Doing Things Right or Doing the Right Things? A qualitative exploration of ethical culture and organizational decision-making in the pharmaceutical industry

Sammanfattning

This thesis investigates the influence of Ethical Organizational Culture (EOC) on Interdepartmental Decision-Making (IDM) through a qualitative case-study of a Swedish pharmaceutical company. Through a qualitative case study, which employs the Ethical Corporate Culture (ECC) model and the Bounded-Rationality decision-making model, the research highlights the complexities faced by pharmaceutical companies at the intersection of ethics and business. The study focuses on how different departments perceive ethics and how this impacts interdepartmental decision-making. The findings reveal differing ethical subcultures within the organization, which correspond to 'quality' and 'business' orientations of departments. The quality subculture emphasizes regulatory compliance and risk aversion, whereas the business subculture focuses on market responsiveness and accessibility. This dichotomy hinders alignment with regards to what constitutes a satisfactory decision, which ultimately causes inefficiencies in IDM. Yet, top management was found to mediate and bridge the subcultures in IDM processes. This study contributes to an improved understanding of the IDM process in pharmaceutical companies.