Surname 1 Name: Instructor: Course: Date: The Decline and fall of Enron The merging of Enron of InterNorth Inc. in Ohama and Natural Gas Co. in Houston in 1985 formed the Enron Company. Following the merging, the company was rebranded to energy trader and supplier by the chief executive officer (CEO). Enron took advantage of the deregulation of energy which allowed companies to predict the future prices of oil. Consequently, Enron flourished and at the end of the 1990s its shares were its shares were worth $90.75. However, by December 2001, the company was declared bankrupt and the shares worth had declined to $0.26. Its fall affected thousands of employees and strongly shook the Wall Street. Many economists believe that the exposed criminality in Enron that was admissible in the court of law was the cause of the decline and fall of the company. However, the true cause of the fall was selfishness by company management that applied some legally acceptable half-truths including equating value to shareholder value, the view of a man as economic man, the view of the society as a rising tide of prosperity and the view of leadership as heroic. Worldwide, there has been a belief that every man is ‘economic man'. Through this belief, man has grown to be self-centered obsessed with increasing personal gains at the expense of others. The belief of economic man brings a wedge of distrust into society (Mintzberg, Robert and Kunal 67). Everyone can only do things for themselves and not for the society. This kind of individualism leads to failure since we are living as individuals but in a social setting. Companies must contribute to the development of the society to enhance their development. Disconnecting from the society will lead to their failure as they operate in a social space. Establishment of the corporations was meant to benefit the society. However, the rhythm has changed to benefit the shareholders disregarding all other stakeholders (Mintzberg, Robert and Kunal 67). Employees bear the greatest pressure in creating the economic performance yet the large share of the profit is divided among the shareholders. Consequently, the employees feel demotivated to work and disconnected to the top management leading to poor productivity. This eventually results in company fall. In many corporations, the shareholders are passively creating a need for heroic leaders. The chief executives are employed as the representatives of the shareholders, and in return, they are rewarded huge amount of money for the performance on behalf of the entire enterprise. Supporting this act is the assumption that equates the chief executive to the enterprise and deemed responsible for the entire performance (Mintzberg, Robert and Kunal 67). In an attempt to fit the heroic images, the chief executives promise grand results at the expense of the other employees. Heroic leadership leads to disconnection of the top leaders and every other employee. Lose of connection discourage.