Management 4: Ethics, Apple Case Study, and Small Business Impact

This report delves into the critical role of ethics in business decision-making. It begins with a literature review exploring the importance of ethics in guiding business activities and ensuring responsible conduct. The report then presents a case study on Apple Inc., analyzing its ethical business decisions, including its supplier code of conduct and its commitment to integrity and innovation. The study highlights how ethical practices have contributed to Apple's success and brand reputation. Furthermore, the report examines the impact of ethical decisions in small businesses, discussing the challenges and dilemmas faced by small business owners and the importance of ethical practices for long-term sustainability and success. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of ethical considerations in achieving business goals and maintaining a positive reputation in the market.

Running Head: MANAGEMENT 0
Sustainability and ethics
Report
Student Details

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Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................1
Literature Review: Ethics for Business Decision...........................................................1
Apple Inc.: Ethical Business Decision...........................................................................2
Impact of Ethical Decision in Small Business...............................................................4
Conclusion......................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
This assignment helps in understanding the importance of ethics in the Business Decision.
The first part of this paper will cover the literature review on the articles related to the Ethics
role in Business Decision. In the second part, there is a critical analysis of the case study
named as “Apple Maintains Strong Ethical Roots”. At the end of the assignment, there are
literature reviews on the articles related to the impact of ethics in small businesses.
Literature Review: Ethics for Business Decision
Ethics are moral principles, which governs the behaviour of the person and lead the
organisation while conducting various activities (Psychology Today, 2019). The ethical
decision is the necessary process in the Business, as it helps in perceiving the important
business decision and eliminating the unethical decisions to achieve the goals in an efficient
and appropriate manner (De George, 2011). The Following Literature reviews will help the
reader in understanding the role of ethics in business decisions.
According to the article by Thomas Klikauer (2017), the examination of moral behaviour in
the organisation might be as older as a business. This paper contains the discussion, which
states that business morality is the part of the business, which helps in linking the
organisation with the moral philosophy. However, form the point of view of moral
philosophy, the business ethics idea is considered to have appeared rather unfamiliar. These
papers specify that there are so many business ethics which might appear as the
contradictory, sometimes it seems to be closer to the business rather than to moral principles.
As per the research in the paper, it has been observed that the Business ethics carried some
connotations to the term called as ideology, however, the danger in this zone is that the ethics

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might be exposed and lose its roots of moral philosophy. Hence, this question arises that
business ethics is an ideology”? In addition, to answer this question, this paper contains two
parts. The first part specifies that moral philosophy is separate from ideology. While the
second part specifies that businesses ethics is dependent on an ideology (Klikauer, 2017).
This paper concludes that the businesses ethics is leaned either on the ideology or on moral
philosophy. This article further recommends that future research can cover the theoretical
aspects of this research in their decision making the process in a wider sense.
According to the article by Karen Paul and other (2010), this paper states the study, which
denotes the impact of both the organisational and individuals ethics on international
decisions. The ethical intention is to engage the behaviour ethically, which is helpful as the
dependent variable as it is related to the behaviour, which includes the expression values and
influenced by the social and the organisational variables. The focus of the research paper is
on the ethical intentions in decision making of international businesses as the international
term provides a better understanding of taking the ethical decisions. This paper demonstrates
the result that whether it is individual ethics or organisational ethics both are influenced in a
positive manner. Additionally, after the research, it has also been observed that the younger
manager will be more influenced by organisational ethics as compared to the older manager.
As per the findings, creating the governance of the ethical decision helps in enhancing the
ethical congruence (Elango, et al., 2010). This article further recommends that by boosting
the manager likelihood towards the ethical choices in business decision-making, it can
increase the productivity of the Business.
Apple Inc.: Ethical Business Decision
The Headquarter of Apple is situated in Cupertino, California. This company history denotes
many successes throughout the preceding years. It has been observed that like many other

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leading firms, Apple Inc. has also faced many ethical challenges. Success can be seen in the
Apple form the boom in the stock prices as in 1997, the price of a share $3.30 while after 20
years which means in 2017, the price of a share $140. The company had secured the first
position in the world as the most admired company as per the well-known magazine named
as Fortune (Fortune, 2019). There are millions of customers, as the Apples believe in serving
the brand quality, innovation and prestige to maintain its brand image in the market (Apple,
2019). Although, many companies try to copy the business model of Apple none of the
company made them self as unique as the Apple brand name is. As per the Forbes magazine,
Apple secured the first position in innovation and considered as the market leader in terms of
development (Forbes , 2018). Additionally, they are also considered as the market leader in
terms of sales of the mobile device. Most of the people believe that the reason behind the
success of Apple is depending on several factors combination. It also includes the
commendable skills of leadership quality in the former CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs (Ferrell, et
al., 2019). It has been observed that Apple is known for its enthusiasm and innovation in its
corporate culture and this company is also known for serving the high technological product.
These combine qualities brings the revolution in the retail and technology industry (Ethical
Consumer, 2019).
All these positive changes in the organization are happened with the help of important and
appropriate decisions, in this decision the ethical decision of Apple plays an important role.
Apple maintains the appropriate code of conduct in the organisation and tries to ensure that
all the employees of the organisation follow the ethical decision taken in the organization
(Lawaspects.com , 2019). Its success is based on building the innovative, high quality of
products and services. In addition, this company demonstrate the integrity in its very
interactions in the business. As per the ethical concern of the company, the Apple has mainly
four principles, which contribute to the integrity of the company, which are confidential,

