Museum and Galleries Supported by the Sackler Family

Museum and Galleries
supported by the Sackler
Family

Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
ANALYSIS .....................................................................................................................................2
Aim of the report .........................................................................................................................2
Can an organisation be described as successful if it is not ethical?.............................................3
What can the organisation in your case study do to protect itself against unethical behaviour?.4
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................5
RECOMMENDATIONS ..............................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
.........................................................................................................................................................7

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The report includes analyses of workings of Sackler Family and their donations made for
Museums and Galleries. It further analyses that an unethical entity can be said as successful or
not as well as evaluates the workings that should be performed by business concern to protect
against unethical behaviour. Some of the recommendations that can protect the entity against
unethical behaviours are building integrity culture, begin promotions in ethical models and
making changes in vision.
1

INTRODUCTION
Definition of success differ from person to person but the basics remains same i.e. get
desired results. Private companies measure their success by the amount of profit which they are
earning, valuation of firm can also be considered as another criterion. For Sackler family, money
is equivalent to success as even after knowing that the drug, which they were selling, is addictive
but they did not stop its distribution. Ethics play crucial role in success of an organisation. It
promotes the atmosphere of equality in company and reduces number of conflicts in offices. This
ultimately help employees in focusing on their set targets as they do not face unwanted
distraction. Success of company is connected to employee retention, they are backbone of
organisation and they do not leave an enterprise where ethical standards are high (Gauvreau and
et.al., 2016).
Sackler family owns a pharmaceutical company, named Purdue Pharma. They are selling a
drug, called OxyContin which is basically a pain killer. The problem with this medicine is that it
is addictive, people compared Sackler family from drug cartels as they also earn money by
selling addictive drugs. Many US states are suing Purdue Pharma after revelation of these
wrongdoing. OxyContin is not an illegal medicine but people are calling it unethical as they are
considering it a one of the main reason behind increasing deaths and addictions. Sackler family
was donating huge amount of money to museums, universities and galleries. Many of them
stopped taking donation from them because of this issue. But some are still considering money
from Sackler family and people are not happy with these institutions. They are calling it
''reputation laundering''; donate money for the purpose of improving company's name in public.
The aim of this report it to understand that whether an organisation, who is successful,
should be considered successful if it is involved in unethical activities (Göpferich and Neumann,
2016).
ANALYSIS
Aim of the report
Aim of this report is to analyse the case study on donations made by the Sackler Family to
Museums and Galleries. This report objectifies to analyse whether an unethical organisation can
be successful or not and evaluate what should be organisation must do to protect itself against
unethical behaviour. This report will map out various points which needed to be considered.
2

These points will be based on success of unethical organisations from the perspective of public
and regulators.
Can an organisation be described as successful if it is not ethical?
The Sackler family is one of the wealthiest families of British America which owns a
pharmaceutical company named as Purdue Pharma. The firm is famous for producing a highly
addictive drug called OxyContin, which is a pain killer. This is a legal company which sells
drugs that cause harm to an individual's health. The company is famous for its generous
donations to universities, galleries and museums across the world which makes it a highly
reputed company. Even some have named galleries, wings and libraries after them. In United
States, the drug sell by company has been the primary cause of opioid crisis. Despite of being
leading drug pushers, the firm is world renowned donor which is responsible for many deaths in
previous year.
On the basis of above discussion, it can be said that an organisation carrying out illegal
activities can be successful in the long run. This success can be seen from a number of
perspectives which are briefly explained as under:-
 The companies receiving donations from Sackler Family will also be somewhere
positively affected by the social initiatives taken by respective pharmaceutical firm.
Looking upon its brand image and value within the specified industry, this can be easily
stipulated that irrespective of unethical behaviour conducted by this firm, it would gain
prosperity and success as well as get ahead of other rival firms prevailing within
respective corporate sector.
 From the point of view of public, the success of respective pharmaceutical firm can not
be obviated as the company is acting against the interests of society and thereby leading
to the emergence of opioid crisis. People may even do protests against this firm, looking
upon its unacceptable conduct. The usual perception of people regarding its success is
negative, however, some of the persons may still prefer to take into account the goodwill
and brand image of corporation in market place even after being engaged in the sale of
addictive drug called OxyContin.
 The services offered to the public by museums and galleries are at a large scale and thus
it is not wrong to state that the respective pharmaceutical firm would become successful
in the long run because of the initiatives it has taken to aim at the welfare and
3

entertainment of public. In this regard, it can be said that continuing to operate in the
same manner in the interest of society would provide aid to the entity in gaining a
positive image and attaining high brand value at market place.
From the perspective of effective regulations around the organisations receiving
donations, it can be said that the scale and brand value of Purdue Pharma would not fade even
after the illegal or unethical conduct that it has engaged in. This is because the firm constantly
does the funding of museums and exhibitions. Although the funds came from an unethical
source, it can still justify the success of Purdue Pharma as the entity is contributing to social
practices to get over the bad name brought to the company due to opioid crisis.
What can the organisation in your case study do to protect itself against unethical behaviour?
The given case study is based on Sackler Family’s pharma business “Purdue Pharma”. This
business is considered as unethical as, a painkiller is developed and highly marketed by this
company which is highly addictive and acts as a drug which is harmful for people as it has been
resultant into opioid crises in United states. It is a high time for this family business to protect
itself against unethical behaviour. In order to protect itself, few ways which this business must
adopt; is to discontinue the manufacturing and promotion of their highly addictive drug that is
OxyCotin. Other ways to protect themselves is to more involve in donations to Museums and
Galleries’ to heal their damaged reputation (Keefe, 2017).
Other than the Sackler family business, institutions which are accepting funds from this
business are also besmirching their own reputation. Institutions such as Metropolitan Museum of
Art and the Guggenheim in New York, the Tate art group in the UK, the National Portrait
Gallery and the Serpentine Gallery in London have refused to accept donations from Sackler
family business in order to protect their reputation (The Met museum to reject donations from
Sackler family over opioid crisis, 2019). But still there are various organisations and institutions
which are still accepting gifts and other donations from Sackler family business in order to run
their operations and be successful. Success of these organisations is generously enhanced after
being associated with Sackler family but their image is entirely damaged (The Sackler family's
drug money disgraces museums around the world, 2018).
Ways by which these organisations can protect themselves from unethical behaviour is to
not accepting any kind of donations from Sackler family and dis associate their name with this
family. There is another option by which these institutions can protect themselves without stop
4

