Part 1 – Case Study

 BUSINESS ETHICS AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Background

In this module, you will be performing a critical analysis of the role assumed by an organization’s culture in determining the organization’s ethics.

Required Reading

Please read the following articles related to Enron:

Madsen, S. & Vance, C. (2009). Unlearned lessons from the past: an insider’s view of Enron’s downfall. Corporate Governance, 9(2), 216-227. Retrieved from ProQuest.

Free, C., Macintosh, N., & Stein, M. (2007). Management Controls: The Organizational Fraud Triangle of Leadership, Culture and Control in Enron. Ivey Business Journal Online. Retrieved from ProQuest.

Meisinger, S. R. (2012). Examining organizational ethics. Human Resource Executive Online (June, 2011). Retrieved on November 19, 2012 from: http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/story.jsp?storyId=533348507

 

Assignment

In a well-written, 5-5 page essay, please address the following:

Discuss the ways in which a company’s leadership and culture influence its business ethics.

Keys to the Assignment

• Define “organizational culture.” Please be very specific (and be sure that you provide references for your description of culture).
• Evaluate Enron’s sense of business ethics and business operations in the context of the organization’s culture? Specifically, what went wrong?
• What should have been the role and responsibility of company leadership (the Board of Directors, the CEO Ken Lay and others)? In what ways did key executive players (e.g., Lay, Skilling, and Fastow) work to negatively reshape the culture, and with what adverse consequences?
• How might Human Resource Management (HRM) have played a central role in setting the “moral compass” at Enron, helping to form and shape the organizational culture (perhaps avoiding the Enron debacle altogether)?

 

Tips and Suggestions

1. For this final Case essay, use at least four additional scholarly sources.
2. An excellent article on Enron’s culture as well, the following may also be useful to you in your analysis of the Case:

Sims, R. R. & Brinkmann. J. (2003). Enron ethics (or: Culture matters more than codes). Journal of Business Ethics, 45(3), 243-256. Retrieved from ProQuest.

1. Finally, I highly recommend the movie Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. You may be able to view parts of the movie on YouTube. Following is the movie trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zMakN-EMLg

Part 2 – Case Study

BUSINESS ETHICS AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

Background

In Part 2, we turn to information literacy: you will describe how an article you have found in a peer-reviewed business journal is relevant to our understanding of business ethics.

Required Reading

Using the online library, locate and read a peer-reviewed (scholarly) journal article related to the topic of business ethics.

Assignment

In a 2-3 page paper, please do the following:

Discuss how the peer-reviewed journal article you have chosen is important to our understanding of business ethics.

Keys to the Assignment

• Summarize the article in 1-2 paragraphs; and discuss the relevance of the article to business ethics (in short, why does this article matter)?