ABOUT ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR TOPIC - Term Paper Example

In this book, McLean and Elkind investigate deeper about the Enron scandal and the fascinating people behind it. In trying to understand the concept of Organization behavior, this book becomes vital and especially the understanding the factors that lead to the fall of Enron. First of all, let’s define and understand the concept of organization behavior (McLean & Elkind, 15). Organization behavior Organizational behavior is a field of study that focuses on the impact an individual, group and structures have on behavior within a firm.

These behaviors are applied towards improving the effective development of an organization. Organization behavior is an interdisciplinary field that comprise of communication, psychology, sociology and management. In addition, it complements human resource and organizational theory. The increasing global competition has ensured a strong and effective organization behavior in organizations (Duncan, 78). Organization’s activities of the 21st Century are basically performed in communication with top management.

This is true especially when varieties of views are required during decision making process (Hellriegel and John, 90). Decision making is not subject to the individual perceptions of human resource manager or the general management team; rather it is an outcome of strategic consensus (Duncan, 190). The importance of organization behavior to any organization is inevitable and the main goals and objectives of organization behavior include; attracting new employees and contribution to employee development.

In trying to understand the concept of organization behavior, this paper focuses the rise and the fall of Enron Company (Hellriegel and John, 70). The organization behavior model that is discussed in this paper and the book at large is ethical leadership. Therefore, let’s define ethical leadership and then discuss how the concept of ethical leadership-as an organizational model-was revealed in the case of Enron. Ethical leadership In the recent times, there has been a lot of concern about ethical leadership within the corporate business, not forgetting the numerous scandals at Enron, Parmalat, WorldCom and big Irish banks such as Allied Irish Bank (AIB) and National Irish Bank (NIB (Trevino & Weaver, 77).

The problems and devastation that resulted from accounting fraud at the investment company operated by Bernard Madoff will not fade from people’s memory, nor will the frauds from Enron be forgotten. This has threatened the position of senior management in the respective companies and has also put the financial survival of these companies in jeopardy (Hellriegel and John, 165). Before discussing what motivated the unethical behaviors as witnessed in Enron, let focus on the firm itself. ENRON’S BACKGROUND Enron was formed in the year 1986 following the merger of natural gas pipeline companies Intermorth and Houston Natural Gas (Fox, 12).

Fifteen years later after the formation, the company had diversified to produce products and services related to electricity, natural gas and communications (Fox, 15). By the time Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection was being implemented in 2nd December 2001, Enron operations included the transportation of natural gas through pipelines, transmission and distribution of electricity, development and operations of power plants that generates energy, and delivery and management of energy capabilities and commodities to