Factors Causing Enron’s Collapse: An Investigation Into Corporate Governance and Company Culture (original) (raw)
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Unlearned lessons from the past: an insider's view of Enron's downfall
Corporate Governance: The international journal of business in society, 2009
Purpose-The purpose of this paper is to capture an insider's view of the organizational culture and management practices that contributed to the downfall of Enron. In light of the current worldwide financial and economic crisis, this article aims to highlight some of the unlearned lessons from the past. Design/methodology/approach-A qualitative interview case study was used for the basis of this paper. Findings-This article shares an insider's (former vice president's) insights related to the practices and culture that led to Enron's unethical decisions and strategies. It discusses one man's view of the history of Enron, as well as what should have been learned and applied to the global financial industry to help to minimize or even avoid today's painful economic crisis. Practical implications-Six main causes of unethical behavior for individuals in organizations are outlined, and important lessons learned are presented. The article also discusses the importance of reflecting and remaining inwardly vigilant, while outwardly thinking of and serving others. Originality/value-The information for this article was based upon an original interview.
The Enron Scandal a Decade Later: Lessons Learned?
The year 2011 has marked a decade since the Enron collapse, considered the most emblematic corporate scandal worldwide. Despite its importance, few studies provide an integrated analysis of the underlying failures that allowed Enron’s debacle, going beyond the traditional view that reduces the case to a mere "accounting fraud". Few studies also evaluate the main lessons from the Enron scandal in perspective, by comparing its common causes with corporate scandals that emerged during the global financial crisis in 2007-2008. These are the gaps I aim to fill. I conclude that Enron’s accounting manipulations, rather than being the cause of the problems, were the consequence of managerial failures and wishful blindness by its stakeholders. I also show that some lessons from Enron have not been fully internalized by companies worldwide, since most of its underlying causes are similar to those of several corporate scandals that emerged a couple of years later.
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2002
com/employer/articles/article.asp?aid= 534&atype=scre (last visited 9/13/02) (reporting that "[t]wenty-nine top executives, including former CEO Jeffrey Skilling, ... sold off a billion dollars of their own stock before the company tanked"). 5 In re Enron Corp. Case No. 01-16034, Retention Bonus Payments (June 17, 2002), at http://news.corporate.findlaw.com/legalnews/documents/archive\_e.htm (last visited 10/2/02); Joshua Chaffin & Stephen Fidler, Enron Revealed To Be Rotten To The Core, Financial Times (London) (Apr. 9, 2002) at [6-7] (reporting on two retention funds, totaling $95 million, with some employees receiving millions of dollars for a 90-day commitment to the company). 6 Brad Foss, Associated Press, Several Insiders Say they're Owed Extra Pay by Enron, The San Diego Union-Tribune, Aug. 13, 2002, at C3 (reporting that some insiders "seek hundreds of thousands of dollars").
Almost a decade later : Have we learned lessons from inside the crooked E , Enron ?
2010
Almost a decade after the collapse of Enron, it is time to ask what lessons have been learned from the unethical conduct of the organisation. Enron was the seventh largest corporation in the United States, with a Code of Ethics published in book form (Enron 2000) and distributed to all employees. With Enron’s collapse, unethical and illegal behaviour at the highest levels of the corporation emerged. In the years since Enron’s demise, public trust in business has continued to decline (Edelman 2009). What can we learn from the events inside Enron to halt the decline of public trust in business? This paper analyses Enron’s 64page Code of Ethics and compares that document against the company’s operation and unethical behaviour. This study seeks to discover why the Code of Ethics failed by looking closely at the organisational culture inside Enron, extending the research of other scholars on this topic (Sims and Brinkman 2003) and updating it with historical context. Rather than being se...
Enron, Corporate Governance and Deterrence
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Enron and Other Corporate Fiascos: The Corporate Scandal Reader, 2d
2009
This law school text explores the Enron debacle from a variety of different aspects. Essays analyze the business-government interactions and decisions that laid the foundations for Enron's growth and subsequent demise. Other essays describe and detail the complex web of partnerships ...
Enron’s Incremental Descent into Bankruptcy: A Strategic and Organisational Analysis
Long Range Planning, 2003
Enron's senior management has become the byword for all that is bad with corporate America. Yet there has been hardly any in-depth analysis of what contributed to the strategic mistakes that resulted in the company's downfall. This paper is not about the cover-ups but an analysis of the antecedents of these strategic mistakes. The paper demonstrates that the core successes of Enron were rooted in its ability to manage risks in complex transactions. Yet these very risks that ultimately brought Enron down. In short, this article is about what we can learn about managing risks in the increasingly complex business environment. k