Ba7 Case Study

Diversity at Johnson & Johnson

1. How do J&J’s diversity programs help it to better compete?

J&J competes globally through their innovation and performance. Their vice president stated that J&J recognizes that diversity leads to innovation and innovation leads to business success. In return, business success leads to attaining opportunities for J&J’s employees.

2. Which of the programs described in this case study do you think would be most effective at promoting and leveraging diversity at J&J?

J&J’s Chairman and CEO William C. Weldon, himself, is promoting diversity at J&J. He meets regularly with employee groups. His chief diversity officer holds a senior position on a non-profit organization which is tied to a multicultural group. Chairman and CEO Weldon is very much committed to diversity that he got a perfect score from Diversity Inc. Also, linking managers’ bonuses to diversity is one effective way of promoting and leveraging diversity; it is because it shows the commitment of the top managers to diversity.

3. Do you think diversity can lead to negative outcomes at J&J? If so, which outcomes and why?

In my opinion, I think that, yes, diversity can lead to negative outcomes at J&J. Some of the disadvantages of diversity like communication issues, integration issues, or lack of freedom of speech can result to incompetency, low cohesiveness, absenteeism and even poor quality of work. This is because of misunderstandings, suspicion and conflict among the members of the diverse groups.