Introduction
It is not uncommon to find many organizations entangled by different administrative and managerial issues that are quite detrimental to the operations of the business. This is because different individuals use different methods to manage their areas of specialization. Selfish ambitions of people are dangerous to the organization because this will lead to the downfall of the company in the long run as it happened with Enron. The managerial staff of this company used their position to learn the techniques of crime and implemented their selfish desires by swindling the company’s money deceitfully. An analysis of various factors that determine the behaviors of individuals that cause them to commit white-collar crimes is extensively discussed in this paper. Mitigation measures of such kinds of crimes are also covered at the end of the discussion.
The film Enron
The film Enron illustrates several propositions of Sutherland’s theory. Some of the notable propositions are that crime is learned. Many officials in this company who committed the criminal offense learned it from a source. Interactions between the management were the key tool that was used to pass information from one person to the other, who got involved in the scandal. It is also important to note that, the main plans of the criminal activity occurred within those people who had a more intimate friendship than the rest. The criminal behavior was learned through interactions and communication. This also enabled the learning of the technical techniques. Last but not least, the criminal activities occurred as rituals and thus were viewed as values by the company’s management.
Market
In simple terms, a market is a place where people meet or gather to sell or buy commodities. In other words, a market is a group of buyers and sellers who have come together to buy or sell something. A market that is composed of many buyers and sellers is known as a liquid market. For instance, the stock market is a good example of a liquid market. This means that the more buyers and sellers, the more liquid the market is. It must be understood that the market for shares of a small company is not as liquid as that of a large company. This means that a large company like Enron is a more liquid company by virtue of its size.
Deregulation is a mechanism that employs particular parameters which are meant to ease the operations of different market forces. The government usually removes or simplifies its regulations to stop constraining business operations. It is however important to understand that this process does not completely remove the regulations but rather, it reduces the force that the government uses to control the way business is done. Thus, it is important to understand the differences between deregulation and liberalization in order not to confuse the two.
Deregulation affects the market in such a way that it can bring about unfriendly retail prices. This can lead to the undermining of the supply of affected products. On the flip side of it, deregulation forms the first step in creating a free market, especially in the affected commodities. This is because the ease of control measures is good for competition that allows a wider consumer choice in the market.
The social disorganization theory is directly related to ecological theories. Thus, the locality of an individual or a business institution is an important factor that determines their character in the market. This means that an organization can commit a crime due to wanting social structures that include the environment in which it operates. One of the reasons that caused Enron to commit a crime, in which they altered the account statements of the company to deceive the investors that all was well, was because of the environment in which they were operating.
Corporate culture
Corporate culture is the laid down structures within a business organization that allow clients with the perfect job to have a good experience in the organization. This culture is the one that determines whether the working environment is good or not. A potential employee may shun a particular company simply because of the informal negative statements that are said of that organization. Another organization may have a good reputation that will encourage potential employees to apply for vacant positions. It is therefore important for a company to encourage their employees to keep the corporate culture in mind every time they interact with clients and other organizations (Kotter & Heskett 1992).
Deviance is known as the violation of conventional norms. An individual or an organization may fail to conform to the corporate cultures present in working environments. However, it is important to note that this kind of deviance differs from one culture to another. This is because some deviance may be considered inappropriate in one culture but appropriate in another one (Benson 1985). Enron management practiced a lot of deceit in that it falsified behaviors by concealing the truth to mislead others. It is pretty evident that the management used this method for a long time for the purpose of selfish gains. Enron management was therefore accustomed to the ritual of self-gain (Sweeney 2011).
Organizational rituals are those rituals that can be used to maintain or develop a healthy working environment for efficient business operations. In the business world, rituals should not be viewed as a signal of psychological problems. It is important for any organization that aims at globalizing its operations to use the knowledge of the past positively so as to maximize the chances of success in the future operations of the business (Ulsperger & Knottnerus, n. d.).
The three organizational rituals at Enron are mainly centered on deceit, self-gain and allegorical depiction. The ritual of deceit involved falsifying behavior in order to conceal the truth and mislead others. The ritual of self-gain was demonstrated by their sexual benefits. The allegorical depictions used by Enron involved the use of fictional stories and characters to represent a real event.
A degradation ceremony is a situation whereby some kind of communicative work is meant to transform the individuality of a person to a lower level. This mechanism is used by the media to expose the offenders who have committed a particular crime. This actually helps in controlling white-collar crime. Thus, it can work as a mechanism to control the crime rate in the business world. This brings about the aspect of neutralization theory in which an organization may drift between conventional values to deviant norms. Thus, it helps the organization not to involve itself in criminal activities all the time.
Managing corporate crime
Business operations are responsible to the public and the shareholders. This means that they need to take care of employees and the assets of their companies. Thus, the directors should make huge bonuses only when the company can pay all the employees a bonus. The government must also act by imposing tougher legislation and effective implementation of these regulations (Gordon & Coneybeer, n. d.). Greed must be eliminated by all means to mitigate the exploitation of employees and shareholders. Corporate crimes compare pretty well with organized criminal groups in many ways. These ways are mainly synchronized by the three ways in which Enron criminalized its operations. Thus, organized criminal groups operate for selfish gains, deceit, and concealing the truth. The difference comes only by way of business operations. Organized criminal groups do not operate openly and their operations are not licensed. On the other hand, white-collar criminal activities operate within a licensed organization and they are pretty open, much more organized and harder to comprehend.
Conclusion
It is not uncommon to find many organizations entangled by different administrative and managerial issues that are quite detrimental to the operations of the business. This is because different individuals use different methods to manage their areas of specialization. The Enron Scandal attracted a lot of critics’ sentiments. It even led to the shooting of the movie ‘Enron’. A quick analysis of factors that contribute to such kinds of white-collar criminal activities includes a short study of the market, shareholders, organizational rituals, corporate culture, and mitigation measures.
Reference List
Benson, M. (1985). Denying The Guilty Mind: Accounting For Involvement In A White Collar Crime. America Society of Criminology.
Gordon, R. & Coneybeer, I. (Not Dated). Morality And The Criminal Law: Corporate crime.
Kotter, J. & Hesket, J. (1992). Corporate Culture And Performance. New York: Kotter Associates, Inc.
Sweeney, P. (2011). Will new regulations deter corporate fraud? New regulations and ongoing concerns about globalization point to stepped-up oversight for financial institutions and lenders. But uncovering fraud remains a titanic task. Even with new measures, preventing those determined to commit fraud will remain difficult. “Financial Executive 27.1 (2001): 54+. Academic OneFile. Web.
Ulsperger, J. & Knottnerus, J. (Not Dated). Enron: Organizational Rituals as Deviance. Chapter 45.