Using Volunteers to Test Vaccine

The assignment content is about the decision-making process of ABC Corporation in finding a cure for a disease that has been affecting millions of lives. The corporation is facing a critical situation where it needs to find a solution within 10 years or risk losing millions of lives. The assignment discusses the different alternatives available, including finding volunteers who are willing to try the vaccine and sign a contract releasing the corporation from any legal responsibility for side effects. It concludes that the alternative solution of looking for volunteers is the best option as it allows the corporation to start testing the vaccine immediately and avoid legal troubles.

FUNDAMENTAL OF
MANAGEMENT – 618509

Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
Decision making process..........................................................................................................3
Defining the problem.........................................................................................................................3
Decision criteria.................................................................................................................................3
Weigh decision criteria.....................................................................................................................4
Identify alternatives..........................................................................................................................4
Analysis of alternative.......................................................................................................................5
Selection of an alternative.................................................................................................................5
Implementation of the alternative....................................................................................................6
Evaluation of the decision.................................................................................................................6
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................6
References.................................................................................................................................7

Introduction
ABC Corporation Pvt. Ltd., based in Australia, is one of the top research companies in the
world that develops vaccines to cure different kind of diseases, which are spreading on a
massive scale. Recently, the corporation has developed a vaccine that can treat a deadly virus
that is rapidly spreading in West Africa. The vaccine has been tested on infected
chimpanzees, which has yielded positive results and the health authorities of the country say
that it will take 10 years for the corporation to test it on humans as the side effects of the
vaccine on human body are not yet known. Luckily, an African health worker has
volunteered to use the vaccine in order to cure thousands of west Africans who have been
infected by the virus.
This report has been prepared to use the 8-step decision making process and decide whether
the health worker should be allowed to use the vaccine or not.
Decision making process
Defining the problem
The problem that the managers of ABC Corporation are currently facing is a major issue that
the people working in such a field are bound to experience. On one hand, the managers are
obviously desperate to begin human trials because of the vaccine is actually successful in
curing the virus, they will be able to save millions of lives and will also be able to stop the
virus from spreading or affecting the future generations. On the other hand, allowing the
health worker to use the vaccine on humans, without having adequate knowledge about its
side effects on the human body is an unethical decision and might invite legal troubles for the
corporation. Further, the failure of the vaccine to work on humans or the possibility of
dangerous side effects could make the situation even worse. As a result, the managers of the
corporation are facing serious issue that has to be addressed as soon as possible.
Decision criteria
From the view point of the corporation, reaching a solution to the problem is definitely not
easy. The corporation deals in the health industry and is required to follow an ethical
approach in whatever decision it takes. Therefore, the solution to the present problem should

definitely meet some ethical standards and the corporation should be able to justify its choice
of solution.
First of all, it is important that the solution taken by the managers of the corporation is ethical
and should be in the interest of the general public. Secondly, the solution that the
management of the corporation finds to the problem, should be in accordance with the legal
bindings so that the corporation does not have to face legal threats at a later stage. Thirdly,
the solution to the problem should ensure that the people involved in the research should not
face further deterioration of their health because of the vaccine. Lastly, it is important that the
corporation is able to justify its choice of solution on ethical grounds so that its reputation
does not suffers.
Weigh decision criteria
To make the process of decision making simpler, the managers of the ABC Corporation can
allocate a weightage score to different criteria that they think are involved or should be used
to reach a s solution. In this particular case, we have already prepared a list of four criterions
that are important to reach a solution. Therefore, their weightage (on a scale of 1-3, where 1
implied less important and 3 implies very important) is given below:
CRITERIA WEIGHTAGE
Ethicality 2
Legal adherence 3
Public health 3
Reputation 2
The two possible solutions to the problem, as of now is that the company offers the vaccine to
the health worker and allow him to use it for treating the infected population or it rejects the
proposal and waits until it has completed human trials.
Identify alternatives
As discussed above, finding a solution to the problem being faced by the corporation is not an
easy task and the management will have to identify a number of alternative solutions to

