Norm-Based Behavior and Corporate Malpractice

摘要

Jeffrey Skilling held high-level posts in Enron until a few months before it filed for bankruptcy at the end of 2001. When he was a master's degree student at Harvard, one of his professors asked him what he would do if he knew the company he worked for were selling products harmful to its customers' health. Skilling apparently answered: "I'd keep making and selling the product. My job as a businessman is to be a profit center and to maximize return to the shareholders" (Fusaro and Miller 2002, 28). Even if this is nothing more than an MBA student's opinion, it is making the "right" point "to a certain extent": companies are not philanthropic societies and raising profits is one of an entrepreneur's main targets. However, when we look at the question, Skilling's answer is rather disturbing.