Johnson & Johnson: An ethical analysis of broken trust t
Karen L. Stewart The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey Whiton S. Paine The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey ABSTRACT For several decades, Johnson & Johnson has been the exemplar of superb ethical behavior in light of the prompt actions it undertook during the 1982 Tylenol cyanide poisoning incident. Now several decades later, J&J’s Consumer Product Division has put the company and . its reputation in jeopardy by its slow and ineffective response to a series of ongoing problems. ineffective This article provides an ethical analysis of those events and addresses the negative impact on Johnson and Johnson’s once sterling reputation. Business, ethics, recalls, Johnson & Johnson, reputation, FDA
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INTRODUCTION:
For several decades, Johnson & Johnson has been the exemplar of superb ethical behavior in light of the prompt actions it undertook during the 1982 Tylenol cyanide poisoning incident that left seven dead in the Chicago area. After the 1982 incident, Tylenol quickly even returned to category dominance. A few years later when yet another cyanide-laced Tylenol laced capsule resulted in the death of a New York woman, Johnson & Johnson and its McNeil subsidiary once again took quick action by only making a compressed and easier-to-detectnce easier tampering version of a Tylenol pill available i the marketplace. The 1986 incident had little in impact on sales or J&J’s corporate reputation (Davidson & Samghab di, 1986). Consumer Samghabadi, safety and trust were of paramount importance to J&J. The firm validated the utility of their Our the Credo philosophy in managerial decision decision-making during these crisis situations. For several decades thereafter, Johnson & Johnson has consistently and publicly expressed their continuing commitment to this credo. Now
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