Ethics relates to the forms of values ​​and morals that an individual or society finds desirable or appropriate. Ethical theory provides an important reference in the form of rules and principles. These rules and principles help make decisions about what is good or bad and what is right or wrong in a particular situation. In fact, ethical theory provides a basis for understanding what it means to be a morally decent human being (Northouse, 2016, p. 330). When it comes to leadership, ethical theory is concerned with what leaders do and who they are. The choices leaders make and how they respond in a given circumstance are informed and guided by their ethics. In other words, a leader's choices are influenced by his or her moral development. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay We often read about good kings and bad kings, great empires and evil empires, and strong presidents and weak presidents. But what about good and bad companies? Ethical leadership in corporate America is just as important as ethical leadership in a political environment. I thought it would be very interesting to take a closer look at the Enron scandal of the early 2000s and examine the company's lack of ethical leadership. For those unfamiliar with the Enron scandal, most of the top executives were tried for fraud after his arrest. revealed in November 2001 that the companies' earnings had been overestimated by hundreds of millions of dollars. At the time, Enron was ranked as the sixth largest energy company in the world. Enron's top executives sold their shares before the company's collapse, while lower-level employees were not allowed to sell their shares due to 401K restrictions. Enron filed for Chapter 11 protection in December 2001 and instantly became the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history at that time. This left thousands of workers with worthless stocks in their retirement. Lower-level employees lost all their savings due to the collapse. The US Department of Justice subsequently opened a criminal investigation into the collapse of Enron in January 2002 (CNN Library, 2016). The dark side of leadership is the destructive and dark side of leadership in the sense that a leader uses leadership for personal gain. Lipman-Blumen suggests that toxic leaders are characterized by destructive behaviors, such as leaving their followers worse off than they found them, violating the basic human rights of others, and playing to their baser fears (Northouse, 2016, p. 339). The actions of Enron's executives that led to the company's collapse show us that they lacked integrity, insatiable ambition, arrogance, and reckless disregard for their actions. The leaders exhibited all the dysfunctional personal characteristics found in destructive leaders. CEO Jeffrey Skilling assembled a team of executives who, through accounting flaws, special purpose entities and poor financial reporting, were able to hide billions of dollars in debt from failed deals and projects . Andrew Fastow, the CFO, misled Enron's board of directors and audit committee about high-risk accounting practices and also pressured their auditing and accounting firm to ignore these problems. Enron rewarded their efforts..