Week 8 Final: Internal & External Factors of Organization

Week 8 Final
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Abstract
Crisis occurs daily and globally. It is the key for leaders of an organization to study internal and external factors that may be responsible for the crisis situation. Other than this, it is important to look at organizational strategies that can be used to prevent crisis and to effectively and efficiently manage crisis that occurs. A strategic imperative is critical to understand the crisis situations and what caused them, how it happened, as well as how to strategically and tactically manage them and give recommendations of how to avoid further crisis and improve the current situations. With globalization and strategic moves for organizations and companies to be competitive, the management of an organization has to identify different ways of anticipating and preventing crisis and how to manage them. An organizations’ strength is seen in its ability to manage crisis and manage unexpected crisis situations.
Introduction
Close to 13,000 chemicals are used in cosmetics and of these only 10% have been evaluated for the manufacturing chemical products safety. Cosmetics can largely be brought into the market before undergoing any approval processes. The FDA regulates cosmetics, but they do not approve them. This then means that when a product has been seen as harmful and misbranded, then the FDA will act and take regulatory actions. Colour additives are the only cosmetic ingredients that require FDA premarket approval. Companies and manufactures are responsible for making sure that cosmetic and personal care products are safe for the customers. FDA regulations do not allow them to perform specific tests for safety demonstrations and companies do not require sharing any safety information with the FDA. This can have serious consequence to the public health (Mercola, 2016).
Johnson & Johnson
Johnson & Johnson is a renowned, trusted, baby friendly brand that produces a wide range of baby products and female hygiene items. The public trust has been failed yet again and this could have probably been contributed by cosmetics regulations that are lacking. A jury decided that Johnson & Johnson should pay up to $72 million for a consumer death that was related to the talcum powder that is in its products, yet despite this there are 1200 cases of the same and related to talcum powder still pending in the courts. A jury form St. Louis on October 2015, concluded that a patient by the name Fox, who had died due to ovarian cancer earlier, had her death caused by talcum powder. They accused Johnson & Johnson of negligence, failure to warn women and consumers of the product risks, and conspiracy (Mercola, 2016).
What happened?
Cases have been presented to Johnson & Johnson Company on the talcum risk on baby products but the company would not take note. Women that have been using baby powder for their personal hygiene are now diagnosed with ovarian cancer at all stages of cancer. Talc was first recognized as having cacogenic risks and this was communicated toJohnson & Johnson, but the product has still since been on the market. There have been several related deaths to talc in women.
In addition, Johnson & Johnson has been spending over $5 billion to resolve legal claims on the drugs and medical devices that the company had since 2013. The company has been paying money to settle criminal and civil probes for illegally marketing Risperdal to children and elderly. The company recorded among the largest fraud penalties in the history of U.S fraud cases. Furthermore, about 75,000 people have filed product liability claims in 2015, and the company has also paid billions to resolve lawsuits of artificial hips and vaginal mesh inserts (Berfield, Feeley & Fisk, 2016). The company is neglectful of the customers who are shareholders and essential in the organizations performance. It is clear that the company spends more on settling crisis rather than avoiding them. The team is disorganized in managing and preventing crisis cases.
Talc is a mineral that is soft, absorbs odours and moisturises. It is made up of magnesium, oxygen and silicon and mined from deposits that are above ground. It has been used in eye shadows, blush, chewing gum, ceramics, rubber and paint. Johnson & Johnson initiated baby powder 100 years ago after the company started its operations in New Brunswick, NJ. Talc was used to sooth rashes after customers complained of skin irritation after removal of plasters. Reports also confirmed that talc would sooth diaper rash and that’s when Johnson & Johnson initiated baby powder made of 99.8% of talcum. As the product grew, adults were also urged to use the powder to soften their skin. From there, research has been done severally to connect talcum with ovarian cancer and in 1971 there was a possibility of talc leading to cancer as Daniel Cramer communicated. Baby powder is a cosmetic that is not FDA approved (Berfield, Feeley & Fisk, 2016).
The results were ignored by the company since nothing was done in changing the products compositions or using alternative compounds that would not be harmful. Furthermore, the company did not warm its customer base on the health risks associated with cancer and how to reduce getting ovarian cancer and prevent it. This led to many women reporting cases of ovarian cancers since they started using theJohnson & Johnson products. One of the victims has used the products for 30 years and she found out she has stage three ovarian cancer. Doctors warn that ovarian cancer is very hard to detect and forJohnson & Johnson, this should have been a base for helping women that use this product to be aware of the health risks associated with it (Fox-complaint, 2014).
How it happened
The company engaged in advertising, manufacturing, mining, and producing talc that was harmful to the people without warning them about it. The products were defective since they failed to contain warnings. The company knew that using the product especially in the genitalia regions would lead to having ovarian cancer and they did not warn the customers about these risks. The failure to warn the public about the risks lead to the crisis gaining popularity and affecting thousands of people and company loses in paying lawsuits (Fox-complaint, 2014).
Dr. W.J. Henderson was responsible for the first study that was conducted in 1971 and it linked talc with ovarian cancer. In 1982, Dr. Daniel Cramer and others conducted the first epidemiologic study linking talc powder use in the female genitalia with ovarian cancer and they found a 92% risk. When Dr. Bruise from Johnson & Johnson spoke with the doctors about the research and he was advised to put a warning sign on talcum powders with its association to ovarian cancer risks for women to be informed of the product and their health. Unfortunately, this did not happen despite the warnings and this lead to thousands of women getting ovarian cancer and few of them succumbing to death. Many more epidemiological studies, roughly 22, have been conducted and they provide data that regards ovarian cancer as being associated with talc in the products. The United States National Toxicology Program that partners with WHO, and the International Association of the Research of Cancer classified perennial use of talc as a human carcinogen but still the company would not avoid using talc in their products and warning its consumers about the risks associated with the mineral (Berfield, Feeley & Fisk, 2016).
At all times, the company should have exercised reasonable care to its customers in the design, the manufacturing, testing, inspection, packaging, marketing, promotion, distribution, labelling and selling the products. The man...