enron ethics

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ENRON ETHICS — THE CULTURE OF ENRON This arti cle describes and dis cusses the Enron Cor po ra - tion deba cle. The arti cle presents the busi ness ethics back ground and lead er ship mech a nisms affect ing Enron’s col lapse and even tual bank ruptcy. Through a sys tem atic analy sis of the orga ni za tional cul ture at Enron (fol low - ing Schein’s frame of refer– ence) the paper demon strates how the company’s cul ture had pro found effects on the ethics of its employ ees. Now, when most peo ple hear the word “Enron” they think of cor rup tion on a colos sal scale – a com pany where a hand ful of highly paid execu– tives were able to pocket mil lions of dol lars while care - lessly erod ing the life-savings of thou sands of unwit ting employ ees. Not long ago, the same com pany had been her - alded as a paragon of cor– porate respon si bil ity and ethics – suc cess ful, dri ven, focused, phil an thropic and envi ron men– tally respon si ble. Enron appeared to rep re - sent the best a 21st cen tury orga ni za tion had to offer, eco nom i cally and eth i cally. The ques tions become, how did Enron lose both its econom– ical and eth i cal sta tus? Is it because of its very size and effects? Is it the direct harm to pri mary and sec ondary stake hold ers? Or, is it the

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Page 1: Enron Ethics

ENRON ETHICS — THE CULTURE OF ENRONThis article describes and discusses the Enron Corporation debacle. The article presents the business ethics background and leadership mechanisms affecting Enron’s collapse and eventual bankruptcy. Through a systematic analysis of the organizational culture at Enron (following Schein’s frame of refer– ence) the paper demon-strates how the company’s culture had profound effects on the ethics of its employees.

Now, when most people hear the word “Enron” they think of corruption on a colossal scale – a com-pany where a handful of highly paid execu– tives were able to pocket millions of dollars while carelessly eroding the life-savings of thousands of unwitting employees. Not long ago, the same com-pany had been heralded as a paragon of cor– porate responsibility and ethics – successful, driven, focused, philanthropic and environ-men– tally responsible. Enron appeared to represent the best a 21st century organization had to offer, economically and ethically. The questions become, how did Enron lose both its econom– ical and ethical status? Is it because of its very size and effects? Is it the direct harm to primary and secondary stakeholders? Or, is it the worldwide media coverage that the Enron demise has drawn? These questions make the Enron case interesting to us as business ethicists.At first sight, Enron looks like a mega-size illustration of the bad apple and/or the bad barrel disease and, hence, looks like good marketing for the business ethics business (which almost has a vested interest in such scandals and other bad examples). The

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problem is, however, that Enron looked like an excellent corporate citizen, with all the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and busi-ness ethics tools and status symbols in place.Enron Ethics (an ironic expression which is used now and then, see e.g. the headings of Tracinski, 2002 or Berenbeim in Executive action no. 15, Feb. 2002) reads like the new catchword for the ulti-mate contradiction between words and deeds, between a deceiving glossy facade and a rotten structure behind, like a definite good-bye to naive business ethics. Enron ethics means (still ironically) that business ethics is a question of organizational “deep” culture rather than of cultural artifacts like ethics codes, ethics officers and the like. With this as a backdrop, the paper will describe and dis-cuss how executives at Enron in practice created an organizational culture that put the bottom line ahead of ethical behavior and doing what’s right. More specifically, the paper first provides a brief background on Enron and its rise and fall. Next, the paper system-atically uses Schein’s (1985) five primary mechanisms available to leaders to create and reinforce aspects of culture (i.e., attention focusing, reaction to crises, role modeling, rewards allocation and criteria for hiring and firing) to analyze the company’s culture and leadership that con– tributed to it’s ethical demise and filing for bank– ruptcy. It is our contention, that with such a point of depar-ture one will be better prepared for a necessary discussion in our field of how to prevent an “instrumentalization” of ethics and CSR for mere facade purposes (this theme deserves and requires a paper on its own, at least).

THE CULTURE HISTORY OF ENRONThe Enron case is not least a good illustration of continuously

updated case presentation and case discussion in the Internet age (which could

deserve a paper on its own, too). Business school researchers, teachers and students alike can easily keep themselves busy for days just with sorting, structuring, checking and summarizing all the ingredients and pieces of the Enron story found on the Internet. One possible way of organizing and limiting such a task is depart-ing from or even staying with the websites of traditional mass media such as CNN (see e.g. cnn.com/SPECIALS/2002/enron/), the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, or of the main stake– holders such as the victims’ enrongate.com or the remainders’ enron.com.

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Most tempting for business ethicists is of course a closer look at the websites of the business ethics business (see e.g. http://www.msnbc.com/modules/enron/, businessethics.ca/enron/, caseplace.org, enron– guide.com, all with lots of further links) and as the up-dated and earliest of all the academic articles and papers we can expect in the future Tonge et al., 2003; Petrick and Quinn, 2002; Cohan, 2002). In spite of (or because of) such an abundance of available information1 we choose to tell the story once more, as a culture history in our own prose, as a background for the follow-ing illustration of how Schein’s organiza– tion culture approach can lead to a better under– standing of the Enron case.

BACKGROUNDA company with humble beginnings, Enron began as a merger of

two Houston pipeline companies in 1985. Although Enron faced a number of financially difficult years, the company managed to sur-vive. In 1988, the deregulation of the electrical power markets took effect, and the company redefined its business from “energy deliv-ery” to “energy broker” and Enron quickly changed from a surviv-ing company to a thriving one. Deregulation allowed Enron to become a “matchmaker” in the power industry, bringing buyers and sellers together. Enron profited from the exchanges, generat-ing revenue from the dif– ferences between the buying and selling prices. Deregulation allowed Enron to be creative – for the first time, a company that had been required to “operate within the lines” could innovate and

test limits. Over time, Enron’s contracts became increasingly diverse and significantly more complex. As Enron’s products and services evolved, so did the company’s culture.

In this newly deregulated and innovative forum, Enron embraced a culture that rewarded “cleverness”. Deregulation opened the industry up to experimentation and the culture at Enron was one that expected employees to explore this new playing field to the utmost. Pushing the limits was considered a survival skill.

Enron’s former President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Jeffry Skilling actively cultivated a culture that would push limits – “Do it right, do it now and do it better” was his motto. He encouraged employees to be independent, inno– vative and aggressive. The Harvard Business Review Case Study: Enron’s Transformation

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(Bartlett and Glinska, 2001) contains employee quotations such as “… you were expected to perform to a standard that was continu-ally being raised …”, “the only thing that mattered was adding value”, or “… it was all about an atmos– phere of deliberately breaking the rules …” (Bartlett and Glinska, 2001). A culture that admires innovation and unchecked ambition and publicly punishes poor perfor mance can produce tremendous returns in the short run. However, in the long run, achieving additional value by con-stantly “upping the ante” becomes harder and harder. Employees are forced to stretch the rules further and further until the limits of ethical conduct are easily overlooked in the pursuit of the next big success (Josephson, 1999; cf. also similarities found in the culture at Salomon Brothers in the early 1990s, see Sims, 2000; Sims and Brinkmann, 2002).

A LOT OF SMOKE AND MIRRORSEnron’s spectacular success, and the positive scrutiny the com-

pany was receiving from the business press and the financial ana-lysts, only added fuel to the company’s competitive culture. The business community rewarded Enron for its cleverness (and even its ethicalness) and Enron’s executives felt driven by this reputation to sustain the explosive growth of the late 1990s, even

when they logically knew that it was not possible. A negative earnings outlook would have been a red flag to investors, indicating Enron was not as successful as it appeared. If investors’ concerns drove down the stock price due to excessive selling, credit agencies would be forced to down– grade Enron’s credit rating. Trading part-ners would lose faith in the company, trade elsewhere, and Enron’s ability to generate quality earnings and cash flows would suffer. In order to avoid such a scenario at all costs, Enron entered into a deceiving web of partnerships and employed increasingly question-able accounting methods to maintain its investment-grade status. Enron executives probably felt that they were doing the right thing for their organization.

