Ethical Leadership Given the recent crash on Wall Street and the housing market symbolized by corrupt financiers like Bernard Madoff, ethical and moral leadership of corporations has become a major issue for those who study the American capitalist system. In reality, such concerns about the lack of morality in business, government and society as a while has increased significantly in the last thirty years, which undoubtedly has been an era that

370). On the subject of shareholders and adverse publicity, in the book Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance, the authors mention how much investors / shareholders "hate" surprises, in particular when the surprises are caused by the "unethical behavior of senior managers…" (Zimmerli, et al., 2007, p. 155). In today's mass media environment it is a sure thing that some blogger, local newspaper reporter or national cable news talking head is

Madoff and the Ethics of Business The author's viewpoint is objective and factual: it relates the episode in history regarding Bernie Madoff's "ponzi scheme" and shows how he was able to pull it off for so long, essentially lying to all of his clients, regardless of their individual worth and/or fame (Stanwick, Stanwick, p. 258). The major issue presented in this case is the lack of transparency that Madoff showed (a major

Corporate Accountability The corporate scandals of the last fifteen years have brought the issue of corporate accountability to new light, adopting at times a center-stage discussion. When the Bernie Madoff scandal broke, many professionals turned to the accounting department at Madoff Securities along with the auditors who had audited the firm before. Madoff was the one who admitted to stealing $50 billion dollars during the decades that his firm was

It appears that little will change under Obama, with the appointed head of the SEC, Mary Schapiro, similarly concerned with protecting Wall Street sharks. James Petras (2008) similarly believes that Madoff's failure is not a personal one, but a failure of the current social, political and economic justice. In addition to an economic culture that most favors the very rich, Petras also believes that the SEC and its actions are

Business Ethics - Contemporary Case 2: Madoff's Investment Firm The investment Ponzi scheme of Bernie Madoff and his hedge fund for wealthy clients was a major violation of ethics by Madoff, as he showed a severe lack of transparency (hiding his actions and never divulging how his trades were profitable) and a consistent habit of lying to clients by using one's fund to pay off another. Madoff's investment firm was essentially