Business Ethics in Apple Plc.

This report discusses the impact of business ethics on Apple Plc., focusing on corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and stakeholder perspectives. It also examines the recent scandal involving battery throttling and its consequences.

BUSINESS ETHICS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The study of proper business rules and procedures on potentially contentious matters such as
corporate governance, insider trading, bribery, discrimination, corporate social responsibility,
and fiduciary responsibilities is referred to as business ethics. In this report there is discussion
related to ethics in Apple Plc. Along with that there is description related to corporate social
responsibility as well as sustainability adopted by the company.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
THE CASE.......................................................................................................................................4
PART 1............................................................................................................................................4
Corporate Governance.........................................................................................................4
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)..................................................................................5
Sustainability..........................................................................................................................6
PART 2...................................................................................................................................8
Normative Business Ethics.....................................................................................................8
Descriptive Business Ethics...................................................................................................9
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................9
Stakeholder perspectives on the business behaviour..............................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
Recommendations..........................................................................................................................10
REFERNCES:................................................................................................................................12
Books and Journals:..............................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Business Ethics are a set of standards, principles, norms, rules, values that is followed in
an organisation so that the behaviour of the organisation is properly examined. Business Ethics
and theories are required to be evaluated and appropriately followed in an organisation, in order
to meet the stake holder's demands. Along with this Business Ethics also focuses on meeting the
issues like corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, insider trading
and others so that the needs of stake holder's are met (Andrade, Hanza and Xara-Brasil 2017) .
The perception of stakeholder is required to be evaluated so that the operations of the
organisation can be executed in a proper manner. In this report the business scandal as per
Fortune (2017) of Apple Plc. is discussed and in regards to this what business theories and
approaches should have been used to undo the scandal. Also with this the stakeholders
perception is also seen which affects the business.
THE CASE
As per the Fortune (2017) there were ten biggest scandals that took place and shook the
economy. Among those all Apple Plc. is being used to carry forward the report. In 2017, existing
users of the handsets faced an issue that the battery was throttling and degraded which made the
users forcefully invest in the new product. There was an update which made the services and
working of the older mobile handset slow and as a result the battery was degraded. The
batterygate was designed willingly designed in such a manner that consumers will be facing an
issue. This statement was accepted by the responsible person, the CEO Tim Cook of organisation
(Boda 2019) . There were many throttling issues that were faced by the consumers which
dissatisfied the consumers and made the company involve in legal suits. After that the
organisation accepted its fault and started keeping aside the money to use for the legal suites and
to be paid to the consumers as a penalty (Fortune 2017, Scandals. 2020).
PART 1
Corporate Governance
CSR (corporate social responsibility) is a self-regulatory business model that enables a
firm to be socially responsible—to itself, its stakeholders, and the general public. Companies can
be aware of their impact on all parts of society, including economic, social, and environmental,
by exercising corporate social responsibility, also known as corporate citizenship. It can be

defined as the set of rules, laws, procedures which is followed in an organisation to carry out the
business operations in a firm and smooth manner. In Apple Plc., being a large multinational
organisation, the managers are following the varied set of rules and legislations as prepared by
the governmental bodies (Conrad 2018). The CSR that is followed by Apple is discussed below:
 Ensuring environmental sustainability
 Promoting education, including special education and employment increasing vocational
skills and livelihood enhancement initiatives.
 Women's empowerment and gender equality are promoted.
 Promoting health and wellness, especially preventative care
 Contributing to – or sponsoring – technological incubators located within academic
institutions that are approved by the central government of India from time to time.
 Providing financial support to recognised non-governmental organisations (NGOs)
working in developing countries.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
The organisations which are working in a society are required to give back to society as a
return where they are operating their functions. This is met as Apple Plc. is working for a
number of social causes which involves working for welfare activities which works for
upliftment of individuals. It is an activity which works with charitable nature by ethically used
practices. Apple Plc. is working in partnership with the Global Human Rights to support human
rights and environmental rights (Edwards and Gallagher 2018). They are working in more than
25 countries which is working as a help to train individuals so that standard of living is
enhanced. The main responsibility of the CSR activities is to take initiatives in managing the
external factors by volunteering welfare activities in social, economic aspects. The stakeholder
management is also kept in view under this. In recent scandal of Apple Plc., they were seen
working with unethical measures by not meeting the stake holder's expectations. Also the CSR
responsibility of Apple Plc. got at stake when it indulged in scam and hurt the sentiments of
public who trusted them. This affected the consumers trust which was build up in past years. As
the company has to pay large sums as it was advised that the organisation will be paying in form
of the legal suit filed that they should start keeping aside the money penalty and fines. For this
they had to reduce the cost spent on Corporate social responsibility projects which again causes a
harm to the society as well as to the name of the organisation. When CSR is not followed in a

