The 'Tylenol incident' involving Johnson & Johnson was an event that demonstrated how Business ethics is an important aspect of company competitiveness. In 1982, an incident occurred in Chicago causing the death of 7

CS Professional · Ethics, Governance and Sustainability · PYQS · December 2016
The 'Tylenol incident' involving Johnson & Johnson was an event that demonstrated how Business ethics is an important aspect of company competitiveness. In 1982, an incident occurred in Chicago causing the death of 7 people who had taken Johnson & Johnson's product, Tylenol. It was later revealed that the cause of the deaths had to do with deadly cyanide put in the capsules by an unknown suspect. But, Johnson & Johnson took immediate and forceful actions, not only conducting a product recall from the entire country and sending their staff to the areas where the deaths occurred, but also openly informing the public about the incident through press release. They went on a large-scale informational promotion asking the public not to use the product until the cause of the deaths are fully determined. At the time, the executive managers spent an enormous amount of one hundred million dollars to carry out the product recall, but they managed to maintain the image of an exemplary company of business ethics as they demonstrated their belief of 'people first' to the public. In terms of the above case study explain the scope of Business Ethics in the following functional area: Production.

Answer & Explanation:

Ethics in Production Ethics in production deals with the duties of a company to ensure that their products and production processes do not cause harm to society at large. The company should try to produce products of high quality and should not be dangerous to the customers. Johnson and Johnson had realised that there was a defect in their product and therefore they reacted quickly to save any further damage. They were very quick in detecting the problem and worked efficiently to control any further loss to the customers.

Topics: Business Ethics

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