Summary
As a newly appointed manager of a pharmaceutical company in China faces the issue of kickbacks to Doctors in order to boost sales, he is not very sure about the practices and the consequences of carrying out what could be interpreted as a form of corruption. How should he behave in such a situation? Why? We follow this case study with a discussion on corruption, its perception, methods and consequences.
Required reading
- Butler, Charlotte & de Bettignies, Henri-Claude. “Blue Monday (R)”, Insead and CEIBS Case Study, 2009.
Watch this 40 min video about the Milgram Experiment.
Reflect on it and look for additional information about the experiment and obedience in general.
Assignment: Answer the two questions at the end of the case.
Advice: Think a bit by yourself and then browse the Internet to learn about what happened in the recent years to pharmaceutical companies in China about corruption and use it to build a more refined assignment.
Optional Readings
- De George, Richard. “ Ethics, Corruption, and Doing Business in Asia”, in Asia Pacific Journal of Economics & Business, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1997), pp. 39-52.
- Anand, V., Ashforth, B.E., and Joshi, M. (2004) “Business as usual: the acceptance and perpetuation of corruption in organizations”, Academy of Management Executive, 18 (2): 39-53.
