Mini Paper 3


Mini-Paper #3: Johnson & Johnson and a Tale of Two Crises – An Ethics Story Revised Submission

Read the following two PDF documents located at this link: click hereLinks to an external site.

  • Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol Crisis
  • JNJ’s Baby Powder Crisis: Does Baby Powder Cause Cancer?
  • You are not expected to conduct any outsideresearch

Based on your reading please write a short paper answering the following questions (do not answer with bullets, write a paper):

  • JNJ’s response to the Tylenol Crisis is often cited as one of the best historical crisis management leadership examples. Given this perspective:
    • Compare JNJ’s response to the Tylenol Crisis to their response in the Baby Powder Crisis. 
    • What actions by JNJ were highly effective in the Tylenol Crisis and why? Explain your examples and why you believe they are best practices
    • What could JNJ improve upon in the Tylenol Crisis?
  • After reading JNJ’s handling of the Baby Powder Class Action Lawsuit elaborate upon the following:
    • How did JNJs response differ from the Tylenol Crisis in the Baby Powder Lawsuit?
    • Given what you’ve learned from the Tylenol Crisis what are three potential recommendations/improvements JNJ could have made in the Baby Powder Lawsuit?
  • Ethics Analysis – consider your decision from the perspective of a senior advisor to senior leadership at JNJ (there is NO right answer here, YOU MAY GIVE OPINION IN FIRST PERSON IN THIS SECTION ONLY (this is a special exception))

      • With what ethical actions do you agree or disagree regarding how JNJ handled the Tylenol Crisis?
      • With what ethical actions do you agree or disagree regarding how JNJ handled the Baby Powder Crisis?
    • Be sure to reference at least 3 concepts from Chapters 9 and/or 12 in the textbook in answering this mini-paper. Please mark your references with “(textbook)” to make clear the references from the book.