Ethical Issues of Johnson and Johnson Company

This report discusses the ethical issues faced by Johnson and Johnson company, including selling addicting medicines and unethical marketing practices. It also explores the impact on stakeholders and provides recommendations for ethical decision-making.

Entrepreneurship Development

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.......................................................................................................................................4
PART 1 A.........................................................................................................................................4
PART 1 B.........................................................................................................................................6
PART 2 ............................................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Ethics are the moral guidelines and principles which helps in governing the behaviour of the
person or conduct any activity. These ethics help the company's stakeholder so that they are not
faced with the legal regulation. The ethical framework means the set of codes and practices that are
being set to guide individual as well as the organisation. This framework define what is wrong or
right on the basis of ethics. In this report the ethical issues of Johnson and Johnson company are
being discussed. Johnson and Johnson company has done many unethical things just to increase
there sales and become more and more profitable, which has resulted in the deaths of many US
citizens. The analysis of the whole case of Johnson and Johnson company is being conducted and
the conclusion has been formed to deal with the situation.(Denecke, 2015)

MAIN BODY
PART 1 A
In the case study of the pharmaceutical company Johnson and Johnson there are some
ethical issues being faced by the company which is being addressed in this section.
The company was not honest with there customer as they were selling drug addicting
medicines to the people of US which has caused a widespread death in the country.(Baden, 2015)
There medicine contained opioid and they kept this fact hidden from the population of US, so the
company failed in meeting the fundamental ethics of integrity and honesty. The company kept there
interest above there stakeholder which has led to conflict of interest between Johnson and Johnson
and there stakeholders. The company was doing illegal task in order to boost there sales also they
didn't care about there customers as whether they live or die. The company also convinced the
doctors for suggesting there opioid containing medicines, the company did this by hiring a
consultancy firm McKinsey, which recommended that the sales force should focus on the doctors
already prescribing large amount of Purdue's OxyContin. The doctors were also ethically incorrect
as even after knowing the medicines contains opioid they were still prescribing these to the patient
which shows high abuse risk to there patients. The whole company was doing fraudulent and illegal
activity and by this they were making millions of dollars. This has impacted the every stakeholder
very badly as the customer got addicted and died, the shareholder lost there investment once the
company was caught and the employees lost there jobs. (Roberts, 2015)
The first and the foremost ethical issue was that has affected the society was of the company
running a fake sales campaign which have caused an addiction to the population of America, the

addiction was of opioid and this has caused widespread death in the country. The judge sanctioned a
42 page judgement against the company and Johnson and Johnson has been told to help the people
for creating the worst drug epidemic in the history of US. The safety of the population was being
sacrificed by the aggressive false claim of the company, this has lead the to loss of the faith of
public in the pharmaceutical industry. The judge ordered Johnson and Johnson to pay a penalty fees
of $572 million for the compensation of the people who suffered from there medicines and any
other additional payment for the treatment of the patients. The records show that by taking the
opioid medicines around 6000 people were found dead and many more addicted to there medicines.
The company has also spread this in India when the Indian government had loosened the laws and
regulations regarding opioid, the health care system used this for their own advantage instead of
there stakeholders. All this has led to loss of public confidence in the laws and regulation of the
country. (Simangunsong, Hendry, and Stevenson, 2016)
The stakeholder which has affected by all the practices of Johnson and Johnson are there
customers, there employees working, there shareholders who has there investment in there company
and the government of the US country. The patient who took there medicines got addicted and that
has caused widespread deaths and other problems. The patient has lost there hope and belief in the
pharmaceutical company and the government laws and regulations which were there to protect
them. The patient's family who died because of taking this opioid containing medicines also
suffered. The employees of Johnson and Johnson company has lost there jobs when the company
was caught of doing such practices, this has led to increase in the unemployment rates of the
country. The investors who had there shares and debentures in the company suffered large amount
of losses when Johnson and Johnson were told to pay a fine of $572 million. Also there are very
little chance that the company will be able to stand in the market after this, because the brand image
is completely destroyed. Since the people lost there faith the government also suffered from the
activities of Johnson and Johnson company, now the government has put more strict rules and
regulation so that another such horrifying accident does not occur in the future.
There are some good and bad business ethics examples given below:
Any business who promotes environmental friendly ways of working, fair treatment of there
employees, supplier and customers are example of good business ethics. This would not only create
an ethical brand image of the company but there profits will also increase for promoting there
stakeholders interests. If the company wants to survive in the market and make large amounts of
profit in the long term then they must follow these business ethics as the consumer is continuously
becoming more and more aware of the companies activities there is no other way for the company
but to follow these good ethical practices.(Gelinas, 2017)

