The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse - by Marianne M Jennings (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Do you want to make sure you
- Don't invest your money in the next Enron?
- Don't go to work for the next WorldCom right before the crash?
- Identify and solve problems in your organization before they send it crashing to the ground?

Marianne Jennings has spent a lifetime studying business ethics---and ethical failures. In demand nationwide as a speaker and analyst on business ethics, she takes her decades of findings and shows us in The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse the reasons that companies and nonprofits undergo ethical collapse, including:
- Pressure to maintain numbers
- Fear and silence
- Young 'uns and a larger-than-life CEO
- A weak board
- Conflicts
- Innovation like no other
- Belief that goodness in some areas atones for wrongdoing in others

Don't watch the next accounting disaster take your hard-earned savings, or accept the perfect job only to find out your boss is cooking the books. If you're just interested in understanding the (not-so) ethical underpinnings of business today, The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse is both a must-have tool and a fascinating window into today's business world.

From the Back Cover

How do formerly ethical people---and organizations---descend into moral meltdowns? And how do we recognize the signs?

Marianne Jennings, professor of business ethics at Arizona State University, predicted the collapse at Enron and the fall of the dot-coms. Now she explains the origins of moral meltdowns---and how we can spot the next one before it happens.

SIGN #2: FEAR AND SILENCE
"People have an obligation to dissent in this company.... If you don't speak up, that's not good."
---Jeffrey Skilling, former CEO of Enron, who withheld business from companies whose analysts did not give Enron a "strong buy"

SIGN #4: WEAK BOARD
"So as a CEO, I want a strong, competent board."
---Dennis Kozlowski, former CEO of Tyco, circa 2001

SIGN #6: INNOVATION LIKE NO OTHER
"You know, if we hadn't had all those expenses, we would have had earnings."
---Attributed to a dot-com CEO, circa 1999

Review Quotes

"It is difficult to imagine a more thorough and vivid qualitative description of ethical issues and their moral consequences than Jennings' Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse... Recommended to all leaders wondering about how to strengthen the ethical fiber of their organizations." - Journal of Applied Christian Leadership, St. Andrews University

"Both a must-have tool and a fascinating window into today's business world." - Chief of Naval Operations Professional Reading Program

About the Author

MARIANNE M. JENNINGS is a professor at Arizona State University and the author of A Business Tale. She speaks often on business and ethics. Her weekly columns are syndicated around the country, and her work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Reader's Digest. She lives in Mesa, Arizona.