Business Research Ethics



Business Research Ethics

Introduction

Ethics is a highly elusive, enigmatic, complex and sensitive concept (Moon and Bonny, 2001). The business ethics field is defined by Manuel Velasquez as a specialized study of moral right and wrong. In spite of the growth of business ethics and the evident recognition of its significance among many, including Corporate and other stakeholders, the extent of corporate crime is also keenly felt in the last decades because of the exponential growth of stakes. As long as there have been corporations, corporate crime has existed but history reveals that more recent corporate crimes have been more wide-ranging and in comparison to years past, they have ensued greater losses to victims. The Enron Corporation debacle is described and discussed by Sims & Brinkmann (2003) in their article “Enron ethics (or: Culture matters more than codes).” The background of business ethics and leadership mechanisms influencing collapse and eventual bankruptcy of Enron is presented in the article. This paper seeks to analyze the unethical research behavior discussed in the article, the victims of that unethical behavior and how could that unethical behavior be resolved or avoided by perpetrator.

Discussion

Headquartered initially in Omaha and then in Houston, Enron disclosed in 2001 that it was in financial trouble. Once the largest energy trader of world, Enron filed for the largest-ever U.S. bankruptcy along with an investigation encompassing off-the-book partnerships used to inflate profits and deflate debt. The board of directors of Enron also permitted management to undertake high-risk business practices and imparted full authority to the executives. Enron was allowed by members of the board to move almost half of its assets off the balance sheet to make the financial statements of company look better, the accounting firm of Arthur Andersen facilitated that action. Arthur Andersen's accounting firm collaborated to inflate ...