PARTNERSHIPSPartnerships can be an easy and efficient way to raise money.

However, in an effort to continue to push the value envelope Enron took partner– ships to a new level by creating “special purpose vehicles” (SPVs), pseudo-partnerships that allowed the company to

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sell assets and “create” earnings that artificially enhanced its bot-tom line. Enron exaggerated earnings by recognizing gains on the sale of assets to SPVs. In some cases, the company booked rev-enues prior to a part– nership generating significant revenues. Project Braveheart, a partnership Enron developed with Block-buster was intended to provide movies to homes directly over phone lines. Just months after the partnership was formed, Enron recorded $110.9 million in profits prematurely, these profits were never realized as the partnership failed after only a 1,000-home pilot.

In a success culture like Enron’s such behavior represented a way of least resistance. Enron employees with a self-image of being the best and the brightest and being extremely clever do not make business deals that fail. Therefore booking earnings before they are realized were rather “early” than wrong. The culture at Enron was quickly eroding the ethical boundaries of its employees.

KEEPING DEBT OFF THE BALANCE SHEETThe SPVs not only allowed Enron to boost earnings, but the SPV’s

also allowed the company to keep debt off its balance sheet. A highly lever– aged balance sheet would jeopardize its credit rating as its debt-equity ratio would rise and increase its cost of capital. To avoid this, Enron parked some of its debt on the balance sheet of its SPVs and kept it hidden from analysts and investors. When the extent of its debt burden came to light, Enron’s credit rating fell and lenders demanded immediate payment in the sum of hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.

This can be read as another example of ethical erosion. Enron’s decision makers saw the shuf– fling of debt rather as a timing issue and not as an ethical one. Clever people would eventually make everything right, because the deals would all be successful in the long run. Moving debt was as easy as pre-dating a check, and would harm no one, and therefore was not an ethical issue.

Partnerships at “arm’s length”

Each questionable partnership decision carried additional clever-ness burdens. In order to keep information from the public, Enron had to guar– antee that the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) did not consider its partnerships as Enron subsidiaries. If the part-nerships had been classi– fied as such, in-depth disclosure and

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stricter accounting methods would have been required. In order to prevent potential SEC skepticism, Enron enlisted help from its out-side accountants and its attorneys (Arthur Andersen, and Vin-son& Elkins). The accountants and attorneys all referenced the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) rule that holds that partnerships are not considered subsidiaries as long as 3% of their equity comes from outside investors and they are managed inde-pendently of their sponsors. This is commonly known as being at “arm’s length”. Enron crafted relationships that looked (legally) like partnerships, although they were (in practice) subsidiaries. A closer look at the partnerships would have revealed that the

outside investments came from companies (like SE Thunder-bird LLC) that were owned by Enron.

CONFLICTS OF INTERESTAlthough the partnerships were classified as part– nerships

according to the FASB rules, Enron offi– cials obviously had close ties with them. This raised the question about conflicts of interest. Andrew Fastow, Enron’s former Chief Financial Officer (CFO), ran or was partial owner of two of the most important partner-ships: LJM Cayman LP and LJM2 Co-Investment LP. Michael Kopper, a former managing director at Enron, managed a third partnership, Chewco Investments LP.

The culture of cleverness at Enron started as a pursuit of excel-lence that devolved into the appearance of excellence as executives worked to develop clever ways of preserving Enron’s infal– lible facade of success. Although Enron main– tained that top officials in the company reviewed the dealings with potential conflicts of inter-est, Enron later claimed that Fastow earned over $30 million from Enron with his companies. At some point in the bending of ethical guidelines for the good of the company, Enron’s executives also began to bend the rules for personal gain. Once a culture’s ethical boundaries are breached thresholds of more extreme ethical com-promises become lower.

THE SELF-REINFORCING DECLINE OF ENRONIn the long run, Enron’s executives could not “rob Peter to pay

Paul”. Even if the Enron culture permitted acts of insignificant rule bending, it was the sum of incremental ethical transgressions that produced the business cata– strophe. Although Enron’s executives

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had believed that everything would work successfully in the long run, the questionable partnerships left the company extremely vul-nerable when finan– cial troubles came to light. As partnerships began to fail with increasing regularity, Enron was liable for mil-lions of dollars it had not anticipated

losing. Promises began to come due and Enron did not have the ability to follow through on its financial obligations.2

THE FINANCIAL IMPLOSIONThe partnerships that once boosted earnings and allowed Enron

to prosper became the misplaced card that caused the Enron house to collapse. The stability of Enron’s house of cards had been eroded by the very culture that had allowed it to be built. Enron was forced to renounce over $390 million in earnings from dealings with Chewco Investments and JEDI, another partner– ship. The company was also forced to restate earnings back to 1997, and the restated earnings totaled only $586 million, a mere 20% of the ini– tially reported figures. The very results Enron had sought to prevent – falling stock prices, lack of consumer and financial market confi-dence – came about as a direct result of decisions that had been driven by Enron’s culture.

The Enron case of ethical failure consists of more than a series of questionable business dealings. When strong company leadership would have been needed the most, Enron’s leader left the company. In August of 2001, Jeffery Skilling resigned as President and CEO of Enron and sold shares of his company stock totaling $66 million dollars. Only two months later, Enron restated earnings, stock prices dropped and the company froze shares in an attempt to help stabilize the company. Enron employees, who had been encouraged to invest heavily in the company, found themselves unable to remove and salvage their investments. The company culture of indi– vidualism, innovation, and aggressive cleverness left Enron without compassionate, responsible leadership. Enron’s Board of Directors was slow to step in to fill the void and individual Enron employees for the first time realized all of the ramifications of a cul-ture with leaders that eschew the boundaries of ethical behavior.

What did the Enron executives do to mold a corporate culture that resulted in unethical behavior and the collapse of the com-pany? The remainder of this paper drafts some answers to this question.

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LEADERSHIP MECHANISMS AND ORGANIZA-TIONAL CULTURE AT ENRON

If corporate leaders encourage rule-breaking and foster an intimi-dating, aggressive environment, it is not surprising that the ethical boundaries at Enron eroded away to nothing. Schein (1985) has focused on leadership as the critical component of the organization’s culture because leaders can create, reinforce, or change the organization’s culture. This applies not the least to an organi– zation’s ethical climate (Sims, 2000; Trevino et al., 2000; Sims and Brinkmann, 2002). According to Schein (1985) there are five primary mechanisms that a leader can use to influence an organization’s culture: attention, reaction to crises, role modeling, allocation of rewards, and criteria for selection and dismissal. Schein’s assumption is that these five criteria rein– force and encourage behavioral and cultural norms within an organization. Our paper can be read as an illustration of Schein’s assumptions. The Enron executives used the five mechanisms to reinforce a cul-ture that was morally flexible opening the door to ethics degenera-tion, lying, cheating, and stealing.

ATTENTIONThe first of the mechanisms mentioned by Schein (1985) is atten-

tion. The issues that capture the attention of the leader (i.e. what is criticized, praised or asked about) will also capture the attention of the greater organization and will become the focus of the employ-ees. If the leaders of the organization focus on the bottom line, employees believe that financial success is the leading value to con-sider. D. M. Wolfe, author of “Executive Integrity” even suggests that a focus on profit, “promotes an unrealistic belief that every-thing boils down to a monetary game” (1988). In such a context, rules or morality are merely obstacles, impediments along the way to bottom-line financial success (Sims, 2000).

