Ethical decision making helps people make difficult choices when people become faced with an ethical problem. So why do “good” people engage in “bad” acts? When good people are faced with problems …show more content…
In 1982 this household brand was near extinction along with the fortunes of parent company Johnson & Johnson as a result of a product tampering case that have not been solved (Bethel, 2016). On September 29, 1982, seven people died after taking Extra-Strength Tylenol that had been laced with cyanide (Bethel, 2016). The company immediately removed and destroyed 31 million bottles nationwide. This cost the company $100 million and market share of the painkiller market. Johnson & Johnson should have acted the same way even if the survival of the company was at stake. Tylenol responded correctly to the cyanide crisis and took the appropriate steps to remove more than 31 million bottles of the product nationwide. If Tylenol would have made any other decision then the initial decision it would have destroyed the company. The survival of the company would have been at stake if they did not remove the product from the shelves worldwide. Customers would no longer want to purchase the household brand, customer loyalty would decrease tremendously. The Tylenol Crisis is one of the most successfully handled crisis management cases. Tylenol should have acted the same way if the survival of the company was at stake.
James E. Burkes stated that there were no other decision that could have been made (Bethel, 2016). I believe that there was a moral imperative to recall Tylenol because as a consumer that uses the product it was mandatory to recall all the products because that is running a risk believing that only a few bottles had been tampered with. I personally would not