Analyzing Ethical Issues: Johnson & Johnson and the Opioid Crisis

This report delves into the ethical issues surrounding Johnson & Johnson's (J&J) involvement in the American opioid crisis, specifically focusing on misleading marketing campaigns and the company's contribution to the problem in Oklahoma. It examines the conflict of interest arising from prioritizing profit over patient well-being and analyzes the impact on various stakeholders, including customers, hospitals, the government, pharmacies, and families. The report highlights the importance of ethical leadership and corporate social responsibility, contrasting good and bad ethical practices within the pharmaceutical industry. It also explores the application of utilitarianism. Recommendations include strengthening J&J's code of conduct, providing ethics training for senior management, promoting ethical leadership, and engaging in community initiatives to address the opioid crisis. The goal is to prevent future ethical lapses and restore public trust in J&J. Desklib provides access to similar assignments and study tools for students.

Business Ethics and
Responsible
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1............................................................................................................................................1
Ethical Issue or issue...................................................................................................................1
Role of business in society..........................................................................................................2
Good and Bad ethics...................................................................................................................2
Five stakeholder..........................................................................................................................3
PART 1-B........................................................................................................................................5
Describe the theories...................................................................................................................5
PART 2............................................................................................................................................6
What makes ethical leader..........................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
The modern structure of trade, industry, and commerce is based on the following, often
vague and general principles of morality and ethics. The essence can be summed up by referring
to the concept of "out of business day". Ethics in business can have both general and descriptive
disciplines. As a practice to work together and do it with some work in the field, mostly used in
the field. Descriptive methods will be discussed in the context of the study. The breadth and
scope of ethics reflect the extent to which the firm is in conflict with international standards. The
report was written on Johnson & Johnson (J&J), a central unit that manages senior managers.
Their involvement in the American Opioid crisis (Kaufman, 2020). The report will look at
specific false and dangerous advertising campaigns, reducing the risk of victims of slavery and
billions of dollars in revenue. It focuses on a fundamental conflict of interest. Hence this
practice, and how the various stakeholders involved in this process work. In addressing issues
that should be addressed in relation to this practice, the report concludes with recommendations
that the J&J trust should be established in order to ensure better implementation of the code of
conduct. To emphasize that the purpose of this report is to highlight the fact why J&J sees this as
an ethical issue, and if have senior management, it is an understanding of the role of business in
society. Ethical theory also being used in context to the J&J and at the end there is summative
reflection which outline how the ethical leader can manage the ethics and the social
responsibility management.
PART 1
Ethical Issue or issue
For a clinician, and marketing strategy goes hand in hand with creating a problem, the
problem is that the pain has been so treated, and that prescription opioids may be the solution.
However, the side effects of the drug were obvious. The campaign was successful in spreading
false information to both doctors and their patients through pamphlets and online. There are
many ethical issues in the global drug trade; studies show that marketing opioids to physicians is
associated with increased opioid prescribing, which in turn leads to increased deaths due to
overeating. But after all, companies spend more on marketing than on research and development
of new drugs. As mentioned in the introduction to the report, there must be a ethical issue with
their fraudulent ad campaigns, and it's a shame for J&J, a $ 572 million product, in state of
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Oklahoma, for J&J’s contribution to their Opioid problem (Johnson & Johnson to pay $572m for
fueling Oklahoma opioid crisis, judge rules, 2019). This has had a negative impact on J&J-it's a
social model, it's the only time a "family" image should be valued and respected, and it has led to
consumers, in the sense that it can be difficult for them to gain the trust of many products, and it
gives the impression that J&J is more interested in making money and making a profit than
wellbeing of the victim affected from the pain.
Role of business in society
The last part of this chapter shows how important it is to know how firms can influence the
community. The purpose of community activities can be discussed, but now we give them the
impression that they will only work for shareholders net profit and do not care about the impact
on society as a whole. At a time when the company needs to act responsibly, and that its
decisions are made in a way that is conducive to a wide range of stakeholders and stakeholders.
Even if they are not forced to do things that have an impact on those of those who are concerned,
will there be any benefit in doing so. J&J is perceived as a company that recognizes its social
responsibility, and these with a state-owned tax facility, possible benefits can rely on that
customer satisfaction and more profit thanks to their reliability
Good and Bad ethics
Expanding on this point, ethical values to be useful, this will be the end. In the absence of
unethical decisions that save money, as a scandal with money for rectifying in hiring lawyers,
and paying legal costs will be expensive. As moral sanctions, they can avoid paying a large sum
of 572 million US dollars). In addition, it may not be ethical, especially with good leadership that
increases employee engagement, employees are happy and happy to work with them, in addition
to being able to attract and retain employees, and people like working for the right company.
