Ethics in the Workplace Essay

In 1995 Douglas Durand went to work for whang Pharmaceuticals as vice- chairwoman of gross r nonethelessue. Several months after starting at intercept Pharmaceuticals, Durand was in doubt to find out that the participation was bribing urologists to purchase the new Lupron drug for prostatic cancer. Durand demonstrate the culture at Tap Pharmaceuticals to be in misalignment. In order for Durand to protect his good name, he began to document to each one his findings over a 6 year period and submitting the information to national prosecutors. The financial support that Durand submitted to the federal prosecutors was so overwhelming that it motived Tap Pharmaceuticals to plead guilty to conspiring with doctors and fraud the politics. As ensue of the guilty plead, Tap Pharmaceuticals pay a lurch $875 million dollar fine, which Durand accredited 14% of the narrow downtlement for his efforts to remedy the situation.The symptoms found in the Tap Pharmaceuticals case argo n primarily driven by numbers and monetary rewards. The more than the top sales reps could sale or distri barelye the bigger the monetary reward. Durand tried to institute a more structured environment to aloneeviate remedy some of the illegal practices he encountered. Many of the sales reps at Tap Pharmaceuticals did not accurately surmount the stype Ales of Lupron given out to doctors. Durand offered a year salary to sales reps to help the company keep accurate records of distribution of the drugs offered. It worked until upper worry unopen down the bonus program, furthermore the reps settled back into their old ways. Symptoms of dishonesty, wrong behavior, inadequate record keeping, crooked doctors, and a complete disregard for laws and regulations set forth by the government are derived from the root cause of scummy upper management found at Tap Pharmaceuticals.The root cause and unresolved issues that Durand encountered at Tap Pharmaceuticals are a direct pass of the m onetary driven culture created by then president Yasu Hasegawa and senior(a) management. Durand found that when he tried to implement new policies or practices that Hasegawa and the sales reps were not interested, or he was undermined by senior management. Tap pharmaceuticals ancient sales niche was to bribe and payoff the people who prescribed the drugs offered by purchasing televisions, vacations, and office equipment.The un honest practices are a direct result of a lack of unethical leadership and ethical standards and practices not cosmos in place. Tap Pharmaceuticals did not contain a hose management to help keep practices ethical and meet government requirements because it was thought to be a sales-prevention department. Durand eventu solelyy found himself excluded from marketing and sales meetings and told that he fairish did not understand the culture. The lack of ethical leadership in the company is the root of the problem found at Tap Pharmaceuticals and left in all the issues that Durand found unresolved.Analyze and evaluate alternatives.Decide on the most(prenominal) logical alternative, and bind recomm closureations.When thinking of alternatives, people think of some other options that may consent in order to hold up a different outcome than the reliable outcome. When Durand was offered the position as Vice President of Sales with Tap Pharmaceuticals, he had no idea what he was getting involved with. All he saw was a potential for a promotion in an diligence where he had already served his time and made a name for himself. Durand has a couple alternatives in this ethical situation. He could have kept his emit shut and adhered to Tap Pharmaceuticals policies and procedures and unethical practices. The outcome to this alternative could have proven to be very poor for Durand. If Durand continued to allow Tap Pharmaceuticals to wear business in the sales department as they always had in the past, eventually, the federal government would have caught on to the unethical practices and levied fines against Tap Pharmaceuticals and Mr. Durand.He could have even been prosecuted for the practices he witnessed at Tap Pharmaceuticals. When employees are order to blatantly break the law in order to keep sales up and to give out medicine samples without charging for them, there is a colossal ethical problem. Tap Pharmaceuticals instructed the doctors to charge Medicare for the samples even though they never paid for them in the first place. It seemed as if Tap Pharmaceuticals planned to break every law of the trade in order to make the most coin in the least amount of time. This alternative would not work for Mr. Durand. He had a steady head on his shoulders and would not stand for the unethical practices he had witnessed. But what would he do about the problem? This indecision would later come into play when Mr. Durand was faced with a tough decision.A second alternative Mr. Durand had was to leave Tap Pharmac euticals with a resignation. But a resignation would land him and his family out on the streets. He did not compliments to jeopardize his familys lifestyle and affect the way his children would grow up. by and by all, Mr. Durand did leave a well paying job with a huge medical pharmaceutical company. This alternative would be even worse than staying with Tap Pharmaceuticals and pretending nothing wrong was going on. He had to support his family and to Mr. Durand this was the most historic issue to handle. If Mr. Durand resigned from Tap Pharmaceuticals, he would have to start all over again and work his way back up the embodied ladder as he did 20 years before with Merck & Co.Mr. Durand had very few options or avenues to take in his ethical dilemma. He was virtually stuck between a rock and a hard place. He truly made the perfect decision when he decided to appoint suit against Tap Pharmaceuticals. This was the best possible option he could have used. First, Tap Pharmaceutical s was breaking the law