Trimester 1, 2019: BAP61 - TAP Pharmaceuticals Case Study Analysis

This case study examines the ethical culture at TAP Pharmaceuticals, highlighting its misalignment due to various unethical practices. The company engaged in dubious actions to maximize profits, such as bribing urologists, offering free samples not accounted for, and hosting parties instead o...Read More

TAP UNETHICAL CULTURE 1
TAP UNETHICAL CULTURE
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TAP UNETHICAL CULTURE 2
Question1
Ethical culture in a business organization refers to the expected code of conduct within the
organization whereby the organization is expected to exercise transparency in its various
operations, adhere to its commitments and treat its people (employees, customers and partners)
well (Ardichvili, Mitchell and Jondle 2015, p.445). An unethical culture in an organization arises
when an organization engages in various dubious actions in order to maximize its profit in a
dishonest way (Giacalone and Jurkiewicz 2013, p.85). Some of these dubious practices include
duplicitous marketing of an organization’s products, partners being misled about the deals made
by the organization and unfair treatment of workers whereby employees are promised about
bonuses in order to work hard but they never receive the promised bonuses (Ruiz-Palomino,
Martínez-Cañas and Fontrodona 2013, p.177).
The ethical culture at TAP appears to be in misalignment. The organization involves itself in
various dubious practices in order to make high profits. For instance, TAP does not have a legal
counsel department as it views it as a sales prevention department. TAP at one point is seen
bribing urologists in order to prescribe the organization’s prostate cancer new drug Lupron. Sales
representatives at TAP offer free or discounted Lupron samples to doctors in order to increase
their sales. TAP is also seen offering urologists’ big television screens, office equipment and golf
vacations in order to keep prescribing their Lupron and increases their sales. Free samples
offered to doctors by TAP are not accounted for which is a requirement by the law and deviating
from it may lead to high fines. TAP also holds doctors parties rather than offering drugs which
are based on good science. It’s therefore worth concluding that, the ethical culture at TAP is in

TAP UNETHICAL CULTURE 3
misalignment due to its various discussed dubious practices which only aim at maximizing the
organization’s profit not considering the social harm the organization is causing.
Question2
Due TAP various dubious actions, Douglas Durand felt guilty of being associated with an
organization which undertakes such unethical practices. He, therefore, made efforts towards
rectifying TAP unethical culture. Douglas Durand tried his best and talked to TAP sales
representatives on how crucial it was for the organization to earn the trust of physicians by
engaging in ethical practices. But this effort fell on deaf ears of the sales representatives.
Douglas Durand having failed in his first effort decided to undertake an action which would
please the TAP sales representatives to rectify their unethical culture. He started offering bonuses
to sales representatives who were accurate in keeping their samples’ records. This included
recording all the free samples given to doctors since earlier on they were not being accounted for
and this was against the law. This effort worked initially as many TAP employees seemed
obsessed by money as the organization’s top goal was to maximize profits even if unfair means
were used in achieving the set goals.
Douglas Durand’s efforts to rectify the organization’s unethical culture failed due to various
reasons. First, he lacked support from everyone in TAP. All his trails were resisted and he was
seen as if he didn’t understand the culture of TAP. Secondly, the effort made by Douglas Durand
of rewarding bonuses to sales representatives for keeping an accurate record of their samples
worked but with time the senior management stopped it and of course the sales representatives
stopped the accurate track recording of their samples. All these reasons barred Douglas Durand

TAP UNETHICAL CULTURE 4
from achieving his goal of rectifying the TAP unethical culture and decided to follow the law
way (Thomas, Schermerhorn and Dienhart 2016, p.56).
References
Ardichvili, A., Mitchell, J.A. and Jondle, D., 2015. Characteristics of ethical business
cultures. Journal of business ethics, 85(4), pp.445-451.
Giacalone, R.A. and Jurkiewicz, C.L., 2013. Right from wrong: The influence of spirituality on
perceptions of unethical business activities. Journal of business Ethics, 46(1), pp.85-97.
Ruiz-Palomino, P., Martínez-Cañas, R. and Fontrodona, J., 2013. Ethical culture and employee
outcomes: The mediating role of person-organization fit. Journal of Business Ethics, 116(1),
pp.173-188.
Thomas, T., Schermerhorn Jr, J.R. and Dienhart, J.W., 2016. Strategic leadership of ethical
behavior in business. Academy of Management Perspectives, 18(2), pp.56-66.