Research has shown that there is a clear link between the satisfaction of employees working in a
business and the fair market value of the company. In addition, it is recognized as a code of
conduct in the pharmaceutical industry, can become a source of competitive advantage, and
corporate social responsibility, can have a positive impact on financial results (Opioid Overdose
Crisis, 2021). This gives you clear evidence from participating behavior and values of
participants who have had a positive impact on Johnson & Johnson interest, and market value.
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On the contrary, studies have shown that 56% of American customers should be told that if
they believe in the company's goals, they will stop buying it. 35% of customers will not want to
buy it, even if there is no alternative. Hence due to bad ethical practices Johnson & Johnson can
also faces such critics from the people.
Five stakeholder
After discussing how to use and maintain what is very important, in order to get familiar
with the people involved, it is worth exploring some of the J&J and stakeholders involved.
Following are the stakeholder
Customers
First of all, their main stakeholder are the Johnsons and Johnson’s customers and, in
particular, the consumer who are consuming drug. The interests of their key stakeholders should
be respected and applied as a goal. However, it is a shame that J&J can be done with the help of
its customers as a way to achieve something in order to make a profit. They were very surprised
to find that they were poorly taught about the drugs they take. However, they are not out there in
a public announcement, assuming the potential harm from them isn't on, but J&J is still calling
doctors to prescribe more drugs treatments. Used them with aggressive marketing tactics for
financial gain to destroy 702,000 people of one of these people.
Hospital and Doctor's office
Patients with opioid addiction will face serious long-term risks. This will increase the
amount of resources, such as providing answers to public safety questions, and increase the level
of stress for doctors. Even though doctors knew that the use of opioids for chronic pain could
cause serious side effects, J&J had to have a sense of responsibility to take on both the malicious
and aggressive advertising methods that were used to manipulate doctors to prescribe more drugs
to the user despite having the small amount of pain (Johnson, 2019).
Government
In addition, the government was one of the stakeholders in J & J s. They are
indirectly affected by the opioid problem, and as part of their role in society to help opioid
addicts. These responsibilities can range from just one to focusing on how to help addicts with
treatment and rehabilitation services. In addition, the opioid crisis, which resulted in an
additional 8% of children being under parental care, occurred between 2012 and 2015 due to
their 429,000 drug-addicted parents. This is an external example of a negative government
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(Johnson & Johnson’s Ethical Sales & Marketing Practices, 2019) These effects are caused by
J&J, eventually having to pay for it, and it has done so, the government and society at large
Pharmacies
Pharmacies belong to a group of pharmaceutical companies, including Johnson &
Johnson and to the customer who is ultimately using these dangerous drugs. Pharmacists will
have to face ethical decision-making, decisions about whether to take a drug with known side
effects are known. Doctors will have to re-prescribe it to pharmacies and give it away to earn
money to Johnson & Johnson which is in a conflict of interest. However, in this case, they were
always against the grain and picked it up.
Families
Some of the stakeholders should be provided by the client to families who have been
affected by the negative effects of Johnson & Johnson medications, have been indirectly affected
by this issue, and in different ways. They must see that their family members will be dependent
on it, or perhaps die (Creating an Ethical Workplace, 2020). The results of opioid use in many
families; for example, children who have opiod addiction as a parent and children will be
severely affected and you may become addicted to it. As a result, the opioid crisis has led to an
increase in the number of children in parental care in the United States, an increase of 8% from
2012 to 2012
Recommendations
The purpose of the study was to determine what unethical practices of Johnson & Johnson
and their affiliation with Opioid crisis in Oklahoma, USA. The researcher believes that the
reason for the problem is the lack of ethical leadership and cultural guidance. The natural
development of J&J will be the same that they should consider the following suggestions for
corrective actions and move on. Payment of penalties and fines, conducting marketing
campaigns, as well as apologies to stakeholder were given, however, all these recommendations
are aimed at preventing this situation in the organization. J&J has a code of conduct therefore, all
employees should be informed about the content, as well as understand how important it is to
keep it up to date. The Institute of Ethics offers individual ethics training programs for top
managers of an organization, which are necessary in order to understand how they manage the
organization's ethical culture. In addition, senior J&J managers should take into account
organizational structure, leadership, and culture (O'Brien, 2020). The value of integrating ethics
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in business is very important to them. J&J needs to learn the code of ethics and interact
effectively with all employees. If all employees in It is good for the company, including its
employees, to be informed and knowledgeable about the company's culture, values, values, and
values, which will allow all employees to take responsibility for their actions. Training is useful,
but in order for employees to be ethical, it may be necessary for senior Johnson & Johnson
executives to set an example and prove that this is a positive attitude. It can also help people take
responsibility for their actions. Therefore, the review of the management teams and plays an
important role in the future success of J&J. in the way for the company is responsible for the
actions and compliance with the rules of informants. Reward for those who follow the rules and
punish those who do badly. Finally, Johnson & Johnson to understand the audience's perception
of their damaged image, to show participants that they will be honest, sincere, and fair. This may
include, for example, working with the Oklahoma State Government to combat opiate addiction.