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respect, compliance and honesty (Morrison, 2009). These principles help in drafting the code
of conduct for business in Apple and these have been applied to all the operations of the
business including overseas. Moreover, it provides various policies regarding guidelines and
corporate governance. For the benefit of the employees and the organisation, Apple provides
the Business conduct helpline, which can be used to report any kind of misconduct happened
in the finance and audit committee of Apple.
The best example to explain the role of the ethical decision taken in Apple is the
establishment of the “Supplier code of conduct”. The manufacturing unit of the company’s
product is always situated in countries having lower labour costs. Here, the situations arise
that the labour cost differs as per the standards which cause misconduct in the organisation
and to improve this situation, Apple implements “Supplier Code of Conduct” (Anon., 2019).
Additionally, the company perform the audits for compliance assurance. In order to maintain
the ethical root of the organisation this company also release the Audit report in the annual
report to maintain the trust of stakeholders of the company. Thus, it can be said that the
ethical decision plays an important role in maintaining the successful position of Apple brand
in the international market which helps in boosting the reputation of the business.
Impact of Ethical Decision in Small Business
In the small businesses, it is a very common problem faced by the company that the conflicts
in between the business success and the ethical concerns can cause ethical dilemma. This can
influence the profits and legality of the business (Forbes , 2013). Therefore, it can be said that
it is more difficult for the owner to operate the small businesses, which might be unethical as
it leads to the loss of productivity in the business. The following literature review helps in
understanding the impact of ethical decision in small business. (Chron , 2019)

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According to the article by La Toya M. Russell (2018), the paper has shown the description
of the importance of ethics which helps in conducting the small business domestically and
internationally. There had been lots of research made which is related to the manager’s role in
the large and small firms, which states how they handle ethical issues. The owner of the
business encountered mostly the ethical issues in the case of small businesses. This research
paper is based on the discussion of some of the ethical issues in the small business and the
importance of the ethical decision taken at the time of these issues (Russell, 2018). This
article further recommends that ethical decisions in the small organization totally depend on
the entrepreneur of the business. However, the other factors are not considered in this article.
According to the article published by Reena Shyam (2015), this paper states that the
nowadays ethics in the business has been neglected due to the entrepreneur’s mindset and
they are more concerned for gaining the profits in the business. Although the business
objective is to gain profitability in the business along with the long duration survival.
However, it can only be possible with the help of following the ethical values in the
organisation. As per the research, the ethically-based organisation has been managed by
maintaining the higher standards of principles and in a small organisation, it is very important
to follow the business ethics to increase the productivity and to sustain in this competitive
market. The start-ups have to face the problem of limited resources and critical financial
conditions. Additionally, because of these conditions, the small enterprises might have to do
compromise with the moral principles and have to adopt the shortcuts such as they start
providing the customer inferior quality of products and services so that they can convert the
loss in the profits in the lesser duration of time. It had been observed that the main aim of this
research paper is to do proper and appropriate analysis on the impact of the ethics in the small
business while taking the important decisions by the management in the organisations. At the
end of the paper, there is the detailed recommendation, which suggests that the small

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businesses have to improve the ethical practices in the organisation, which helps in
contributing the greater credibility and helps in building up the reputation of the business by
creating the advantages in the competitive market for the small ventures (Shyam, 2018). This
article further recommends that ethical decisions in a small organization play an important
role in increasing the profits in the business. Moreover, it can be seen that ethical decisions
help in maintaining and boosting the reputation of the business in this hyper-competitive
market.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that ethics play an important role in taking
the business decision. The introduction part of this assignment helps in understanding what
research had been done to understand the concept of this assignment. The next part of this
assignment provides the literature review on the importance of ethics for the effective and
appropriate Business decision, which helps in increasing the productivity in the business.
There is also the critical analysis of the case study named as Apple maintains the strong
ethical roots. This case study suggests that the brand name of Apple has been maintained for
a longer duration because of following the proper and appropriate principles of ethics
mentioned in the “Code of Business Conduct”. Additionally, Apple Inc. has increased the
innovations and productivity in the business with the help of business ethics. The Last part of
the assignment covers the impact of the ethical decision taken in small enterprises. To explain
this concept the literature review of the articles had been done to understand the important
role of the ethics in the small Business.

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Bibliography
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Conduct-January.pdf
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Apple, 2019. Apple at Work. [Online]
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Chron, 2019. Work Ethic, Attitude and Productivity. [Online]
Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/work-ethics-attitude-productivity-10950.html
[Accessed 25 July 2019].
De George, R. T., 2011. Business ethics. 1 ed. Chennai: Pearson Education India.
Elango, B., Paul, K. & Kundu, S. K., 2010. Organizational Ethics, Individual Ethics, and
Ethical Intentions in International Decision-Making. Journal of Business Ethics, 97(4), pp.
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Mexico Singapore the United Kingdom United States Cengage, pp. 506-515.

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Forbes, 2013. How Small Business Owners Walk the Ethical Line. [Online]
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[Accessed 25 July 2019].

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