How Corporations Bury Ethical Problems
Several businesses often face ethical dilemmas. These dilemmas may arise from; the behavior of the business employees to one another and the public, and the interaction between the business management and its employees. Businesses are therefore compelled to react in certain ways so that the ethical dilemma does not lead to negative publicity for the business. The purpose of this paper is to identify how the Catholic Church and Enron have buried their ethical problems in the past.
The Catholic Church has in the past faced criticism following the rampant cases of sexual abuse by their priests. In 2002, Cardinal Egan, a former Archbishop of New York reacted to the claims of sexual abuse by priests that occurred in the Diocese of Bridgeport by referring to the acts as “ mistakes.” He provided an apology which was interpreted by most people to be conditional and was considered a cover-up by the Catholic Church. The top leadership of the church has also been accused of ignoring the reports and evading public exposure by shuffling the accused priests to different parishes. The climax of the cover-up has also been seen in the defensive remarks by Pope Francis.
The documentary, Enron, talks about the corporate scandal that hit Enron business. The top executives had disappeared with over one million dollars. The senior management of the company created a fraudulent energy crisis. The top management of the business was suspected of having created the crisis in preparation for the discovery of the fraud. The management also misrepresented the earnings reports to investors. They were able to continue hiding the true financial condition of the company.
In conclusion, the Catholic Church and Enron have both used cover-up when dealing with ethical dilemmas in their organization. The method is however not effective since they were both discovered and it only worsened the publicity of the business.