Unethical Business Conduct (Essay Sample)

Unethical Business Conduct
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Unethical Business Conduct
Unethical business conduct occurs when a business is involved in practices that are considered unethical such as been involved in acts that are deceptive, tricky or dishonest towards other parties (Costa, 1999). Business ethics has both normative and descriptive dimensions. The quality of business ethics issues reflects the interaction of profit maximizing behavior with non economic concerns (Costa, 1999). Government laws are enforced to ensure that the businesses are not involved in unethical behavior towards their customers.
It is unethical practice to commit security fraud and conspiracy to inflate profits. This was the main act that greatly affected the Enron Company that was involved in the sale of oil (Robert , 2012). Through this, a company deceives the investors and employees about their disastrous financial position while making sales for the company's shares. By doing this, the top level management is responsible of violating the accounting laws and legal actions should be taken against the named company. This unethical action is only short term with the aim of satisfying the desires of the management and make huge profits over a short period of time while ignoring the repercussions to the investors, employees and the business itself (Costa, 1999). The behavior of cheating on the business accounts can lead to the bankruptcy of a business entity as it was the case of Enron Company (Robert , 2012).
Parties affected
Stakeholders
Enron's bankruptcy negatively affected and injured the parties that were working with them such as the banks, stockholders, customers and suppliers. These parties suffered financial loss as a result of the misconducts of the company (Robert , 2012).
Employees
As a result of closure of the company, most people who were employed in the company lost their jobs and as a result their lives were significantly affected. Many employees had their entire pension vested in Enron stock (Robert , 2012). In addition, the lives and savings of employees were destroyed and were deprived of the freedom to diversify their retirement portfolios. This was because their savings had evaporated as the top managers cashed in on their lucrative stock options.
Investors and Stockholders
As a result of Enron unethical act, individual and institutional investors lost millions of dollars because they were misinformed about the firm's financial performance reality through questionable accounting practices, and all the shareholders lost the money they had invested in the corporation after it went bankrupt (Costa, 1999). Shareholders lost about $11 billion while investors who were involved underwent terrible experiences with the Enron Company (Robert , 2012).
How the unethical behavior could be prevented
To prevent this scandal, the ethical cultures must be well fortified so that the employees, customers, suppliers and the investors may have higher degrees of satisfaction and loyalty (Costa, 1999). Ethics should be looked from both moral rights and justice view. The right to employees to reject any unethical action by the company should be encouraged at all levels and practiced when necessary. This will ensure that the rights of employees are protected.
Also, people should be treated impartially and fairly in the working environments. The rules and the standards set by the government, governing all the working conditions and responsibilities should be adhered to completely. To ensure that the rules of the organization ar...