed her communication in a more timely manner, the magnitude of her crisis might have been minimized. This article also provides detailed insights for organizations to learn from her crisis response strategies. Keywords: Organizational crisis, Crisis communication, Image restoration 1. Introduction The personalities of strong business leaders can help shape and enhance their corporate image. In...
Words: 9481 - Pages: 38
...Notes * U.S. Diplomacy and Russia In 1923, President Calvin Coolidge addressed the issue of Russian war debts. The President noted that the United States was resuming diplomatic relations with nations that had been cut off during World War I. The Russians, however, presented a problem for Coolidge because their communist form of government opposed democracy. * Italy Italy was a democracy when World War I began in 1914. The country's army fought alongside Allied forces. Unfortunately, the war left the government and economy of Italy unstable and a fertile ground for revolutionaries. Decisions made at the Paris Peace Conference denied the large territorial gains the Italian government expected after the war. In 1921, Benito Mussolini founded the National Fascist Party and rose up as a revolutionary leader. * Fascism was based on a foundation of authoritarianism and nationalism. For Mussolini, the most important aspect of a nation or state was the unity and survival of that state. Mussolini rejected democracy because he thought different political views and political parties weakened the unity of the state. * Taking Fascism on the Road Fascists disagreed with the communist belief that private property and businesses should belong to the state. The Fascists also believed that the nationalism of a state must be aggressively exported to other countries. In other words, the Fascists maintained that a nation had a right to invade and conquer a weaker nation...
Words: 2821 - Pages: 12
...Time Capsule Paper HUM102 October 22, 2012 Verna Cathy Tobin The Age of Baroque was between 1600 and 1750. “The term ‘baroque’ is associated with such features as ornateness, spatial grandeur, and theoretical flamboyance” (Fiero, 2011, p. 10). The Age of Baroque follows the Renaissance, which means ‘rebirth.’ Therefore, the Age of Baroque can be in comparison to the years of adolescence, where the events and cultural patterns are contradictory and full of emotional statement. This paper will highlight two examples of art, music, descriptions of architecture, philosophy, and literature of time as well as reflect how each example reflects both world events and the cultural patterns of the time. Examples of Art The first two examples of the Age of Baroque are those of art. Art during this age used the contrast of light and dark and effects that produced illusions to evoke emotions by the viewers. Religious subjects were often the theme of the portraits to portray a dramatic scene to give viewers the sense that he or she were active participants in the scene. This was reflective of the world events and cultural patterns focused on religious matters, such as the Catholic Reformation and the cultural events that were emotional for individuals. The first example is The Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio (1571-1610). The painting uses the strong contrasts of light and dark and shows the religious subjects...
Words: 1195 - Pages: 5
...Anthony Pinkerton Assignment 3: The New Generation 1. In what ways was the "New Generation" of American leaders in the 1820s and 30s different from the previous generation? (online reading) During the New Generation, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, two of our Founding Fathers, died within hours of each other. Regardless of these challenges, the country thrived as new political parties were established. In the election of 1824, each of the four presidential candidates, who claimed to be Democratic-Republican Party members, competed against each other. John Quincy Adams held strong relations which connected him to the commercial interests of the Northeast. Henry Clay ran for Western expansion despite his claims for resolving the slavery issues....
Words: 1041 - Pages: 5
...these youth also need to be optimistic as this quality will influence the students. In his memoir, Wes Moore states, “Young boys are more likely to believe in themselves if they know that there’s someone, somewhere, who shares that belief” (Moore 28). Wes Moore is the embodiment of this concept, as he used to be a troubled youth, though he attended military school which really set the path Moore eventually took to success. He was taught discipline, respect, and to truly enjoy learning instead of believing education was a burden. However, the other Wes Moore was not encouraged to continue with school, thus causing him to develop a negative mindset towards education and focus on drug dealing; this set his path to failure, and he ended up in prison. With access to peers and admirable role models through United Way Worldwide, a better education will help troubled youths continue their path to success and help them develop positive identities. Because United Way Worldwide has many bases located internationally, they have implemented some very effective programs that have impacted the lives and enhanced the identities of many around the world regarding education. One of these circumstances is the partnership between United Way and the Shanghai Charity Foundation along with over two hundred volunteers to provide training for teachers and better educational materials to twenty kindergartens in Shanghai, China. United Way also took on the challenge of low school attendance and lack of literacy...