One former executive of Enron has described Jeffrey Skilling as a leader driven by the almighty dollar. “… Skilling would say all that matters is

money. You buy loyalty with money” (Zellner, 2002). Enron execu-tives’ attention was clearly focused on profits, power, greed and influence. They wanted their employees to focus on today’s bottom line. Skilling communicated his priori– ties to his employees

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overtly, both in word and deed. Consistently clear signals told employees what was important to leadership – “Profits at all costs” (Tracinski, 2002). Or with another quote from a former Enron employee: “… there were no rules for people, even in our personal lives. Everything was about the company and every– thing was sup-posed to be on the edge – sex, money, all of it …” (Broughton, 2002). In her testimony before the House Subcommittee, Sherron Watkins described Enron as a “… very arrogant place, with a feel-ing of invincibility”. Still another Enron employee noted about the company’s environment that “… it was all about creating an atmos-phere of deliberately breaking the rules. For example, our official vacation policy was that you could take as much as you wanted whenever you wanted as long as you delivered your results. It drove the human resource department crazy” (Bartlett and Glin-ska, 2001).

Another example of today’s bottom line gain mentality is Andrew Fastow’s, former Enron CFO, network of questionable partnerships. These partnerships provided profit for Fastow personally, as well as for some of his more favored employees, who were aware of his actions. Fastow demanded that Enron permit him to invest in and to personally profit from the part– nerships (some of his earnings were passed to associates who aided him). Such actions sent a clear message that management’s attention was focused on the bot-tom line for the company as well as personal gain, regardless of the means to get there. When it came to Fastow’s special interest deal-ings the Board of Directors sus– pended the company’s Code of Ethics at least twice. This made Fastow a wealthy man at the expense of Enron (Landers, 2002).

As Stern (1992) has suggested, if the organi– zation’s leaders seem to care only about the short-term bottom line, employees quickly get the message too. How else could employees read the Enron culture than being focused on

short-term when their CEO (Ken Lay) both blessed the relaxation of conflict-of-interest rules designed to protect Enron from the very self– dealings that brought the company down and participated in board meetings allowing the creation of the off-balance sheet part-nerships that were part of those transactions. By late summer 2001 he was reassuring investors and employees that all was well (when he already had been informed that the company had problems with

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some investment vehicles that could cost it hundreds of millions of dollars, see Gruley and Smith, 2002).

REACTION TO CRISESThe second leadership method mentioned by Schein (1985) refers

to a leader’s reaction to a crisis situation. Schein asserts, that a cri-sis tests what the leader values and brings these values to the sur-face. With each impending crisis, leaders have an opportunity to communicate throughout the organization what the company’s val-ues are. Enron was facing a crisis of how to sustain a phenomenal growth rate. Leaders reacted by defending a culture that valued prof– itability, even when it was at the expense of everything else. The off-balance sheet partner– ships were tremendously risky. However, since normal growth of the stock price would have fallen short of expectations anyway, the only thing to do was to try to meet the unrealistic target profitability expectations. In such a case, an accident was waiting to happen.

Once the Enron situation came to light, the reaction from the Enron executives was telling. The executives were busy shifting the blame and pointing fingers. Jeffery Skilling even went as far as telling an incredulous Congress that despite his Harvard Business School degree and business experience he neither knew of, nor would understand the intricacies of the Enron accounting deals. (On the other hand, Skilling also was quoted on CNN saying “… if he knew then what he knows now – he STILL would not do anything differently.”) Even before the issues came to light it appears that Skilling was willing to abandon the company to save his own skin as evidenced by his mysterious resignation in August 2001 and giving only the “personal reasons” explanation for his sudden departure (and he still sold significant amounts of company stock at a pre-mium). Both Kenneth Lay and Sherron Watkins also sold stock before prices began to dramatically plummet (Kenneth Lay claim-ing that he had some personal debts to pay off, Sherron Watkins referring to the September 11th terrorist attacks. Watkins also sold stock at the same time when she was making allegations of decep-tive accounting practices).

Enron began systematically firing those it could lay blame on before it declared bankruptcy (Brown and Sender, 2002). A self-serving exon– eration committee was employed to explain (or excuse?) the current situation (Eichenwald, 2002). After Skilling

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resigned from his post, Kenneth Lay returned as CEO, promising that there were no “accounting issues, trading issues, or reserve issues” at Enron (McClean, 2001). Congressional testimony, news accounts and federal investigations have told us otherwise. Throughout October 2001, Lay insisted that Enron had access to cash and that the company was “performing very well,” while he failed to disclose that Enron had written down share– holders’ equity by $1.2 billion, or that Moody’s was considering downgrad-ing Enron’s debt (“Explaining the Enron Bankruptcy”, 2002). Com-pany insiders also referred to Loretta Lynch as “an idiot” (the Yale-educated litigator who was among the first to question Enron’s prac– tices), Bethany McLean, the Fortune Magazine journalist who first broke the story, was called “a looker who doesn’t know any-thing” (Dowd, 2002).

Another crisis consists in having to admit accounting irregulari-ties. At first, the leaders of the company tried to deny there was a problem. They next tried to cover up any evidence of a problem or any wrongdoing. They even tried to seize computers of anyone they thought was trying to expose them as well as to destroy many files thought to be guilt-inducing (Daily Press, 2002). It transitioned into a blame game as many executives tried blaming each other, saying they didn’t know what was going on, or it was someone else’s responsibility to know about the

problems and do something about it. Both Kenneth Lay and his wife proclaimed his inno– cence. Lay claimed to have been unaware of the sweetheart deals, which were entirely the brain– child of Skilling and Fastow. Watkins also blamed them for the debacle, while shifting any blame from herself.

“I take the Fifth” (U.S. Congressional Hearing, 2002 – this was the response Kenneth Lay gave to the Senate Commerce Commit-tee when asked to explain Enron’s failure. Although all but one of Enron’s officers (curiously Skilling) invoked the 5th Amendment right to not self– incriminate, the story has played out much like that of the Salomon Brothers and John Gutfreund fiasco in the early 1990s. Document shredding and lies, both overt and those of omis-sion, have become the preferred strategy for Enron’s man– age-ment (Brown and Sender, 2002). These bold acts from Enron lead-ership show a poor reaction to crisis.

From anonymous whistleblowing to bank– ruptcy to document shredding, to suicide (Cliff Baxter) to hiding behind the 5th Amend-

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ment, the leaders at Enron have run the gamut of extremes in their reaction to the company’s crisis. Willet and Always (2002) noted that “the mantra at Enron seems to be that ethical wrongdoing is to be hidden at any cost; deny, play the dupe, claim ignorance (“the ostrich instruction”) lie, quit.” It appears that the truth and its conse– quences have never been a part of the Enron culture.

ROLE MODELING (HOW LEADERS BEHAVE)Schein’s third mechanism is the example leaders set for the

acceptability of unethical behavior within an organization. Actions speak louder than words – therefore role-modeling behavior is a very powerful tool that leaders have to develop and influence cor-porate culture. Through role modeling, teaching, and coaching, leaders rein– force the values that support the organizational cul-ture. Employees often emulate leaders’ behavior and look to the leaders for cues to appropriate behavior. Many companies are encouraging employees to be more entrepre–

neurial – that is, to take more initiative and be more innovative in their jobs. The Scientific Foundation reports a study that showed that managers who want to change the organization’s culture to a more entrepreneurial one must “walk the talk”. In other words, they must demonstrate the entrepreneurial behaviors themselves (Pearce et al., 1997). This is the case with any cultural value. Employees observe the behavior of leaders to find out what is val-ued in the organization. Perhaps, this was the most significant short– coming of Enron executives.

