A letter to my former professor
The case presents a letter written in 2023 by a former MBA student to his/her professor of business ethics. It is based on a real story. The letter presents a situation of accounting fraud and also refers to the Enron accounting scandal discussed in IESE mini-case study: " Jeffrey Skilling, Bernie Madoff & the other smart guys of the room".
This document has three main objectives: a) to show the distorting psychological factors that can cause the failure of individuals and organizations supposed to control and prevent corporate misbehavior, b) highlighting the importance of an organizational culture and practice based on the virtues of justice and prudence, c) highlighting that dynamics associated with "cooking accounting numbers" are unfortunately relatively frequent in the business world.
The letter focuses on some psychological factors affecting the behavior of accounting professionals of two companies (Alpha, responsible for external accounting; Gamma, responsible for internal accounting) and their problematic personal and professional interactions with the customer's employees.
Collection: IESE (España)
Ref: BE-219-E
Number of pages: 2
Publication Date: Jul 12, 2023
Language: English
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Description
The case presents a letter written in 2023 by a former MBA student to his/her professor of business ethics. It is based on a real story. The letter presents a situation of accounting fraud and also refers to the Enron accounting scandal discussed in IESE mini-case study: " Jeffrey Skilling, Bernie Madoff & the other smart guys of the room".
This document has three main objectives: a) to show the distorting psychological factors that can cause the failure of individuals and organizations supposed to control and prevent corporate misbehavior, b) highlighting the importance of an organizational culture and practice based on the virtues of justice and prudence, c) highlighting that dynamics associated with "cooking accounting numbers" are unfortunately relatively frequent in the business world.
The letter focuses on some psychological factors affecting the behavior of accounting professionals of two companies (Alpha, responsible for external accounting; Gamma, responsible for internal accounting) and their problematic personal and professional interactions with the customer's employees.
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Year: 2023
Geographic Setting: Hong Kong, China, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates
Industry Setting: Services and manintenance
Learning Objective
This mini case was wrote to open the first year business ethics course for MBAs, EMBAs GEMBAs, etc. It can also be used in courses about organizational behavior, leadership, managerial decision-making, etc.
In addition to the aforementioned broad objectives there are a lot of issues that can be explored during class discussion:
1. The consequences at individual and corporate level of the illegal and immoral behavior pursued by top managers.
2. How responsible leaders should react in situations of slippery slope and other cognitive biases associated with white-collar crime.
3. The importance of preventive measures instead of traditional reactive policies (e.g. attention in hiring processes about psychological profiles, stressing the importance of justice and prudence, etc.)
4. Actions and policies to adopt at individual and organizational level whenever there is a reasonable suspect about serious managerial misbehavior.
Professors
Academic Institutions
Individuals