Business Ethics Case Study - Apple company

Business Ethics

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
PART 1 ...........................................................................................................................................1
Introduction,Case study and ethical issues at apple and solutions of these issues.................1
Analyse consideration of different stakeholder perspectives.................................................3
Normative and descriptive theories of business ethics to Apple............................................4
PART 2............................................................................................................................................5
Comparison of Apple with Microsoft.....................................................................................5
PART 3............................................................................................................................................6
Importance of learning about business ethics.........................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business ethics are professional ethics that are used in examine moral and ethical
problems that arises in the business environment. Apple is an American multinational technology
company. Headquarter of this company is in Cupertino, California. It designs and sells computer
software and consumer electronics. Apple was founded by Steve Jobs (Stephens and Shepard,
2015). This study shows about business ethics and different ethical issues which the company
faces. It also shows about normative and descriptive theories which shows and tell the way of
treating people (Barry, 2016). There are importance of learning business ethics because it helps
the company in developing and growing their business because it teach them about the way of
treating with employees at workplace. It also decrease the labour turnover and maximize
profitability (Pearson, 2017).
PART 1
Introduction,Case study and ethical issues at apple and solutions of these issues
Introduction and case study: Apple is one of the biggest and largest consumers
electronics makers in the world. It has operations around the globe. It has to face many problems
like social issues which need to be address on the time. Apple company was accused of treating
their workers inhumanly and treat and act them as a machine and resources. In order to maximize
profits and cut costs it hired 500,00 workers and then start to produce their products at 2 factories
in Southern China. It binds to its employees to sign before working with the company on anti
suicide contract that they will not try and attempt to commit suicide. It makes their workers work
around 98 hours of overtime.
Apple's ethics: Apple tries to ensure that its workers or employees display appropriate
conduct in all type of situations. According to this company there are 4 main principles that help
them in the success and growth of them such as: respect, honesty, compliance and
confidentiality. It makes it success on the basis of high quality products and by creating
innovative. Most of the products components of Apple are manufactured with low labour costs.
It may deny to do another business with its suppliers who refuse to comply with Apple's
standards.
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Ethical issues: There are several ethical issues which the company has to face such as:
price fixing issues, privacy related issues, supply chain management issues and threats to other
companies.
Product quality issues: The main ethical issue which the company has to face is related
to quality of its products. Electronic industry is rapidly increasing where many new products are
introduced every year. Customer made and began to complain related reception problem after
introducing the iPhone 4. The main reason of this problem was interference of antenna in which
users have to held phone in certain way (Barry, 2016).
Privacy related issues: The another major issues for Apple Inc. was privacy of
customers. It has certain features on its cell phones that they collect data on the phones'
locations. Consumers were not happy with this feature and they saw this as an infringement on
their privacy. After disabled this features by users its phones continued to collet all the
informations related locations and data.
Sustainability: Apple company wants to become greener company by reducing its
environmental effects and impacts at its facilities. The company accepts that most of its
emissions comes from its products that is harmful for people and environment. Many customers
criticized Apple and push them to upgrade and replace their technologies. It is becoming the
major issues as it has to release upgraded products.
Intellectual property: Intellectual property theft is an issue which company pursue. The
company is very serious about keeping its proprietary informations a secret in order to prevent it
from other competitors company from stealing its ideas. A main notable case of Apple's law suit
against Microsoft company after the company had licensed technology to Microsoft. After
releasing Windows 2.0 by Microsoft company, Apple company claimed against Microsoft that
the licensing agreement was only for Windows 1.0.
Patents issues: Apple is very strict and serious about protection its technologies from
theft as it releases several products each year. It files lawsuits against many powerful companies
like it has filed a lawsuit against Samsung company and claimed that Samsung had copied its
designs of iPad and iPhone for their products.
Solution of theses problems: The company is more focusing on solution of ethical
issues in order to being in a competition. In order to solve the problem related privacy and
intellectual property it has developed an open software code that help them to obtain and keep
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safe inputs from an external source. It has also re examined all the system which is the best way
of competing. It has also adopted and followed some rules and labour legislations that protects
employees from discrimination, work load and unfair treatment. It has also focused on CSR
policies and sustainability. Apple company now more focus on collaborative working culture and
recognize customers need and demands and then make policies accordingly in order to satisfy
them (Brenkert, 2016).
