Johnson & Johnson is one of the world’s renowned manufacturers of pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, medical apparatus, and other consumer healthcare products. Moreover, the company provides a good example of a decentralized organization, which gives its employees the opportunity to have more freedom, creativity, and efficiency in their line of work.
To achieve these objectives, Johnson & Johnson maintains an elaborate corporate culture and vision, which is informed by a set of value statements better known to as the Johnson & Johnson Credo.
Thus, the Credo, which was written in 1938 by Robert Wood Johnson, guides the process of decision-making by all managers across the large corporate network of companies. Moreover, the Credo sets out the values, duties, and responsibilities of all employees to stockholders, customers, the community, the society and other employees. As a result, this evaluative essay focuses on Johnson & Johnson by looking at how the Credo relates to organizational ethics and social responsibility.
Additionally, the essay looks at the possibility of using value statements such as the Credo in other organizations across the world. Moreover, the process of integrating the Credo into the company’s decision-making process is also reviewed in this essay. Finally, the essay evaluates the process of developing and instilling similar value statements in other companies.
A survey of more than 26,000 consumers shows that Johnson & Johnson has a reputable ethical culture and corporate social responsibility. This is attributable to the Johnson & Johnson Credo, which emphasizes the significance of ethics and social accountability to all stakeholders. Here, the Credo guides the operations of all employees since it sets out the major commitments of the organization to various stakeholders. The Credo states that the company is committed to serving consumers, doctors, patients, and nurses.
Additionally, the organization’s second responsibility is to serve suppliers and distributors, followed by employees and the community, and lastly, the company is responsible for its stockholders. Accordingly, the Credo informs decision-making in all organizational management processes at Johnson & Johnson. Relative to the true spirit of the company’s ethical culture, the Credo states that consumer needs and wellbeing come before any other profit considerations.
Moreover, the Credo encourages the Company’s employees to show commitment to civic improvement through sustaining better health and education among the communities they serve. Finally, the Credo emphasizes the responsibility of the organization’s employees in terms of protecting and conserving the environment and other natural resources. In this way, the Credo provides a solid cornerstone for organizational ethics and social responsibility at Johnson & Johnson.
Furthermore, considering that Johnson & Johnson is a family of over 230 small companies operating in 57 countries worldwide while maintaining an annual sales of about $50.5 billion and an excellent ethical culture and corporate social responsibility, it then follows that value statements such as the Credo can be used worldwide.
Here, it is worth noting that the Johnson & Johnson Credo continues to guide the operations of all employees spread across the vast corporate organization because it has been re-written in about 36 languages without losing its originality and strong message. Therefore, regardless of the social and cultural affiliations of the employees, the message in the Credo can be put into practice anywhere in the world. On the other hand, certainly the Credo is something more than a mere mission statement.
Thus, the Credo is a corporate vision or concrete set of statements that capture the organizational norms, needs, roles, and values in a simplified one-page statement. As a result, the Credo outlines the responsibility of all employees to stakeholders besides emphasizing what the society deems to be good, beautiful, and desirable.
Apart from outlining the responsibilities of Johnson& Johnson’s employees around the globe, the Credo forms an elaborate framework for organizational decision-making. Here, the Credo encourages the executives and employees to think about the quality and implications of all the decisions made at any one point.
As a result, all decision makers at Johnson & Johnson are encouraged to focus on the possible ethical considerations and life-long implications of their decisions as opposed to other short-term business benefits such as huge profits. Furthermore, to become a reputable organization, the Johnson & Johnson Credo emphasizes the need for all management processes to focus on ethical issues as the center of all decisions made.
Therefore, through creating an ethical dilemma, the Credo allows the decision makers to consider doing the right thing even if it goes against their self-interest. Additionally, the Credo instills the inner-guiding ethical principles, beliefs, and values among the decision-makers, and thus, it allows them to analyze and construe various ethical situations that require one to make an appropriate decision.
Lastly, from the discussions above, it is worth noting that other companies and organizations can easily develop and instill value statements such as the Credo in their day-to-day activities.
Here, the organizational managers should play a pivotal role as planners and strategists through ensuring that the company’s mission statement, vision, and objective align to the social norms, needs, values, and roles. Subsequently, the value statements should capture and outline the vital responsibilities of the major stakeholders towards achieving the common goals and avoiding conflicts of interest within the same organization.