For example, J&J was able to conduct workshops to inform the public about opioids and how to
ensure the use of this drug, as well as open recovery services and additional entertainment.
PART 1-B
Describe the theories
Utilitarianism
First, Utilitarianism theory is that is often based on cost-benefit analysis, and can be
described as much better than people. This presentation addresses important goals, with a
particular focus only on the impacts and consequences of an action. In addition, Utilitarianism still
live a ethics is theory, as it considers the consequences of each action and chooses the action that
will have the best effect, and even if it seems wrong (Termini and Good, 2020). This theory has
many branches, including Bentham's concept of the "utility Principle", that is, three different
viewpoints. The main goal of human life is to increase happiness and reduce the pain and
Eudemonistic concept is to move it to a place of joy and sadness, and finally the idea of good,
which translates as the essence of humanity, such as friendship, love and trust.
Kant’s Ethics of Duty (Deontology) Theory
In contrast to the Utilitarianism view, the ethical duty is to say without argument that morality
depends on influences, on one's actions, but on the moral nature of the act (Tap). Morality is a
validation of the consistency of values specified by a set of codes of conduct that other people
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can use to make sure their decisions and ethical belief systems are produced, which helps
determine the name critical condition.
Apply the theories
To take this view in the upper-right corner (J&J), a large number of people can be proven by
looking at these two groups as follows: In this case, Group A has the largest number of people
affected by misleading and comparative advertising campaigns. This, in opinion, turned out to be
the case that their actions led to a very large number of people, but instead again worse self-
permanent consequences for both of them. Also, using this utility, J&J brought more pain and
suffering to the participants. To explore the effects of the group, by which J&J could apologize
to those of the group, gives a great goal of luck, because not only patient satisfaction due to pain
was reduced, but also J&J, the benefits of the transaction, which shareholders, thus misleading
marketing campaigns, bring profit (Curtis and et. al., 2021). This allows for J & J for their
campaign. It follows that from this point of view, the stated information may be different,
depending on who is in the comments section. If in the actions of top managers, this was the
universal law of unfair marketing, this is in deceiving doctors and exploiting human suffering,
and in income it was necessary to take into account and psychologically acceptable, but this is
definitely not the case in general. This will result in clients not being able to find a trusted person
or even advice on your well-being. Further, companies selling dangerous drugs to people who
are already dependent on income were certainly bad. Managers do not respect their customers,
but use them as a means to an end, not a means. The needs and goals of patients in order to
relieve pain, but J&J, can be ignored, and their actions have the power to cause death. Johnson &
Johnson actions, which are visiblse in many other articles, are informational. As mentioned
earlier, this resulted in a payout of $ 572 million for the result and impact on their audience. It
can conclude that, apparently, there was a bad title. Analyzing the mistakes made by Johnson &
Johnson campaigns helped me understand the importance of business ethics.
PART 2
What makes ethical leader
Analyzing the mistakes made by Johnson & Johnson campaigns helped me understand the
importance of business ethics. As a young man, he's in his final year, and in the hope that this
will be the start of a marketing career, it's a good time, just like anyone else, to see how I would
do it if I could become a marketing manager (JANEČKA, 2020). I saw for the first time what it
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means to be a good leader. The role of a leader's ethics is to help create a workplace where
employees ' goals and values align with the corporate workplace. demonstrates effective
communication and management of organizations with an ethical culture, it would be important
to be a well-prepared leader, be a source of inspiration for other employees, set an example as it
sets the tone for work, and raise ethical standards of behavior. That's why it would be worth
checking myself to see if I have any company guides. there are two important parts that must be
fulfilled in order to be accepted as a moral leader, both ethically and ethically. As a moral
person, I must be honest and reflect the quality, values, and skills of decision-making based on
similar principles, such as equal opportunity, public health, standards enforcement, and the
Department of Justice. A key person is very important when it comes to building a business and
community, and it shows that the person is fair and meets their standards (Bilan, 2020). Make
informed ethical decisions that are useful for improving my personal values. I am a person who
respects the code of ethics and believes that it is important to have in the company.
Organizations use the introduction of the golden Law if they treat their employees with respect
and contribute to creating a moral environment. It is the responsibility of the manager to keep his
employees waiting for them, as well as to provide a pleasant working environment and a pressure
relief valve, a sudden, well-lit area, and clean up the area, because this can affect that they make
ethical decisions.
