Business Ethics and Responsible Management: A Case Study

This report delves into the realm of business ethics, utilizing the Johnson & Johnson case study to illustrate key concepts. It begins by defining business ethics and its importance within an organization, followed by an analysis of the ethical issues faced by Johnson & Johnson, particularly concerning the opioid crisis. The report explores the role of business within society, the impact of business activities on stakeholders (customers, employees, shareholders, government, and suppliers), and provides examples of good and bad ethical practices, culminating in recommendations for ethical improvement. Part B discusses two ethical theories: utilitarianism and deontology, applying them to the Johnson & Johnson case to evaluate the ethical dimensions of the company's actions. The report concludes with a reflective essay on ethical leadership, consolidating the learnings and insights gained throughout the analysis. The report emphasizes the significance of ethical conduct for business success and societal well-being.

Business Ethics and
Responsible
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
PART A...........................................................................................................................................3
Importance of business ethics within the organisation...........................................................3
Issues of business ethics in the organization given in case study...........................................3
Role of Business within the society........................................................................................4
Effect of business activities on Stakeholders.........................................................................5
Example of good and bad ethics.............................................................................................6
Recommendation....................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
PART B............................................................................................................................................8
Discussion on two ethical theories.........................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
PART 2..........................................................................................................................................10
Reflective essay of ethical Leader........................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
The term Business ethics can be defined as the set rules and obligations which are needed
to be followed by the organisation in order to accomplish the target which organisation wants to
accomplish. It is important to understand that any of the organisation should not take those
business decisions that impacts it negatively. The performance of company can easily decline if
unethical decisions are being taken by the organisation. In context of the file, the chosen case
study is Johnson and Johnson: taking the pain away. It is one of the American based company
which is involved in the consumer healthcare and pharmaceuticals. In part A, there will be
description about the business ethics and its importance and about what are the main ethical
issues which are being faced by the company. Also, impact on the stakeholders will be
explained.
Importance of business ethics within the organisation
The following of the business ethics ensure in the organisation the guidance of values,
beliefs and decisions of business and individuals of the company. There are few ethical
requirements for business are codified into environmental rules, law, collusion, etc. all
businesses must follow code of business ethics as it helps in smooth running of all business
operations. The importance of following the business ethics is related with all the spheres of
business resulting it from the employee treatment, to working of organisation practices fairly
towards consumers and environment. In addition, it can easily improve the level of trust for
stakeholders towards the company it results in positive image of organisation.
Issues of business ethics in the organization given in case study.
The case study which is been given is of Johnson and Johnson which is an leading
American healthcare company which is well known for its consumer healthcare and
pharmaceuticals. The company has been once globed for allegations and accusations for using
drug named 'opioid' which is really harmful. The company was even law suited for using this
harmful drug. The company was aware of the side effects of this drug still they made, sold and
marketed their products. The promotions were centred around more on presenting it as benefit
drug rather than as addictive drug. The company was put in allegations for putting the profit
ahead of consumers’ safety. The state Oklahoma lawyers said that the company created a huge
marketing campaigns to take in opioid drug which caused destruction at large, the doctors

overprescribed the drug leading to the deaths at large. The company was then penalised to pay a
certain sum as an punishment. The Johnson and Johnson failed at possessing the honesty,
integrity and undermined the safety of the public at large. This shows the company's lack of
concern towards consumer’s safety and profit motive was seen as important.
Role of Business within the society
The social responsibility of business refers to the fulfil certain obligations and role of
business towards the wellbeing of society. It underlines certain behaviour of business
organisations towards the society as part of its social responsibility. The organisations take from
environment to carry out its operations smoothly it is moral duty of organisations to give back to
society. The business organizations can be socially responsible by being consciousness towards
environment and consumers needs. The company should focus on providing the quality goods
and services to consumers and to act in their utmost honesty and integrity. The fairness and
transparency in actions should be maintained and every activity should be carried out in the legal
framework of society. The second duty which is needed to be understood by the company is
that they must conduct those work which can help to improve the level of society. It becomes
crucial for the company to work as per the ethical codes because that will help them to build the
positive image in society. In context of this given case study, the decision which are being taken
by Johnson and Johnson are not in favour of company because it has been creating lots of
problem for the public and misuse of funds have also been done of stakeholders. The company
has breached the conduct of honesty and fairness of its operations. The health was being put at
stake of many people and the company was aware of the truth still they breached it.
Effect of business activities on Stakeholders
The stakeholders are the persons or group of persons who have interest in the
organisation and are affected by its performance . The satisfied pool of stakeholders increases the
success and long term survival of organisations. The effects on various important stakeholders
are as follows:
 Customers and Community : The customers are the reason because of which organisation
succeed. The organisation should focus on the understanding customer need and