According to the values statement in Enron’s Code of Ethics and its annual report, the company maintains strong commitments to com– munication, respect, integrity, and excellence. However, there is little evidence that supports management modeling of these values. For instance, while the first pillar of the values state– ment addresses an obligation to communicate, Sherron Watkins claims (quoted from the Hearing transcripts):

I continued to ask questions and seek answers, primarily from for-mer coworkers in the Global Finance Group or in the business units that had hedged assets with Raptor. I never heard reassuring explanations. I was not comfortable confronting either Mr. Skilling or Mr. Fastow with my concerns. To do so, I believe, would have been a job-terminating move (U.S. Congressional Hearings, 2002).

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Enron’s leaders’ primary message about their values was sent through their own actions. They broke the law as they concentrated on financial measures and used of the creative partnerships described earlier in this paper. For example, Kenneth Lay announced to analysts on October 16, 2001 that Enron had elimi-nated $1.2 billion in shareholder equity by terminating a partner– ship created by former CFO Andrew Fastow. This arrangement allowed Enron to buy and sell assets without carrying the debt on its books, i.e. keeping Enron’s credit clean and the stock price high. Such actions clearly show a self-serving attitude of Enron leader-ship. The executives not only condoned such unethical behavior, they ini– tiated it and were rewarded for it. The partner– ships were used to deceive investors about the

enormous debt Enron was incurring. It also sent a message to employees that full and complete disclosure is not a requirement, or even recom– mended. If the company achieved short-term bene-fits by hiding information, it was acceptable.

Enron’s leaders also ignored, then denied serious problems with their business transactions and were more concerned about their personal financial rewards than those of the company. For example, when the company’s stock price began to drop as the problems were becoming public, the company was transitioning from one invest– ment program to another. While the employees were unable to sell their stock, the executives were quickly selling off many of their shares. Another example is the executives’ lack of integrity in communicating to the employees and investors. They maintained that the company was financially stable and that many of their emerging problems really were not too serious, even though they knew the truth and were making financial decisions to protect their personal gains.

In retrospect, the leadership of Enron almost certainly dictated the company’s outcome through their own actions by providing per-fect conditions for unethical behavior. Michael Josephson, Presi-dent of the Josephson Institute of Ethics, aptly described these con-ditions as they relate to the character of leadership: “People may produce spectacular results for a while, but it is inevitable that techniques depending so heavily on fear as a motivator generate survival strate– gies that include cheating, distortion, and an inter-nal competitive ethos characterized by a look-out-for-number-one attitude.… Just as the destiny of individuals is determined by per-

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sonal character, the destiny of an organization is determined by the character of its leadership. And when individuals are derailed because of a lack of character, the organization will also be harmed” (Josephson, 1999).

ALLOCATION OF REWARDSThe behavior of people rewarded with pay increases or promo-

tions signals to others what is necessary to succeed in an organiza-tion – this is

what Schein calls the “allocation of rewards”- mechanism. To ensure that values are accepted, leaders should reward behavior that is consistent with the values (and actual rewards count obvi– ously more than promised rewards, cf. Sims and Brinkmann, 2002).

The reward system created by a leader indi– cates what is prized and expected in the organi– zation. This view is in line with a basic management doctrine. When an instance of ethical achievement occurs – for instance, when someone acts with integrity and honor – the organization’s leaders must reward it. Such an effort sends as clear a message to the rest of the organization as when an organi-zation rewards an employee who acts unethically (see e.g. Larimer, 1997). Enron’s reward system established a “win– at-all-costs” focus. The company’s leadership promoted and retained only those employees that produced consistently, with little regard to ethics. Skilling singled out one of his vice presidents, Louise Kitchen, for her results-oriented approach to Enron’s online business. Kitchen had started the company’s Internet-based trading business even though Skilling repeatedly turned down her requests to begin such a program. Kitchen ignored the former CEO’s decision and instead used already-allocated funds to pull the new network together. Or, as a former Enron vice president who attended the meeting described it best. “The moral of this story is break the rules, you can cheat, you can lie, but as long as you make money, it’s all right” (quoted after Schwartz, 2002).

The company’s compensation structure con– tributed to an uneth-ical work culture, too – by promoting self-interest above any other interest. As a consequence, the team approach once used by Enron associates deteriorated. Performance reviews were public events and poor performance was ridiculed (or employees were fired through a “rank and yank” process). The strongest per– forming

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units even went as far as to “ignore” company policy – granting unlimited vacation time as noted earlier as long as the work got done, ignoring Human Resources’ complaints (Bartlett and Glin-ska, 2001).

Extremely high bonuses were doled out to executives who behaved in desirable ways, e.g. in

the form of stock options) which in turn incited executives to keep the stock price up at any cost (Lardner, 2002). Annual bonuses were as high as $1 million for traders, and for executives they were even higher). Enron developed a reputation for both internal and external ruthlessness where employees attempted to crush any competition and was considered extremely aggressive for a non-investment bank (McClean et al., 2001). Additionally, the execu-tives at Enron played favorites, inviting top performers to spend weekend vacations with the executive staff. The best workers (determined through day-to-day bottom line results) received stag-gering incentives and exorbitant bonuses. One example of this was Car Day. On this day, an array of lavish sports cars arrived for the most successful employees (Broughton, 2002).

Retention bonuses that were paid shortly before the company declared bankruptcy to about 500 executives ranged in value from $1,000 to $5 million (possibly as a reward for help with setting up the problematic financial partnerships that led to the company’s downfall). Overall, Enron’s reward system rewarded individuals who embraced Enron’s aggressive, individualistic culture and were based on short-term profits and financial measures.

CRITERIA OF SELECTION AND DISMISSAL (HOW LEADERS HIRE AND FIRE EMPLOYEES)

Schein’s (1985) last mechanism by which a leader shapes a corpo-rate culture, describes how a leader’s decisions about whom to recruit or dismiss signals a leader’s values to all of his employees. The selection of newcomers to an organization is a powerful way of how a leader reinforces culture. Leaders often unconsciously look for individuals who are similar to current organizational members in terms of values and assumptions. Some companies hire individu-als on the recommendation of a current employee. This tends to perpetuate the culture because the new employees typically hold

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similar values. Promotion-from-within policies also serve to rein-force organizational culture.

Ken Lay placed an immediate focus on hiring

the best and smartest people, those who would thrive in a com-petitive environment. Skilling shared Lay’s philosophy. Skilling hired only Ivy– league graduates with a hunger for money that matched his. He hired people who considered themselves the best and the brightest and were out to forward their own causes. Stan-ford and Harvard graduates, who would have otherwise worked on Wall Street, these people were paid well to work in Texas and to build the Enron culture. Their reward for giving up the allure of Sil-icon Valley and Wall Street was a high salary and a large bonus opportunity.

Skilling perpetuated a focus on short-term transactional endeav-ors from the very beginning by hiring employees that embodied the beliefs that he was trying to instill: aggressiveness, greed, a will to win at all costs, and an appreciation for circumventing the rules. This was the same culture of greed that brought turmoil to Salomon Brothers on Wall Street in the early 1990s. Divorce rates among senior executives were sky– rocketing as well. Instant gratification, both per– sonally and professionally, was part of the Enron culture and Skilling did everything he could to surround himself with indi-viduals who had similar values and assumptions and fitted into the Enron culture.

The way a company fires an employee and the rationale behind the firing also communicates the culture. Some companies deal with poor per– formers by trying to find them a place within the organization where they can perform better and make a contribu-tion. Other companies seem to operate under the philosophy that those who cannot perform are out quickly (Sims and Brinkmann, 2002).

Enron carried out an annual “rank and yank” policy where the bottom fifteen to twenty percent of producers were let go or fired after a formal evaluation process each year. Associates graded their peers, which caused a great amount of distrust and paranoia among employees. Enron’s employee reviews added to the compe– tition by reviewing job performance in a public forum and sending the bottom 5% to the rede– ployment office – dubbed the “office of

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shame” (Frey and Rosin, 2002). What better way to develop a dis-trustful work environment than to

pit employees against one another and as Larry Bossidy, for-mer CEO of Allied Signal recently noted “forced ranking promotes bad employee morale” (2002), a win-at-all costs mentality, and a willingness to cross the ethical line (Wolfe, 1988; Sims and Brinkman, 2002).

