Preventative crises occur again and again for various reasons. One of the main reasons is because managers and top level business executives desire for profits without regard to sound moral principles (Crandall, Parnell, & Spillan, 2014). Unfortunately, this in itself can trigger an organizational crisis. This problem appears in many forms, but the results are usually the same: an organizational crisis of some type, stakeholders who have been hurt, and prevention that would have cost pennies in comparison to the damage done (Crandall et al., 2014). A classic case of unethical decision making and lack of crisis management concerns the Melamine Milk Crisis in China.
This case begins with a Chinese company, the Sanlu Group, who was purchasing milk for use in its baby formula. Over time employees of the Sanlu Group discovered the milk their company was purchasing, was tainted with melamine (Crandall et al., 2014). Melamine is a product generally used to make plastics and laminates. Unfortunately, management personnel working for the Sanlu Group was unaware of the tainted substance being illegally added to the milk. However, the melamine product is a life threatening product that can cause kidney stones and renal failure once it is consumed. Although the melamine boosted the protein rating of the milk, it was illegally added to the milk (Crandall et al., 2014).
Still unaware of the danger the melamine laced milk was causing to infants, the Sanlu Group continued to purchase the
Before the Pure Food and Drug Act, companies could add whatever they wanted to their products and consumers did not know what is was. “They use everything about the hog except the squeal.” (Sinclair 35) There was false advertising, false claims and most of the time food was adulterated and had dangerously unsafe preservatives. “Borax compounds...were used to make old butter seem like new...the effects of borax included nausea and loss of appetite, symptoms resembling those of influenza and overburdened kidneys”(Carson 1) In addition to borax, common
Q.1 – Briefly describe the dilemma presented in this case study. Who are the key players and what are some of the antecedents that have led to the present problem? Ans. When the best manager, takes certain actions which go against the core values of the company, it becomes really difficult for the management to make a fair judgement. They are stuck in a dilemma of what would be a better judgement. As a leader, it is very important to be fair and impartial to your team members. And so is the dilemma presented in the case, Bob’s Meltdown, Nicholas G. Carr. The key players in this case are1. Annette Innella 2. Robert Dunn 3. Jay Nguyen Annette Innella is the Vice President, Knowledge Management at Concord Machines. She was recently hired by
However the 52-week toxicity in infant monkeys and the 2010 Swiss mice studies has provided pivotal, contradictory evidence to the aspartame debate. Dr. Waisman at the University of Wisconsin Medical Center located in Madison Wisconsin initiated the 52-week toxicity study in infant monkeys in 1971 . This study orally served Aspartame mixed in milk formula to seven infant Rhesus monkeys over a 52-week period . Waisman put the monkeys into three groups: a low dose group (1.0 g/kg), a medium dose group (3.0 g/kg) and a high dose group (4-6 g/kg) . There was no control group, meaning there was not a group of newborn monkeys that were not fed aspartame. Since monkeys are primates similar to humans—with only a 1.2 percent genetic difference—monkeys were chosen to study the effects of aspartame on primates. Data shows that one monkey from the high dosage group died over 300 days, five of seven suffered grad mal seizures in the low dose group starting on the 218th day of treatment, and all monkeys in the medium and high dose groups exhibited seizures . According to data, the seizures coincided with the levels of phenylalanine . One should note that in the low dose group there was not a significant increase in serum phenylalanine levels; therefore, convulsions were not expected . Overall, the findings of this study correlated brain seizures with high amounts of aspartame particularly phenylalanine ingested by the monkeys, but at low dosages no biologically meaningful alterations occurred . In addition, the study reported food intake and growth rate were reduced when compared to the historical range . (This data can be studied in figures two to four .) Though the evidence of this study correlates aspartame with brain seizures, the FDA still approved aspartame for human consumption. This is because there are issues with the studies sample size and procedures. The study did not use a large sample of
After the inspection was completed, than that’s when everyone would have found out the truth. When it comes to issues such as this you want to make sure you are not taking the blame for someone else error. I give Schwan’s company credit for reacting so quickly. I feel they took it too far because they took the blame and did not know who was really at fault. The company assumed they were at fault, but nothing was proven at first. It was smart for them to do a recall on the ice cream and pull the ice cream off the shelves. Schwan’s company took the blame to find out Cliff Viessman, the tanker truck operator was responsible for the foodborne illness outbreak. Viessman hauled raw eggs on the truck but did not disinfect the truck properly. The company could have very well avoided a great financial lost. It was a learning experience for Schwan’s Sales Enterprises. They were able to rectify the situation successfully. Schwan’s company could have used the media to get the information out to more individuals quicker. Media coverage is the best way to get important information out in a short period of
The objective of this case is to understand the importance of crisis management. This case is intended to make the reader consider not only financial implications at the time of the event but the effects on the long term strategies of the organization. Also, the case urges participants to think about the consequences not only on the customer but on those within the organization as well.