Words: 1087 - Pages: 5
...Employee Nondiscrimination Handbook Rebecca Sims, Kristi Jones, Ronza Wilkes-Hankinson, Lawanda Collins HCS/430 August 11, 2014 Employee Nondiscrimination Handbook The Employee Handbook in many organizations has in detail what is expected out of the employees in the workplace. The employee handbook covers annual, sick and personal leave, nondiscrimination laws and procedures, open door policy, information about filing complaints, employee benefits, other available benefits, and employee responsibilities. The most important thing that will and should be addressed in the workplace is nondiscrimination. Nondiscrimination is one of the most important aspects in many organizations and is also the number one topic that must be followed through to eliminate law suits and co When dealing with non-discrimination laws in a health care segment or any other work place there are procedures that have to be followed. Some of the non-discrimination issues that must be addressed within the health care organization and other work places and other places would be race, sex, national origin, disability, age, religious or political opinions, etc. Employees should not at any time use filing a complaint as a form of retaliation against another employee. Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) have an unlawful Discrimination Complaint Procedure they use when processing unlawful discrimination or sexual harassment. The organizations...
Words: 1479 - Pages: 6
...Summary of post war coalition 1918-1922 The problems of post war reconciliation * Demobilisation * Health facilities * Unemployment * National insurance& pensions * Housing * Set against grim economic circumstances – high inflation and falling demand in British goods. The Anglo Irish question * Legacy of the Easter rising 1916 * IRA VS The Black and Tans * The Anglo Irish treaty * Treaty was major achievement, but essentially a compromise. * Mutual bitterness remained between LG and IRA. * Civil war in the New Ireland. * End of the 1918-22 coalition * It fell because 1) Policy failures – economic (Geddes axe) ,social, foreign affairs, 2) LG corruption ( using power of patronage to sell honours on a commission basis) 3) Conservative had labour doubts. 4) The coalitions decline in reputation. 5) Foreign affairs (chanak) 6) Conservative abandoned LG – (Carlton club meeting, Baldwin described LG as a dynamic force. Summary of the conservative government 1922-24 * A government burdened by debt. * Chamberling’s housing act (1923) was the only major measure * Baldwin fought elections on the protection ticket * 1923 election left labour as the larger opposition party. 1) Decline in liberals. * Split between Asquith and LG during war created a breach within the labour party – never properly healed. * Liberal values such as freedom of individual, been compromised by restrictive Gov. measures...
Words: 1871 - Pages: 8
...how important is character and ethics? What role(s) do you think boards of directors should play and did they exercise their fiduciary responsibilities to the shareholders and employees? Money is an important character in various financial institutions, but by itself is not necessarily evil. Rather, it is something that is used to trade goods and services. We call it "currency", and it allows us to do business between organizations. Unfortunately, that is the sterile dictionary-type definition but it does not capture all the issues that are involved with finances. In corporate life, just like in many other realms, money causes all sorts of problems. People make incredibly bad decisions because of money, and plenty of people have gone to prison because of their money-related behavior. This is why people always approach money with a certain amount of uneasiness. Here are a few thoughts on why financial management ethics are important. The numbers do not have a soul, so they cannot govern themselves. They must be managed by people. Ethics are important because finances make people do some strange things. The spreadsheet does not have a conscience, and the goal of working with spreadsheets is to make numbers add up in a way that is pleasing to the organizations and its constituents. Unfortunately, people can move around numbers in all sorts of ways to make them sum up "correctly." Because of this, companies need to adopt management ethics in order to have an outside source of guidance...
