In this paper, the writer will evaluate the planning function of management within Arthur Andersen. Specifically, the paper will discuss at least one legal, ethical, and social responsibility issue that impacts Arthur Andersen. Additionally, this paper will analyze the impact these factors have on Arthur Andersen’s management planning. Finally, this paper will analyze at least three factors that influence Arthur Andersen’s strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency planning. The firm of Arthur Andersen LLP was founded in 1913 by Arthur Andersen and Clarence DeLany and named Andersen, DeLany & Co. The firm later changed its name to Arthur Andersen & Co. in 1918. Arthur Andersen LLP, based in Chicago, Illinois, was one of …show more content…
Enron was one of Andersen’s largest customers that relied on the Arthur Andersen’s firm for accounting, auditing, and consulting advice. Arthur Andersen violated its legal responsibility when company officials directed employees to shred all documents relating to the Enron audits, after its lawyers determined an SEC investigation into their accounting practices was inevitable. As it turned out, this had a very adverse effect on the firm’s ability to continue practicing, its reputable reputation was publicly dismantled, and led to the eventual collapse of the firm. This impacted its management planning because the firm initially adhered to the company’s file retention policy, but only destroyed the Enron documents when it knew these documents will become potentially damaging to the firm. The firm knew of its legal obligation and shoul have followed the legal guidance that would have prevented the destruction of documents having knowledge of of the potential or impending litigation.
Ethical Issue As an objective auditor, Arthur Andersen violated its own fundamental ethical responsibilities by overlooking and allowing questionable accounting practices to dominate it operations. Arthur Andersen had an ethical repossibility to challenging these practices and even if it meant losing a valued customer and financially lucrative business opportunities. The firm showed a total lack of integrity and violated every rule of ethics governing the
Arthur Anderson Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) was established in 1913 into the Accounting industry. They offered tax, consulting, and, auditing services to large corporations everywhere. Their headquarters were located in Chicago, Illinois and eventually had over 85,000 employees in 84 different countries (Collins, 2016). By the 1990’s Arthur Andersen had become one of the largest accounting firms, and was recognized as one of the “big five.” Along with being one of the largest accounting firms Arthur Andersen was also one of the most reputable. There were many factors that distinguished Arthur Andersen from other accounting firms, and the most notable were the honesty and integrity Arthur Andersen had established for the company (Moore & Crampton, 2000). Andersen set high standards which in turn resulted in the growth of their prestige. Many companies came to Arthur Andersen because of the trust it had established in the public and in the accounting Industry. One of the ways Arthur Andersen established their reputation was through their organizational structure and the culture of the company.
When auditing a publicly held company, auditors need to observe principles. The ethical principles of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Code of
Without a question the BOD should have placed a high degree of reliance on Andersen, which at the time was one of the most prestigious worldwide accounting firms. The auditors should have known the kind of accounting taking place in Enron. In my opinion, Andersen knew, at least to some extent, the company’s financial condition. However, Enron was already too deep under water that blowing the whistle so late would have created problems for Andersen as well. According to the case, on 02/05/01, Andersen held internal meeting during which it addressed the company’s accounting from and oversight of the LJM partnership. Andersen never discussed these concerns with the Audit and Compliance Committee. Although the BOD has its faults, it should have been able to rely on Andersen’s work.
Arthur Andersen (AA) contributed to the Enron disaster when it has failed to the management by failing to have Enron establish and enforce its own internal control. There has been flaws to AA‘s internal control. There has been assumption that AA partners were too motivated by revenue recognition thus, overlooking several criteria when providing their services to Enron. Additionally, AA also recognised the retention of audit clients as vital and a loss of any clients would be disadvantaged to an auditor’s career. In AA internal control, the person who is able to make most of the decisions is the person who is most concerned about the revenue or losses of the client’s company.
