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Ethical & Social Responsibility: WorldCom Case Study

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Identify the ethical and social responsibility issues that impact WorldCom.
Analyze the impact that these factors have on management planning.

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Solution Summary

Using the fallen giant telecommunications company WorldCom as a case study, the solution provides an extensive debate on social & ethical responsibilities of corporate leadership to the general public, shareholders and the human capital the company harnessed. It looks at the way social & ethical responsibility impacts management planning & analyzes the WorldCom corporate practice put in place by Ebbers & Co. presenting a case study on the relation of ethics, management planning & leadership.

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Dear Student,

Below is an essay that analyses the events at WorldCom & its impact on social responsibility as well as a reflection on the errors of management. Good Luck!

OTA 105878
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World Com Leadership Corruption

One can easily surmise that Bernie Ebbers' biggest mistake that led to the collapse of WorldCom was in the fact that he forgot about the core of his business and used it solely for trading purposes, as gamblers would with their properties. For Ebbers after his first acquisition, building a successful business was all about becoming bigger & bigger by buy-outs. He neglected that leadership is all about directing & controlling as well as guiding growth. One can even compare his folly at that of a child bent on getting all the toys he was all about collecting, never really getting to enjoy the uniqueness of each. Maximizing the full potential of the businesses of the behemoth he created was something he left to the managers, sub-managers & employees. As such, his company became the opposite of what it was meant to be: systems between subsidiaries do not match. Communication between heads of subsidiaries were limited, Chaos reigned supreme. While they could have offered a seamless experience to their customers with accounts handled properly due to the variety of products & services they could finally offer, this was not what happened.

Sadly, Ebbers & the board did not see this coming. Fine tuning how their organization communicated & worked was not in the works. Money & growth was all about power & influence due to ownership of various companies that acquired, hence the stock rose & played well in Wall Street. In the meantime, fraternization & book fixing became standard practice. In Ebbers' WorldCom, favourite executives and employees are given monetary loans & gifts to keep their loyalty while lawyers & accountants turned a blind eye at the financial transactions that are ultimately illegal. As one eyewitness describe - it was a lot like being part of a gang. Banks & financial advisers instead of pointing out anomalies even arranged for more funding. Transparency ...

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Xenia Rochelle Jones, MA, PhD (IP)
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  • MA, Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
  • Certificate, Geva Ulpan (via Universita Tel Aviv)
  • BA, University of the Philippines
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