Business Ethics For Personal Ethical Perspective

Ken’s Character and its Influence on Decision-making

Discuss about the Business Ethics for Personal Ethical Perspective.

Ken was an entrepreneur who was very opportunistic at a glance. He would see a market gap and ensured that he has to do something about the missing commodity. For instance, when the problem of deregulation of natural gas occurred in the United States, Ken decided to run a gas industry. With the advice offered by McKinsey consultant, Jeff Skilling, Ken saw it has a great opportunity for him to develop Enron Company. Besides, he saw a great opportunity in doing of electricity business in Washington, and due to his mindset driven by financial aspirations; Ken lobbied this commercial endeavor (DesJardins & McCall, 2014). They later on, purchased power plant in this state and started running of the electricity business. In spite of looming market at that particular moment, their tactic of exploiting consumers was discovered. Therefore, this discovery subjected Enron Company to a constant battle with the law. He did not take the time to scrutinise the challenges rather it was driven by the need to make money. Moreover, Diermeier et al., (2017), depicted Ken as a man who is greedy. According to the case study, Ken with its employee’s likes of Skilling exploited their customers with the view that they grow rich. However, they were careful with the issue of being found doing the unethical practice to the public. Additionally, the greed for money made them to continually open other branches in other countries such as China, South Korea, and India without considering the one which was already in existence to stabilize.

Ken’s character as far as spiritual matter is concerned can be described in three ways which include; hopeful, respect, and integrity. Ken was a very confident man and ran his business activities without any challenge at the beginning. He was always under the umbrella of experts in the commercial world and with the guarantee from the lending organizations. More so, the supply to the company was responding in a way which gives one an array of seeing the brighter future. Additionally, he had the full support from the buyers. In a nutshell, he felt privileged and thus making his decisions as advised by his staff was not a matter of doubt. He could do anything and take the business as per the instructions were given to him by his close team members such as Andrew Fastow and Jeff Skilling (He, Pittman & Rui, 2016). Besides, respect was also part of the spiritual aspects which Ken used during the making of judgments concerning the running of the business. According to his principal, they treat other people exactly the way they expect to be treated. This appears more of sarcastic bearing in mind that they were exploiting people and that meant exploitations from other parties should as well drive the decisions they made. Apart from that, Ken valued integrity in running of his business. According to his perception, they work with customers openly, sincerely and honestly. In his view, they will only do things in which they promised to do and vice versa.

Ken’s Spirituality and its Influence on Decision-making

Transcending fear was experienced much later when the company was on the verge of collapsing, and their ordeal on how they would carry out trading activities had been discovered by the customers and the authorities. One of the indicators in these phenomena was characterised by filing for bankruptcy since they were being faced with quite some debts in which they were supposed to settle but were out of financial capability. Furthermore, the introduction of aggressive accounting policies shows that they were no longer stable and thus needed the second opinion about the operations of the enterprise on monetary grounds.

Disturbing the system transformation was attributed to the introduction of an online business platform by Skilling. According to Carroll & Buchholtz, (2014), Skilling wanted to transform the company into the digital podium. However, his main agenda was to use it in stealing from his boss since Ken was not aware of anything to do with information technology. Likewise, the expenses of running such were too high thus rendering the company bankrupt.

Enticing through the moral power was also experienced at large. Ken was seen as a very honest and man of integrity, but the underlying truth was that he was not. However, he used these tactics to get what he wanted. More so, his staff such as Skilling was so loyal, but in a real sense, he was using this to climb the ladder to manipulate Enron Corporation.

Ken never applied any of the decision-making processes in running the company. These steps includes: stop and think, clarify goals, determine facts, develop options, consider consequences, choose and monitor and modify. Enron did not stop and think about his decision on deregulation of electricity and make the necessary move before setting up the company in Washington. The second step which entails clarifying goals was the only part in which they were concerned. It depicted by decision of Skilling to defraud the company. This concept was very wrong since it failed to follow the right procedure of carrying out business Shaw & Barry, 2015). Likewise, the Enron did not consider the consequences of running the corporation in the manner in which they did. Also, Ken did not consider the facts such as being arrested as a result of running a business in an illegal way. Moreover, choosing to trust in his employees to much was unethical. It is seen when he allowed Skilling to employ use of online business in the corporation something he was not even aware. Consequently, leading to bankruptcy of the firm due to the expenses inquire as a result of too much cash in which it was operated.  Therefore, it is prudent to highlight that the application of the right decisions in the company were absent since everything was done illegally by all the stakeholders. The moral dilemma lies upon the unending trust given by Ken to its employees. Ken should have worked using the principal of monitor and modify since this decision-making technique gives one an opportunity to make sound judgment on all the important matters in the corporation (Weiss, 2014).

Transformational Aspect

Discuss the importance of moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral motivation, and moral character in decision-making

Moral sensitivity entails the ability to see a dilemma in the ethical standards of an individual. It touches more on Skilling to evaluate how his decision of defrauding the company may affect the entire corporation and thus taking the correct precaution before doing using online podium to steal from the firm (Peterson & Albaum, 2016).  It is important to make projections before committing any business ordeal.

Moral judgment encompasses correct reasoning about the course of action during a given situation. It was pivotal for entire staff of the Enron Company to scrutinize carefully the moves by their boss concerning the unhealthy mechanisms of making money before engaging in them. It is necessary to put oneself in the predicament before making conclusion.

