The Organizational Culture of Enron

Hegemony is understood as the economic, political, cultural or ideological power that is exerted by a group that is considered dominant over other minority groups. It should be noted that for one group to continue exerting this pressure on the minority groups, the majority have to be in consent and they must agree on ideas, it is through this that this group will continue remaining in power (Schein, 2010).

In referring to the dominance of a group politically, the term hegemony was first applied by the Greeks in ancient time when they were controlling their neighbors and it is through this that the term has been borrowed and employed in various contexts to imply to different ideologies.Ideology on the other hand is a set of linked beliefs and ideas that tend to act together with the aim of upholding and justifying existing or desired plans and power arrangements regarding to power, wealth, authority ad the society status. The title of the movie "Enron: The Smart Guys in the Room", is bias by itself, it is an indication that there are many people in the room but, there are those who are considered to be smart than others, these are the elite, those whose decisions affect the minorities (Gibney, 2005). The movie lets the people watch and see how things are unfolding without being guided or being influenced.

Those people watching are able to see how for a very long time the management of Enron had operated and how it managed to fool everyone that it was one of the best firms in the US. There are various classes of ideologies such as the socialist ideology, liberal ideology and patriarchal ideology. The socialist ideologies advocate for a society being transformed from capitalism to a society that is owned collectively and where economic equality id advocated for. The liberal ideology is linked to the capitalist societies that propose that a system is the best, desirable and most moral form of arrangement within the society. Lastly, the patriarchal ideology asserts for beliefs and claims that justify for a social arrangement for instance, it advocates for a society in which the males are more dominant than the women.Another class of ideoogy exists called the racists ideology, this ideology argues that it is possible for people to be categorized and classified into distinct races.

In these races, some are considered powerful than others (Panikkar, 2002). It is through this ideology of race that issues such as exploitation and slavery are advocated. Despite the existence of a dominant ideology within the society, there are numerous counter ideologies that will strongly advocate for these social transformations. The documentary film of Enron: the Smartest Guy in the Room is a storyline that is based on a book that has the same topic with an illustration of the largest scandal to have ever hit the American business world. The film is on the collapse of Enron Corporation and how its collapsing led to numerous criminal cases being held in court to unfold what went wrong. The movie brings to our attention how the involvement of Enron business associates in the electricity crisis in California.

In Enron, the border between the executives and the employees was very distinct. The executives ended benefitting from their shoddy dealings while the employees went home empty handed and devastated (Schein, 2010).Various interviews are conducted on major stakeholders and firm employees with the aim of trying to understand what real took place. It is amazing and perturbing how Enron could dive from being the seventh US largest firm to bankruptcy in a span of less than one year. The things that unfold within the firm are very disturbing and they range from suicide to downsizing of the firms human resource by around 20,000 employees. The downfall of Enron should act as a warning to many on how the unscrupulous manipulations can lead and cause havoc in many people's lives especially those within corporations, people who have dedicated their lives and time to work for corporations with the anticipation that they will improve their lives from this.

This is illustrated by how the workers in Enron ended up paying the ultimate price because of a few people's mistakes. People who are driven by greed and who think that nobody can stand on their way. From this, it is clear how ideoology and homogeny is working. There is disintegration and oppression, people in the top make decisions that are beneficial to them alone without considering those in the lower positions.

Those in the top do not care how their actions will impact those at the bottom (Panikkar, 2002).When Enron went down, it did not collapse alone, it took along a number of firms such as the Arthur Anderson accounting company. In addition to this, a thousand of people find themselves victims of the inconsiderate and scrupulous executives who had nothing in mind apart from satisfying their greedy ambitions. This can be illustrated by how Jeff Skilling the Enron CEO can decide to pay more than twenty million dollars for his own defense. This is an indication that the few powerful people in the society are ready to sacrifice the many minorities to achieve their ambitions no matter the effects these have to the people below.

At the end we see one of the firm's executives with a high stripper appetite emerge the winner, he owns large junks of lands in Colorado and is currently living a happy life after Hawaii (Gibney, 2005). In contrast tot his, the former Enron workers have nothing to show, they are living a poor life as they try to struggle and make ends meet for their families and themselves with the little they have in their disposal.The movie is an indication and an illustration our societies. A society whose few powerful individuals are inconsiderate of the many not so lucky people. It is a society of lets have and have it all if you have the powers, for those without the capabilities, they will live all their lives suffering or in the shadows of their powerful counterparts. The movie reflects the forces in the society, Enron has been employed as an example of what takes place within us everyday, the issue of race and the people you know have often been used to determine whether you get employment of favors from offices.

This is an indication f our oppression and exploitation is deeply rooted in the society and little can be done to correct this. The society is engulfed in corruption, shoddy dealings and exploitation, and those at the helm of all this are those in top positions.