Buy an essay: Can Poor Decisions Be Blamed on Attitudes, Assumptions, and Beliefs?

Today, the development of the contemporary business is closely intertwined with numerous scandals related to the poor accounting or violation of existing legal and ethical norms by companies in the field of accounting. In this regard, it is worth mentioning scandals involving large companies, such as Enron, AIG and others. In actuality, the problem of poor accounting is closely intertwined with business ethics because many companies to hide their actual financial position to maintain its position in the financial market, whereas top executives attempt to maximize their revenues, even in the time when their company is sinking down rapidly. In this regard, the issue of morality can be extrapolated on the issue of legality of some operations because the violation of ethical norms often leads to the violation of legal norms. In such a situation, the attitude of people to their business practices is particularly important because often people think about themselves, their own needs and wants, and only after that they may consider needs and wants of other people and the world at large. In such a way, the high level of individualism and focus on one’s own interests and needs lead to the ignorance of interests of other stakeholders and violation of ethical norms along with the violation of legal norms.
On analyzing the development of the contemporary business environment, it is worth mentioning the fact that the modern society is the highly individualistic society. What is meant here is the fact that people, including policy makers and top executives of large corporations are focused on their own needs and wants, they are concerned with their own well-being. At this point, it is important to distinguish three categories which define the attitude of people to business and policies they use in their business practices. These three categories include interests of other people, interests of the society or the world, and interests of policy makers or owners of companies themselves. All these categories are equally important but the attitude of people to these categories and their ranging define the policies they conduct in their business.
To put it more precisely, the contemporary business involves a large number of stakeholders and affects consistently the society. Therefore, business cannot ignore interests and needs of stakeholders as well as the society at large, including the impact of business on the environment, socioeconomic development of the world, and so on. At the same time, people are naturally concerned with their own needs and interests. They do want to live in prosperity, to be wealth and to succeed in their life. As a result, they build up their own system of values, in which they put their own interests and needs on the first place, whereas the needs of other people and the world are secondary. In some cases, interests and needs of other people and the world do not matter at all (Cameron, 222). At this point, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the contemporary business ethics implies the social responsibilities of companies along with growing environmental concerns of the contemporary business. What is meant here is the fact that owners and top executives of companies should conduct socially responsible policies and provide their employees with reliable compensation plans.
However, often modern companies ignore needs and interests of their workers, shareholders, and other stakeholders. In this respect, it is possible to refer to the case of Enron, which was one of the most successful companies of the US. When the scandal has struck, the company proved to be concerned with interests of top executives only. Enron’s top executives hided information concerning the actual financial position of the company. At the same time, they obtained substantial financial compensation when the ruin of the company became inevitable. In such a situation, they put their interests about interests of their employees and other stakeholders because employees failed to obtain any compensation after the ruin of Enron. Thus, when Enron ran bankrupt, top executives obtained maximum benefits, whereas employees and shareholders got nothing. At this point, it is important to stress that the bankruptcy of Enron affected the financial market of the US that means that the national economy and the society at large was affected by the scandal concerning Enron.
In such a situation, the attitude of top executives to business reveals the high level of individualism in the contemporary business environment. Policy makers, who are top executives and owners of businesses, are concerned with their own interests solely, whereas needs and wants of employees, clients, shareholders, and the world at large are ignored. At this point, it is worth reminding the disaster in the Mexican Gulf on the oil platform belonging to BP, which proved that benefits of the company were more important than environmental safety concerns.
Therefore, the contemporary business is highly individualistic and interests of other people and the world are secondary for owners of business and top executives of companies. As a result, accounting scandals are frequent in the contemporary business environment because top executives violate existing ethical norms in the pursuit of wealth and prosperity. However, they often forget about the fact that the violation of fundamental principles of morality, basic ethical norms and rules is closely intertwined with the violation of existing legal norms (Belasen, 146). Therefore, top executives and policy makers often face a risk of legal liability in case of the violation of legal norms. At this point, it is important to stress that often policy makers start with the violation of ethical norms but they cannot stop in pursuit of their own wealth and steadily they slip from the violation of ethical norms to the violation of legal norms. In addition, ethical norms often have the legal framework and their violation implies the violation of existing legal norms.
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is important to place emphasis on the fact that the contemporary business environment suffers from the ongoing violation of basic ethical norms and moral principles. The violation of ethical norms often leads to the violation of legal norms. In such a situation, policy makers should pay more attention to needs and wants of other people, stakeholders and the world at large, instead of focusing entirely on their own interests. In such a way, policy makers will conduct responsible policies and prevent accounting and other scandals emerging frequently in the contemporary business environment.

Works Cited
Belasen, A.T. Leading The Learning Organization: communication and competencies for managing change. State University Of New York Press, 2008.
Cameron, K.S. et al. Competeting Values Leadership: Creating Value In Organizations. New York: Edward Elgar, 2009.