reach a decision ranging from 1 (a peaceful response) to 11 (a warlike response). According to
historians, the optimal decision would have been a 1 or 2. One percent of the subjects selected a 1 or 2,
and 57% selected a 4 or 5. The actual decision was classed as about a 4 or 5, and it proved disastrous
for Mexico. Thus, role-playing provided a good way to predict how the Mexican leader would act.
Panalba as an Extreme Case: A case was desired that would allow stockholders to gain at the
expense of other interest groups. Furthermore, the gain to the stockholders should be much less than the
loss to the other groups. The Panalba case met these criteria.
The basic model for this case was “what decision would a manager make if he could earn
$1,000,000 for each customer that he was willing to kill?” Of course, the problem was not stated in
such a direct manner; instead, it was cast in a legitimate framework. The subjects acted as members of
the Board of Directors of the Upjohn Company. Upjohn had a very profitable drug named Panalba.
There was much evidence that substitute drugs from Upjohn’s competitors provided the same benefits
at the same price. Panalba, however, had serious side effects such as death, while the substitutes were
virtually free of side effects. The question was whether Upjohn should remove Panalba from the market.
(See Appendix A for a description of the case.)3
To determine whether this case allowed for irresponsible behavior, a self-administered questionnaire
was given to captive audiences of faculty, students, and managers. This described the Panalba case
(from Appendix A) and explained that Upjohn had taken legal and political action to prevent the
removal of Panalba from the market (decision “e”). Almost all respondents viewed Upjohn’s decision as
socially irresponsible (Table 1). Furthermore, only 2% of the respondents selected this decision when
asked, “If you were Chairman of Upjohn, what decision would you have made?”
|
Table 1: Attitudes Toward Upjohn’s Decision (N = 71) | |
|
In Your Opinion, Did Upjohn Act: |
Percentage of Responses |
|
In a socially responsible manner? |
0 |
|
In a socially irresponsible manner? |
97 |
|
No opinion |
3 |
The Sample: The role-playing sample was selected on the basis of convenience. The subjects were
from undergraduate and graduate courses in management (g = 264), and also from executive training
programs (g = 55). Although managerial experience was limited for the undergraduates, most graduate
3 The description was based upon the true case of Panalba as reported by Mintz [45]. Information was
also taken from Upjohn’s Annual Reports. I made up details for this case, such as the accounting
estimates of Table 2, to make the extreme nature of this case obvious. Attempts were made to obtain
further information from the Upjohn Co. to ensure that the facts were accurately presented, but they
refused to answer.
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