Analyse consideration of different stakeholder perspectives
Apple company has different internal and external stakeholders. Stakeholders are the
person who gets affected by the company's processes and growth. Different stakeholders of
Apple are shareholders, customers, retailers, contractors, wholesalers, suppliers, distributors etc.
The success and growth of Apple is partially depends upon it ability to satisfy its internal and
external stakeholders and corporate social responsibility. Internal and external stakeholders of
the company affects its business in terms of sales revenue and customer perception.
Ethical practices of Apple: There are some ethical practices of Apple and the practices
which it believes that they are the things which are responsible in the growth and success of the
company are: corporate social responsibility, honesty, respect, compliance, confidentiality and
the way of behaving and treating with employees and customers. Its ethical practices affect on its
internal and external stakeholders. There are some rules and regulations of Apple which directly
affect on its stakeholders. Its guidelines are that it will respect their all the employees and will be
responsible for its loss. This ethical practices have positive impact on its customer, its suppliers
and its employees. It uses labour and human rights that includes anti discrimination and protects
employees from discrimination at workplace. It increase their morale and reduce labour turnover.
It also focuses on providing fair treatment and fixed working hours. These all policies and
practices have positive and effective impact on its stakeholders (Chell and et.al., 2016).
Unethical practices of Apple: There are many unethical practices of Apple like working
in ineffective and dangerous condition, child slave labour, humiliating discipline and
unreasonable workload etc. Its unethical practices also impact on its internal and external
stakeholders in negative manner. Many of the employees attempt tom commit suicide because of
workload. The main unethical behaviour of Apple is the violation of their workers rights and
labour laws. It binds their workers many of the time to work long hours. Most of the time
employees have worked more than 60 hours a week and some workers working in the company
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for a duration of more than 6 days in a week. It also make works from children who are less than
15 years and give wrong information in their records. These all unethical practices have negative
impact on its internal and external stakeholders. Unethical practices cause burn out and
exhaustion. Most of the workers face many problems and injuries like motion injuries and
injuries due to in direct contact with toxic chemical substances (Rendtorff, 2015).
Normative and descriptive theories of business ethics to Apple
There are some theories of ethos which shows about behaviour and way of treating with
people. There are mainly 2 types of theories of ethics to Apple such as Normative theories and
descriptive theories.
Normative theories: Normative theories of ethics suggests and shows the corrective and the best
way of acting with people. It just describes and examines the standards and levels of rightness
and wrongness. It focuses on the relationship between press and audiences. There are various
normative theories such as: deontology, virtue ethics and ethical egoism.
Deontology: This ethics can be described as a rule and duty that are based on ethics
because rules and regulations binds person to fulfil their responsibility. It lay keen emphasises on
the relationship between the morality and the duty of human actions. This ethics is considered
good because it posses many characteristics as it always focus on human welfare. According to
this theory the company focuses on protecting their employees and stakeholders by
discrimination, child labour and another things which are not good for human (Crane and
Matten, 2016).
Virtue ethics theory: Virtue ethics theory refers and defines ethical system whose aim
and purpose is to lead a happy, good and fulfilling life. This theory concentrates on the person
and way of becoming them a better person. With the help of this theory Apple focus on nature,
virtue and other related problems of a person. A virtuous has ideal character traits. These needs
required to be nurtured. This approach and theory assumes that person can acquire virtue through
practice. By practising being brave, honest, generous a person can develop a morale character
which is very important for Apple company. It also helps Apple to guide employees and other
person for living life without following specific rules in order to resolve ethical dilemmas.
Ethical egoism: It is another normative theory that has view and believes that all the
people ought to pursue their own self interest and no one has right and any type of obligation to
promote any one else's interest. It is just different from psychological theory because this theory
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believes that all the actions of our are self interested. With the help and use of this theory Apple
believes and claim that all the person and employees seek their own self interest (Davies, 2016).
