Corporate Foul Play

“Obviously people want their companies to perform well, both from a revenue and profitability standpoint as well as increasing stock prices,” Mishina said. “But this implies we are in some ways missing the idea of what performance should be. Would it be better to think about maybe five-year growth or 10-year growth? Should performance be based on profitability and stock prices or should it be some sort of long-term viability measure that includes creating jobs, stimulating the economy and other factors?”

A quote by Yuri Mishina, MSU assistant professor of management, who suggests that the more successful a corporation becomes, the more likely it is to engage in illegal activity.

Mishina is in the process of analyzing the problem of illegal activity within corporations today. The idea of thinking short term output rather than long term viability, is pulled together through the "by any means" solution that firms fall into. One problem that leads into this motto is driven by the analyst pressure for higher performance. As a result, lower level staff is given the option to cut corners and meet goal or accept the lack of care given to a once minute problem. For example, like the lack of aid to a cut that caused infection. It’s an issue that not only goes on in the corporate world but in everyday life as well. Anywhere from health, debt control or the mislead youth who finds economic security in pushing drugs. It’s a simple mending process that gets overlooked. Now, the only difference is at a corporate level more lives are affected internally and external when corners are cut by use of illegal activities. Spending money on things that will benefit as a whole rather then a certain sector is the ideal method to building a country who depends on people to run a company, not a company to run people. Self interest evokes greed which in turn evokes illegal activities.

To read a full report on Yuri Mishina’s research titled, When good companies do bad things: Examining illegal corporate behavior, visit:

http://news.msu.edu/story/7120

The movie The Informant played by Matt Damon brings a comedic approach to the seriousness of corporate illegal activities.