Carlton Vogt, ethics columnist for InfoWorld, has some good thoughts on the Enron scandal and how it occured.
The danger in analyzing this particular scandal is that we can be misled by the obvious. There are some actions that are so egregious — the document shredding at Arthur Andersen and Enron, for example — that we may focus on them and ignore the fact that the entire system is corrupted and corrupting.
Certainly, we should hold individuals accountable for what they did wrong, and we probably will punish some, although many others will wiggle away, hiding behind the skirts of high-priced lawyers and political connections. But we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that they did what they did because the current system allowed it. In fact, the system encouraged it.
The system is the real culprit. The individuals involved, while still wrongdoers, were only accomplices.
What’s been really interesting about the Enron scandal is that, aside from the White House’s tapdancing routine (leavened by Bush, at the least, expressing anger over how Enron’s employees were treated), there’s been a bipartisan hue and cry over the whole thing.
My biggest concern is that, especially as it deals with accounting matters, the public’s eyes will soon glaze over, some show trials will let the main perps off, and we’ll just go back to business as usual.
Which, as Enron demonstrates, is not a good thing.