Case Study: Virtues application to WorldCom (Essay Sample)

Case Study: Virtues application to WorldCom Name Institution Introduction Accounting irregularities are one of the reasons make a company bankrupt. An example is WorldCom presently known as MCI (Scharff, 2005). The company has been a victim of bankruptcy because of its past structure that enabled the executives to work in such a way that any decisions made was not questioned neither were they contested. Such a system made most of the executive, management, and finance and accounting employees embezzle the company’s finances (Scharff, 2005). After the discovery and prosecution of the security irregularities, MCI made changes, but the first step was to fire all the executives, including the CEO, COO, CFO, Board of Governance, and approximately four hundred employees from the accounting and finance departments. The new CEO Michael Capellas then introduced new policies to help in conducting the code of ethics in the company (Jeter, 2003). The better means of achieving such was through the provision of training to the employees on work-related standards. Some of the ethics on the literature review are integrity, honor, and honesty. Part #1 Integrity Companies can only succeed if employees are trustworthy and incorrupt. Integrity builds one’s capabilities to resist corruption and commits themselves to the duty of company for maximum production and satisfaction. Part # 2 Discussion After the discovery of WorldCom’s mismanagement of funds, there was no one to accept the blame. Both the internal and external auditors declined the idea of know-how about the misappropriate use of resources. An example is of auditor Anderson, who was also part of the scandal claiming he could not have unveiled or noticed the embezzlement because he was never informed of the irregularities by the CFO Scott Sullivan (Scharff, 2005). Through the court’s investigation, there was the case of lack of integrity since most of the finance and accounting departments employees pleaded guilty with the claim of being influenced by the executives to cover up the accounting irregularities. The management team too had questions to answer since almost all the documentation and budgeting had to go through their desks (Jeter, 2003). Also, there was the case of the Board of Governors’ compensation rates to the CEO by Bernard Ebbers. It was evident he received a huge amount of loans amounting to four hundred billion U.S dollars from the board to help in covering the loans secured by WorldCom stock (Scharff, 2005). Also, there was evidence of the agreements between WorldCom and various banks concerning massive loans before the discovery of the accounting irregularities (Jeter, 2003). Due to lack of integrity, there were cases of corruption and cover-ups from the company’s accounting, finance, and management personnel. Part #1 Honor In business, honor is a term that best describes one’s commitment and dedication to his or her duty and profession. Dedication and commitment help the employee to achieve the position standards and also improve company production. Part #2 Discussion It is saddening at how the board and executive personnel misused their position and embezzled money from the company hence creating chaos for the company until it filed bankruptcy protection in 2012 (Scharff, 2005). The commitment to work and be productive lacked in the company since the embezzlement began from the top offices thereby making CEO and the Board to be the leaders of such acts (Jeter, 2003). There was an inadequate dedication of employees in various positions and in case there was a possibility of committing the crimes, the management involved some of the accounting and finance employees to help in the cover-up. For some reasons, it is good to understand honor but with the rate corruption in such an institution, it is hard to find the right accounts for these types of cases. To the finance and accounting employees who were influenced and used and later pleaded guilty to the offense, there is some sense of honor in them since they have taken responsibility for their action and agreed to the consequences (Jeter, 2003). Before the discovery of accounting irregularities, there was a sign of embezzlement through the decline of revenue and rate. The company too was in trouble since the debt rates were also increasing at a very high rate. To make matters worse, the internal auditor Anderson and an external auditor held a meeting to discuss the budget by the end of 2002 (Scharff, 2005). Their confirmation on the financial statement about capitalization of property assets and equipment accounts were false hence creating a situation of not honoring their duties as auditors. Part #1 Honesty An honest employee is one that is truthful to his or her commitment to the company and obeys the rule and regulation of the Institute. Also, he or she never participates in illegal activities that can compromise the company like theft and deceive other employees. Part #2 Discussion Honesty is the fundamental tool that helps in creating a better work relationship. But since most of the top ranked officials at WorldCom were dishonest they got themselves trapped in a series of crimes in the company. First, there was the case of massive compensation to the CEO, to help in the cover-ups of the margin calls on loans (Jeter, 2003). Th...