This systemic approach will engage the whole organization in efforts to avert the elongation of this crisis and at its best make sure to implement proactive and reactive management for the short-run and long-run. Since the company wasn’t properly prepared in advance of this crisis, different
From the analysis, the crisis arose from a series of biased or irrational individual and organizational behaviors. To avoid the catastrophic effect, each individual and organization must change their behaviors.
DuPont was aware of the harmful effects this chemical had on animals and people but ignored the issue in accordance of high profit. Not only were people affected in the local community, but people in surrounding areas were also affected. Thousands of people and large amounts of property were inflicted with poor air quality and poor drinking water. DuPont had later discovered that there were dust fumes emerging from the factories that were unhealthy for people to inhale, and later found it in the drinking water. DuPont also found an astonishing key of evidence, they had found PFOA in the water, and it was twice the amount of what was allowed, and could cause some serious issues. They had known about the levels and did not notify any workers or anyone in the community due to the fear of loss of profit. Men and women were coming home with a fever, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. These workers endured injurious experiences, and were never notified about the condition in which they were working. DuPont was named as not trustworthy, and at times known to practice illegal activity. After going through the experiences of which they just endured, they might go through the process of mental thinking or what they just went through was not right and should not have happened to me. That process is known as
The global market has shown exemplary contribution to the growth of the world's development until recently where financial crisis have been bombarding most economies. As a result, the cost of livelihood had been unaffordable to many who live below the dollar. The monetary crisis has led to the lowering of many currencies against the dollar, hence advancing the economy crisis to most worldwide nations. This turn of events has been attributed to the lack of exercise of business and management ethics in many multinational companies, firms and investments. Financial scandals have been the order of the past twenty years leading to the sweep over of the flourishing global market. The scandals, especially in larger companies and multinational, are spurred by inter and intra-conflicts in their organizational structures.
One of the key concepts of Commanding Heights is that capitalism needs to include ethical restraint (Scott). It is very clear that the lead players in the 2008 crisis did not display ethics or restraint. Many individuals displayed a lack of ethics because they were willing to engage in conflicts of interest. For example, academic leaders often served as consultants
Nestle could come out with a statement detailing all that had happened and what possibly went wrong on their part. They should clearly specify what they have done to rectify any problem whatsoever and what all plans they had for the future regarding the safety of their food
The main issues that Gupta’s focus should be on in regards to short term are the allegations from Center for Science and Environment (CSE) that threatens to tarnish the image of the company’s brand, and the survey result of the its consumers. Crisis is inescapable. When it does occur, for the most part, ones’ wish is for it to go away as fast as possible. While it is an uncomfortable dilemma; nonetheless one ought to have a plan in place to reconcile the issue. In this case study Gupta, president and CEO of Coca Cola India found himself in a crisis that could either conquer his company’s animation or redeem its success as the lead in India. According to Dolewski, the element of surprise should be incorporated into the role of managers due to the variation in the amount of a disaster warning. Bearing in mind Gupta had tactics in place in to dealing with desolations that results from crises, it will at least allow company managers to start from a resilient situation. The gift to identify short-term issues in crisis is an accomplishment but having a solution is an entirely different scenario.
From the onset, it is important to note that James and his vice president for production, John Healy, could have possibly prevented the scenario from escalating into a fully blown crisis by addressing the issue early enough. In my opinion, the company's top leadership should have acted during the second stage of the scenario, i.e. after concern deepened. The company's topmost executives instead chose to adopt the 'wait and see' stance.
What is a crisis management? It is an unexpected crisis that happens on the company that will affect the trust and loyalty of the stakeholder. It can be extremely costly because it will affect the company reputation and brand. For example like financial failure from poor business management, workplace violence, fires, cybercrime, computer viruses, product tampering or union strikes and other external issue like damaged economy that causes from London bombings, terrorists attacks on 11 September and others. The SHRM 2005 report indicates that only 56% organizations created or revised their disaster preparedness plans but 45% did not after the terrorist attacked on
The ruling came in the backdrop of samples of milk collected randomly by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India in 2011 revealed the large-scale sale of adulterated milk across the country.