Discount Tutor
Classmate 1:
The case of Enron is one that seems like it was only one company at first, but it takes many moving parts to move so smoothly. As a trading company, they wanted to stay ahead of every curve predicting what could happen. Even when bad occurred the company made it seem as though they gained. This happens to many of the deal they took part in. When the time came again to where they needed to make their number, every single time they met them with extra. With all of this success, coming back from a never-ending tunnel into the light, no one really asked why. This is ironic because their slogan was “ask why”. As long as the people were getting their money some how where it had come from was never really thought of. Some people got curious but could not pinpoint what it was. They could see that something was going on or the numbers just did not make sense. As an accounting major, there was a lot of ethical decisions that as an accountant you would have to think about.
When hiring someone outside of the company you would usually think that you will get an unbiased opinion but that is not close to what they did. A big example shown in the movie was how they handled California. They had just used the people to get their money and when they did Enron wanted more by manipulating the power plants to get prices to increase. These traders never really wanted to help the people besides the words the company said to help the people. This was just for themselves this is not a good method of treating people, in their position they should have been stewards to the people with energy. With a reasonable price and not shifting the energy around that did not make sense when you have a surplus amount that could be supplied to the people with little mishaps.
Another is a work environment, they had said it plenty of times if I have to step on your throat to get ahead I will trample you. This type of environment does not promote good work cooperation it is just a stressful situation. This would be a good time to promote the common good, the method is not just used outside but also in the workplace. You would want good for all of your coworkers when they do good you do as well. You wouldn’t want someone to crush all over you to get to a position or use your work to get what they want eventually getting you fired from the job since it looks like you have not been contributing.
There is so much to this company and everyone else that you could talk about trying to analyze their behavior. A big one to me is, in the end, knowing full well what they have done they stuck to an ID conscience, all just for the money. Lower-level people felt as if they were doing good because they are not high enough to know the rest of the information or maybe some knew because they contributed in the wrong. For many who didn’t know they lose everything to this company and because of the name of the company, it would follow them because they worked for Enron. Enron did not think of their employees making sure they would be taken care of and in turn, they take care of you.
Classmate 2:
“Enron: The Smartest Guy in the Room” is a true story based on the year 2005. The ethics within this true story and film will have you question this companies morality. The impression is that Enron was simply a good company that went bad. It was known as “the best energy companies in the world” but along there pathway to fame there was something happening under the wraps. This film showed how it happened and how it unraveled. Enron created fake quarterly returns, showing they made more money than they actually did. It was claiming that future potential income, is what there income had been at the time. This tactic used deceived people of actual returns from predicted returns. So if the company is predicted to make 80 million in 10 years, it would show that is what it made now. This film includes shocking real footage and information from the scandal at hand. For example the fact that Enron knowingly created the fake California energy crisis. There was actually never any energy crisis there at all. As the film progresses the company starts to fail and does an employee cut. Cutting over 20,000 employees because of its unethical practices, and their stock becoming worthless. Only because of unethical practices, and lying executives.
In this film we can analyze the ethical theory of rights and responsibilities. In the business world, we are required to tell the truth and nothing but the truth. Encouraging employees and citizens to invest in Enron stock when they knew the lack of value in that stock is simply unethical and does not apply to the theory of rights and responsibilities. The responsibility to take care of their employees was broken, along with actually lying to them for company profit. Secondly the investors and employees have the right to know the companies actual value and intentions. Enron had placed a smoke screen of who they actually were, and directly violated this human right and business right.
The only thing Enron could have done in this case is to have simply stopped there unethical practices long before this happened. This would allow for shareholders to find the true value in the company and the employees to know where they actually stand. This would’ve hopefully prevented the massive employee cut, and demolish of the entire company. Giving them the right to know these past problems, and letting them know they are going to fix it could have helped the company service, or at least try to make things right before this happened.