Comparing the movies: THE BIG SHORT (McKay, 2015) and ERON: THE SMARTEST GUY IN THE ROOM (GIBNEY,2005) Consider these two films as case studies. Please draft an essay about how organizations tend towards self-interest of managers and how managers may ignore the societal and broader economic consequences of their actions, as well as how we might go about resolving this circumstance. On one hand, you have the BIG SHORT, which looks at the finance industry and some of the players involved in the subprime mortgage market leading up to the financial crisis of 2007-2008? Why did no one listen to the analyst and financial managers that predicted the collapse of sub-prime lending? On the other hand, you have the documentary Enron: The smartest guy in the room (GIBNEY 2005), which explores multiple factors ranging from organizational culture, risk tolerance, political ideology, and accounting practices (amount so many other things) for the extremely poor ethics and spectacular collapse of an extremely large and influential company. YOUR OBJECTIVES FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT: 1. Explain Howe ethical problems may emerge in an organizational context based on your analysis of these two films. 2. Consider the notion of self-interest and explain how it many may not play a role in these cases shown in the films,and in other management scandals. What motivates self-interest? Is it societal, organizational, personal, genetic? Was the behavior in these cases even self-interested in terms of motivation? 3. Explore how might we able to resolve some of these problems through management education, public policies, regulations, voluntary programs and other mechanisms?
Hide
