Case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 7

Case study - Essay Example ically Questionable Behavior in Sales Representatives-An Example from the Taiwanese Pharmaceutical Industry" by Ya-Hui Hsu, Wenchang Fang and Yuanchung Lee the idea of ethical behavior with salesmen in pharmaceutical companies is explored. The reason this was explored is because they saw "recent corporate disgraces and corruption" in business and they wanted to see whether this affected pharmaceutical sales. Unethical behavior in the pharmaceutical industry is something that has happened for many years. MedZilla Staff report that pharmaceutical companies are using a variety of "questionable" tactics to approach doctors and "lure" them into prescribing certain drugs to their patients. Some companies have taken steps to stop the larger perks like tickets to ballgames or financial incentives. As an example, PhrMA is one of the leading companies in the business and they sell 90% of the pharmaceuticals in the United States. In 2002, they chose to change their marketing approach and educate their customers instead of spending so much time trying to lure doctors (MedZilla Staff). This article also states that the best way to make sure you are behaving ethically is to sell the doctor on the positive aspects of the drug and give information about clinical trials. Although many people believe that their primary care physician gets "perks" and "financial incentives" to prescribe certain drugs, the y do not want to totally believe this because it makes them feel that they are vulnerable. Hsu, Fang and Lee studied this practice to find out exactly what makes this necessary for salesmen to create unethical behaviors in order to make the sales team look good. The researchers used four variables from human resource management in order to "explain the ethically questionable behavioral of sales representatives in the pharmaceutical industry" (155) Although unethical behavior exists it is an area where management studies have not been done extensively particularly in the areas of