Bad business ethics are sacrificing there customer and employee interest for the company's
own interest, not following the fundamental principles which include integrity, objectivity,
confidentiality, transparency and independence, illegal practices to gain competitive advantage. In
the past there have been many scandals like Enron and WorldCom which was the result of not
following these business ethics. Other unethical business activities are use of animal skins for
making products like handbags, belts etc. like Louis Vitton and Gucci were being accused of killing
and using crocodile skins for making there products. The company with such unethical business
will surely make large amounts of profits but in the longer term they would eventually be caught
like Johnson and Johnson, and then there business would come to an end.
Recommendations and suggestions
The ethics frameworks is just a guideline for making decisions in an ethical manner, the
main challenges the company faces is to implement these issues into there organisation. The first
thing the company do to implement such ethical practises are that they should provide an ethical
climate by changing the top level, as by doing this the company will be able to face issue like
conflict of interest in the organisation.(Ozair, 2015) The company should award the employee who
follow and implement such ethical practises into the organisation, so that the ethical practises will
be promoted widely. Another basic suggestion is that all the company should follow the rules and
regulations imposed upon them Rules and regulations often don’t cover the majority of ethical
issues otherwise they will have to face serious consequences. If the company follow these ethics
there brand image will be improved and they will be able to survive in the long term.
PART 1 B
There are three ethical theories that defines the ethical reasoning, these are utilitarian ethics,
deontological ethics and virtue ethics which are explained below:
Utilitarian ethics
The company or person following the utilitarian ethics have the concept that of the greatest
good for the largest number of people. This ethical concept means that the action should be made on
the basis of the consequences. Utilitarian is often used by millennials so that they can avoid the
confrontation and achieve consensus. Initially this idea may be appealing to people but this does not
provide proper ethical framework for the decision making process.
In the case given of Johnson and Johnson company, a utilitarian will be judging the ethics
based upon the choices and the action based on there choices and the outcome of following the
action. So from the point of view of a utilitarian Johnson and Johnson company had the choice of
being transparent, honest and act with integrity and the other option was to cheat there customers,
for the greater good of the largest amount of people the company must have gone with the first

option. Therefore, a utilitarian will consider this as an unethical action as the company has caused
large amount of death due to there actions. (Davis, 2017)
Although critiques says that utilitarian due to there concept of relying on the consequences
of a decision is generally not found as strong for public relations professional ethics. Therefore, for
proper judgement the people follows other ethical theories to be more correct and accurate in the
consideration of these ethics.
The utilitarian must be more moral and should be accountable toward the commitment of
there rights. They should just not promote inequality even if the decision maximizes the greater
good as this would be unfair for the people who faces inequality. Utilitarians must have proper
regard for the people and with this they should maximize there utility. Utilitarians must understand
that the decision which maximizes the greatest number of people may not always be preferable.
Deontological ethics
The company or person following the deontological ethics have the concept that looks for
such principles which values all the human being. This ethical concept means that all the human
being should be treated with respect as they consider this as the basic human right for them.
Deontological ethics is based on the core concept that there are some objectives and duties which
are expected of all the humans. (Darrow, 2015)
In case of Johnson and Johnson a person following deontological approach will say that the
company has not valued human life and all they had concentrated was to maximize there sales in
order to make their own profits. A deontological will strongly consider Johnson and Johnson
company to be unethical and they will argue that strong penalties must be imposed on the company.
Critiques says that the deontological approach of following is one of the strongest way for
dealing with public relation ethics. This is because a person following deontological approach will
value the human rights such as equality and freedom which is not considered by the utilitarians, this
given deontological approach a solid base for ethical consideration. These ethical principles are
derived from the fundamental values that consider human rights.
Deontological approach must agree to a final decision and reduce the conflicts when they
are faced there is not an agreement of the principles involved. They should also understand that
every decision they make are not always correct and may also have negative consequences. They
should come to a common decision when faced with the conflict in there duties. If the people
following deontological approach follows these recommendations and suggestions this approach
will become the best ethical approach to follow.(Martin, 2015)
Virtue ethics
The company or person following the Virtue ethics is based on the concept that looks at the
virtue of the person making the decision. This ethical concept asks questions like what makes a

person good enough? And what are the purpose of making a decision? A person following virtue
ethics will require the judgement to be on the basis that if the virtue follower are good for the public
or not.
In the case of Johnson and Johnson company, a person following virtue ethics will judge the
case by seeing if the company was morally right in there decision making. So the virtue ethics will
say that they are morally and therefore ethically wrong as they didn't think anything except their
own profits which has led to death of around 6000 people and many got addicted to the opioid
containing medicines.
The critiques commented that though the virtue ethics follows the morally correct way of
doing work, but they often fails to motivate the people so the critiques says that rather than only
emphasizing the moral values the ethics must focus on good people. The outcome should not just be
morally correct but should be accepted by the majority of the people.
Following an ethical practise based on virtue ethics the individual should remember that the
outcome of there decision should be accepted by all the people and they also remain motivated.
They should also remember that there are not much of the conflicts after the decision is being made.
They should also keep in mind that every outcome of there decision may not always be correct and
they may also have to face negative consequences.
PART 2
In this part of the report the ethical leadership is being discussed in the workplace and how
can integrity and compliance being applied in the workplace:
Ethical leadership management means the exhibitions of moral values at the managerial
position. An ethical leader will use there ethical characteristics so that the employees at the
workplace get their rights and no unethical practise is there at the workplace. They have some roles
and responsibilities that they must carry out in order to satisfy the above objectives. For example
who lie to there employee, avoid there responsibilities and do not respect there staff will be
considered as a bas ethical leader. The leader should follow the rules and regulation which he/she
sets for the whole organisation as this will set a good example for all the other team members and
they will follow such leaders. The choices of the ethical leaders are often influenced by the moral
values of the organisation. The ethical leader should always try to communicate these ethical values
to there followers so that the climate of the organisation remains ethical. This communication may
be formal or informal depending upon how the people understand these values quickly and these
communications also builds respect and compassion toward there leaders.