providing them quality focused products. It is utmost duty of every organisation to do
every bit to satisfy the community.
 Employees : The employees are the important internal stakeholder. The employees act as
a point of interaction between customers and board of directors. The employees needs
and opinions should be taken care of. The employees should be made part of the
company's operations, decisions and should be made feel satisfied and an important part
of organisation.
 Shareholders : A shareholder has direct interest in company's process as they own the
company and have financial interest in company. The company should always provide
with full and proper information to the shareholders and try to get them returns on their
amount invested.
 Government : There is legal structure created for every business and citizen to follow
thoroughly. The business should always try to abide by laws and pay taxes honestly. For
effective and smooth functioning the tax evasions, illegal contracts etc. acts should never
be followed. The activities undertaken should be under legal area.
 Suppliers : The Suppliers are the indirect external stakeholder. The supplier sells the
goods and services for our business to continue smoothly for this they expect honesty and
right price to be paid for their services provided.
Example of good and bad ethics
There are various organisations which follow their work legally and honestly without
following for the trap of bad habits. The best example can be of the Pfizer is one of the largest
pharmaceutical company, where its many products standout in quality. The Pfizer offers great
focus on research and development to make their products according to consumer need. On the
other hand the Johnson and Johnson has been worked on path of bad habit many times as they
have been in limelight for many lawsuits and their product have recalled many times. They must
understand that following good ethics will result in the accomplishment of goal and customers
will also feel proud to be associated with such great company.
Recommendations

In this regard, it is necessary to understand for company that they must not conduct any
of those activities which create issues for the public because it will have a direct impact on the
company's profitability. Here, company should think that how they can clear to public about this
pandemic created of opioid. The company can also focus on new start to focus on honesty and
integrity. The company should put first customers satisfaction and all other objectives secondary.
Also, it is necessary that ethical codes must be followed because that has a direct impact on the
outcomes of a company. The company should try to be environmental consciousness and follow
this principle under its all operations.
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Wymer, W. and Rundle-Thiele, S.R., 2017. Inclusion of ethics, social responsibility, and
sustainability in business school curricula: a benchmark study. International Review on
Public and Non-profit Marketing, 14(1), pp.19-34.
Vitell, S.J., 2015. A case for consumer social responsibility (CnSR): Including a selected review
of consumer ethics/social responsibility research. Journal of Business Ethics, 130(4),
pp.767-774.
Homann, K., 2016. Globalisation from a business ethics point of view. In Globalisation and
business ethics (pp. 15-22). Routledge.

PART B
Discussion on two ethical theories
Discussion on two ethical theories
Utilitarianism Theory : The utilitarianism theory is regarded as one of the most influential
moral theory which is focused on idea that the actions are right or wrong it depends upon the
result. The actions matter what result they do produce. The consequences of the action matters.
The two theories of the utilitarianism theory are rule utilitarianism and act utilitarianism.
The act utilitarianism theory says that the person performs the actions which benefit at large to
the people regardless of societal rules and personal motives. The rule utilitarianism theory states
that the actions performs should be in accordance with law and fairness. The rule utilitarianism
theory values more justice and then give benefits to person. The utilitarianism theory focus is to
provide good things more by decreasing the level of bad things. In this context good things stand
for happiness, fairness etc. where as bad things stand for injustice, inequality etc. The use of the
this theory can be used by the company to increase the greatest good . The application of this
theory can be applied to increase the positive outcome for company by doing good to the people
the outcome will be the good and positive for company also.
Using the utilitarianism theory in Johnson and Johnson case we can judge the actions and
series of activities undertaken by company to analyse the unethical part. The unethical part or the
bad thing done can be put apart from the good things done. The bad done actions taken by the
company in case of promoting the opioid drug knowing its harmfulness it had adverse health
impact on people and many people have lost their lives and many people are having the health
issues till now with the use of that drug. This action taken by the company broke the trust which
they have earned it from so long. The consumers and company relations were resultant of this
bad thing done. In coming future, the strict quality standards will be checked upon by the
authorities on company's products, because of not following committing to system so existing.
The doctors will also likely to believe less when company will prescribe some drug which can
improve person's life. From the utilitarianism theory perspective, the everyone involved in this
action performed unethically. The persons involved in such action disregarded the big good part
which lied for the people and behaved completely unethical and showed that they were more
concerned towards profit rather than peoples safety.

