What is the possibility that the company will adopt measures to correct the wrongdoing based on the employee’s complaint, and bring in desired positive changes in its business activities (including the R&D activities) in future? Provide suggestions on how well the company could implement such changes.
Vrinda was a managing director in a large private company having a workforce of 500 employees. On
a day in late-August 2020, Vrinda received a complaint from an employee in the Research and
Development (R&D) department. The company had just received clearance from the Food Safety and
Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for commercially launching its new line of nutritional supplements
that helped increase human immunity against COVID 19. The research on immunity-increasing food
supplements had been going on for months in the R&D department. The employee, a junior researcher
who was part of the supplements’ research himself at some point, recently gained access to the
documents submitted to FSSAI for approval. Going through all the documents he was shocked to find
out that a number of results of experiments were fabricated. Although the conclusion of the report
strongly supported the positive effects of the supplements, there were dangerous side effects that could
potentially nullify the gains. The negative effects were deliberately played down. The employee was
hesitant to bring up this matter to his immediate superior, apprehending that the latter was also part of
the nexus that fudged the figures and fabricated the report. Hence, he approached the MD to apprise
her about the scandal in the offing, if the anomaly were to be found out on a later date, i.e., after the
products were launched in the market.
What is the possibility that the company will adopt measures to correct the wrongdoing
based on the employee’s complaint, and bring in desired positive changes in its business activities
(including the R&D activities) in future? Provide suggestions on how well the company could implement
such changes.
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