Words: 4126 - Pages: 17
...understand that there is a difference between moral philosophies and business ethics. When we refer to an individual’s principles and values which help to define and determine what is considered to be moral or immoral, this is known as moral philosophy. Business ethics is usually based on decisions in groups or those made when carrying out tasks to meet business objectives (Fraedrich/Ferrell, page 151). We can use moral philosophies as guidelines or a blueprint to aid in “determing how conflicts in human interests are to be settled and for optimizing mutual benefit of people living together in groups” (Fraedrich/Ferrell, page 151). Moral philosophies also used in the business world to formulate business strategies as well as a way of resolving ethical issues. The moral philosophies used in business decisions are teleology, deontology, the relativist perspective, virtue ethics, and justice theories (Fraedrich/Ferrell, page 153). The first philosophy is teleology which derives from the Greek term for end or purpose and teleology refers to “moral philosopher in which an act is considered morally right or acceptable if it produces some desired result such as pleasure, knowledge, career growth, the realization of self-interest, utility, wealth, or even fame”...
Words: 1903 - Pages: 8
...LIBERTY UNIVERSITY BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY WHAT THE DECIAN PERSUCTION REVEALED ABOUT THE CHURCH A PAPER SUBMITTED TO … IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR CHHI 520 BY KIMBERLY SOUTER LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA FEBRAURY 19, 2014 CONTENTS INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………………………. 3 THE CLIMATE ON THE EVE OF DECIUS’ EDICT…………………………………… 3 The Church in the Third Century………………………………………………….. 3 The Imperial Crisis of the Third Century (AD 235-284)………………………….. 5 DECIUS’ EDICT AND ITS EFFECT…………………………………………………….. 5 Cyprian…………………………………………………………………………….. 7 EXILES…..………………………………………………………………………………... 8 APOSTATES OR THE “LAPSED”…….………………………………………………… 10 MARTYRS AND CONFESSORS………………………………………………………… 12 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………………. 14 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………………. 16 INTRODUCTION Certain tensions existed with the rise of Christianity within the Roman Empire. Prior to the advent of Christianity and even up to 200 AD, Rome was relatively tolerant of religions. Judaism was accepted into the mix of various pagan religions of the Empire, and in its infancy Christianity was simply considered a sect of Judaism, which seemed to pose no real threat to the Empire because Jews did not seek to proselytize. However, Christians were zealous in their worship of Jesus and their spreading of His message, so that in the third century Rome’s policy toward the Christians changed. Persecution...
Words: 4839 - Pages: 20
...Business Review On Crisis Management ... Managing Crisis You Tried to Prevent Norman R. Augustine Originally published in November – December 1995 Reprint # 95602 A Harvard Business Review Paperback Managing the Crisis You Tried to Prevent Managing the Crisis You Tried to Prevent Norman R. Augustine Executive Summary NEWS REPORTS ANNOUNCING that yet another business has stumbled into a crisis—often without warning and through no direct fault of its management— seem as regular as the tide. And the spectrum of business crises is so wide that it is impossible to list each type. On a single day this year, the Washington Post reported a series of crashes suffered by American Eagle Airlines, the bankruptcy of Orange County, and Intel’s travails with its Pentium microprocessor. Other noteworthy crises have been the Challenger space shuttle explosion, the “incident” at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor, and the series of deaths resulting from cyanide adulteration of Tylenol capsules. Fortunately, argues Norman Augustine, almost every crisis contains within itself the seeds of success as well as the roots of failure. Finding, cultivating, and harvesting that potential success is the essence of crisis management. And the essence of crisis mismanagement is the propensity to take a bad situation and make it worse. Augustine has distinguished six stages of crisis management and makes recommendations for dealing with each: avoiding the crisis, preparing to ...
Words: 8659 - Pages: 35
...Insight on WorldCom Scandal Table of Contents ABSTRACT 2 The importance of accounting conceptual framework 3 Historical Background 5 The Scandal – what happened 6 PENALTIES 7 How the scandal relates to accounting theory 8 RELATION TO POSITIVE ACCOUNTING THEORY 9 Conservatism Principle 9 Lack of Reliability 10 Lack of Relevance 11 Financial Misstatement 11 Conclusion 12 Bibliography 14 Insight on WorldCom Scandal ABSTRACT The scope of this paper deals with the WorldCom accounting scandal of the early 2000’s as it relates to elements of accounting theory. The discussion will cover the key reasons that contributed to the collapse of WorldCom. Specifically, this paper will look at: Executive compensation, Earnings Management, and Information Asymmetry. The authors will present arguments that clearly show how each of these three sub-topics played a pivotal role in the scandal. The reader will also see how these reasons are often inter-related, and often overlap each other, the enormity of which caused the company to fall like a stack of dominoes. In particular, information asymmetry was allowed to flourish as the WorldCom executives lavished themselves with huge compensation, all the while keeping the board of directors and investors out of the loop. A poor corporate government structure existed as the board was filled with inept and ineffective individuals who were powerless to stop the pilfering of profits. The end result of these actions...
