Enron

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses the role of ethical leadership, or rather the lack thereof, in Enron's financial collapse and subsequent bankruptcy. The conclusion drawn is that the role of Enron's executive leadership in establishing a vacuum of ethical leadership is found to be at fault. Additionally, the financial markets within the economic model of capitalism are considered in terms of whether it is intrinsically unethical and based on greed or simply an economic model that is subject to the human emotion of greed as any other social construct would be.

From the Paper:

"Enron presented the perfect storm of corporate, capitalist, and social conditions that resulted in a massive failure of one of America's defining characteristics--industry. While it is always easy to conjecture on what could have been done differently or what conditions presented themselves that allowed the type of corporate malfeasance that took place at Enron to happen, in Enron's case, this sort of commentary is easy and justified. While many argue that it would have been impossible to implement ethical business practices at Enron given its corporate culture based on performance at all costs and its reward system reinforcing this ethic, this argument is overly simplistic. Simply put, ethical leadership and management come directly from the top of the company and moves its way down through executive appointments and hiring practices of these executive appointments and how they reward performance."

More papers on Enron:

• Analytical Essay # 70721 : "Enron Ethics"
• Research Paper # 86670 : "The Enron Debacle"
• Analytical Essay # 71712 : "The Enron Scandal"
• Analytical Essay # 85624 : "Enron and Arthur Andersen"

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