Johnson & Johnson Ethics

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Ethics of Johnson & Johnson

Johnson & Johnson is engaged in the manufacture and sale of a broad range of products in the healthcare field. The Company's worldwide business is divided into three segments: Consumer, Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices & Diagnostics. It was founded in 1887, currently employs 110,900 people in countries all around the world. At Johnson & Johnson there is a “credo” versus a mission statement. It is a one page document that was created in 1943 by Robert Wood Johnson termed as a “new industrial philosophy”.
The credo essentially outlines the corporation’s responsibilities, in order. It begins with the primary responsibility, which anyone who uses its products and services. It outlines how the company must strive to keep costs reasonable, and that suppliers and distributors must have an opportunity to make a fair profit. Second, the credo goes into its responsibilities to its employees. It outlines how each person is considered an individual, who must feel secure with their jobs, with fair compensation and a clean and safe workplace. Further, it emphasizes how an employees’ primary responsibility is to its families. It emphasizes that management must be fair and ethical. The third responsibility is to the community. The credo indicates the employees must be good citizens, support good works and charities and bear our fair share of taxes. Emphasis is given on donations and improvements to the community. Only does the final part of the credo address stockholder responsibility, and go into detail on the importance of profitability. Even with money aspect, the credo goes into research and development, new ideas, and innovations. “When we operate according to those principles, the stockholders should realize a fair return.”
The two models that could be ruled out with Johnson & Johnson’s credo are the libertarian model and the Simon, Powers and Gunnemann “Moral Minimum” model. The l...