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When Tough Performance Goals Lead to Cheating

Harvard Business Review

When Enron, one of the world’s largest energy companies, collapsed in 2001, it sent shock waves through the corporate world. This research was recently published in the Journal of Business Ethics. We falsely informed them that we could not see their responses and would rely on them to self-report how many words they made.

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What U2 and the US Navy Have in Common: Connecting with Core Employees

Michael Lee Stallard

Under Clark and a program he dubbed “the revolution in personnel distribution,” the system was changed to a job bidding approach with incentive compensation provided to the jobs and locations that were in the least demand. One such system was the Navy’s job assignment process. why is everyone smiling?

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Five House Rules for Managing Risky Behavior

Harvard Business Review

The company's performance measurement and incentive systems, and the degree to which risk management is considered, will also have a profound impact on employee behavior. billion in net income during the five years prior to its bankruptcy in 2001, while only $114 million in net cash was generated (or a mere 3% of reported income).

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Why WikiLeaks Matters More (And Less) than You Think

Harvard Business Review

And the result of an undersupply of disclosure is toxic, perverse incentives. The original Napster was shut down in 2001, but its P2P heirs continue to share pirated files, and it paved the way for the rise of iTunes and Pandora — and the fall of Tower Records.

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Why It’s So Hard to Train Someone to Make an Ethical Decision

Harvard Business Review

One of the conundrums of ethical decision making is that many moral decisions that are quite straightforward — even easy — to resolve in a classroom or during training exercises seem far more difficult to successfully resolve when confronted during actual day-to-day decision making. You and Your Team Series. Mark Chussil.

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A Couple Reasons to Smile About

Women on Business

The Bush cuts also gradually raised the estate exemption and lowered the estate tax from 2001 until 2010, when the estate tax disappeared for that year only. Barring any Congressional action to change this law, taxes were set to revert back to their pre-2001 rates on January 1, 2011. What’s in the Tax Bill?

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The Big Picture of Business – Business Lessons to be Learned from the Enron Scandal

Strategy Driven

The Enron scandals of 2001 and 2002 focused only upon cooked books audit committees and deal making. Enron did not demand enough accountability, fairness, ethics and operational autonomy from its outside auditor. Incentive and ‘random acts of kindness’ programs were deleted. Executives never stayed long.