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Corporate Code of Ethics do they Work? After news of the scandal of Enron,
one of the hottest items on e-Bay was a 64-page copy ...
... Corporate Corruption In today's world it is all too prevalent to see more and more
people ... Do many organisations simply issue a code of ethics because it is ...
... and care must go into constructing the code of ethics and ... The organizations need
to infuse ethics and integrity throughout their corporate culture as ...
... officials that already have high moral values and a strong code of ethics, but if ...
and un-ethical behavior on capital hill as well as the corporate world in ...
... of how Whirlpool Corporation's Corporate Governance Guidelines work within the ... to
act ethically in all that they do (Corporate Code of Ethics, 2005, para. ...
Submitted by bloseja on June 19, 2005
Category: Business
Words: 2458 | Pages: 10
Views: 685
Popularity Rank: 11,870
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After news of the scandal of Enron, one of the hottest items on e-Bay was a 64-page copy of Enron's corporate code of ethics. One seller/former employee proclaimed it had "never been opened." In the forward Kenneth L. Lay, CEO of Enron stated, "We want to be proud of Enron and to know that it enjoys a reputation for fairness and honesty and that it is respected (Enron 2)." For a company with such an extensive code of ethics and a CEO who seemed to want the company to be respected for that, there are still so many unanswered questions of what exactly went wrong. I believe that simply having a solid and thorough code of ethics alone does not prevent a company from acting unethically when given the right opportunity.
Investors and the media once considered Enron to be the company of the future. The company had detailed code of ethics and powerful front men like Kenneth Lay, who is the son of a Baptist minister and whose own son was studying to enter the ministry (Flynt 1). Unfortunately the Enron board waived the company's own ethic code requirements to allow the company's Chief Financial Officer to serve as a general partner for the partnership that Enron was using as a conduit for much of its business. They also allowed discrepancies of millions of dollars. It was not until whistleblower Sherron S. Watkins stepped forward that the deceit began to unravel. Enron finally declared bankruptcy on December 2, 2001, leaving employees with out jobs or money.
For a company to be successful ethically, it must go beyond the notion of simple legal compliance and adopt a values-based organizational culture. A corporate code of ethics can be a very valuable and integral part of a company's culture but I believe that it is not strong enough to stand alone. Thought and care must go into constructing the code of ethics and the implementation of it. Companies need to infuse ethics and integrity throughout their corporate culture as well as into their...
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