In 1982 seven people died in chicago after taking Tylenol capsules made by Johnson&Johnson investigation revealed that this was sabotage. The Tylenol bottles had been tampered with and the capsules had been laced with cyanide poison.
The investigation cleared Johnson and Johnsoon from any wrong doing.
However, James Burke, the company's chairman made the financial risky decisoin to recall the entire stock of Tylenol from the slues of all the pharmacies where the product was sold.
It should be noted that prior to 1982 nobody had ever recalled anything. In fact a similar scandal involved The Ford Pinto car in the 70s. Low speed rear end collisions ignited fires causing victims to burn to death. The Ford Company fought numerous law suits of failing to make the pinto safer for about seven years and it did so, successfully!
Management's recall of the Tylenol cost Johnson & Johnson close to $300 million in present value dollars.
Required
A. State and consider each of the three guiding ethical criteria. Examine ant possible convergence between them, leading in support of Burke's decision.
B. Consider Johnson & Johnson 's mission statement. In particular the customer component .
C. " Who is responsible for society ?" State the answer provided by each of the three different socioeconomic views.