A reader, Rudy Faust,* calls my attention to what looks like an interesting recent book by U. Penn. law professor David Skeel, entitled Icarus in the Boardroom: The Fundamental Flaws in Corporate America and Where They Came From. Here’s an excerpt from a recent op-ed piece by the author, apparently from the Chicago Tribune but no longer available except in the paid archives:
Two common themes have emerged in the criminal fraud trials of ex-chief executives Bernard Ebbers of WorldCom Inc. and Richard Scrushy of HealthSouth Corp.: 1) each insists he was a visionary rather than hands-on leader, unaware of the fraud being committed by others; and 2) each is making his strong Christian faith a prominent feature of his defense.
The second defense is by far the more remarkable. These aren’t jailhouse conversions like the epiphany that launched Chuck Colson’s second career after his conviction for Watergate crimes. Ebbers and Scrushy haven’t renounced their earlier actions and asked for forgiveness. Both say they were professing Christians before the scandals broke as well as after, and that they have little to apologize for–as does Enron’s Kenneth Lay, another beleaguered ex-CEO who is awaiting a criminal trial.
Assuming their faith is sincere–and there’s no reason to believe it isn’t–one would have thought that Christian CEOs would be deeply attuned to ethical issues. As Lay once put it, “Everyone knows that I personally have a very strict code of personal conduct that I live by. This code is based on Christian values.”
How did it turn out that the leaders of three of the most scandal-ridden companies all publicly professed their faith?
My strong hunch is that the Christianity of Messrs. Ebbers, Scrushy, and Lay is no more a predictive factor than that all three are also middle-aged white males. But it’s certainly an interesting question.
* Mr. Faust identifies himself as the publicity manager for the Academic Division of the book’s publisher, the Oxford University Press.
He also says that Professor Skeel will be participating in a panel discussion at 6 p.m. today at the New School in NYC, and that interested QC readers can get complimentary tickets from him before 2 pm EST today by contacting him at [rudy] [dot] [faust] [at] [oup] [dot] [com].
I’m getting nothing from providing this plug. I hope it doesn’t lead to similar requests from others. Mr. Faust was very gracious in asking for it, and the book does look interesting, so here it is.
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