Enron Ethics Case

Group 1

Bus 543 Ethics

GROUP 2 RESEARCH PAPER ANALYSIS BY GROUP 1

1. Problem / Question: Is there clear identification of the main problem and subsidiary, embedded, or implicit aspect of problem.

Group 3 covered the main problem, which is to understand the principals of ethical and unethical leadership. Their topic implicitly states how and why the behavior of a leader is crucial to the success and effectiveness of an organization. The group also discussed in the introduction that since ethics issues are important, companies are providing ethics training to their managers. Effective leadership requires moral behavior and leaders have the responsibility to influence others and have ethical conduct. The group mentioned that more companies presently are becoming acclimated to the organizational cultures of Business Ethics. Leaders of today, play a pertinent role in respect to the methodology of how they manage their company. How a leader ultimately needs to lead by example.

2. Student Position: Is Group's own hypothesis or position on the issue clearly identified?

The group clearly identifies what it means to be ethical and unethical. How to distinguish between ethical and unethical behavior and do people really exist like this in the real world. The group presented realistic examples of what makes a moral leader helps to understand as well what direction their position was taking. The premise of Group 3's essay was clearly identified by giving examples of the importance of the moral responsibility of a leader, five ethical leadership behaviors and examples of unethical leadership. Under the Conclusion section, the group reiterated how moral responsibilities of leaders in organizations are key factors in developing a strong ethical culture. The application of high moral standards throughout the company would more likely move the business in a positive direction with its reputation as an honest business, thus gaining sustainable growth

3. Other Views: Has the group drawn support from experience and information from multiple and diverse perspectives or external sources other than text?

It appears that the group had more external information from the text than from personal experience. From a personal perspective, Group 3 acknowledged the moral responsibility of a leader. They did have diverse perspectives from Schmidt regarding how leaders should set an ethical tone, lead by example and motivate others. From David Silver they discussed how important it is for corporations to have an internal structure that creates a culture based on moral value. From George and Jones they discussed how leadership plays an important role in organizational behavior such as attitudes, learning, motivation, stress, and work effectiveness. From Durbin they discussed that ethics is a study of moral obligations and what ethical leadership involves. Overall, the group presented support and a real-life experience, but with such a broad topic, more examples of diverse perspectives could have enhanced the essay. Presenting a wider range of industries with the different types of unethical versus ethical leaders would have presented an interesting read.

Group 3 also gave an example of a real-life example of the unethical leadership that occurred under the deceitful guidance and misdirection of Jeff Skilling, the corrupt CEO of the Enron scandal through its creative Accounting. This goes to show that corporate greed has no place in the future of companies and notably, crime does not pay.

Including the updated article below regarding Jeff Skilling's outcome of his deceitful ways would have made the paper more interesting.

Skilling gets 24 years

Ex-Enron CEO sentenced for his role in the grand-daddy of corporate frauds.

(http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/23/news/newsmakers/skilling_sentence/index.htm)

Jeff Skilling's youngest son (20 yrs. old) was found dead in Feb. of this year in his dorm room at Chapman University.

4. Analysis of Assumptions: Has the group clearly identified assumptions and assessed the validity of the assumptions and ethical dimensions that underlie the issue?

Group 3 has identified five ethical leadership behaviors which are to be honest and have integrity in dealings with others, pay attention to all Stakeholders, build community by helping poor school children and respect individuals. They presented the different characteristics, principals and five different behaviors of an ethical leader.

The following are other examples of the real-life corruption in businesses and the law Congress passed to prevent poor