Words: 3002 - Pages: 13
...It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back: The War on Drugs, Mass Incarceration, and a Call to Action for America's Black Youth By Carl L. Young An Alternative Plan Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science In Sociology: Corrections Minnesota State University, Mankato Mankato, Minnesota Spring 2013 Final Draft 4/20/2013 1 This Alternative Plan Paper has been examined and approved by the following members of the Examining Committee. _____________________ Dr. Leah Rogne, Advisor _____________________ Dr. William Wagner _____________________ Dr. Penny Jo Rosenthal _____________________ Dr. Nadarajan Sethuraju ________________ Date 2 A bstract This alternative plan paper examines the circumstances that have evolved as a incarceration of the Black community. In the last thirty years, the federal government of the United States of America has engaged in camp which has involved a variety of policies to stop the production, distribution and sale of illegal narcotics. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent in a war that has targeted the most vulnerable in our society, impacting its youth for generations to come. This alternative plan paper addresses...
Words: 18864 - Pages: 76
...It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back: The War on Drugs, Mass Incarceration, and a Call to Action for America's Black Youth By Carl L. Young An Alternative Plan Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science In Sociology: Corrections Minnesota State University, Mankato Mankato, Minnesota Spring 2013 Final Draft 4/20/2013 1 This Alternative Plan Paper has been examined and approved by the following members of the Examining Committee. _____________________ Dr. Leah Rogne, Advisor _____________________ Dr. William Wagner _____________________ Dr. Penny Jo Rosenthal _____________________ Dr. Nadarajan Sethuraju ________________ Date 2 Abstract This alternative plan paper examines the circumstances that have evolved as a result of the Reagan Administration’s War on Drugs and the increase of mass incarceration of the Black community. In the last thirty years, the federal government of the United States of America has engaged in campaign known as the “War on Drugs,” which has involved a variety of policies to stop the production, distribution and sale of illegal narcotics. Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent in a war that has targeted the most vulnerable in our society, impacting its youth for generations to come. This alternative plan paper addresses the impact of the War on Drugs and the criminal justice policies that have impacted the life chances of Black youth nationwide and calls for a new social movement...
Words: 19872 - Pages: 80
...Enron - Were they the Crookedest Guys in the Room? The Rise of the Big "E" In May 1985, InterNorth Incorporated and Houston Natural Gas announced that they would merge. Their combined value was an estimated $2.3 billion. These firms were two of the largest gas pipeline companies in the United States. As part of the negotiations, the chairman and CEO of InterNorth, Sam Segnar, would be the head of the new entity until January 1, 1987, when the chairman and CEO of Houston Natural Gas, Kenneth Lay, would take over. The new company was initially called HNG/lnterNorth and later was renamed Enron.' Lay's first choice for the new name of the company was “Enteron,” but that was scrapped just days before it was announced to the public when Lay learned that enteron was the name for the digestive tract. In 1990, Lay created a division of Enron called Enron Finance Corporation and hired Jeffrey Skilling to run the company. Skilling had been an accounting consultant to Enron through the firm of McKinsey & Company. Lay was so impressed with the accounting systems that Skilling developed for Enron that he custom-tailored the lead position at Enron Finance Corporation for him. By 1995, Enron had become the largest independent natural gas company in the United States. In 1996, Andrew Fastow, Enron's chief financial officer and one of the key players in Enron's downfall, was almost fired from Enron when he did an unsatisfactory job of managing a retail unit of Enron that competed...
Words: 11005 - Pages: 45
