How does a company’s culture affect how the individuals in the company react to bad news?

By 1968, more than 10,000 babies had been born with deformities or had died because of a drug called thalidomide. The drug, if taken early in pregnancy, could interfere with fetal development and cause children to be born with shortened, malformed, or nonexistent limbs. Some were also born blind or with damaged internal organs. Yet the German company that created and marketed the drug, Chemie Grünenthal, still claimed it was blameless and steadfastly denied any responsibility. During the criminal hearing in 1968 the company brought 40 lawyers and used political subterfuge to close the proceedings—Grünenthal directors met in secret with the German federal health ministry to obtain high-level political intervention to stop the trial. The result was immunity for Grünenthal and a paltry settlement of about $22,000 for each child to manage a lifetime of severe disability.

A foundation was also established by the German parliament to which Grünenthal contributed 100 million Deutsche marks (Evans 2014).

Grünenthal’s history portrays a culture of indifference and exploitation.

Before 1946 it produced “soaps, perfumes, and cleaning fluids” (Evans 2014). After World War II, it moved into pharmaceuticals. What set the company apart was the background of many of the scientists who worked there.

Key scientists and leaders included several individuals who had performed experiments in Hitler’s death camps. One had invented sarin nerve gas and had been “in charge of the construction of the Auschwitz IG Farben plant”

(Evans 2014). Another experimented with live prisoners in labor camps in Poland. Another was one of the top Nazis leading their racial hygiene and eugenics programs.