Analyzing Ethical Behavior Paper Essays

Analyzing Ethical Behavior Paper Essays Analyzing Ethical Behavior Paper Essay Analyzing Ethical Behavior Paper Essay Ethics codes are retreated to help maintain a satisfactory level of ethical behavior within a business or organization and to help companies function more successfully (Mallow, Barnes, Bowers, Landwards, 2013, p. 101). Codes of ethics are broken numerous amounts of times in the business world. When these codes are broken, it can lead to multiple complications and scandals for corporations. Two examples of scandal and fraud in the business world are Bernard Lawrence Maddox and ENRON. Bernie Maddox Analysis Bernard Lawrence Maddox was the chairman for an investment securities firm that he founded in 1960. He was convicted of fraud in 2008 when he admitted that his business was, in fact, the largest Opinion scheme in history. Approximately $20 billion of, so-called, investments had dissipated (Kramer Ward, 2009, p. 27). In the case of Bernie Maddox, there were several investigations and red flags that appeared throughout each investigation. For instance, the fact that Maddox hardly ever encountered a down or slow month even in inconsistent markets raised quite a few suspicions. During the time of investigation, Bernie Maddox also confessed to operating a pyramid chem. as well as using a particular investment strategy called, split-strike conversion. This investment strategy entails buying and selling different sorts of options to reduce volatility (The Maddox affair:, 2008, Para. 7). Bernie Maddox is extremely smart and sneaky in a sense that he manipulated several people into investing in his Opinion scheme. Maddox took millions of dollars from huge corporations and companies. The fact that Madams company had never truly experienced a downfall should have been a major red flag to those who had invested in the company. Maddox portrayed his Opinion scheme in a way where people liked what they heard, liked what they saw, and therefore, invested immediately into the company without doing any further research. Maddox is a master manipulator, and his lack of ethics caused people to lose nearly their entire life savings. Although Bernie Maddox may have been the mastermind behind this scheme, he is not the only one to blame. There were multiple people working under Maddox. The code of ethics, or lack thereof, really shows here because if someone working in the company had any knowledge of what was going on in regards to the Opinion chem., he or she should have had the courage and honesty to go to someone of higher authority and report what Maddox was doing. If someone had any code of ethics or integrity, he or she should have thought about the lives that Madams Opinion scheme was affecting, and the illegal activity should have been reported immediately. Due to the lack of a code of ethics, multiple people lost a great amount of money by investing in Madams Opinion scheme. Bernie Maddox has an incredibly selfish view Of ethics and corporate responsibility towards his stakeholders. All that was on his mind at the time of the scheme was getting more money and being wealthy. He didnt care who he was affecting in a negative way, just as long as he benefited in the end; which is ironic since he ended up in prison with a 150-year sentence. ENRON Analysis ENRON Corporation was an energy and services company located in Texas. It went bankrupt in December of 2001 due to a planned accounting fraud. This accounting fraud led to several questions and concerns, not only about ENRON, but also about the accounting and financial companies working for ENRON. ENRON lied about its profits and stands accused of a range of shady dealings, including concealing debts so they didnt show up in the companys accounts (Enron Scandal at-a-glance, 2002, Para. 3). ENRON had close ties to the White House, therefore creating political implications as well. The lack of ethical standards for ENRON is obvious in this scandal. Executives and employees of the corporation were sneaky liars. They manipulated financial reports and accounts to make it appear as if the company was in good standing when it really wasnt. ENRON Corporation has a manipulative, unethical view on ethics and corporate responsibility. Because the corporation lied about numerous things regarding the finances and accounting, this implies that there was a huge lack of ethics within the company. The fact that executives and employees were okay with lying about so many records leads people to believe that the entire ENRON Corporation was set on a lie. ENRON, as well as accounting and financing companies, betrayed the trust Of several people because Of this scandal. Conclusion In sum, both the Bernie Maddox scandal and the ENRON scandal lacked a retain code of ethics and, as a result, both corporations no longer exist in the business world and executives and employees at each of these corporations faced life long consequences.