Ethical questions of morality, will have to think about another reason, which is moral
ethics. well-groomed - and rewards, and morals, and, in the end, communication and ethics and
values. A company's Code of Business ethics is the code that a company expects from all
employees, and what behavior should be encouraged, not discouraged. To further examine these
factors, the code of conduct should see that they have always been exemplary, and their own
health. if the boss does not comply with the company's code of conduct, employees will not be
confident on the scale of rewards (Hong, 2020). In addition, manager ethics is useful for
employees to have a good reputation and complement the code, as it creates an incentive for
good behavior, such as recognition, praise, or even recognition. In addition, it is the punishment
of those who behave inappropriately that will indicate that this kind of behavior will not be
coherent in the company.
a well-trained and corrupt boss, and that these leaders of the people, but the rule is that they
have, for example, people like Hitler, did not do this, people have the opportunity to spend
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happiness, and when she will think about my grades and my code of conduct. I think I was a
good leader when he was the CMO.
There are moral consequences. This may include, for example, creating organizational and social
expenses. As for advertising campaigns, the appearance of the scandal, as it turned out, at
Johnson & Johnson. However, and depending on the situation, I was under the impression
that I might not be able to get to the flag of wrongdoing by someone in a high position. It's bad
for me that I find it difficult to have serious conversations. So I'd like to be in the dark and
pretend I don't know. It's not very good, honestly - it's good for me what I want to achieve in
order to succeed at this point (Gilmore, 2018).
CONCLUSION
Thus, from the above carried out discussion it has been concluded that the management of
the ethics and social responsibility is crucial for the company in order to maintain good ethical
practices and improves their corporate image. It has been found that when company do
something unethical customer will not longer to take their services despite no other alternative
are available to them. The above case study suggested that unethical practices of the J&J is just
shameful as they just for sake of profit made people addictive and this shows the true harsh
picture of the many strong brand which just because of the shake of the profit harm their crucial
stakeholders.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bilan, O., 2020. CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AS A FACTOR OF
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF REGIONAL ENTERPRISES. Regional aspects
of productive forces development of Ukraine, (21), pp.40-46.
Burch, E.C., 2019. Mass Tort Deals: Backroom Bargaining in Multidistrict Litigation.
Cambridge University Press.
Curtis, M., and et. al., 2021. Monitoring Equianalgesic Opioid Dosing. AJN The American
Journal of Nursing, 121(3), pp.60-63.
El-Sabawi, T., 2019. Why the DEA, not the FDA? Revisiting the Regulation of Potentially-
Addictive Substances. NYUJL & Bus., 16, p.317.
Gilmore, B.G., 2018. Washington, DC's Heroin Epidemic of the 1970s and Today's Opioid
Crisis: A Comparative History of Government Policy Responses. SCL Rev., 70, p.669.
Hong, S., 2020. Are chaebol firms ethical?. International Journal of Economics and Business
Research, 20(3), pp.322-347.
JANEČKA, L., 2020. Ethical Management of Non-banking Sector in Czech republic (Doctoral
dissertation, Mendelova univerzita v Brně, Fakulta regionálního rozvoje a mezinárodních
studií).
Johnson, M., 2019. Reversing the Evils of Federal Mandatory Minimum Sentences: Is Clemency
the Only Answer?. JCR & Econ. Dev., 33, p.385.
Kaufman, J., 2020. Oklahoma v. Purdue Pharma: Public Nuisance in Your Medicine
Cabinet. Cardozo L. Rev., 42, p.429.
Maiorescu-Murphy, R.D., 2020. Online Corporate Diversity at Johnson & Johnson.
In Corporate Diversity Communication Strategy (pp. 157-171). Palgrave Macmillan,
Cham.
O'Brien, E., 2020. A Willful Choice: The Ineffective and Incompassionate Application of
Wisconsin's Criminal Laws in Combating the Opioid Crisis. Wis. L. Rev., p.1065.
Termini, R.B. and Good, R.M., 2020. 50 Years Post-Controlled Substances Act: The War on
Drugs Rages on with Opioids at the Forefront. Ohio NUL Rev., 46, p.1.
Online
Johnson & Johnson to pay $572m for fueling Oklahoma opioid crisis, judge rules. [online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/aug/26/johnson-and-johnson-
opioidcrisis- ruling-responsibility-oklahoma-latest
Opioid Overdose Crisis. [online] Available at:
https://www.drugabuse.gov/drugs-abuse/opioids/opioid-overdose-crisis
Creating an Ethical Workplace. [online] SHRM. Available at: https://www.shrm.org/hrtoday/
news/hr-magazine/pages/0414-ethical-workplace-culture.aspx
Johnson & Johnson’s Ethical Sales & Marketing Practices. [online] Available at:
https://www.jnj.com/about-jnj/company-statements/ethical-sales-marketing-practice
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [online] Available at:
https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html
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