The occurrence and handling of internal whistle-blowing also tells a lot about a corpo– rate culture. At Enron, employees who tried to blow the whistle were punished, e.g. by career setbacks and hostil-ity (cf. e.g. not least the enron– gate website). The most well-known whistle– blower, Sherron Watkins, recounted how her fears about being fired for speaking out led her to reach out to Ken Lay through anonymous warnings. She even publicly stated that Andrew Fastow tried to have her fired once he found out that she was the author of the anonymous memo to Lay (Hamburger, 2002). Watkins reported that her computer was confiscated and she was moved to another office after she submitted her letter to Kenneth Lay. Another employee, Jeff McMahon, also spoke up against the conflicts of interest seen in the off book partnerships. As a reward for his actions, he was reassigned to a new job.

On the other hand, those who closed their eyes to the wrong doings were rewarded. Or with the words of a former Enron employee: “It was very clear what the measures were and how you got promoted at Enron. That absolutely drives behavior … getting the deal was paramount at Enron” (Hansell, 2002). A Houston headhunter described the freedom given by Skilling when he was Enron’s CEO to loyal employees metaphor– ically: “Once you gained Jeff’s trust, the leash became really long” (Zellner, 2002).

The selection and rewards system was consis– tent with the cul-ture at Enron. It promoted greed, selfishness, and jealousy within the organization. Enron’s executives selected those employees who shared their aggressive, win-at– all-costs mentality. Their short-term view may have prevented them from seeing what the long– term costs of this kind of personality could be on the organization as a whole.

FINAL COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS FOR FUTURE WORK

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The story of Enron sounds smart and stupid at the same time. Deeply defective leadership from Lay and Skilling played a signifi-cant role in creating the company’s culture that led to it’s undoing, and we may never know whether it was hubris, greed, psychologi-cal shock or just plain stupidity that led them to behave in the way they did (Eavis, 2001). “Consequences of unethical or illegal actions are not usually realized until much later than when the act is committed” (Sims, 2000).

Enron’s house of cards collapsed as a result of interacting deci-sion processes. The culture at Enron eroded little by little, by the trespassing of ethical boundaries, allowing more and more ques-tionable behavior to slip through the cracks. This deterioration did not go entirely unnoticed. Individual employees at Enron, auditors at Anderson and even some analysts who watch the financial mar-kets, noticed aspects about the Enron situation that did not seem right, long before the public became aware of Enron’s transgres-sions. There were whistle-blowers but the Enron leaders did not listen.

What existed in Enron’s culture that kept individual employees from exposing the executive wrongdoers? And what about the Enron way permitted the executives to behave the way that they did? Enron’s culture is a good example of groupthink (cf. e.g. Janis, 1989; Moorehead, 1986) where individuals feel extreme pressure not to express any real strong arguments against any co-workers’ actions. Although very individualistic, the culture at Enron was at the same time conformist, or quoting Glenn Dickson, a former Enron Risk Manager: “The pressure was – you just didn’t have a choice but to approve the deals once everybody had their heart set on that deal closing” (ABC News, 2002). Employees were loyal in an ambiguous sense of the term, i.e., they wanted to be seen as part of the star team and to partake in the benefits that that honor entailed. Some former Enron employees com– mented that: “loyalty required a sort of group– think. You had to ‘keep drinking the Enron Water’ …” (Stephens and Behr, 2002). John

Alarial, a former midlevel manager at Enron noted that: “Enron’s aggressive business tactics were embraced by the rank and file, … even if (authors addition) … many suspected it was a house of cards” (ABC News, 2002). Employees were focused on the bottom line and “promoted short term solutions that were immediately finan– cially sound despite the fact that they would cause problems

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for the organization as a whole … rules of ethical conduct were merely barriers to success” (Sims, 1992).

Enron’s top executives set the tone for this culture. Personal ambition and greed seemed to overshadow much of their corporate and indi– vidual lives. They strove to maximize their indi– vidual wealth by initiating and participating in scandalous behaviors. Enron’s culture created an atmosphere ripe for the unethical and illegal behavior that occurred.

Two of the most important lessons to learn from the Enron culture history is that bad top management morality can be a sufficient condition for creating a self-destructive ethical cli-mate and that a well-filled CSR and business ethics toolbox can neither stop nor compensate for such processes.3

Enron’s new CEO, turnaround-specialist Stephen Cooper could use (or should one rather say needs to use) the same five leader’ influence mechanisms (Schein, 1985) used above for a turnaround of Enron’s culture and ethical climate:

Attention – Cooper needs to focus attention on improving the moral climate of the organization by looking at the long-term implications of employee’s actions instead of only the most recent bottom line profits.

Reaction to Crises – Cooper should swiftly react to the cri-sis facing the company by complying with authorities and fir-ing ethical wrong– doers. The company must stop the lying, covering up ethical and legal transgressions, and trying to preserve those ethical wrongdoers at any cost.

Role Modeling – Cooper must convey the image of the moral manager (Trevino et al., 2002). He must set the example of honesty and integrity for the rest of the organization.

Allocation of Rewards – Using rewards and discipline effectively may be the most powerful way for Cooper to send signals about desirable and undesirable conduct. That means rewarding those who accomplish their goals by behaving in ways that are consistent with stated values and it must be assumed that a lack of commit-ment to ethical principles will ensure that employees will not be promoted.

Criteria for Selection and Dismissal – Cooper must bring employees into Enron who are committed to ethical principles and

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usher out all old employees connected to ethical misconduct. The company must have clear policies on the criteria for selection and dismissal those employees under– stand.

In other words, Enron’s new CEO, Stephen Cooper, must take a proactive stance to promote an ethical climate and must be the Chief Ethics Officer of the organization (Trevino et al., 2000), creat-ing a strong ethics message that gets employees’ attention and influences their thoughts and behaviors. Executive commitment to ethical behavior is an important way of sus– taining an ethical orga-nizational culture (Weaver et al., 1999). Cooper must find ways to focus the organization’s attention on ethics and values and to infuse the organization with principles that will guide the actions of all employees. New (and first of all credible) values could be the glue that holds things together at Enron, and these values must be com-municated (by deeds) from the top of the organization. Employees must understand that any single employee who operates outside of the organizational value system can cost the orga– nization dearly in legal fees and can have a tremendous, sometimes irreversible impact on the organization’s image and culture. Employees must trust that whistleblowers will be protected, that procedures used to investigate ethical problems will be fair, and that management will take action to solve problems that are uncovered.

Our skeptical view regarding any compen– satory use of the CSR and business ethics toolbox (i.e. as long as morally dis-putable lead– ership creates a bad moral climate) does not imply any radical rejection of CSR and ethics tools as such (Schein would have called such tools “secondary articulation and reinforcement mech– anisms”, such as “organizational systems and pro– cedures” and “formal statements of organizational

philosophy, creeds and charters”, see Schein, 1985, pp. 237–242). Once tools are understood as (“secondary”) catalysts for (“pri-mary”) lead– ership influence, it is more fruitful to ask for con– ditions under which ethical tools such as codes could further and reinforce a given organization’s ethical climate (cf. Brinkmann and Ims, 2003, esp. table #3) and how Schein’s five mechanisms could be operationalized in terms of available tools.

In our introduction we mentioned briefly Enron’s image of being an excellent corporate citizen, with all the corporate social respon-sibility (CSR) and business ethics tools and status symbols in place. It was suggested that this was a key aspect or dimension of the

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Enron case, as a case of deceiving corporate citizenship and of sur-face or facade ethics (which also has con– tributed to the creation of a new word, Enron Ethics). As an academic field we owe the gen-eral public and the business public a thorough doc– umentation, analysis and discussion of how Enron and other companies with a similar record and reputation could “instrumentalize” (and thus dis– credit) ethics and CSR for mere facade purposes.

