crime in the work place

· Potential Solutions and Impacts 

· Analyze the efforts being made by those in the profession to resolve the dilemma (rules, standards, codes of conduct, laws, etc.). Consider the likely impacts of various solutions. What are the outcomes of each solution? Who (e.g., stakeholders) will the solution affect? How will each solution harm or help people? Explain any totally unacceptable solutions. This section should be at least one page.

· Decision 

· Make a decision about what should be done. State your decision clearly, including why it is best. Justify it and defend it against criticism. How will you carry it out? Who will object to the decision? What are the weaknesses of the decision? How will you defend the decision? Explain how you would solve the problem and whether your solution is ethical and legal. This section should be at least two pages.

· The decision will be combined with all of the previous weeks' assignments into one final paper.  Use section headings to show where each section begins and ends.

Option 4: Crime in the Workplace (THIS IS THE TOPIC)

· Blackmail

· Bribery or corruption

· Cover-up

· Defamation

· Embezzlement

· Retaliation

· Sabotage

THE TOPIC OF DISSCUSSION IS THE ENRON SCANDAL. THE OTHER FILES ARE SOME OF THE THINGS I HAVE ALREADY TALKED ABOUT. FOR DECISIONS IF YOU COULD MERGE EVERYTHING ALL IN ONE.

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Crime in the workplace

Crime in the Workplace

We’re so focused on violent crimes that white collar crimes get pushed to the waste side or may not hit the media as big as a mass shooting. White collar crime is a non-violent crime where the primary motive is typically financial in nature. This kind of crime is normally occupying a professional position of power and/ or prestige, and one that commands well above average compensation. The reason I choose this topic is because we don’t really hear much about these kinds of crimes, maybe because blue collar crime is always on a rise.

White collar crime is challenging for business because the financial impact could be devastating for the business. The damage could be so bad and damaging that the company would have to file for bankruptcy. When filing for bankruptcy employees lose their jobs and benefits, creditors will not get paid and all who invest loses out on their money as well. Some white-collar crimes such as insider trading is hard to prove, the higher ups would have to prove that the people involved received benefits or they would have to be tipped off.

Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to identify the white-collar crimes, explain how it effects companies. Show the ethical dilemma companies may face when dealing with one if not all the white-collar crimes in the workplace.

Reference

CFI team. (2022, October 27). White-collar crime. Corporate Finance Institute. Retrieved November 6, 2022, from https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/esg/white-collar-crime/

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White Collar Crimes

Crime in the Workplace (White Collar Crimes)

Crime in the Workplace (White Collar Crimes)

Enron was previously a Gas Company in America; it was first called Natural Gas Company. In 1979 the company was purchased by a holding company called Inter North, once that merge happened between the two companies the birth of Enron Company happened. By this time the U.S. congress created a lot of laws to deregulate sales of natural gas in the early 90’s, in which the company lost. The right to operates their own pipelines. “With the help of Jeffrey Skilling, who was initially a consultant and later became the company’s chief operating officer, Enron transformed itself into a trader of energy derivative contracts, acting as an intermediary between natural-gas producers and their customers” (Bondarenko, P.). 

The Enron Scandal was one of the biggest white-collar crimes that happened in U.S history. As the times change and the competition was on Enron sopped looking for good accounts and started creating fraudulent one and started to mainly rely on the dubious accounts. “The company utilized special purpose vehicles to hide its toxic assets and large debts from the investors and creditors” (Nigam, R.). Before this happened, the company was trading at $90.75 but once the scheming started their stock prices went down to as low as $0.26.

Due Enron being such a big company many individuals and other companies fell when they filed for bankruptcy. Companies such as Blockbuster, Blockbuster and Enron became partners, when that happened Enron started logging the amount of money that would come in, instead of what was coming in. Wall street also started to crumble as well, “Jeffrey Skillings hid the financial losses of the trading business and other operations of the company using MTM accounting.  This technique measures the value of a security based on its current market value instead of its book value” (.Segal, T.)