There are some differences between ethical practices which are being followed at the
workplace and the ethics followed personally by each individual. Personal ethics means those ethics
which a person identifies and follows into there personal life to deal with there daily routines,
whereas the professional ethics are those which a professional must have to follow to interact and
deal with there business in there professional life. Personal ethics involves the moral values which
includes telling truth, respect the people older than them, they will not hurt anybody purposely etc.,
and the professional ethics includes practices like always reaching at the work at time as
professional needs to be punctual, they must manage there time so that they are efficient in
completing the task given, they should not involve in any gossip at the work place, they should not
leak any information which is confidential and can affect the privacy of the company etc., an
individual must be ethical both personally and at there workplace too so to avoid any conflict of
interests at the workplace and in there personal time too.
There are three steps which must be applied to use integrity and compliance at the workplace.
A code of conduct must be applied to the all employees irrespective of what position the individual
is working.(Moon and Nolan, 2019) All the staff should be asked to follow the principles of
integrity and compliance. The code of conduct should states the mission and vision of the company
which should include these principles
The organisation must conduct effective training programs so that these principles are understood
by each and every individual, these training program must be done even if it is legal or not. A risk
assessment must be there so that the training program is being customised.
Then the organisation should create such a culture which help in communication of these ethical
practices of integrity and compliance, for this the company must have an effective communication
channel. The organisation should allow both formal and informal communication.
I have experienced some ethical consideration while working in my company. All my collogues are
good at communicating all the new policy and procedures being formed by my organisation, so I
think it's a good way for effective working of the organisation. If there is any conflict being faced in
my organisation then there are fixed process for solving the conflict. This reduces the chances of the
conflict being solved as soon as possible and the chances are of increasing the conflict is reduced.
The problem that I have faced regarding the ethical consideration are that sometimes the leaders
tries and ignore any responsibilities which are being assigned to them so this costs the organisation
additional time to complete the work, also there are some people who waste a lot of time gossiping
about other collogue, people often extend there lunch breaks to pass there time so that they do not
have to the extra work, some employee do not punch in there cards when they are late in there lunch
breaks. (Miller and Blackler, 017)

CONCLUSION
From this report we have come to a conclusion that ethics are very important for the survival
of the company and making profit in the long term. The Johnson and Johnson company's case has
been discussed in the report and there impact has been described on the various stakeholders and the
society. Then there has been a discussion about the different theories and how these theories can be
applied to the issue of Johnson and Johnson company and the critiques comments on these theories.
Comprehensively the whole report shows that the company should use the ethics in there
organisation or there will be serious consequences which may lead to liquidation of the organisation
causing great impact on a variety of there stakeholders.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Baden, D., 2015. Ethical issues in the news sector: Hidden from view.
Darrow, J.J., and et.al., 2015. Practical, legal, and ethical issues in expanded access to
investigational drugs.
Davis, K.D., and et.al., 2017. Brain imaging tests for chronic pain: medical, legal and ethical issues
and recommendations. Nature Reviews Neurology. 13(10). p.624.
Denecke, K., and et.al., 2015. Ethical issues of social media usage in healthcare. Yearbook of
medical informatics. 24(01). pp.137-147.
Gelinas, L., and et.al., 2017. Using social media as a research recruitment tool: Ethical issues and
recommendations. The American Journal of Bioethics. 17(3). pp.3-14.
Martin, K.E., 2015. Ethical issues in the big data industry. MIS Quarterly Executive. 14. p.2.
Miller, S. and Blackler, J., 2017. Ethical issues in policing. Routledge.
Moon, B.L. and Nolan, E.G., 2019. Ethical issues in art therapy. Charles C Thomas Publisher.
Ozair, F.F., and et.al., 2015. Ethical issues in electronic health records: A general overview.
Perspectives in clinical research. 6(2). p.73.
Roberts, L.D., 2015. Ethical issues in conducting qualitative research in online communities.
Qualitative Research in Psychology. 12(3). pp.314-325.

Simangunsong, E., Hendry, L.C. and Stevenson, M., 2016. Managing supply chain uncertainty with
emerging ethical issues. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.
36(10). pp.1272-1307.