ensure that the best decision is made. Some alternatives to the solutions discussed above are
discussed below:
An alternative solution to the problem being faced by the corporation is that it can find
volunteers, who have been infected by the virus and are ready to use the vaccine in order to
find a potential cure to their infection. The corporation can follow all the legal proceedings
and can make the volunteers sign a contract under which the corporation would not be held
responsible for any side effects that are experienced due to the usage of the vaccine.
Analysis of alternative
The alternative solution to the problem being faced by the corporation can prove to be an
effective solution that would help the management in dealing with the issues that it is
currently facing.
First of all, the alternate solution will help the corporation in avoiding a situation where it
would have to wait for another 10 years for trying the vaccine on humans. Furthermore, if the
vaccine proves to be successful on the humans as well, the corporation will be able to save
millions of lives which would otherwise be lost in 10 years until the vaccine is tried on
humans. Thirdly, allowing infected people to volunteer for the vaccine program will allow
the corporation to avoid legal trouble, begin human trails immediately and also to perform a
thorough research on the effects that the vaccine can have on the humans. Therefore, the
alternative solution can help the company in dealing with most of the problems that it is
currently facing (Crueltyfreeinternational, n.d.).
Selection of an alternative
The corporation is at a stage where it does not have much alternatives to choose from. The
situation is critical and the lives of millions of infected people are at stake. If the company
fails to find immediate alternatives, it would have to wait for a very long time to commence
human trails for the vaccine and a lot of lives will be lost in that time gap. As a result, the
best alternative solution that the corporation has right now is to look for volunteers who will
be ready to try the vaccine and not blame the corporation for any side effects that occur as a
result of the usage of the vaccine. Furthermore, as the health worker from Africa is ready to
try the vaccine on some of the infected population, it would not be difficult for the

corporation to look for volunteers. Therefore, this alternative solution will be the best
solution to solve all the problems that the corporation is currently facing.
Implementation of the alternative
Implementation of the alternative solution would not be a difficult task for the corporation as
it already has a health worker demanding the vaccine so that he can use it on the affected
people. The company can sign a legal contract with the health worker that the vaccine would
be used on the affected people in a controlled quantity and that the corporation would be
allowed to carry out a research on the response shown by the body of those people who will
be treated with the vaccine. Further, the company can also get it signed that they are using the
vaccine according to their own wish and the corporation would not be held responsible for
any side effects.
Evaluation of the decision
it would not be difficult for the corporation to start testing the vaccine on volunteers and the
corporation will also be able to proceed with human trails without any legal troubles. Further,
it is also possible that the vaccine actually works and is able to cure the infection, which will
ultimately help the corporation in saving millions of lives.
Conclusion
ABC Corporation has definitely worker hard to come up with a cure to a disease that has
been affecting millions of lives. Its efforts to save lives are now dependent on the
management of the corporation to look for a solution to the ongoing problems. The
management should look into the decision process discussed above and should implement an
alternative solution, which will help it in dealing with most of its problems.

References
Goldmeier, J., 2015. Decision Making Shouldn't be this Complex. [Online]
Available at: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/decision-making-shouldnt-complex-jordan-
goldmeier[Accessed 22 September 2017].
Crueltyfreeinternational, n.d. Alternatives to animal testing. [Online]
Available at: https://www.crueltyfreeinternational.org/why-we-do-it/alternatives-animal-
testing[Accessed 22 September 2017].
NIAID, 2013. How To Volunteer for Vaccine Research Studies. [Online]
Available at: https://www.niaid.nih.gov/clinical-trials/how-volunteer-vaccine-research-
studies[Accessed 22 September 2017].
Walsh, F., 2013. Big rise in volunteers for medical trials. [Online]
Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-22594635
[Accessed 22 September 2017].