THE SCANDALOUS FALL OF ENRON

A Call for Ethical Re-positioning in Business

Authors

  • Toji Puthenkaduppil dvk

Keywords:

Fabricated Excellence and Collapse of Enron, Role of Government in the Fall of Enron, Immediate Effects of the Fall, Significance of Ethical Re-positioning in Business, Refined Notion of Justice, Raising Standards in Business and Ethical Re-positioning

Abstract

Business is an art as well as a science. As an art it needs deep concentration and dedication. Its scientific nature demands logic and orderliness. Healthy synthesis of these factors in a harmonious way is very essential for the success of any business. The example of Enron, however, projects a reverse order, that is, it tends to showcase how malpractices can create an apparent boom in business and veil it with fabricated excellence. Such tendencies produce only short-lived bubbles of prestige in business and in society. They are actually deviations from the right track. In such a context, I suggest an ethical re-positioning in business, that is, we have to re-assert the values which enhance business and the well being of society. The relevance of this re-assertion of values is explained here with the example of the scandalous fall of Enron. Though its fall took place a couple of years ago, its ethical implications are still significant for analyses.

References

“The Ship That Sank Quietly” The Economist, February 16-22, 2002, 56.

“When the Numbers Don’t Add Up,” The Economist, February 9-15, 2002, 61.

Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, 2a2ae.58.1, trans. Thomas Gilby, Cambridge: Blackfriars, 1975.

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, V.1131a22, trans. David Ross, New York: Oxford University Press, 1925, reprint edition 1984.

Beams, “The Enron Collapse and the Crisis of the Profit System” [Online]: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jan2002/enro-j29.shtml

Eichenwald, “Andersen Trial Yields Evidences in Enron’s Fall” [Online]: http://www.money.cnn.com2002/06/17/news/companies/andersen_followup/index.com

Jeffrey Gordon, “What Enron Mean for the Management and Control of the Modern Business Corporation: Some Initial Reflections,” Theories of Corporate Governance: The Philosophical Foundations of Corporate Governance, ed. Thomas Clarke, 322-332, New York: Routledge, 2004, 328-30.

Plato, The Republic, I.333-354, ed., G. R. F. Ferrari and trans. Tom Griffith, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Rawls, A Theory of Justice, Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harward University Press, 1971, 3.

Sanders, “Enron Collapse Exposes Extensive Corruption and a Massive Political Scandal” [Online]: http://www.moles.org/projectunderground/drillbis/7_10/3.html

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Tauzin, “The Effect of the Bankruptcy of Enron on the Functioning of Energy Markets” [Online]: http://www.energycommerce.whitehouse.gov/107/hearings/0213200hearing487/the-honorable_joe-Bartonprint.com

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Published

2004-12-31

How to Cite

Toji Puthenkaduppil. (2004). THE SCANDALOUS FALL OF ENRON: A Call for Ethical Re-positioning in Business. Journal of Dharma, 29(4), 467–478. Retrieved from https://dvkjournals.in/index.php/jd/article/view/781