Deontology : This theory was given by Immanuel Kant who said that human beings
must be treated with dignity and respect because they have their own rights. In other words it the
duty of company to respect the rights of people so that they can be treated accordingly. This
helps the company in choosing the option which will help in building good relations with public
by respecting the dignity of people. Thus the actions that respects the dignity of people are
considered to be ethical (James, 2017). There are three maxima of Kant's theory and they are: a
choice of one's character, a choice of basic ends of action, and a choice of kinds or policies of
action.
EA Games can apply this theory so that actions and activities of the business can be said
to be ethical if they respect the dignity of parents of game playing children. This can be done by
eliminating the 'loot boxes' from their games so that it does not charge money from parents by
influencing children wrongfully to make investments in their game in return for something
worthwhile. Even if the company continue to use 'loot boxes' then it should provide children with
something valuable in return so that the parents are not looted by the company.
The pros of using this theory is that it is practical to apply, it creates responsibility for
company to respect dignity of people. However, the cons of using this theory is that the company
has to always do the right thing no matter what even if the costs of company increases, also
conflicts might arise among the employees and managers in selecting the best principle involved
in decision-making. It is recommended that EA Games should use this theory in a way that can
help in maintaining the dignity of game-playing parents by managing the 'loot boxes' so that the
children do not spend their hard earned money irrationally (Buchanan, 2017).
REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Levy, J.T., 2016. There is no such thing as ideal theory. Social Philosophy and Policy .33(1-2).
pp.312-333.
Pennock, J.R., 2015. Democratic political theory. Princeton University Press.
Buchanan, A., 2017. A critical introduction to Rawls’ theory of justice. In Distributive Justice
(pp. 175-211). Routledge.

PART 2
Reflective essay of ethical Leader
An ethical leader is an individual who mainly focuses on following ethical values while
performing its allotted roles and responsibilities. Unethical activities may damage the dignity and
rights of employees which in results creates dissatisfaction and damage working environment of
an organisation. Following ethical values by an ethical leader helps in generating honesty, trust,
consideration among employees which brings effectiveness in decision making process results in
providing benefits to the company as well as society. Along with this, raising organisation
culture and value of members facilitates them in executing work in more effective and efficient
way. A high level of integrity can be developed among team mates by forming them into a team
and delegate combined task so that each and every member respects others and build trust on
them. It requires support from managers who are authorise to allot task to the members according
to their knowledge and experiences.
Leaders are responsible to maintain integrity and compliance within working
environment by directing them to follow company’s rules and regulations in strictly manner. It
made impressions which is essential to enhance efficiency and performance level of both
employees as well as an organisation. Along with this, it is important for the managers to respect
dignity of every employee by considering their viewpoints so that they feel motivated and
important within an organisation. It boosts confidence and performance level which in results
increasing employee retention rate. It requires an effective communication which allows
employees to interact and coordinate with each other in more effective and efficient manner.
As having an experience as a leader, I knew the importance of following ethical practices
and values while performing roles and responsibilities as without compliances of such practices
creates conflicts and issues in terms of hurting sentiments and dignity of any employee. Thus,
following ethical practices boost confidence in me which encourages me to take decisions that
will easily accepted by employees working within an organisation and also assist me to complete
task within given time period. I made decision in respect of following ethical decision that helps
me in taking better decision that could benefit to both team member as well as an organisation.
Before implementing decisions into actions, I first forecast the consequences that may receive in
future and on the basis of which backup plan will be ready.

It can be concluded from the above report that ethical leadership plays an important role
in motivating employees of an organisation to perform its roles and responsibilities in more
ethical manner so that better results can be gained in future time period. Along building integrity
among team members promotes ethical leadership as the employees feels motivated by
integrating their actions in order to achieve pre-determined target. Ethics plays a significant role
in maintaining healthy relations among employees and also generates trust within an organisation
between leaders and employees.
CONCLUSION
From the above file, it can be concluded that ethical practices play the crucial role for
business organisation and it is necessary to understand that it must be followed. If in any of the
situation company fails to perform the ethical code, then it has a direct impact stakeholder who
plays the crucial role in the company. Ethical theories are the most essential for business
organisation because it helps to take some of the important decision within the business
organisation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Greenwood, M. and Freeman, R.E., 2018. Deepening ethical analysis in business ethics. Journal
of Business Ethics .147(1). pp.1-4.
Ali Chughtai, A., 2016. Can ethical leaders enhance their followers’ creativity?.
Leadership .12(2). pp.230-249.