Research Paper on:
Debacle of Enron Corporation

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
administration (Leonard, 2001). Of Lay, Professor Williams stated that: "Kenneth Lay of Enron is ... identified as a charismatic leader who used his influence in immoral ways. As a consequence  his followers, the employees of Enron, have been greatly harmed" (Williams, nd). The charismatic leader is able to have people follow him or her into the unknown but not all  charismatic leaders are authentic transformational leaders (Williams, nd). Some fall into the category of pseudo-transformational leaders, who are just as persuasive (Williams, nd). Lay may or may not have been  aware of what his top level executives were doing but he could not be considered a good leader if he was ignorant of their shenanigans. Enron gained a  reputation as an energy robber baron due to its trades and the effect these had on the energy crisis in California although Enron did not play as great a role  in this crisis as did other energy corporations (Leonard, 2001). The company was raking in billions of dollars in its trade deals (Leonard, 2001). Then, the Spring of 2001  came and rumors began floating that Enron was in trouble (Leonard, 2001). Enron had diversified, the company moved into fiber optics and decided to trade bandwidth as a commodity just  as it was trading gas and electricity (Leonard, 2001). The corporations investments in bandwidth, in fiber optic capacity and in other telecommunication venues proved to be expensive and disastrous because  the telecom sector crashed (Leonard, 2001). Then, Jeff Skilling resigned only six months after being promoted to that position; he had been hand-picked by Lay (Leonard, 2001). Skilling was  to have transformed the company from the old economy involving the pipeline to the new economy and his swift and sudden departure left everyone in the industry as well as