desired and conducive manner there will be a situation where the business practices will be risky
and the operations performed may or may not result as productive and working as per the
demand.
Carroll's pyramid
Economic Responsibility: It is the lowest level in the pyramid that demonstrates a business's
obligation to benefit, so it is said that Apple is concerned with profit while also being concerned
with corporate social responsibility.
Legal responsibility: At this stage of the pyramid, it is stated that the company should adhere to
all applicable laws and legal obligations.
Ethical responsibility: This is the next step of the pyramid, and it is the responsibility of all
business organisations to do everything correctly and deal with circumstances fairly.
Philanthropic responsibility: This is the highest level of the pyramid, and at this level, Apple is
concerned with decreasing carbon footprints and using renewable resources to minimise negative
environmental effects.
Sustainability
The triple bottom line Model
The triple bottom line is a business idea that states that instead of focusing exclusively on
earning profit, or the traditional "bottom line," businesses should commit to monitoring their

social and environmental effect in addition to their financial performance. Profit, people, and the
environment are the “three Ps” of it. The discussion in relation to Apple Plc is done below:
Profit
A company's success in a capitalist economy is mostly determined by its financial performance,
or the profit it creates for shareholders. In general, strategic planning activities and critical
corporate decisions are carefully structured to maximise revenues while lowering expenses and
reducing risk. In Apple Plc purpose-driven leaders are realising that they can utilise their
enterprises to make a positive difference in the world while still achieving financial success.
Adopting sustainability measures has been shown to drive corporate success in several
circumstances.
People
It's critical to distinguish between a company's shareholders and stakeholders. Traditionally,
corporations have emphasised shareholder value as a metric of success, i.e., they try to increase
the worth of the company's stockholders. As Apple plc have increasingly embraced

sustainability, they have shifted their focus toward creating value for all stakeholders impacted
by business decisions, including customers, employees, and community members.
The Planet
While corporations have historically been the most significant contributors to climate
change, they also have the power to effect positive change. Many company leaders are
increasingly aware of their obligation to do so. This initiative isn't just the responsibility of the
world's greatest enterprises; practically every company has the ability to cut its carbon footprint.
In Apple Plc. sustainability can be laid when the non renewable resources used in manufacturing
is minimised. They are focusing on Adjustments such as employing ethically sourced products,
reducing energy consumption, and simplifying shipping procedures are all positive moves.
(Goodarzi, Salamzadeh and Salamzadeh 2018).
Every organisation is responsible to work with sustainability so that the environment is
less hampered. The sustainability is required to be maintained so that the uses of resources are in
optimised manner.
PART 2
In an organisation which is functioning in a wider aspect, there is a requirement of
maintaining sustainability so that the organisation is less indulged in legal affairs. To work with
sustainability there is an emergent need for Apple Plc. to work with such strategies which will
result in producing less pollution to the environment. For this there is need of proper follow up
of the business ethics and work in accordance so that business activities are carried out in an
appropriate manner. There are various business ethic theories which are used by Apple Plc. in
order to execute its operations and work with sustainability. To achieve the sustainable
development of Apple Plc. there is use of normative and descriptive business ethical approaches
which will act as a development force to organisation.
Normative Business Ethics
The normative business ethical approach can be referred to as analysing how Apple Plc.
will be working and conducting operations with moral values. They are focused on conducting
operations which are ethically true and are based on legal and moral standards. In Apple Plc.
they are focused on delivering goods by manufacturing in such a manner that there are negligible
or reduced transparency issues. There are several times when business is unable to meet the
standards and for that cause the ethics and their follow up is hampered. There are two theories

