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the courtship phase of the recruitment ritual. The leader wishes to seduce the new recruit
into the organization‘s embrace, gradually habituating them to its rituals and belief systems.
Individual consideration overcomes moods of resistance, by blurring distinctions between
personal relationships, theoretical constructs and bizarre behaviours. Nor is most people‘s
receptiveness to such tactics at all surprising. As an early researcher into interpersonal
attraction and influence expressed it (Jones, 1990, p.178):
There is little secret or surprise in the contention that we like people who
agree with us, who say nice things about us, who seem to possess such
positive attributes as warmth, understanding, and compassion, and who
would ‗go out of their way‘ to do things for us.
The problem is exacerbated by status differentials. Normally, a person of lesser status
attaches more importance to being liked by those of higher status than the other way round
(Rosenfeld et al., 1995). Within cults, and certainly within most corporations, status
differentials between leaders and followers are both manifest and growing. For example, in
1991, ―the standard big-company CEO in the US earned 140 times the pay of the average
worker the multiple is now nearer 500 times‖ (Haigh, 2003, p.5). Individual consideration
from such figures – the message that the new recruit is positively valued and very much
wanted -increases the person‘s tendency to affiliate, conform and engage in yet further
behaviours consistent with well established group norms.
Conversion
When someone responds to intense individual consideration from higher status leaders, and
is desperate to affiliate with them, the outcome of their shift in attitudes can be regarded as
conversion. It occurs when a person experiences fundamental changes of knowledge and
beliefs, values and standards, emotional attachments and needs, and of everyday conduct
(Lewin, 1948 Lalich, 2004). New dress codes, behaviours, beliefs and modes of being are
embraced. Each reinforces the other. A new dress code is likely to encourage the adoption
of behaviours normally associated with the dress code novel behaviours strengthen the
attitudes that underpin them the overall effect is, frequently, what outside observers come
to see as a fundamental personality transformation, or new mode of being, on the part of
the person concerned.
Indoctrination
The convert mentality is then reinforced within the cultic environment by a process of
indoctrination. Indoctrination occurs through the one way transmission of intense messages
from leaders to followers that require ever greater levels of devotion to the group ideal, and
which are designed to instil into the recruit a feeling that being accepted into the group is a
particular privilege that makes him or her a member of a special elite. Thus, recruitment/
initiation, conversion and indoctrination are all vital stages in the cultic experience, and are
sustained through the impression of individual consideration by the group‘s leaders. The
question is: to what extent were they prevalent within Enron, and to what extent do they
characterise the wider corporate environment?
The Case of Enron
Recruitment/Initiation
Recruitment at Enron was a particularly gruelling procedure. Fusaro and Miller (2002, p.49)
reported that job candidates ―…had to demonstrate that they could maintain high levels of
work intensity over an extended period of time. Some have compared the work
environment and high employee intensity at Enron to that of a top law firm, which is
typically filled with brilliant young associates willing to do whatever it takes to make
partner.‖ It was clear that those selected would be required to devote most of their waking

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hours to their new life as Enron employees. In this regard, as has already been highlighted,
Enron certainly delivered on expectations. After the initial interview, they then attended a
second interview on one of three to five ―Super Saturdays‖ that were held at Enron‘s
Houston office. Candidates were interviewed for 50 minutes by eight different interviewers
in succession with one 10-minute break – an emotionally intense experience for all. Initially,
prospective employees staged a dramatic performance designed to convince the recruiter
that they view the company‘s vision with the mindset of True Believers, even if they felt
doubts – a normal aspect of impression management during selection interviews. However,
performance has hazards. As Goffman (1959, p.28) stressed, ―…one finds that the
performer can be fully taken in by his own act he can be sincerely convinced that the
impression of reality which he stages is the real reality.‖ The further emulation of
organisational rituals heightens the effect. For example, Kunda (1992) demonstrated, in an
ethnographic study of a hi-tech American corporation, how such rituals are developed by
leaders to inculcate the ―right beliefs‖. Employees then play along with them, rather than
reveal what might be described as a ―bad attitude.‖ But this renders them liable to
internalise the values behind the rituals – even if they have initially resisted them. In
essence, like a Method actor over preparing a part, the person internalises a role to such an
extent that they become indistinguishable from their performance. Within Enron, there was
intense pressure to participate in a whole variety of rituals – including those associated with
ostentatious consumption – and which had precisely these effects.
Conversion
It is thus likely that, within Enron, the dramaturgically focused selection process and
subsequent induction into a high performance work environment initiated a process
analogous to cultic conversion, in which prospective employees
 needed overwhelming levels of intrinsic motivation to persevere
 found themselves exposed to a high demand environment, in which it was made clear
that those selected would be required to display further levels of inordinate commitment
 were exposed to the notion that membership of the Enron team represented a particular
privilege, but also imposed unusually high obligations
 were presented with the ―vision‖ proclaimed by Enron‘s leaders, and required to
frequently express their solidarity with a dominant and centrally ordained corporate
philosophy.
All this was reinforced by various versions of love bombing – once the person was selected,
and agreed to join, the organisation. As many have noted, Enronians were frequently told,
and came to believe, that they were the brightest and best employees in the world. They
were certainly well rewarded, and were the eager recipients of a great deal of company
largesse. For example, many had access to company credit cards, on which they were
encouraged to charge their prostitution expenses (Fusaro and Miller, 2003). Providing they
performed to a high standard, they could count on an unlimited benevolent attitude from
Enron‘s leaders.
Indoctrination
What can be viewed as indoctrination, flowing from the organisation‘s leaders, then became
a normal part of life throughout the employee‘s Enron career. The further one ascended the
hierarchy, the more one was exposed to it. A typical example can be found in the company‘s
1999 management conference, as described by Swartz and Watkins (2003, p.7). They
reported that the then CEO, Jeffrey Skilling, turned the event into ―a grim tutorial on
―growing earnings‖ or, in layman‘s terms, boosting profits… the Hyatt‘s ballroom felt like a
reeducation camp, as every speaker stressed the new corporate dogma, which was that