Discussion Notes
1.
Answers will vary. Enron whistle-blowers would have had an easier time in an adaptive organization culture where management values individuals—customers, shareholders, and employees alike. In an adaptive organizational culture, managers would have been open to changing processes within the company that would have made it easier for employees to report wrongdoing. Employees who tried to come forward were either ignored or harassed because the culture was nonadaptive, with management protecting itself at the expense of others, including employees and shareholders.
2.
Enron’s espoused values—what the organization said it valued—were respect, integrity, communication, and excellence. Its enacted values—the way the organization actually behaved—appear to have been greed, deceit, and misleading its employees, investors, and customers with off-the-books financial reporting.
3.
Leaders create or strengthen the corporate culture by how they behave, what they deem important, how they reward people, how they deal with employees, and how they respond to crises. The behavior of Enron’s top leaders modeled a culture of greed and focus on self—what’s in my best interest instead of what’s in the best interest of the organization. They focused on covering up facts with off-thebooks reporting instead of providing employees and investors with a clear, honest look at the company’s performance. They rewarded themselves—walking away with millions in assets—at the expense of their employees and investors, many of whom were financially devastated by the company’s bankruptcy.