which is studied under the Normative Ethical approach are Teleological and Deontological
theories. In Apple Plc., teleological ethics is based on how positivity or negativity is achieved on
a specific course of work and what will be the consequences of the same on the organisation. In
Apple, the operations performed are and products are produced which will be further determined
that they are creating a positive impact or negative impact on the name of the country. Due to the
recent scandal the products thus produced were having a negative impact on the image of the
organisation as evaluated by teleological approach of the normative ethics. Moreover the
deontological theories are the tools and instruments that denotes the positive and negative impact
on the product on it own. The recent scandal was based on the teleological theories as impact
was known after the consequences. The consequences which occurred were because of the usage
of the handsets by the consumers fro a period of time and then faced the issues that impacted
negatively.
Descriptive Business Ethics
This business ethics in Apple Plc. works as studying the moral values and beliefs of the
individuals (Hicks 2018) . They work as analysing what is the need and desire of the consumers
and works in catering them, this works as a result in properly meeting the needs and demands of
consumers. As Apple Plc. is working with creativity and meeting the requirements of consumers
which is working as creating and maintaining standards in eyes of consumers.
TASK 3
Stakeholder perspectives on the business behaviour
The stake holder's perception works in promoting and flourishing the business ethics
which affects the behaviour of the businesses in many ways. The business ethics when followed
will make the consumers more and more attracted towards the product and thus revenue
generation will be enhanced. This can be achieved only because Apple Plc. is working with the
efforts that is making their products reach to a wider population and thus creating a different
impact as compared to that of the competitive rivals. The decision-making approach works on
achieving sustainability and the organisation tends to work for a longer duration. This will also
build a consumer base for Apple Plc. and will be a result that several defects and shortcomings
which is brought in the business organisation will thus be removed in an easy and quick manner.
The better business ethics will result in enhancing the corporate image as they will be more and

more engaged in meeting the Corporate Social Responsibility i.e. CSR as well. This is a reason
that in Apple Plc. Irrespective of the harms caused by the willingly shortcomings in the
operations they recovered at a quicker and a faster pace. The stake holder's are the ones who hold
the major aim in the organisation and are continuously focused on making the operational
activities of the organisation performed in a better manner. The major stakeholders are the
shareholders whose money is on stake, the consumers who have purchased the product, the
supplier who deliver the raw material to Apple Plc. for finished production (Seele 2016). Apart
from this the governing bodies are also the stakeholder who are holding aim in the organisation
for incurring of taxes and making sure that none of the human rights are violated. These rights
can be any like the rights which are made for the consumers or the rights which are made for the
better management of the employees. This is a reason that governance bodies keep a proper
check and control on the activities. The on going focus on the requirements and expectations of
stakeholder helps in setting a proper path to achieve goals in a variety of projects with different
size and complexity.
CONCLUSION
From the above report based on the business scandals which were affected by the
business ethics. This has impacted the organisation in many aspects and has led to a downfall in
the name and dame of the organisation. When consumers were not satisfied with the throttling of
batterygate and filed a legal suit for the same, they suffered a lot in terms of financially as well as
physically. The fault caused by the organisation affected mainly the stake holder's expectation as
there name and money was utilised in the wrong means. The negative effects which were faced
by the consumers affected the major stake holder which is the governmental bodies who acted as
charging penalty and fines for the act performed on their part. The improper use of business
ethics in production and operational work acted as a major downfall for time being. But due to its
systematic and strategic planning activities the organisation, Apple Plc. is again working with
full effectiveness and upgrading its name and fame which was deteriorated in past time.
Recommendations
It is recommended that Apple should take care before launching the product and should not
produce the product that has some issue as it can impact the image of the company. It is
important to overcome the problem that they have caused and find solution so as to benefit the

customers. Along with that it is important for the organisation to follow corporate social
responsibility that will help the company to work in effective and efficient manner and do not
provide any negative impact to the environment. This will enhance the image of company and
attract more customers.

REFERNCES:
Books and Journals:
Andrade, J., Hanza, K. and Xara-Brasil, D., 2017. Business ethics: international analysis of codes
of ethics and conduct. Revista Brasileira de Marketing, pp.1-15.
Boda, Z., 2019. Business ethics as critical thinking: moral motivations and the limits of ethics.
In Ethical Business Leadership in Troubling Times. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Conrad, C.A., 2018. Business ethics-a philosophical and behavioral approach. Springer.
Dimmock, M. and Fisher, A., 2020. Business Ethics. PHI220 Ethics.
Edwards, M.S. and Gallagher, E.C., 2018. Oh, Behave! Insights and Strategies for Teaching
Business Ethics to Gen Y Students. e-Journal of Business Education and Scholarship of
Teaching, 12(1), pp.1-18.
Goodarzi, S.M., Salamzadeh, Y. and Salamzadeh, A., 2018. The impact of business ethics on
entrepreneurial attitude of manager. In Competitiveness in emerging markets (pp. 503-
539). Springer, Cham.
Hicks, S.R., 2018. Ayn Rand and contemporary business ethics. Perspectives on Ayn Rand's
Contributions to Economic and Business Thought, p.239.
Seele, P., 2016. Business ethics without philosophers? Evidence for and implications of the shift
from applied philosophers to business scholars on the editorial boards of business ethics
journals. Metaphilosophy, 47(1), pp.75-91.
Online:
Fortune 2017, Scandals. 2020 [Online]<https://www.cbinsights.com/research/corporate-
comeback-stories/>