accepting donations is not to disclose any relationship of them with Sackler family in public. It is
important for these institutions to dis associate their name with this Sackler family as even after
being successful, in the eyes of regulators this success is not even real.
Public has effectively get impacted due to addictive painkiller manufactured by business of
Sackler family due to which any Museums and such type of institutions must not accept
donations from this family as public will stop visiting in this institutions by which even after
ample funds, their success will be not valid.
After this analysis, it can be said that both Sackler family business and institutions
associated with their name must take steps to protect themselves from unethical behaviour. This
unethical behaviour can even result in their shut down. This unethical behaviour includes
boycotting these organisations and rebellion from public. Protection against this unethical
behaviour can only be perceived when this organisation discontinues any practice which
negatively impacts health of public. Along with dis associating their name from Sackler family,
these institutions can also take steps which can make people realise that they are concerned for
public health; like conducting exhibitions which can aware people how to overcome with
addiction of drugs and take initiatives to help people addicted to drugs.
Above mentioned ways will definitely help institutions such as Museums and Galleries’ to
protect themselves from unethical behaviour. These ways can even result into enhancement of
their image. Reputation laundering is even an offence which these institutions are conducting by
accepting donations from Sackler Family so by adopting ways mentioned above will also help in
clearly their name from any illegal or unethical activity.
CONCLUSION
As per the report it has been concluded that the basics of success remains same for
achieving desired result. Organisations performs various activities for protecting themselves
from any type of unethical behaviour. Despite performing illegal activities, business concern
achieves success as they receives donations that impacts in social initiatives and gaining
recognition in corporate sector. Other than this, firms also aims to provide welfare as well as
demanded products to general public which also help them to gain huge success. For protecting
the business from illegal activities, managers should discontinue manufacturing addition to
promotions of addictive commodities and get more involved in donations so that they can heal
the damaged reputation. In addition, institutions can also protect them through not disclosing the
5

relationships in public even after achieving success. Further more, conducting programmes in
various exhibitions can also help in taking initiations to provide ways to general public who are
addicted to harmful commodities.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The report aim is to analyse case study that is based on donations which Sackler family
makes to Museums together with Galleries. Some of the recommendations are the followings:
 In order to achieve success by restricting unethical conducts, Sackler Family should make
certain changes in their vision and should put right people who have capabilities to do not
conduct unethical working. Changing vision will help in formulating new strategies and
performing operations that are against unethical workings. It also helps in setting
guidelines and reviewing policies as well as holding standards for accomplishing
workings. It will motivate the members of entity to start performing operations in ethical
manner that will protect against certain unethical behaviours.
 Another recommendation is for achieving success, the family should start promotions
through ethical models so that they can deliver integrate business values in all
communicational mediums. Showing morals in advertisements makes customer feel that
business cares about the needs of them and they are protected by entity in the ways which
makes distinction to community where they works. Sackler Family by promoting ethical
models can protect themselves from unethical behaviours effectively.
 Another recommendation is for build integrity culture, Sackler Family can built ethical
workings and commitments to analyse what is right as well as upholding standard values.
With opportunities of ethical professional developments, managers of Museums and
Galleries can implement best practices that can benefit them to achieve more recognitions
in competitive scenario. Analysing the rights and upholding values benefits in making
strong reputation, satisfying employees, setting clearer focus and spreading better culture.
Integrity within business defines moral principles, treating others with respect, rewarding
honesty that restricts workings of the entity or protect them against unethical behaviours.
6

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Gauvreau, S. A., and et.al., 2016. Online professional skills workshops: Perspectives from
distance education graduate students. The International Review of Research in Open and
Distributed Learning. 17(5).
Göpferich, S. and Neumann, I. eds., 2016. Developing and Assessing Academic and Professional
Writing Skills. Peter Lang.
Keefe, P. R., 2017. The family that built an empire of pain. The New Yorker. 30.
Meier, B., 2018. Pain Killer: An Empire of Deceit and the Origin of America's Opioid Epidemic.
Random House.
Mercer, C., 2019. Do the politics or business background of health care philanthrophists
matter?. CMAJ: Canadian Medical Association Journal. 191(33). p.E924.
Rieken, B., Schar, M. and Sheppard, S., 2016, October. Trait mindfulness in an engineering
classroom: An exploration of the relationship between mindfulness, academic skills, and
professional skills. In 2016 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE) (pp. 1-8).
IEEE.
Rodney, S., 2019. The Personalization of the Museum Visit: Art Museums, Discourse, and
Visitors. Routledge.
Van Dijk, C. N., 2019. From painkiller to killer: the ‘oxy’case.
Online
The Met museum to reject donations from Sackler family over opioid crisis. 2019. [Online].
Available through: <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/may/15/met-museum-
rejects-sackler-family-donations-oxycontin-makers-gifts>
The Sackler family's drug money disgraces museums around the world. 2018. [Online].
Available through: <https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/16/sackler-
family-blood-money-disgrace-museums>
7