Business Ethics and Ethical Leadership in the Apple Company

This report analyzes business ethics and ethical leadership within the context of the Apple company. Part A examines Apple's hiring practices and ethical values, discussing the company's approach to employee motivation and innovation, and the implications of its focus on experienced candidates. Part B delves into ethical leadership, defining its core concepts and benefits for organizations and employees. The report highlights the importance of ethical leaders in fostering trust, fairness, and employee well-being, referencing utilitarianism as a key ethical framework. The analysis uses the Apple case study to illustrate how ethical leadership can improve productivity, revenue, and overall organizational success, suggesting practical steps leaders can take to prioritize employee welfare and promote ethical behavior. The report concludes by emphasizing the positive impact of ethical leadership on both employees and the company's financial performance.

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS
Business Ethics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Part A.........................................................................................................................................1
Answer 1................................................................................................................................1
Answer 2................................................................................................................................1
Answer 3................................................................................................................................1
Part B..........................................................................................................................................2
Answer 1................................................................................................................................2
Answer 2................................................................................................................................3
References..................................................................................................................................4

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Part A
Answer 1
It is seen from the video that Apple usually hires people with different ideas and the
dream of being something big. It maintains a professional environment and likes to get
employees with some uniqueness. However, the company should wish to hire people that are
at the verge to start a career and has no idea of any uniqueness or a pace to reach in future.
The company should try to give the beginners a new aim in life instead of just hiring people
that have already some specific goals in life.
Answer 2
It is evitable from the video that Apple maintains strong ethical values in their
organization by keeping happiness of the employees as their main motives. They always
maintain a good culture in which every employee of the organization is respected and given a
chance to present something. This shows that Apple maintains a Utilitarianism ethical theory
in which happiness is put in the central and happiness for the greatest number of people
(Hayry 2013). This helps Apple to operate in a team in which everyone works for the
happiness of each other. The company also offers the employees to work for something
meaningful and different from other others.
Answer 3
Apple focuses at pushing the envelope as much as possible in which they advice the
employees to work and innovate as much as possible. According to them, there is no end to
innovation and growth. On the other hand, the company also has the motive of thinking out of
the box. According to them, there is nothing inside the box. Both the motive of Apple
exhibits low ethical behavior of the company because due to this the company tries to hire

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candidates having some great ideas or has achieved something big in life. This lowers the
chances of people that want to start from the scratch and wants to learn something new
(Cianci et al. 2014).
Part B
Answer 1
Ethical leader is the one that are assisted by ethics and value to take actions in the
organization according to everyone’s interest. Some of the concepts related to ethical leader
are honesty, fairness, consideration and others. Ethical leader takes care of his employees and
work accordingly for the happiness of everyone. To ensure that the leader is working
ethically it is necessary to ensure they treat their team members, customers and other with
trust and dignity. In the given scenario, the organization has lack of ethics in their
environment, as they do not work according to the interest of their employees. Moreover, the
employees are not respected and treated well. They are made to work for longer hours and
paid less wages. Thus to incorporate ethical leader in this scenario it is necessary that the
leaders maintain a good relationship with the employees (Letwin et al. 2016). The leader
should take actions for the benefits of the business by not compromising the happiness of the
employees. The first step that the leader can practically used is increasing profit by
employing new machines and equipments to increase productivity rather than forcing the
employees to work for longer hours. Instead of cutting down the cost, the company should
focus at employing modern machines at competitive cost and try to increase productivity to
earn higher revenue (Bonner et al. 2016). This will allow the leader to use utilitarian
approach of ethical behavior in which it should work for the happiness of everyone and
ensure that happiness is reached to maximum number of people along with increasing profit
for the organization.

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Answer 2
Behaving like an ethical leader had a lot of benefits both to the organization as well as
to the employees. the common benefit of being an ethical leader are reduces the liability of
the business, helps the employees to take decision according to the motive of the business,
offer good quality customers service and reduces errors. In the given scenario, it is seen that
an ethic leader can benefit the organization in many ways. For instance if the leader acts
according to the interest of the employees such as not cutting their wage or paying extra
wages for extra hours worked the employees will be motivated to work more and give their
best (Shin et al. 2015). This will help the company to increase their productivity than before
by same number of labors working for it number of hours. Increased production means
increased revenue and profit. Further the leader can also employee modern machinery within
the organization and expect an increase in its productivity and revenue. This shows that
cutting down cost is not the only way to increase profit in the organization. Profits can also
increase by being ethical and offering added benefits and motivation to employees to work
hard. Thus shows an ethical leader working for the happiness of his employees will always
benefit them as well as the company. This shows that being ethical will not have a positive
effect on the employees and on the organization as well due to increased productivity and
revenue (Sharif and Scandura 2014). Thus, ethical leader requires an alternative step that the
organization took for increasing profit.

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References
Bonner, J.M., Greenbaum, R.L. and Mayer, D.M., 2016. My boss is morally disengaged: The
role of ethical leadership in explaining the interactive effect of supervisor and employee
moral disengagement on employee behaviors. Journal of Business Ethics, 137(4), pp.731-
742.
Cianci, A.M., Hannah, S.T., Roberts, R.P. and Tsakumis, G.T., 2014. The effects of authentic
leadership on followers' ethical decision-making in the face of temptation: An experimental
study. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(3), pp.581-594.
Hayry, M., 2013. Liberal utilitarianism and applied ethics. Routledge.
Letwin, C., Wo, D., Folger, R., Rice, D., Taylor, R., Richard, B. and Taylor, S., 2016. The
“right” and the “good” in ethical leadership: Implications for supervisors’ performance and
promotability evaluations. Journal of Business Ethics, 137(4), pp.743-755.
Sharif, M.M. and Scandura, T.A., 2014. Do perceptions of ethical conduct matter during
organizational change? Ethical leadership and employee involvement. Journal of Business
Ethics, 124(2), pp.185-196.
Shin, Y., Sung, S.Y., Choi, J.N. and Kim, M.S., 2015. Top management ethical leadership
and firm performance: Mediating role of ethical and procedural justice climate. Journal of
Business Ethics, 129(1), pp.43-57.