WorldCom’s Crisis Of Ethics: Triumph Of Managed Storytelling

11 Pages 2760 Words

s, presenting online video updates to shareholders, and launching a restructing Web site (www.worldcom.com/infodesk/). While controversy swirled around the company and pundits lamented the demise of corporate ethics, WorldCom focused on three central messages: WorldCom is too big to fail, WorldCom will remain a leader in the telecomm field, and WorldCom is committed to ethical financial reporting. This effort to reframe the situation culminated in the SEC settlement and Sidgmore’s voluntary replacement by Michael Capellas, tough-minded former CEO of Compaq. Capellas’ New Year’s resolutions for 2003 included a 100-day plan whose first milestone was reached on February 3 (“WorldCom Announces,” 2003; “WorldCom Achieves,” 2003).
Narrative as Organizational Leadership Technique
Consistent with Fisher’s seminal definition of man as homo narrans (1999), Zak defines organizational leadership as the process of discovering and disseminating compelling stories that give meaning to organizational behaviors (1999, p. 16). Organizational s...