Case Study: Business Ethics Analysis of Apple's Corporate Practices

This case study examines the business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) of Apple Inc. It begins with an overview of Apple's operations and products, followed by an exploration of its CSR policies, including environmental practices, philanthropic services, business ethics, and economic responsibilities. The study highlights conflicts related to transparency in supplier sustainability policies and the lack of effective monitoring of labor and human rights in overseas supplier units. A significant portion of the analysis focuses on labor and human rights issues, particularly the suicides at Foxconn, a major Apple supplier, and the exploitative working conditions. The case study also addresses health and safety concerns, such as worker deaths and injuries due to explosions and chemical exposure. The study concludes with recommendations for Apple to improve its ethical practices, including enhancing transparency, establishing effective monitoring committees, and ensuring proper regulation of suppliers. References to relevant literature are included.

BUSINESS ETHICS
A case study of Apple

Apple as a firm
Corporate Social Responsibility
Conflicts of Apple
Analysis of Problem (Labor and Human
Rights)
Analysis of Problem (Health and Safety
of Workers)
Recommendations and Suggestions
Contents

Apple as a firm
• Apple Inc was first established in the
year 1977.
• World leader in producing
innovative electronic goods and
technology with total sales at
$108.2 in the year 2011.
• Employs a total of 60,400
employees (full time) and 2900
employees (temporary)
• Most factories and production units
of the firm are located in Asia and
various other parts of the world.
• The products of Apple Inc. are sold
through Apple stores, other retail
stores and other third party stores.
• The firm is solely responsible for
manufacturing, designing and marketing
varieties of products.
• It is one of the largest
technology firms operating
currently globally.
• The firm was founded by Steve
Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald
Wayne in April 1976

Corporate Social
Responsibility
• In the context of
Supplier
Responsibility, the
firm takes measures
to ensure that there
is complete
elimination of child
labor (Schwartz
2017).
• In the context of
Environmental
impacts, the firm
tries to manufacture
goods that have
reduced
environmental
impacts.
• The suppliers of the
firm need to adhere to
the supplier codes
prescribed by Apple Inc.
• Corporate Social
Responsibility is a type of
regulatory process followed
by private businesses to
make the business more
sustainable in the long run.
• Like other firms Apple
Inc. also follows a set
of CSR policies which
are effective and
valuable.
•The basic types of
Corporate Social
Responsibility include
environmental
practices, philanthropic
services, business
ethics and economic
responsibilities.

Conflicts of Apple
• The major problem with the firm is the lack of enough transparency in the
Supplier Sustainability Policy deemed to be followed for all supplying units
across the world (Gomez 2014).
• The firm should have effectively constructed a new committee
consisting of managers and Board of Directors so that the Corporate
Social Responsibility pertaining to the labor and human rights of the
suppliers located in other countries could have been efficiently
monitored.
• The firm should also have taken up steps to ensure proper
regulation, hiring and training of employees in the supplying units so
that there is effective communication and the process followed is
uniform across the various production units world wide.

The most common conflict that occurred in this aspect was the
suicide
of workers at Foxconn (Chan and Selden 2017).
Foxconn is the manufacturer of iPads and iPhones employing
over 900,000 employees among whom 420,000 work at the Foxconn
Shenzhen Plant.
Analysis of Problem (Labor and
Human Rights)
The total infrastructure of the plant consisted of 15 factories,
dormitories, a hospital, a bank, restaurants and grocery stores.
Foxconn is the largest electronics manufacturer of the world
with clients including Dell and Sony. This firm was responsible
for a very big part of the scandal that occurred at Apple Inc.

Reason for the suicides was reported to be discrepancies in
the internal management
The style of management followed by the firm was that of a
military nature
Workers were not allowed to interact with each other
Workers who did not follow the rules strictly were penalize
vehemently.
Analysis of Problem (Labor and
Human Rights)
The average working hours were higher than the normal
average (about 70 hours which is 10 hours higher than Apple’s
Supplier Code.
The problem in this case lies completely in the structural context
of Corporate Social Responsibility.
The notions of diversity and equal opportunities were not followed
by the firm.

May 2010 witnessed the death of 2
employees and injury of 16 employees
on account of an explosion
In the same year another supplying firm
of Apple Inc., Wintek, reported the
poisoning of employees with a chemical
used for cleaning the touch screens of
iPhones.
Analysis of Problem (Health and
Safety of Workers)
The compensation provided for these employees was insufficient and
the ones who received the compensation were asked to resign.

The steps taken by Apple Inc. after this so that the suppliers
comply to the codes prescribed in the Supplier Responsibility
Report 2010 were only to include a paragraph about the
suicides in the report and to investigate and prevent hiring of
underage workers with training. (Lefkowitz and Lowman 2017).
Recommendations and
Suggestions

 Chan, J. and Selden, M., 2017. Apple and Foxconn in the
Trump Era. China’s world, Nov. 2017, v. 2, no. 2, p. 118-122.
 Gomez, J., 2014. Developing Effective Transparency: A Case
Study on Voluntary Disclosure and Social Responsibility at
Apple Inc. Hastings Int'l & Comp. L. Rev., 37, p.323.
 Lefkowitz, J. and Lowman, R.L., 2017. Ethics of employee
selection. In Handbook of employee selection (pp. 575-598).
Routledge.
 Mone, E.M. and London, M., 2018. Employee engagement
through effective performance management: A practical
guide for managers. Routledge.
 Schwartz, M.S., 2017. Corporate social responsibility.
Routledge.
References