Business Ethics - The Enron Scandal universal ethics point of view- Case Study

Business Ethics - The Enron Scandal universal ethics point of view- - Case Study Example The accounting fraud that would eventually come to be known as the Enron scandal was a creative, institutional, and systematic plan (Malcolm, 2008). Parties that took part in concealing Enron’s real financial condition were well known to the company. In this respect, the bid to address the underlying situation becomes an institutional process. To start with, the company’s corporate governance had failed. Instead of hiding this failure, stakeholders could have been consulted on ways to foster and enhance corporate governance. By virtue of business operations, shareholders and all other stakeholders for that matter deserved to know the actual direction that the company was taking. Board effectiveness, qualification, integrity, responsibility, and accountability were highly questionable. These aspects only came to light at a time when it was impossible to salvage the company. Given that business operations are profit-driven and that profits can undoubtedly attract unethical practices, there was need to vet and audit board operations from time to time. In so doing, the underlying issues were set to be identified before it was too late. The situation can, therefore, be addressed by taking measures to ensure that the company does not run independent of shareholders and other interested stakeholders. Conflicting interests were highly evident in the Enron case. Arthur Andersen played two roles in Enron; that of an auditor and that of a consultant (Malcolm, 2008). The direct implication is that one role relatively jeopardized the other, given that the same party undertook both roles. This situation stands to be addressed by ensuring that the two roles are handled by two independent parties. Ultimately, the management is to blame. This is because it downplayed the underlying risks of having an auditing firm that still offered consultation services to the same company. Financial entities that maintained an off-book relationship