Business: American Express and Johnson & Johnson - Research Paper Example

Having been the fourth time for American Express to receive this recognition shows that there is uniqueness in the corporate ethics of the company. The company has a post known as the Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer. The officer in this position is responsible for ensuring that there is a commitment by the company to ethics. This commitment is also ensured from the top administration to every level up to the bottom. The Johnson & Johnson Company has a values-based ethical culture. The company is mainly guided by the credo which is a training and guidance manual.

This manual was created by the Josephson Institute of Ethics. The principles that guide the company’s ethics are on a stone at the company’s headquarters in New Brunswick. The values inscribed in the credo lay down the company’s base of operations. This has the implication that staff compliance to the same determines the success of the company. While many companies have a corporate compliance office headed by the chief compliance officer or the Ethics Officer as exemplified by the American Express, this is not the case at Johnson & Johnson.

The reasoning behind the exemption of such an office is that every staff member should value themselves as the sole guardians of the ethical principles as stipulated in the credo. In every meeting or conferencing of the company, time is set aside to discuss the credo. American Express is guided by an integrity strategy with regard to corporate ethics. This is seen through its promotion of high standards that guide business behavior. It has a sound ethical environment that results in profitability.

As observed, there is no ethics compliance office that makes every employee accountable for their code of ethics in all business operations. Profits have been recorded every year due to the fact that every staff member does their level best in a non-conditioned behavior to follow the ethics of the company. It is an integrity strategy because each employee must conduct themselves with integrity under no supervision when it comes to adherence to the code of ethics. The assumption is that when such ethics are leveled regardless of the level of employees, all feel that they have the same response in a bid to better the company.

The company expects all employees including the executives to adhere to the set-out codes of ethics with the same zeal. At Johnson & Johnson, it is more of a compliance strategy. The principles are laid out in the credo which is supposed to be followed religiously. This puts pressure on employees to do everything possible to not only hit the numbers but to also keep their jobs. This is the reason that Johnson & Johnson has been recording losses and more so, having numerous lawsuits. The lawsuits are a result of products gone back and therefore not effective to customers.

Perhaps employees are busy trying to follow the credo and the management pressure to deliver profitability. While the balance between patients and profits is tricky, a compliance-based kind of statement of principles may not work effectively. The observation is that compliance standards do not work well in the pharmaceutical business. American Express company has a better Corporate Ethics Program compared to Johnson & Johnson. Firstly, it is self-motivating in that employees are their own guardians.

Staff members, therefore, feel a sense of self-responsibility towards bettering the company.