Descriptive theory: This theory is also known as comparative theory and ethics. It is the
general study about morality of people. It is the divisions of philosophical ethics. It belies that
what the people and employees of the company think is right. With the helps and use of
descriptive theories Apple wants and has aim to uncover employees beliefs about values that
think which actions are right and which are wrong. It involves empirical investigation. There are
some descriptive theories which are as follows:
Utilitarianism theory: Utilitarianism is the best and most influential descriptive theory
moral theory. It is also an efforts in order to provide an answer to all the questions that what a
person need to do. With the help of this theory Apple can maximize the welfare of its
stakeholders by its ethical actions (Hämäläinen, 2016).
Individual factors: Individual factors is a theory which determines health factors
includes skills, knowledge, attitude and another characteristics. There are many another
individual factors that helps the company in order to determine the health of an individual.
Situational factors: There are some situational factors of ethics that affect the decision
making process of Apple company. Most of the employees and people behave unethically. The
morale intensity factors suggests significant impact on ethical decision making.
It can be suggested that normative theory would be the best for Apple company because
it gives the detail information and explanation and it gives the best solution and the solution does
not allow discrimination, subjective feelings and opinion.
Apple uses the McGregor X and Y theory for motivating their staff. This theory also help
it in managing and controlling its staff in effective way. Theory X is a traditional approach that
assumes that all the workers or employees are lazy and do not have ambitions and also do not
want to take responsibilities. These type of workers require stick management and control. For
that the company uses carrot and stick and try to manage to retail loyal and talent employees.
Theory Y assumes that employees wants physiological needs in order to effective and productive
work. They also want responsibilities and self achievement. For satisfying all the needs and
demands of their employee it provides them benefits and rewards.
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PART 2
Comparison of Apple with Microsoft
There are some factors and issues which Apple and Microsoft company have to face that
are related with corporate social responsibility and sustainability. CSR also has three types of
responsibility like legal responsibility, economic responsibility, ethical responsibility and
philanthropic responsibility.
Sustainability:
Sustainability is also most important factor for company's growth and success which
includes social sustainability and economic sustainability. IT is the largest and biggest part of
any successful business. Apple is better than Microsoft company. Sustainability refers and
defines as a process of maintaining changes in a balanced environment. Many companies focus
on present needs of social, economic and environmental without compromising the ability and
efficiency of future generation in order to promote sustainability (Kagan, 2018).
CSR:
CSR is an approach that help in sustainable development by providing many benefits
like environmental benefits, social benefits and economic benefits to its all stakeholders. The
main aim of companies in order to promote CSR is to address various issues human rights,
human health and safety and corporate governance, working conditions for workers and to drive
changes towards sustainability. Companies follows CSR plans whose aim is to ensure that if
company comply with legislation or not.
Similarities: There are some similarities between Apple and Microsoft company that
Bill Gates and Steve jobs both are self motivated businessman. Both of the companies have
tablet devices. They both are retail store. In order to promote corporate social responsibility.
There is a similarity between Apple and Microsoft company is they both take actions in order to
stop unethical practices among suppliers that promote corporate social responsibility.
Differences: Apple company focus on customer and Microsoft focus on its enterprises.
Apple company is expensive and Microsoft is inexpensive. Apple focuses on promoting
education and enhance employ vocational skills. On the other hand Microsoft focus on
collaboration with leaders and work together with its stakeholders in order to promote corporate
social responsibility. Apple organise CSR programs in which it concentrates on local
communities. Apple uses new and innovative technologies which contribute and support them in
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measuring social change. On the other hand Microsoft company makes the policies and apply
technologies that strengthen communities and protect their planet. By developing new energy
goals it expands to sustainability.
PART 3
Importance of learning about business ethics
There is an important of ethics for business because it shows and concern with people's
moral judgement and rightness and wrongness. Decisions are take by employer with the help of
employees but all the processes are influenced b y the culture of the company. Learning business
ethics is very important for the company and people because it leads them to develop and growth
of skills. There are many problems arises in the company because of poor business ethics such as
poor networking. Sometimes poor business ethics becomes expensive (Pearson, 2017).
Reason of learning business ethics: For managing business it is important for the
businessman to have enough knowledge and experience about finance, marketing and
accounting. In spite of this knowledge it is equally important for the company to have a
understanding the way of operating business that impact on the business and the larger
community.
