Case Study: Johnson & Johnson: Taking the Pain Away

Case study: Johnson & Johnson:
Taking the pain away.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1(a)........................................................................................................................................1
1. Issues in case study.................................................................................................................1
2. Role of business in society......................................................................................................1
3. Stakeholders............................................................................................................................2
4. Examples of good or bad ethics..............................................................................................3
5. Recommendations...................................................................................................................3
PART 1 (b).......................................................................................................................................4
a) Ethical Theories......................................................................................................................4
b. Applying theories to issues.....................................................................................................4
c. Pros and cons of theories.........................................................................................................5
d. Improvements..........................................................................................................................5
PART 2............................................................................................................................................6
Reflective essay...........................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business ethics and social responsibility are considered as one of the important issues for
any company and it is really important for organisations to consider this factor while making any
business decision. Present report is based on the case study of Johnson and Johnson which was
fined in Oklahoma, to $572 million to state in order to mitigate the effects which state was
dealing with an opioids addiction crisis (Guerci and et.al., 2015). So, J&J was involved in
violating some ethical concerns in order to achieve profits. Present report discusses about the
issues in the case study and the role of business towards society and also discusses about various
ethical theories and their pros and cons. Also, this report also includes the reflective essay.
PART 1(a)
1. Issues in case study
This case study is based on the case of Johnson and Johnson, company had to pay a huge
fine ad firm was engaged in unethical business activities. Company was made liable to pay a
fine of $ 572 million to state as it was involved in selling of opioid products to relieve its
customers from pain. Use of opioids in their products has resulted in addiction of customers to it
which is considered as one of the major issue. It has been report by CNN that approximately 1.7
million people in United States have suffered from this substance and this has resulted a disorder
among individuals (Crane and et.al., 2019). Another major issue is that J&J was trying to make
profits by using unethical business activities, it has used different marketing strategies to
convince people about its products in order make them to buy the product. Another issue was
that various companies including J&J has been successful in persuading doctors to prescribe
these patients to use J&J products in order to get relief from pain which was another ethical
misconduct by the company. There were a clear case of questionable marketing practices which
was used by J&J in order to motivate customers to buy products. Also, there were the
manipulation of scientific findings and doctors were put in a clear conflicting interests (Crane
and et.al., 2019).
2. Role of business in society
Major role of business in the society is to produce and distribute products to satisfy their
customer is an effective manner. It is not only for making profit but to make positive
contribution towards the society (Davies, 2016) . J&J is affected the society to great extent, for
example it has affected the people in a negative manner as it has made the people addicted to
1

opioids which is not good for society though they are finding relief for this drugs but is also
affecting their health (Swanson and Frederick, 2016). This has developed a negative perception
among the customers which can also result decrease in customer loyalty. Using opioids has
resulted in opioids addiction among the people, this has affected brand image of firm badly.
Also, one major factor is profitability, this issue will decrease the customer base of J&J which
will decrease the profitability of the company to higher extent. Besides using questionable
marketing strategies to attract and motivate customers to buy their products, this has also
affected the society in negative way for example their marketing strategies made society believe
that people gets relief from the product eventually it was non-beneficial for them which only
resulted in addiction (Strobel, Tumasjan and Welpe, 2015). Also, this issue has also affected the
society in a negative manner. for example, J&J involved doctors and have manipulated the
research findings which can result in disbelief among the people in doctor's prescription and
people won't believe in research finding which is not good for society and for the company as
well (Jamali, El Dirani and Harwood, 2015). This issue has created a major problem not only to
people but to its business as well. This issue has made society more addicted to drugs, which
have a negative effect on current and future generations who so ever are prescribed with such
products.
3. Stakeholders
There are various stakeholders which are affected by this issue :
Customers: They are the main stakeholder those who are been affected by this issue as they
have become addicted to these drugs which is affecting health of people and quality of living.
Employees: This issue have also affected employees as they feel that they have been involved in
making the society addicted to drugs and which has also decreased the value of company for
them (Davies, 2016).
Investors: These stakeholders are the backbone of the company it can affect the investors in
various ways for example they may not make investments in the company for the future (Guest,
2017).
Suppliers and Vendors: Suppliers and vendors may face loss as other companies may stop
buying raw materials from them which may result in the loss (Quarshie, Salmi and Leuschner,
2016).
2