Between the years 2000 and 2002 there were over a dozen corporate scandals involving unethical corporate governance practices. The allegations ranged from faulty revenue reporting and falsifying financial records, to the shredding and destruction of financial documents (Patsuris, 2002). Most notably, are the cases involving Enron and Arthur Andersen. The allegations of the Enron scandal went public in October 2001. They included, hiding debt and boosting profits to the tune of more than one billion dollars. They were also accused of bribing foreign governments to win contacts and manipulating both the California and Texas power markets (Patsuris, 2002). Following these allegations, Arthur Andersen was investigated for, allegedly,
Accountants are held to a higher ethical standards and they must performed their duties in compliance with standards or ethical values of honesty, integrity, objectivity, due care, confidentiality, which must be fully committed to. They must put clients or public interest first before their own. They must have and ethical values and maintain those values way beyond what the society or the company’s code of ethic. It is important that accountants’ behavior or ethical values is in conformity with the
In 1913, the company Arthur Andersen started by Arthur Andersen and Clarence Delany by the name of Andersen, Delany, & Co. In 1918, it was given the name Arthur Andersen & Co. The company supplied tax, consulting services and auditing for the large business, and itself had a position in the "Big Five" accounting firms. In 2002, this firm was found guilty for auditing an energy corporation, Enron and it surrendered back its rights of auditing. This led to Enron 's bankruptcy and loss of 85,000 jobs.
With any company, organization, or corporation the first phase of any management is planning. This phase is very important to any company because many different planning functions and each planning function create a standard for each of its employees to follow. This paper will discuss the planning functions of management while looking at the Boeing Company. While looking at the different planning functions, this paper will also discuss and identify legal, ethical, and social responsibilities that impact Boeing. It will also show some factors that influence Boeings strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency planning. Boeing can be considered the
It is difficult to understand how an auditing company would give unqualified opinion when knowing that their client is committing fraud. Floyd Norris explained in the article that according to the SEC, “Andersen knew that WMI was exaggerating its profits throughout the early and mid-1990 's, and repeatedly pleaded with the company to make changes” (2001). However, for over five years, nothing changed. The real question is what prevented Andersen from revealing the fraud? This situation can be analyzed based on three different ethical principles: the imperative principle, principle of utilitarianism, and virtue ethic principle.
On June 15, 2002, Arthur Andersen was convicted of obstruction of justice for shredding documents related to Enron’s audit which resulted in the Enron scandal. The impact of the scandal combined with the findings of criminal complicity ultimately destroyed the Arthur Andersen LLP. The company was accused of destroying thousands of Enron documents that included not only physical documents, but also computer files and Email files. By giving it the role of consultant along with their original role as external auditors, Enron made Arthur Andersen LLP a key player in Enron auditing.
In this paper, the writer will evaluate the planning function of management within Arthur Andersen. Specifically, the paper will discuss at least one legal, ethical, and social responsibility issue that impacts Arthur Andersen. Additionally, this paper will analyze the impact these factors have on Arthur Andersen’s management planning. Finally, this paper will analyze at least three factors that influence Arthur Andersen’s strategic, tactical, operational, and contingency planning.
Traditionally, along with leading, organizing and controlling, planning is one of the main functions of management. As a function, planning has to answer five questions; where does the company want to go, why they want to go there, how they will arrive at their destination, what is needed to go there and finally, how they will know when they have reached their goal. In this paper I will explore how Tyco International, Ltd. has used the planning function to recover from a scandal and to begin again to build a new future. Planning is the foundation that lays out the goals of a company however; factors such as ethics, technology, legal issues and social responsibilities that can have direct
Needed for the Houston office of Andersen, an audit partner that understands the role of being a "public watchdog" with "ultimate allegiance to the creditors and shareholders" . Arthur Anderson abandoned its roles as independent auditor by turning a blind eye to improper accounting, including the failure to consolidate, failure of Enron to make $51million in proposed adjustments in 1997, and failure to adequately disclose the nature of transactions with subsidiaries . Another example is Lord Wakeham joined Enron as a non-executive director in 1994 and also sat on Enron's audit and compliance committee. In addition, Andersen also provides internal audit service to Enron, which in fact impact
Planning is one of the most critical functions of management an organization can use to accomplish its mission. Halliburton was founded in 1919 and is one of the largest providers of products and services to the energy industry, with a workforce of almost 50,000 people in over 70 countries. Their home office is located in Houston, Texas and they have been leaders in the energy services and engineering and construction (E&C) industries for almost a century. This paper will evaluate the planning function of management, discuss the factors that influence management planning, and analyze several factors that affect different types of planning within Halliburton.
WorldCom acquired Arthur Andersen as the independent external auditing for the company. As WorldCom grew after the merger with MCI, Andersen began to invoice less than they should have. The charges were defended as an opportunity to prolong business with WorldCom. (Kaplan and Kiron, 2007). This is an immediate red flag for a company. Where were the ethical practices of the independent auditor? If the auditor has no ethics, how can one possibly be assured that the company is performing its intended function appropriately? The board of directors should have immediately been informed of Andersen’s practices and made a decision to confront Andersen’s practices and possibly obtain new independent auditors.