Business Failure

Business Failure

Lorraine M. Sievers

University of Phoenix Online

Examining a Business Failure

Ethical Integrity is doing what is right and fair concerning people dealing with people. Corporations should make an effort to identify individuals and institutions that exemplify good work, work that is excellent in quality, socially responsible and meaningful to its practitioners and to determine how best to increase the good work in society. Most companies have a Code of Ethics in place to aid them in doing so.

WorldCom

The need for ethical decision-making has become increasingly evident in today’s business environment. In the case of WorldCom, a national company, which provided long-distance telephone services, it is hard to determine where the problem began. Financial reports were falsely created, improper accounting practices were found, and securities fraud was prevalent throughout the corporation’s top executives. Leadership in top executive positions; CEO, CFO, board of directors have to take responsibility for their actions. They need to perform a reality check and demonstrate long-range vision for their actions before they affect more than just themselves.

WorldCom executed some major accounting misrepresentations that fraudulently covered up the financial condition of the organization to a great extent. WorldCom’s accounting practices were accomplished in a mundane way. Assets were put at $104 billion and debts were $32 billion, making this the biggest bankruptcy ever in corporate history, it was twice as large as energy company Enron's filing in late 2001 and four times as big as WorldCom's in February 2002 (2009). The primary reason behind WorldCom’s collapse and filing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy was fraud, accounting misstatements, and failure on behalf of the board of directors. The driving force responsible for this fraud was the business strategy of Bernie Ebbers, WorldCom's CEO. During the 1990s, Bernie Ebbers stayed more...