It has also been mentioned that such a focus deserves and requires a paper on its own, at least. As an open end to this paper we should like to draft briefly a typology with moral culture types and transitions which such a paper could address, as a prolonga-tion of the present paper and as a bridge-building towards a more self-critical business ethics business and business ethics disci– pline. The typology is made up of two dimen– sions, ethicalness of an organization culture or what has been called ethical or moral cli-mate, and presence of business ethical tools or artifacts, such as ethics officers, codes of ethics, value state–

ments and the like. If one for practical purposes distinguishes dichotomously between low and high one ends up with a four-fold table as shown in Table I.4

As mentioned above, Enron looks at first sight like “type I”, simi-lar to what Kohlberg might have called moral “pre-conventionalism”, like a classical business ethics case, with a typi-cal mix of “amorality” and “immorality” (cf. for the distinction Car-roll and Meeks, 1999). For headline-journalism and public opinion Enron and World.com are simply bad and rotten, one just didn’t know before it was too late, and this shows once more an urgent need for more leg– islation and ethics. Our thesis is that Enron (and probably quite a number of other companies waiting to be discov-ered) is an at least as good illustration of “type II”, of window-dressing ethics, with talking instead of walking, ethics as rhetoric. While “type II” looks modern or at least fashionable, “type III” looks like the old– fashioned type of moral business, from the days before the disciplines of business ethics, CSR, marketing and public rela-tions were invented, with collective moral conscience (borrowing E. Durkheim’s term) as consistent label and content, perhaps addition-ally communicating moral hum– bleness, with a touch of British understatement. The final “type IV” refers to a moral role-model business culture in the age of marketing and public relations, with walking the talk, with showing and confessing openly its collective

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moral conscience (call it self-reassurance, or more U.S.-style self-marketing, to put it stereotypi– cally). In other words, a future paper should pri– marily deal with a documentation and criticism of “window-dressing ethics”, of how to further processes towards col-lective moral conscience,

with more or less marketing of the good examples, and of how to prevent degeneration towards “window-dressing ethics”. We often wonder if we would prefer honest amorality and immorality to dis-honest morality. But still, we choose to read the paper title of Tonge et al. (2003) optimistically: “The Enron story: you can fool some of the people some of the time …”.

NOTES1 Cf. in addition the Enron-story books for sale as of today by

Amazon, see bookhttp://www.amazon. com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471265748/millerriskadv– 20/002–3887103-5927230.

2 For example, Enron had promised CIBC World Markets the majority of the profits from Project Braveheart for ten years, or in the event of failure Enron would be obligated to repay CIBC its entire $115.2 million investment. Not only did Enron book the earn-ings prematurely, but it was also forced to repay CIBC its full investment.

3 For a draft of possible “latent, negative functions” of ethical codes cf. Brinkmann and Ims, 2003, esp. table #2. 4 Thanks to col-league Knut Ims from the Norwegian School of Business Adminis-tration for a discussion about this typology.

TEN THINGS YOU CAN DO TO AVOID BEING THE NEXT ENRONMAY 29, 2009

Document

Ten things your company can do to avoid being the next Enron:

1. Examine your ethical climate and put safeguards in place.

Corporations are composed of cultures. Take a good close look at your culture. What are the norms of behavior? What is valued? Are employees rewarded for succeeding at any cost or are they urged to be shepherds of the corporation's reputation as well as its assets?

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What pressures do they face to commit misconduct? What systemic problems exist that could encourage good people to make bad decisions?

Consider conducting a formal assessment of your corporate culture from the perspective of attitudes, perceptions, values, standards of conduct, pressures to commit misconduct, communications, risks and vulnerabilities. Pay particular attention to your corporate values and how well they have been internalized by your Board, senior leadership, employees at all levels and key stakeholders.

2. Don't just print, post and pray.

If you have a Code of Conduct or an Ethics Code, printing copies, posting them on the wall and on bulletin boards is not enough. Codes of conduct are an outgrowth of company missions, visions, strategies and values. Thoughtful and effective corporate codes provide guidance for making ethical business decisions that balance conflicting interests.

Codes of conduct need to be actual living documents encouraged and valued at the highest levels. Board members and senior executives have to set an example for the type conduct they expect from others. Ethical lapses at the upper echelons of management tend to be perceived as tacit permission to choose the "path of least resistance" at lower levels. Senior management needs to hold itself to the highest standards of conduct before it can demand similar integrity from those at lower levels.

Executives who refuse to tolerate misconduct among their peers and who actively seek to model high standards of honesty, transparency and trustworthiness can best demonstrate the commitment to ethical conduct.

Publicly restate your corporate Code of Ethics as soon as possible and agree to publish the Code every year in your corporation's annual report.

3. Build a robust ethics infrastructure that is self-sustaining.

Writing a code of conduct, supporting it at top levels and communicating it to employees is just a start.

Corporations should have a committee of independent non-executive directors on its Board of Directors who are responsibility for ensuring that systems are in place in the corporation to assure employee compliance with the Code of Ethics.

Measures they recommend should include staff training, evaluations of compliance systems, appropriate funding and staffing of the corporate ethics office, and effective protections to employees who "blow the whistle" on perceived actions contrary to the spirit and/or letter of the Code.

Many corporations establish independent "hot lines" or "help lines" where employees can seek guidance when they are faced with an ethical dilemma or when they encounter unethical conduct in the workplace. Annual training on the code is becoming commonplace.

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Every publicly listed corporation should consider establishing a regular review system to ensure the Code is dynamic and updated in the light of new developments.

4. Publicly commit to being an ethical organization.

Go public. No, not an IPO (Initial Public Offering) an EPO: an Ethical Public Offering. Corporations that are open about their ethical standards and conduct seem to be more trustworthy than those who stay silent. Some issue an annual report of their ethics accomplishments and the challenges they faced. Other corporations openly post their vision, values and codes of conduct on their web sites for public viewing.

Every member of the Board of Directors of a publicly listed corporation should be required to sign the Code of Ethics and pledge that she or he will never support a Board motion to suspend the Code.

All outside law firms and auditing firms that consult to publicly listed corporations should be required to sign statements noting that they understand and accept the corporation's Code of Ethics.

5. Separate auditing from consulting functions.

Allowing Arthur Andersen to both audit and consult with Enron created at least an appearance of a conflict of interest. Subsequently, hiring Arthur Andersen employees as Enron employees who then managed the affairs of their former colleagues made this a real ethical conflict of interest. The independence and integrity of financial auditing organizations are fundamental to the stability and growth of American business and free markets throughout the world. Auditing and consulting functions must be kept separate.

6. Talk with employees at all levels often!

Failure to communicate causes far more pain than smashing your thumb with a hammer. The sore thumb will heal poor communication can be fatal.

In the 1980s, Tom Peters talked extensively about Managing by Walking Around (MBWA). In the purest sense, MBWA is a way for supervisors and managers to best communicate their (task and ethical) expectations and requirements in daily, informal meetings with employees. These informal conversations give employees two sets of data. There is the spoken information that is exchanged and the inferred data that employees glean from the more subtle communications that accompany a manager's words.

Employees basically want to know two things. They want to know what is expected or required for them to survive and to be successful (tasks and ethics). They also want to know "how they are doing" at this point in time (tasks and ethics).

Communicate the following: Goals, Roles, Expectations and Priorities.

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Goals When "wandering around" make certain that you remind people of the short term and long term goals of the job. They should see how their goals support the organization's mission and vision. This is also an excellent opportunity to ties goals to the code of conduct or code of ethics. Let employees know that how you accomplish a goal is just as important as accomplishing the goal itself. Cutting corners can hurt the corporation, its reputation and, eventually, the individual employee.

