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European Journal of Economic and Financial Research ISSN: 2501-9430 ISSN-L: 2501-9430 Available on-line at: http://www.oapub.org/soc Volume 2 │ Issue 4 │ 2017 doi: 10.5281/zenodo.840879 EXPLORATIVE CASE ANALYSIS OF ETHICAL FINANCIERS AND ELICITING MILLENNIALS PERSPECTIVES OF FINANCIAL MARKET SCANDALS Jet Mbogai The University of Bolton, Bolton Business School: Fulfillment of PhD, Deane Road, Bolton, BL3 5AB, UK Abstract: Today’s markets are competitive and its evident that excellence in our operations, providing consumers with a phenomenal experience, and acting in ethical behavior can be challenging thus creating pressure to meet objectives within organizations. The government Accountability Office estimated that the financial crisis of 2008 cost the United States economy an estimated 22 trillion dollars. Research has documented that government regulations alone don’t deter organizations from unethical conduct, there are several laws and penalties imposed yet under the pressure to stay competitive, the organizations are even today caught in unethical conduct with Wells Fargo as the latest scandal. The objective of this research was to inquire and understand millennials viewpoints on corporate scandals; leaders and workers’ integration of individual morals with ethics; and the impact of the unethical conduct on organizations sustainability. Organizations are the powerhouse of our economy and if not handled ethically will contribute to turmoil to the United States and the world; the integration of individual moral that we have within us from our foundation as children with ethics and adherence of the code of conduct will lead to sustainable organizations, 2013; Shahriar & Diken, 2016). Organizational ethics as shared by Chron entails the standards and principles whereby business is conducted via honor and responsibility, compassion, and fairness; code of conduct is core detailing business principles to guide the organization as the ethical philosophy contributes to productivity and sustainability (Kelchner, 2017; Suttle, 2017; Valentine, Hollingworth, & Eidsness (2014). A healthy organization with solid reputation also contributes to organizational sustainability; this Copyright © The Author(s). All Rights Reserved. © 2015 – 2017 Open Access Publishing Group 31 Jet Mboga EXPLORATIVE CASE ANALYSIS OF ETHICAL FINANCIERS AND ELICITING MILLENNIALS PERSPECTIVES OF FINANCIAL MARKET SCANDALS can be achieved when leaders’ individual moral values are in play and leaders encourages workers to work with integrity and honesty thus enhancing organizational reputation in the business and society (Kelchner, 2017; Lawrence & Weber, 2017; Solomon, 1992; Murphy, 1993). JEL: D12, P36, P46, D53, G15 Keywords: ethics, ethical financiers, eliciting millennials, financial market scandals 1. Introduction In the last century, we have seen multiple financial crisis in financial institutions which are entities that are affianced in a wide range of businesses that include banking institutions, investment and brokerage firms, trust; and insurance companies; these institutions handle monetary dealings that include investments, loans, currency exchanges, and money deposits (Kohn, 2003). In these financial institutions, the pressure to gain market share, staying competitive coupled with corporate malfeasance, and greediness has contributed to the enactment of government regulations to protect investors and consumers. Not only financial institutions experience the pressure; there exists an extensive history on the unethical conduct happening in multiple organizations; yet the misconducts continue happening today even with several enacted government legislations. Ethical conduct among leaders and employees that wasn’t well rounded included corporate scandals that include reporting the 1998 $1.7 billion fake earning reported by Waste Management ”ailey, , Enron’s shareholders’ loss of $ billion by keeping huge debt off the balance sheets (Morgenson, 2001), and inflation of assets by WorldCom in 2002 with loss of $11 billion (Belson, 2005). Others included Tyco CEO inflating income by $500 million and stealing $150 million in 2002 (Freifeld, ; HealthSouth’s Mac’s inflation of earnings by $ . billion Glater, ; Freddie misstating of earnings by $ billion; and “merican International Group “IG ’s accounting fraud of $3.9 billion (Brady, Vickers & McNamee, 2005); Among the top ten scandals in this research that helped reshape the global recession; Lehman Brothers 2008 hiding of $50 billion as disguised sales; Bernie Madoff 2008 $64.8 billion Ponzi scheme; and Satyam 2009 falsely boosting revenue to $1.5 billion (Krantz, 2002; Lakshman, 2009; Solomon, Carrns & Terhune, 2003). The financial crises have sent legislative branches and policy makers of the United States government scrambling and passing legislations to revamp the way European Journal of Economic and Financial Research - Volume 2 │ Issue 4 │ 2017 32 Jet Mboga EXPLORATIVE CASE ANALYSIS OF ETHICAL FINANCIERS AND ELICITING MILLENNIALS PERSPECTIVES OF FINANCIAL MARKET SCANDALS financial institutions conduct business. The legislations include Federal Reserve Act of 1913 to address the fright that occurred in 1907 (See Appendix A) where banks went bankrupt; the stock market crash in 1929 (See Appendix B) was the reason for the origination of the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) to restore confidence in the stock markets with responsibility of revealing state of their business and investments; and Glass-Stealgall Act of 1933 after the Great Depression to limit commercial banks and investment cohabitation (Boesler & Kiersz, 2014; Fox Business, 2012; Moen & Tallman; 2015; USA.gov. 2017). The government regulations also include, Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.was enacted after the WorldCom and Enron scandal with an intention of reinstating trust for investors and recover the corporate governance (Hanna, 2014). President Obama, CNN Money, Forbes among others called the the Great Depression Domitrovic, crisis as the worst economic downturn since ; Egan, ; Worstall, 2014); the Treasury Department confirmed a $20 trillion loss in wealth; loss of 9 million jobs; 10 million homes foreclosed as confirmed by National Center for Policy Analysis (Becker, Stolberg & Lebaton, 2008; Kirsch, 2017). The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010; this Dodd-Frank “ct was enacted during President Obama’s term to oversee $400 trillion market swaps after the 2008 financial crisis (Rivlin, 2013; The Economist, 2012; Maxfield, 2017). Another component of Dodd-Frank is Volker Rule that was enacted in 2010 to regulate how banks make investments and restriction of commercial and investment bank separation in protection of consumer deposits (Irwin, 2013). Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) of 2010 issues continuous rules; with a responsibility for ensuring simplicity in lending documentation and procedures, consumer explanation and providing account terms at time of account opening, and restriction of broker selection of loans to gain higher broker commission (Michel, 2017) The objective of this research was to inquire and understand millennials viewpoints on corporate scandals; leaders and workers’ integration of individual morals with ethics; and the impact of the unethical conduct on organizations sustainability. The research focused on millennials age group 18 – 35 using interview questions listed in Appendix C. The millennial perspectives on ethics, corporate scandals, and sustainability are important to document essential to understand as they are projected by Fortune to dominate the workforce by 2020 (Hyder, 2016). For downloading the full article, please access the following link: http://oapub.org/soc/index.php/EJEFR/article/view/164 European Journal of Economic and Financial Research - Volume 2 │ Issue 4 │ 2017 33