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Career Consequences of Unethical Behavior Team 3 Maryjean Hall, Theresa Harrison, Marie Motley, Steven Stowe, Brett Quitiquit Dr. John Fick/LDR601 October 8, 2013

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Introduction In William Shakespeares play Richard II (1911), he writes . . . let us sit upon the ground and tell sad stories of the death of kings (Act III, scene 2, lines 155 56). The play deals with a king coming to terms with the consequences of his actions. In this report, we will examine the consequences of the actions of some modern day kings; kings of industry, sports, and politics. We begin in the world of sports. Lance Armstrong Maryjean Hall From the late 1980s through the early 2000s, Lance Armstrong was the king of cycling. He was on the U.S. Olympic Team, and won the Tour De France seven years in a row. The Tour De France titles were won while he was battling testicular cancer and his fight against that disease won the admiration of many. In February 1997 he was found to be cancer free (Armstrong, 2013). His victories, both personal and professional, were an inspiration. That was soon to change, however. For over a decade rumors of the use of performance enhancing drugs were denied by Armstrong. Bill Strickland, a friend of his, stated in an article that Armstrong was not only taking drugs, but encouraging others on the team to do the same. The U.S. anti-doping agency found evidence that proved he had been taking the drugs (Jonas, 2012). Armstrongs unethical choice to enhance his performance with drugs, to cheat, cost him his is career. He was stripped of his awards, and fell out of favor with the public.

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Another area where men and women are treated like kings and queens is the business world. Our next segment deals with the unethical consequences of a king of industry. Bernard Ebbers Marie Motley In 1995, Bernard Ebbers was named CEO of WorldCom. By all accounts, he was a hard worker and was well liked by his employees. He wanted to buy some land in the southern U.S., and rather than sell some of his 450 million dollars worth of stock, he asked the company for a loan. He was interested in several large parcels of land, and the total amount for the loans was 658 million dollars. Ebbers continued to borrow money, both from the banks and from WorldCom. Eventually, the borrowing caught up with him, and with WorldCom. The company found itself 9 millions dollars in the hole, and had to file for bankruptcy. Ebbers was fired, and an investigation was started. The company went completely

bankrupt, and Ebbers was convicted of fraud. He is currently serving a 25 year sentence in Federal prison. His greed cost him his career, his freedom, and ruined the company he worked for. The political arena is also a place where people act like royalty. We look next at a man whose corruption thwarted his royal ambitions. Rob Blagojevich Steven Stowe Rob Blagojevich was the 40th governor of Illinois. He also served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. When President Obama was elected in 2009, he

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left behind a vacant senate seat. Filing that seat is the job of the governor of the state; in this case, Rob Blagojevich. Blagojevich tried to auction off the seat to the highest bidder. His taped, expletive-filled telephone conversations highlighted blatant, large money deals between him and various candidates for the senate seat. According to Dan walker in The Mothers Milk of Politics is Corrupting Absolutely (2009), the governor said Ive got this thing and its (bleeping) golden and . . . Im not just giving it up for (bleeping) nothing (p. 230). Blagojevich was convicted on June 27, 2011 on 17 to 20 counts of public corruption charges. He was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison. He was the second Illinois governor is a row to go to prison; he allowed a culture of corruption to take both his career, and his freedom. Of course, corruption, greed, and unethical behavior is nothing new, it has been going on for all of recorded history. Our final segment looks an historical figure, a man who would be king, whose unethical behavior helped plunge the whole world into war. Adolph Hitler Brett Quitiquit Most people know about the Holocaust, and the genocide of the people Hitler claimed were inferior, but we will look at a different set of unethical actions in this report. As Rosenberg writes in The Nazi Soviet Non-Aggression Pact (n.d.), representative from Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Nazi-Soviet Union Non-Aggression act in August of 1939. This was a good move on Hitlers part, because

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it kept Germany out of a two-front war, which was a factor in Germanys losing the First World War . However, he made a critical error by using unethical and immoral behavior is breaking that treaty later. On June 22, 1941, Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in a surprise attack. In not being honest, Hitler would repeat history, in making the same mistakes as other failed leaders in history who attempted world domination. In business terms, he was ignoring the needs of half of the stakeholders in the treaty, the Soviets. He was also ignoring the needs of his own people, the other stakeholders, by dragging them into an unwinnable, two front war. An entire paper could be written on all the unethical decisions of this evil man, but he paid the price for those decisions in a ruined, conquered, and divided country, and by losing his life. Conclusion All of these men who would be kings were undone by their inability to make ethical decisions, to put the needs of others above their own needs, to work for the greater good. And, in the end, they were each ruined both professionally and personally, by those decisions. These examples prove that without ethics, a persons hard work, and person reputation, will eventually turn to ruin. We stared with a quote from Richard II (1911), let us end the same way. The purest treasure mortal times afford, is spotless reputation; that away, men are but gilded loam or painted clay (Act 1, scene 1, line 6).

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References Armstrong, L. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 11:56, Sep 24, 2013, from http://www.biography.com/people/lance-armstrong-9188901

Boaz, D. (2012). Politics and Corruption, Together Again.com Staff, B. (2008). Illinois Governor Rod R. Blagojevich and His Chief of Staff John Harris Arrested: Blagojevich and Harris Charged with Conspiracy to Commit Mail and Wire Fraud, Solicitation of Bribery. www. BackgroundNow. com.

Corrigan, T. (1997). The opportunity thing: Man in the news. Financial times, 07

Davey, M. O. N. I. C. A., & Fitzsimmons, E. G. (2011). Jury Finds Blagojevich Guilty of Corruption. New York Times

Dubrin, A. (2010). Leadership: Research Findings, practice, and skills. (p.190). Mason, Oh: Harrison, N. (2005). Two-wheels good. Appropriate Technology, 32(3), 42. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/200019337?accountid=28644 Jonas, S. (2012, Fall). Lance Armstrong: when they say it's not about the money ... AMAA Journal,25(3), 4+.Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.lcc.idm.oclc.org/ps/i.do?id=GALE %7CA313439043&v=2.1&u=lom_lansingcc&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w

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http://www3.illinois.gov/PressReleases/ShowPressRelease.cfm? SubjectID=3&RecNum=10026 Learning. DOI: NOOK Hitlers enabling act. (1996). Retrieved from http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/Enabling.htm Sefiha, O. (2012, Summer). Bike racing, neutralization, and the social construction of performance-enhancing drug use. Contemporary Drug Problems, 39(2), 213+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.lcc.idm.oclc.org/ps/i.do?id=GALE %7CA303755350&v=2.1&u=lom_lansingcc&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w Pulliam, S., Soloman, D., & Mollencamp, C. (2002 Dec 31). Former Worldcom CEO built an empire on mountain of debt. Wall street journal, eastern edition, A. Opposition in nazi Germany. (2011, December). Retrieved from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/opposition_nazi_germany.htm Rosenburg, J. (n.d). The nazi-soviet non-aggression pact. Retrieved from http://history1900s.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/nonaggression.htm Shakespeare, W. (1911) Richard II. In W.G. Clark & W.A. Aldis (Eds.) Complete works of William Shakespeare. New York: Grosset & Dunlap South-Western Cenage Walker, Dan. "THE MOTHER S MILK OF POLITICS IS CORRUPTING ABSOLUTELY." Northwestern University Law Review 103 (2009): 430.