RolesLet employees know how their piece of the job fits into the bigger picture. Remind them of their importance and value. Ensure that they understand their role as it relates to yours. Ensure that they understand what kind of conduct you expect.

Expectations Be certain that employees understand exactly what you expect. What has to be done? When? To what standards? How will it be evaluated? What should they do if they encounter any roadblocks or unanticipated changes? How do you want them to handle questions and/or "gray areas" where expectations may be unclear or conflicting?

PrioritiesRemind your employees of the organization's operational priorities. If safety, quality and customer service come first for example, then make that clear to your employees. Be clear about what you expect them to do when they experience conflicts between any of these core values. Clarify what constitutes ethical conduct.

Don't just assume your employees know where you stand. ERC Fellows Program research indicates that unless leaders clearly and consistently communicate their values, employees will assume they are neutral on the subject.

7. Build ethical conduct into corporate systems.

Define position as an ethical business. Provide employees and customers with a written pledge. These are our values. This is how we define what is right, fair and good. We promise that all employees (at every level) of this organization will treat each other and customers accordingly.

Train employees on their ethical responsibilities. Teach people how to translate the pledge into specific actions that support the pledge and build trust.

Provide support and guidance to employees. Take time to share what you have learned about how the pledge applies in particular cases within the organization.

Measure your success. Implement simple systems to measure the effectiveness of this ethics initiative. Determine if employees are living the pledge and measure the differences it makes to your employees, your customers and your bottom line.

Reward those employees who choose to live the promises and remove those who don't.

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8. Establish an Ethics Committee to constantly keep the organization focused on the seven main provisions of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines of 1991 in mind.

The Federal Sentencing Guidelines that became effective on November 1, 1991 require that "(2) Specific individuals within high level personnel of the organization have been assigned overall responsibility to oversee compliance with (the organization's) standards and procedures." We believe that oversight process involves seven main functions to be addressed by an organization's ethics committee:

Function OneReview the definitions of standards and procedures. Starting with your organization's areas of operation, what are the activities that require a formal set of ethical standards and procedures? Begin by reviewing those which apply to each department. Are existing internal guidelines complete? Are they clear and useful to those who must carry them out?

Have potential conflicts between individual regulations been resolved and their resolutions stated clearly? Make use of the information gleaned from employee reporting and clarification processes (i.e., your ethics "Hot Line" as well as employee surveys) to assist in this review process.

Once the review is complete and any shortcomings have come to light your ethics committee should assign the creation of revised guidelines to the appropriate personnel. Included in that task is the design of a formal method for communicating standards and procedures to employees. This method should ensure that employees both understand and accept the ethics program.

Meanwhile, the ethics committee can suggest behaviors to upper management that reinforce the organization's guidelines. Do not underestimate how management's conduct can affect the successful implementation of an ethics program.

Function Two Assume responsibility for overall compliance. The ethics committee should assert that it is the responsible authority for ethics compliance within its area of jurisdiction (corporate-wide or division-wide for example). It should serve as the court of last resort concerning interpretations of the organization's standards and procedures. When and if inconsistencies come to light in this manner, the committee should make recommendations on improving the existing compliance mechanisms. And, as always, there should be follow-up to ensure that compliance recommendations have been understood and accepted.

Function Three Assure due care in assigning discretionary responsibility. The ethics committee should define how the organization will balance the rights of individual applicants and employees against the organization's need to avoid risks that come from placing known violators in positions of discretionary responsibility. This includes the oversight of background investigations on employees/applicants who are being considered for such positions.

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Function Four Communicate the organization's standards and procedures. As in our first point above, the ethics committee should define methods and mechanisms for communicating ethical standards and procedures. This includes the distribution of documents (codes of conduct, for example) to ensure that every employee understands and accepts the organization's ethical guidelines. To make certain that published standards are understood, the ethics committee should provide regular training sessions as well.

Since communication is two-way, the ethics committee should solicit stakeholder input regarding how standards and procedures are defined and enforced. In this connection, it is useful to create ways of providing proof that each employee has received the appropriate documents and understands the standards and procedures described.

We also suggest an ethics "hot line" to protect employees' privacy and ensure their access to a "safe" mechanism for seeking guidance and reporting suspected wrongdoing.

Function Five Monitor and audit compliance. Because compliance is an ongoing necessity, the ethics committee should design controls which monitor, audit and demonstrate employees' adherence to published standards and procedures. There should also be mechanisms which check the effectiveness and reliability of such internal controls.

To warrant that the organization's goals, objectives and plans do not conflict with its ethical standards and procedures, the ethics committee should develop methods for regular review and assessment. Check also to ensure that formalized measurements and rewards do not motivate non-compliance.

Function Six Serve as primary agent for enforcement and discipline. Disciplinary provisions should be in place to ensure consistent responses to similar violations of standards and procedures (versus applying different standards to different employees based on their position, performance, function, and the like). There should be provisions for those who ignore as well as those who violate standards and procedures.

Function Seven Take the steps necessary to ensure that offenses are not repeated. When violations do occur, the ethics committee should have ways to identify why they occurred. It is also important that lessons learned from prior violations are systematically applied to reduce the chance that similar violations can take place in future

Stay abreast of changes. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines are currently under review and may soon change.

9. Choose to live your corporate values.

No compliance manual, regardless of its thoroughness, can cover every contingency. And, if one could be written that did cover all possibilities, it would occupy so much space and be so cumbersome to use that its covers would never be opened.

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By equipping employees with corporate-supported values and empowering them to make decisions based on those values, you will free them to take action even when specific guidance isn't readily available. You will also enjoy the peace of mind that comes from knowing your employees have common ground from which all decisions can be made. There are also creative ways to get ethical issues communicated up the corporate ladder.

10. Keep the lines of communications open.

If you ask about what is going right, what is going wrong and what makes employees uncomfortable in their jobs, you can usually identify pitfalls before you step into them. Communicate openly and honestly.

Summary

To help avoid the fate of Enron and other companies whose ethics are called into question:

1. Examine your ethical climate and put safeguards in place2. Don't just print, post and pray3. Build a robust ethics infrastructure that is self-sustaining4. Publicly commit to being an ethical organization5. Separate auditing from consulting functions6. Talk with employees at all levels often!7. Build ethical conduct into corporate systems8. Establish an Ethics Committee to constantly keep the seven main provisions of the Federal

Sentencing Guidelines of 1991 in mind9. Choose to live your corporate values10. Keep the lines of communications open

Dr. Stuart Gilman, Dr. Patricia Harned, Frank Navran and Jerry Brown contributed to this article.

How have accounting firms participated in this process?

All companies are required to submit detailed financial reports to the SEC from an "independent" auditing firm. As a practical matter, there have been five major accounting firms which perform the bulk of this audit work.     The "big five" accounting firms have increasingly turned to "management and consulting services" as a revenue source to the extent that audit fees represent less than half of their revenues.      This trend has been accomplished primarily in the last decade.     Several major corporations have expended over 90% of their fees to accounting firms for such services.      Critics maintain that auditing firms should not be compromised by providing consulting services to the companies that they audit.

The accounting firms have contributed heavily to federal election campaigns. When compared to revenues, campaign contributions of four these firms were among the top 10 givers in the country.      Until the recent wave of corporate scandals, the

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accounting industry has successfully resisted congressional and regulatory efforts to separate the auditing and consultative functions. In 1995, the industry was able to convince the Senate to override a Presidential veto and pass legislation which limited the liability of accounting firms in shareholder litigation. 

