DILEMMA
“Having just completed my training to be a pharmaceutical sales representative, I met with the pharmacist at my largest account for the first time. During our meeting, he voices his concern about the shipping costs of returned drugs. Much to my surprise, he asks me for money to cover these costs so that he won’t have to pay the expense out of his own pocket. Feeling confident that I know what to do, I refuse his request. Expecting that to be the end of the conversation, I am not happy when he pushes the issue again. He asks me to give him extra drug samples so that he can sell them. This will help him recoup the costs of mailing the returns, he says. He then threatens that if I don’t comply with his request, he will drop his account with my company and go to a competitor.”
AVAILABLE OPTIONS
What possible courses of action does the sales rep have to choose from?
- Agree to the pharmacist’s request, and not tell anyone
- Research the competitor and assess its viability ofreplacing him and his company
- Refuse the pharmacist’s request, and tell his manager
- Refuse the pharmacist’s request, and not tell anyone
WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED?
David Brennan, CEO of AstraZeneca, recounts this story from his early career in a Leaders on Ethics interview. What did he do? “I stuck by the policy,” Brennan says. He refused the pharmacist’s request, and when he got home, called his district manager. The manager confirmed that he made a good decision and together they confronted the pharmacist. Brennan says that this experience taught him “to understand the policies and why they’re in place. And then have the courage to stick with them.”
WHY WAS THIS IMPORTANT?
Ethical leadership is not only about ‘coming from the top’, but importantly from the middle and first line of managers as well.Research has shown the ‘younger’ employees, as well as those who are ‘newest’ to an organization are most vulnerable to pressure to engage in misconduct. Also, the first manager of an employee is oftentimes their initial career mentor and the ethical tone that is set can sometimes last through the employee’s career, as it did in the Brennan example.
David Brennan Biography:
David Brennan is the CEO of AstraZeneca. His career began in 1975 as a sales representative at Merck; in 1992 he joined AstraMerck. He currently serves as a member of the Executive Board of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, Chairman of the Board of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Chapter of the American Heart Association, and Board member of the CEO Roundtable on Cancer.
About Leaders on Ethics:
Leaders on Ethics is an ongoing project of the Ethics Resource Center. The effort involves collecting videotaped interviews of CEO’s and other leaders providing insights into challenging ethical situations they’ve faced, decisions they’ve made, and lessons they’ve learned. Curriculum is being developed for use in the classroom to help future leaders consider the role that character will play in career success.
THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO GET INVOLVED IN LEADERS ON ETHICS
02 Become an organizational sponsor for Leaders on Ethics Contact Rielle Miller at (202) 872-4772 or visit Rielle@ethics.org for more information.