Reference

1. Bondarenko, P. (2022, August 13). Enron scandal. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/event/Enron-scandal

2. Nigam, R. (2022, June 2). Enron scandal. WallStreetMojo. Retrieved November 13, 2022, from https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/enron-scandal/#h-what-is-the-enron-scandal

3. Segal, T. (2022, July 13). Enron scandal: The fall of a wall street darling. Investopedia. Retrieved November 13, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/updates/enron-scandal-summary/

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White Collar Crimes

Crime in the Workplace (White Collar Crimes)

Crime in the Workplace (White Collar Crimes)

Utilitarianism

I believe some may say this may be challenging from the disadvantages of Utilitarianism, which is the concept of utilitarianism is based on the estimation, we are “forecasting” the consequences of a certain situation to determine what should be done under Utilitarianism. They may argue that using utilitarianism to analyze this scandal is not accurate enough. I believe this to be true that utilitarianism is based on a guess that the consequences of a certain act, but I do not agree that disadvantages will make utilitarianism not suitable for applying in this scandal, in this case, Enron and Arthur Anderson are counterfeiting on the report, it is not only an ethical issue, it also be a legal issue since they might commit a crime, so that the consequences of their act are predictable—they will punish by the law and their reputation will be damaged, so that I do not agree with the claim that Utilitarianism should not be use on this case since that is the consequences of their action.

Deontological Ethics

The media coverage of the Enron scandal revealed a major breach of ethics due to accounting fraud. The specific actions caused an ethical problem within the company. The news coverage detailed the consequences of the actions of those involved in ethically questionable behavior, but according to the deontological ethics theory, it is the actions of those individuals that need to be examined (Fisher & Lovell, 1). Ethically wise decisions are those that increase the good of the company (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 1). In the short term, those involved in faulty accounting practices benefited monetarily from their poor choices. In the long term, those same individuals face prison time, which didn't end up serving the good of the company at all.

According to Kant under the deontological ethics theory, the rules are more important than the outcome. In other words, the moral duty of a person is a better predictor of proper ethics than the consequences of that behavior (Herman, vi). A familiar notion of this theory is that a moral person so someone who always acts out of duty. In addition, a moral person is driven to do what is right even when it is not required (Campbell, 1). Those persons within the Enron corporation who chose not to conduct themselves in an ethically appropriate manner lacked this duty to do what was right. This brings a great lack of ethics to a corporation. If those employed by a corporation cannot run a business with correct ethics, then that business will, like Enron, ultimately fail.

Virtue Ethics

As opposed to deontological ethics, virtue ethics focus on the character of a person rather than on rules and consequences (Fisher & Lovell, 1). The soul and its habits make up the character of a person and determine whether that person has good character or poor character. “Without the habitual make-up of the human person, like so much conductive metal for the transference of an electric current, there is no substrate by which transmission can occur” (Wilson, 176 – 77). For the Enron executives to have shown moral character, they would have had to have that moral drive within themselves. Considering how the situation ended, the conclusion is drawn that they did not have moral character.

Both the actions and consequences have important implications for the failure of Enron (Audi, 1). Deontological ethics and virtue ethics played a major role in what happened within the Enron corporation. Doing the right thing because one's character dictates it results in desirable outcomes. The opposite is also true. Doing the wrong thing because one doesn't have moral character results in undesirable outcomes. This is painfully evident when discussing the Enron scandal.

Reference:

Fisher, Colin & Lovell, Alan. (2006). Business, ethics and values. 2nd edition. New York, NY:

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2007). Deontological ethics. Retrieved on November 17, 2022

from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-deontological/.

Herman, Barbara. (1996). The practice of moral judgment. New York, NY: Harvard University

Campbell, John. (1995). The practice of moral judgment – book review.  Mind, Jan. Retrieved on November 17, 2022.

Wilson, Stephen A. (2005). Virtue reformed: rereading Jonathan Edwards's ethics. Retrieved on November 17, 2022

Audi, Robert. (1995). Acting from virtue. Mind, July. Retrieved on November 17, 2022