The accounting firm most under fire has been Arthur Andersen LLP. Andersen was founded in Chicago in 1913 and provided reputable accounting services for nearly a century. In the wake of its felony conviction in the Enron matter, Andersen stopped providing SEC audit services and the firm has now been dissolved. The conviction resulted because its "Enron project" employees shredded and destroyed crucial documents relating to Enron's operations. The temptation for complicity between Andersen and Enron is quite understandable because its auditors and accountants had permanent offices in Enron's building. Its staff wore Enron golf shirts, attended Enron parties and ski trips and generally were difficult to tell from Enron staff. Many Andersen employees were "promoted" into positions with Enron. Finally, Enron paid more for Andersen's consulting services than it did for its auditing service. 

Aside from accounting practices, what other characteristics of many of these companies have come under fire?

High rate of campaign contributions

The campaign contributions and lobbying activity of many of the companies under suspicion have been significant.     Campaign contributions by companies unquestionably are motivated by a desire to influence public policy in a manner which will benefit the enterprise. Some analysts maintain that when a company contributes substantially more than others in the same industry, it is a sign that the company seeks to financially benefit from its government relationships rather than from engaging in traditional economic competition with its competitors.

High concentration of Board of Director "insiders" or high Director pay

There are several major corporations where more than 50% of all board members are connected to the corporation.     As was particularly apparent in the case of Adelphia, there can be a woeful absence of board oversight of questionable company activities when the board membership is composed of company insiders and their close associates. Just as compromising is exorbitant Director pay. The Enron board has been one of the national leaders in this category. 

Excessive CEO Pay

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The high rate of CEO for corporate America in general has been long been criticized by organized labor and other groups concerned with income inequality. These critics note that CEO compensation has risen astronomically while worker wages have remained flat   and that American executives are compensated far more than their counterparts in other countries.     They also note that this pay often is unrelated to company performance. The companies which compensate executives at the highest rate have been also criticized by Wall Street analysts for using shareholder money for unreasonable personal enrichment.

Insider stock transactions

Institutional investors and company pension holders who have been victims of the bankruptcies have been particularly angered by the fact that insiders sold large amounts of stock at a high price. Although the law requires such stock transactions to be recorded, the information does not become public until as much as 13 months after the date of the transaction.

Providing stock options as compensation

In 2006, over half of the value of CEO compensation was in the form of stock options and other equity incentives. This compensation structure is considerably different than in Europe.     It has been estimated that over 10% of the common stock issued by major corporations is held by executives. The wisdom of the practice of providing a large percentage of executive compensation in the form of stock options is a practice which has its believers and critics inside and outside of industry. On one hand, it provides an incentive for performance but it also provides executives with a substantial advantage over other company shareholders who have paid full market value for their stock. In addition, it creates the temptation for insider transactions. No matter how rapidly insider trading is reported, company executives are almost always in a far better position to assess the company's relative financial position. Finally, under current rules, the stock incentives provided to executives are not sufficient itemized on accounting records to provide investors a full picture of the company's compensation expenses.

Employee pension plans tied to company stock

The 401K plans for employees of many large companies are substantially composed of company stock. For large companies, fully 43% is invested in company stock and ten companies require employees to have more than 75% in company assets.      In addition, most plans impose some restrictions on the

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sale of company stock such as a prohibition of trades until age 50 or requiring employees to hold company stock for a prescribed period.

What reforms have been proposed and/or enacted?

In July 2002, a virtually unanimous Congress passed legislation to improve regulatory oversight of the securities industry and to stiffen penalties for violators. The growing number of alleged accounting irregularities and other practices, together with the decline in stock prices, quickly helped persuade the Administration and Republicans in Congress of the need for stronger measures. Only two months earlier the House had   rejected the concept of Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, which was ultimately established by the legislation.

Improved corporate financial disclosure

Reformers recommend: That the SEC require stricter disclosure of company information including "off balance sheet transactions", conflicts of interests, charitable relationships, taxes, government contracts, and campaign contributions. Under current rules, a non-governmental industry agency, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, sets many of the disclosure rules. Reformers urge that this responsibility be shifted to a public agency.

Legislative action: The legislation addresses the "off balance sheet transaction" issue by mandating that the SEC study this issue and report to Congress. It empowers a newly created Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to assume the duty of setting standards for accounting reports. The majority of the board is to be composed of individuals who are not accountants.

Require diversification of Corporate Employee Pension Plans

Reformers recommend: Apply Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) safeguards to corporate 401(K) plans which would, among other provisions, mandate that limits on the concentration of stock to no more than 5 percent in any single security.

Legislative action: The corporate reform legislation does not address this issue. However, it does prohibit executives from negotiating insider trades during employee pension blackout periods. Separate legislative proposals to modify 401(K) requirements in this manner are pending in Congress.

Ban company loans to executives

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Reformers recommend: Loans made on favorable terms to corporate executives and board members should be banned. Such "insider" loan activity has been widespread and was the cause of the Adelphia bankruptcy.

Legislative action: The legislation bans such loans to executives although it permits an exception for home if made on terms that are no more favorable than those offered to the general public.

Require that corporate boards be independent

Reformers recommend: The SEC should establish standards for corporate board participation which insure that shareholders are sufficiently insulated from insider influence.

Legislative action: None

Require auditor independence

Reformers recommend: All independent auditors should be banned from doing non-audit consulting work for the same client.

Legislative action: The new legislation prohibits accounting firms from performing specified non-audit services contemporaneously with a mandatory audit. It does not prohibit all types of consulting work. The accounting industry had previously been strongly opposed to this type of reform.

Require rotation of auditing firms

Reformers recommend: That companies be required to change auditing firms every five years to further insure independent review.

Legislative action: None

Expensing stock options

Reformers recommend: Corporations should be made to value stock options at the time of the option grant and count them as expenses on their income statement and should deduct the value of the option at the time of the grant as they would with compensation paid in cash. This would eliminate a huge tax cut deduction that corporations presently exercise from stock option grants.

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Legislative action: The recent legislation did not address this issue. Separate legislative proposals addressing this question are being considered. An effort by Senator McCain to include such a provision in the corporate reform legislation was rejected by the Senate.

Better reporting of insider trades

Reformers recommend: Investors should know immediately when insiders have sold stock. Currently there can be a 13 month delay.

Legislative action: The legislation requires the SEC to establish a system which will provide such notification within two working days.

Eliminate broker conflicts of interest

Reformers recommend: When the same company is involved in underwriting the issuance of securities and issuing recommendations to investors, there is an inherent conflict of interest. Brokerages need to better separate these functions.

Legislative action: The corporate reform legislation requires the SEC to adopt rules addressing this issue governing securities analysts' potential conflicts of interest, including limiting the supervision and compensatory evaluation of securities analysts to officials who are not engaged in investment banking activities.

Increase the funding of the SEC

Reformers recommend: The SEC has been significantly under funded and also lacks enough trained accounting staff to provide the necessary oversight.

Legislative action: The House has overwhelmingly passed legislation to increase SEC funding by 77%. The matter is now pending in the Senate

Restore full civil liability to accounting firms

Reformers recommend: Under the 1995 legislation, the civil liability of accounting firms to damaged shareholders was severely limited. Restoring full civil liability would help insure the integrity of the system by financially penalizing accounts for misleading reports.

Legislative action: None.

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How are investors protected in other countries?

The United States has the most sophisticated securities regulation system. In Europe, commissions comparable to the SEC exist in most countries, but their power and scope are more limited. This is due to the fact that securities markets have only recently begun to assume importance. European companies have historically relied more on the banking system than a U.S. style "market based" financial system. The UK moved closer to the U.S. in 1986 with the adoption of the Financial Services Act, and closer still in 1998 when it centralized regulatory authority in one agency. Japan's recent economic downturn has led to changes that applies much of the U.S. substantive law to Japanese securities markets although no single commission has been created for enforcement. With a growing global economy, there has been increasing pressure to harmonize international securities regulation most particularly with respect to accounting standards.