 Moral motivation, on the contrary, is a way of explaining realism. It is important in that one relies more on the real aspect of the action before making the judgment. The ruling by the court that likes of Anders be jailed was necessary so as to curtail the behavior of embezzling the public. According to McAlister, Marcos & Ferrell, (2016), Ken did not apply this crucial aspect by encouraging his staff to make money for the organizational in dubious ways such as stealing. The company was faced with a lot of wrong ways of doing business such has exploitation of clients and making way into business without following the correct procedures. Likewise, doing business by making others fail for example attempts on deregulation of electricity in Washington.

The moral character entails the need to act in a responsive way while carrying oneself in business. It encompasses values such as honest and transparent. It was failed by Ken when he demanded his staff to work in a fraudulent. It is important since it gives business people an essence of working in a moral way in the community.

Mindfulness discussion was applied in the company though not up to the latter stages. For instance, the engagement between Ken and Skilling at the beginning concerning the starting of the business showed an affirmative action taken by the company. However, Jurkiewicz & Giacalone, (2016) states that, the act of Ken taking the opportunity without further consultation with the authorities after the deregulation of gasoline in the United States showed that he was an inconsiderate man. It depicted him as a very selfish individual who clinches any opportunity at hand without any consideration. The act of exploiting people by developing a culture filled with arrogance in delivering their services to the clients gives one a clear picture of a company made up of unscrupulous individuals who do not care about the needs and the desires of their consumers. Also, Adhariani, Sciulli & Clift, (2017) affirms that, Enron Company was driven by the urge of making profits in their business by using dubious methods such as stealing and cheating. Therefore, this shows that they lacked mindfulness communication to the general public.

Ethical Decision-making and Action

Effective listening entails being keen to what one says before making a discussion or responding. In the case study, this is seen when Glisen pleads guilty to the judges to which he was subjected to by the court of law concerning the conspiracy and fraudulent deeds which faced him as the employee of the Enron Company. This suggested that Glisen had been listening carefully as the court read out the judgment and thus making up of the ruling (Johari, Mohd?Sanusi & Chong, 2017). Employing of Skilling as the accountant in the company proved that Ken was listening effectively to his views concerning the financial matters of the firm. Nonetheless, it took effective listening for Ken to build a gas bank as advised by McKinsey consultant, Jeff Skilling. It showed that Ken did not take the idea deliberately as given by the friend. 

Ken was a man who was full of ambitions and trust for his team. Consequently, this subjected him to the making of the decision in a way which was filled with directions from part of his team whose primary agenda was to steal from him. Most of the decision he gave were harsh since according to him, he was in the business to grow wealthy and thus he expected staff to use all the available mechanisms to persuade and exploit customers as long as they are not got in the act. As a matter of fact, Bowie, (2017) highlighted that Ken’s powers led to the complete destruction of Enron Company caused by discovery from the authorities and the consumers on the exploitation menace brought about by Ken and his counterparts. He was more of a dictator and wanted to make his way into royalty in financial stability world which later on cast him and their employees into many cases. Apart from that, Ken is also seen as a man who used just powers in influencing his staff. He gave them the mandate to perform some duties without his consent (Matulich & Currie, 2016). For example, the online platform proposed by Skilling was implemented without objection or ill treatment from Enron Company. It was okay with him since he viewed that anything which was being projected by his employees was meant to enable the company to grow.

References

Adhariani, D., Sciulli, N., & Clift, R. (2017). An Introduction to the Ethics of Care. In Financial Management and Corporate Governance from the Feminist Ethics of Care Perspective (pp. 17-48). Springer International Publishing.

Bowie, N.E., 2017. Business ethics: A Kantian perspective. Cambridge University Press.

Carroll, A., & Buchholtz, A. (2014). Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and stakeholder management. Nelson Education.

DesJardins, J. R., & McCall, J. J. (2014). Contemporary issues in business ethics. Cengage Learning.

Diermeier, D., Diermeier, D., Crawford, R. J., Crawford, R. J., Snyder, C., & Snyder, C. (2017). Arthur Andersen (B): From Waste Management to Enron. Kellogg School of Management Cases, 1-6.

He, X., Pittman, J., & Rui, O. (2016). Reputational implications for partners after a major audit failure: Evidence from China. Journal of Business Ethics, 138(4), 703-722.

Johari, R. J., Mohd?Sanusi, Z., & Chong, V. K. (2017). Effects of Auditors’ Ethical Orientation and Self?Interest Independence Threat on the Mediating Role of Moral Intensity and Ethical Decision?Making Process. International Journal of Auditing, 21(1), 38-58.

Jurkiewicz, C. L., & Giacalone, R. A. (2016). Organizational Determinants of Ethical Dysfunctionality. Journal of Business Ethics, 136(1), 1-12.

Matulich, S., & Currie, D. M. (Eds.). (2016). Handbook of Frauds, Scams, and Swindles: Failures of Ethics in Leadership. CRC Press.

McAlister, D. T., Marcos, S., & Ferrell, O. C. (2016). Corporate governance and ethical leadership. Business Ethics: New Challenges for Business Schools and Corporate Leaders: New Challenges for Business Schools and Corporate Leaders, 56.

Peterson, R. A., & Albaum, G. (2016). Benchmarking student attitudes regarding ethical issues. Business Ethics: New Challenges for Business Schools and Corporate Leaders: New Challenges for Business Schools and Corporate Leaders, 115.

Shaw, W. H., & Barry, V. (2015). Moral issues in business. Cengage Learning.

Stephenson, S. S. (2017). Reflective Ethical Decision: A model for ethics in accounting education. The Accounting Educators’ Journal, 26.

Weiss, J. W. (2014). Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.