and if they continued to practice unethical business, they could have hurt someone or continued to defraud the United States government and Medicare. Since Mr. Durand was familiar with the practices of the pharmaceutical industry, he had no other choice but to blow the whistle on Tap Pharmaceuticals. bump Pharmaceuticals, a physician, and 7 employees of TAP Pharmaceuticals were charged and indicted for bribing physicians with kickbacks to use the drug Lupron. The federal grand control panel in like manner found them guilty of Medicare fraud, and violation of the Prescription Drug merchandise Act. PSA-Rising (2001) states,The seven individuals charged in the indictment unsealed today areAlan Mackenzie age 49, of 27068 Wellington Court, Barrington, Illinois, andformerly Vice President of Sales for TAP, Janice Swirski, age 40, of 6 BellinghamDrive, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, and formerly a National Account Manager with TAP,Henry avant-garde Mourick, age 43 , of 23 Golfwood Court, Roseville, California, andcurrently a territory Manager busy by TAP, Donna Tom, age 37, of 141 East 56thStreet, New York, New York, and formerly a District Manager employed by TAP,Kimberlee Chase, age 35, of 108 Dedham Street, Dover, Massachusetts, and formerly aDistrict Manager employed by TAP, David Guido, age 30, of 131 New London Road,Colchester, Connecticut, and currently a infirmary Account Executive employed by TAP, DR.John Romano, age 48, of cx Long Pond Road, Plymouth, Massachusetts, an urologistwith a practice in Plymouth, Massachusetts.Four other physicians were indicted before the above indictment. TAP Pharmaceuticals bribed urologists to use the drug Lupron by expectant them big screen televisions, golf vacations, and free sample of Lupron. The sales representatives also gave the physicians free samples of Lupron and told the physicians to bill Medicare for full price.Durand tried to alter different aspects of how Tap Pharmaceuticals was run, but all to no avail. Whenever he utilise a new structural diverge, the employees would try it for a short season and return to the way they had done things in the past. Accurate bookkeeping was a logical idea to correct into action. This would tell exactly how much each rep gave out to doctors and pharmacies as samples for them to try out. The old way never showed how much they were paid for each sample given because there was no way to know how galore(postnominal) had been given out. Whenever new ideas are put into effect, it still takes people to uphold these new rules and regulations. When Yasu Hasegawa failed to show any material body of business ethics, why would any of his employees? A good leader leave behind lead by example. When people follow someone he/she pauperism to emulate his/her actions, not just his/her words. By having a person with undersized moral fiber lead the company, it allowed some that might have been on the fence about the situation to fall to the same side.Durands ethnic modify effort failed because senior management and older sales reps refused to change the company for the better. They had been doing things their way for in addition long and the payoff incentive was too great. The shady business practices were much easier than trying to keep records of exactly how many samples were given out and who all had been bought. When the president of the company would not even change his ways on how he dealt with his business, how could his employees be expected to change as well?In a business that deals with healthcare, the most important aspect should always be the patients. Since nobody truly cared about them and all the employees concerns were with lining their own pockets, the business ended up being sued for preferably a large amount of money. The only way for Durands changes to succeed, would be if there were a total overhaul of management. The company would need to essentially start over in order to weed out all the bad eggs. That would take a great deal of time, not to cite a great deal of money. Even though Durand became a whistleblower on Tap Pharmaceuticals and the company was fined, there are sure to be employees who were guilty but not indicted.In TAP Pharmaceuticals there was an bearing of a misalignment of culture. The profit driven only environment provided no ethical leadership. Upper management including the CEO, who set the tone of weak unethical leadership, held no interest in change. TAP had no formal cultural system. The do-nothing line was the only factor and how profits were obtained was of little concern. When Durand attempted to make arrogant changes to the system through a Reward System, upper management put a stop to it even tough it was working and designate him a trouble maker. TAP was not interested in positive ethical change. The gifts to urologists and doctors TAP pharmaceuticals participated in set an unethical culture.ConclusionIn the end Tap received one of the largest fines in the pharmaceutical industry and the job of construct its image and reorganizing its business practices. Seven of its senior management team received heavy financial and judicial penalties for their part in the Lupron scandal. Douglas Durand in the end had to start over in a new less mercantile position, furthermore he did receive a large settlement from the federal government under the Whistle-Blowers Act and currently retired and living in Florida.ReferencesBarrett, A. (2002, June 24). A Whistle-Blower Rocks an Industry. Business Week. RetrievedJune 19, 2007, fromhttp//www.fairness.com/resources/relation?relation_id=9650Nelson, K., & Trevino, L. (2004). Managing business ethics square talk about how to do itright (3rd ed.) . New York Wiley.PSA Rising (October 3, 2001). TAP Pharmaceuticals Products Inc. and Seven Others ChargedWith Health Care Crimes Company Agrees to Pay $875 Million to influence Charges. RetrievedJune 22, 2007 from http//www.psa- rising.com/wiredbird/tap102001.php