Improve reputation of company: It has been analysed from the study that there is a
significant effect and importance of learning business ethics as it improves the reputation of the
company. It takes time but the way of treating people have a powerful force on the society. It is
also the best way of advertising (Newton and et.al., 2015).
Better businessman and human being: Learning business ethics changes the
perspectives of the person. It provides a conceptual framework that helps them in resolving
ethical issues in effective manner, which arises at workplace (Wang and Calvano, 2015).
Importance of business ethics: Learning business ethics are very important for Apple
company because it helps them to attract more customers towards its products and services.
 It also helps in reducing labour turnover and Hence increase productivity and maximize
profitability of the company.
 Companies with well aware employees attracts investors and keep their share's price high
which supports and protects their business from takeover (Brenkert, 2016).
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 It also helps the company in increasing their reputation and value in the market because
reputation is the biggest asset for the company so it is important to maintain that
reputation (Quarshie, Salmi and Leuschner, 2016).
 With the help of business ethics a businessman can easily find out ethical issues in the
business.
Satisfy human needs: It has been analysed that business ethics play a vital role in order
to develop activities for the workplace for Apple company. With the help of ethical policies and
learning ethics, the company can satisfy all the needs of human and employees at workplace by
providing them fair treatment and being honest with them. Every workers want to work with
those organisations which are ethics and loyal with its practices (Pearson, 2017).
Uniting leadership and people: Good business ethics and values are the common thread
which brings employer and employees on the same and common platform. It is beneficial for
them because it leads them towards achieving common goals (Quinlan and et.al., 2019.).
Securing the society: With the help of good ethics, the company tries to make a sense of
wrong and right in the company and society. When law fails, ethics helps the company to stop
from harming the environment and the society (Stephens and Shepard, 2015).
Credibility in the public: Business ethics of the company create credibility in the public
eye. As per study, when people think that the company is offering value for money and honest
company then they more likely to purchase products and services of the company. With the help
of this ethics, Apple does not require to spend huge sums of money on advertising in order to
convince the public about their products and services. It helps them in decreasing the cost of the
company (Davies, 2016).
Recommendation:
 For solving ethical issues at workplace and reducing these problems, the company should
take desirable actions. They should address all the problems which creates the barrier in
the growth of the company (Quinlan and et.al., 2019).
 It also recognises the capabilities of their staff members in order to deal with impacts of
ethical issues.
 It should follow all labour legislation which supports and prevent them from
discrimination and unwanted things and misbehave at workplace.
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CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that business ethics played a crucial role in
order to develop and growth of the company. It has mainly 2 types of theories like normative
theories and descriptive theories that helped the company by showing and teaching them the way
of treating with people and also suggested that how ethical decisions made in the business.
Ethical and unethical practices affect and impacted the company's stakeholder in positive manner
and in negative manner. The company had faced several ethical problems like privacy related
issues, product quality issues and sustainability issues and also showed their solution which
supported them in growing their business.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Barry, N., 2016. Business ethics. Springer.
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Chell, E. and et.al., 2016. Social entrepreneurship and business ethics: Does social equal
ethical?. Journal of business ethics. 133(4). pp.619-625.
Crane, A. and Matten, D., 2016. Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Davies, P.W., 2016. Current issues in business ethics. Routledge.
Hämäläinen, N., 2016. Descriptive Ethics: What Does Moral Philosophy Know about Morality?.
Springer.
Kagan, S., 2018. Normative ethics. Routledge.
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idea of dialogue. In Public relations theory (pp. 111-131). Routledge.
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responsibility in supply chains: The state of research in supply chain management and
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Quinlan, C. and et.al., 2019. Business research methods. South Western Cengage.
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Stephens, C.U. and Shepard, J.M., 2015. Normative/descriptive. Wiley Encyclopedia of
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Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A., 2016. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do
it right. John Wiley & Sons.
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Wang, L.C. and Calvano, L., 2015. Is business ethics education effective? An analysis of gender,
personal ethical perspectives, and moral judgment. Journal of Business Ethics. 126(4).
pp.591-602.
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