MGW3401 - Apple's Competitive Strategy and Social Responsibility

This essay analyzes Apple Inc.'s corporate social responsibility, focusing on employee wellbeing and how it aligns with the company's competitive strategies. It highlights the importance of CSR in building trust, creating awareness, and improving society's perception of the organization. Apple's competitive strategy, centered on product popularity and technological innovation, is supported by its commitment to employee wellbeing through education, development programs, health benefits, and fair labor practices. The essay argues that Apple's CSR efforts, particularly those focused on employee wellbeing, contribute to a more engaged, productive workforce and offer a competitive advantage by attracting and retaining talent, enhancing business reputation, and fostering innovation. The analysis concludes that CSR is integral to Apple's success, aligning social responsibility with competitive goals.

Running head: MATCHING COMPETITIVE STRATEGY WITH SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
MATCHING COMPETITIVE STRATEGY WITH SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
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Author Note

1MATCHING COMPETITIVE STRATEGY WITH SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Introduction
Stakeholders can be described as an essential part of an organization. Any organization
whether it is a manufacturing organization or a service organization needs to adhere to the needs
of its stakeholders and to ensure that the organization is abiding by various responsibilities that
the organization has with respect to the stakeholders. These stakeholders range from various
customers, employees, suppliers to the public at large (Schwartz, 2017). The primary aim of the
given essay is to throw light on one such company, Apple Inc. and its corporate social
responsibility of looking after the employees of the organization. The given essay will analyze
how the Apple matches its competitive strategies with its social mission.
About the organization
Apple Inc is an American company headquartered in California. The company is
established in selling computer software, consumer electronics and online services. The products
of the given company include iPhone, Ipad, Mac electronics, iPod and the smart watch
(Apple.com, 2018). The company has been stated to be one of the best companies around the
globe with a high revenue base.
About the social issue
The social issue being discussed in the given essay is the one related to Employee
Wellbeing. Companies need to follow a strategic approach to health and wellbeing of the
employees in order to build a sustainable workforce. According to Tai and Chuang (2014),
around 72% of workers fall in sick and suffer from contagious illness because of ill treatment at
the corporations.

2MATCHING COMPETITIVE STRATEGY WITH SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
The impact of this high turnover is taking a toll on the companies and hence, it lies to social as
well as the corporate duty of the firm to ensure that the employees are being treated well and the
organization works towards their well being.
Importance of CSR
Given below are certain reasons, why the CSR activities form an essential part of the
business enterprise:
To gain trust from society- Engaging in corporate social responsibilities go a long way in
helping the firm to engage into a trustworthy relationship with the society (Cheng, Ioannou &
Serafeim, 2014).When a society realizes that the organization has been doing well for them then
they will go a long way in supporting the firm.
To create awareness to the society- It lays the duty of the various companies to help them in
understanding the various environmental and economic concerns which require awareness.
To show effort of an organization to improve society in the some ways-The perception of the
organization often remains as a profit making machine, however, it is important for the firm to
show to the general public that the organization cares about the well being of the people and
wants to take further initiative for their betterment.
To build support- Engaging in corporate social responsibility activities goes a long way in
helping the general public to view the company from a new perspective and support them in their
requirements. According to Crane, Matten and Spence (2013), the sales of the companies
increase if they engage in good corporate social responsibility activities

3MATCHING COMPETITIVE STRATEGY WITH SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
As part of the organization policy and regulation- Corporate social responsibilities have
become an important part of life necessary to include in their policies and regulations.
Government intention- Governments tend to provide incentives to the company who engage in
corporate social responsibility activities and have made it compulsory for companies with a high
turnover (Servaes & Tamayo, 2013).
Engagement in corporate social responsibility also goes a long way in improving the
financial position of the firm as it ensures that the share price and others remain high, this
provides extra benefit to the stakeholders in return itself.
How Apple could match competitive strategy with social missions
The competitive strategy of Apple lies in making its products extremely popular and
selling the best products in the market (Hill Charles, Jones Gareth & Schilling Melissa, 2015).
The company needs to make sure that it’s a leading brand in the market with the best phone
designs and application of the latest technology. However, Apple has a well defined social
responsibility and it utilized that in the well being of the employees.
Apple realizes that it has a well defined competitive strategy all because of its employee
base. The employees at apple work very hard in order to ensure that Apple comes up with the
best structure and the best design of all the given phones in the market. For this purpose, Apple
has made a well defined social missions that go along its competitive strategy and help the given
firm to ensure that the employee well being is supported at its best.
According to Bhattacharya et al. (2017), Apple has a well defined set of plans for its
workers and it takes all necessary steps in order to ensure that it is able to educate and empower

4MATCHING COMPETITIVE STRATEGY WITH SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
its workers. The company offers education and development programs, to more than 2, 80,000
workers in different courses during the year 2016. The company engages in various employee
healthy benefit programs.
The company also supports Labor and Human Rights by have a pre-defined set of
working hours which the company has to abide by which is restricted to 60 hours in a week.
Apple has invested in various workers and their working conditions in order to ensure that the
employees are being treated well in the organization.
As per Grayson and Hodges (2017), Apple is deeply concerned about the well being of its
employees and for this purpose it has launched a program which has the duration of 18 months in
order to see that all the workers working in the firm need to have the capability to identify and
fight against the ergonomic risks.
The company has various gender equality plans as well with the help of which it sees to it
that the given organization performs well and there exists, equality in the workplace and the
minorities are also protected at work.
Employees are stated to be the lifeblood of the organization and it is the employees who
tend to work for the welfare of the firm. If the employees work for the welfare of the
organization and if the employees are happy, engaged and healthy they can contribute towards
the welfare of the organization. Hence, the employee welfare and well being needs to be
addressed and invested broadly in so as to form a bigger CSR programs (Clapp & Rowlands,
2014). Apple broadly believes that the employees need to be the largest recipient of the CSR
Activities of the organization.

5MATCHING COMPETITIVE STRATEGY WITH SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
According to Takkar (2015), already Apple has various programs for its employees, it
needs to realize that the employee well being should be the primary pillar of the company`s CSR
Activities and wellbeing needs to firmly put under the CSR Basket.
The benefits of the employee well being programs are many and according to the World
Economic Forum estimates, the well being social responsibilities towards the employees can
save around $700 per employee in a year. Furthermore, it also tends to increase the happiness
and productivity within an organization (Pedersen, 2015). The positive results of the CSR
Activities are that it leads to reduced Absenteeism, Staff turnover and productivity and greater
satisfaction. Furthermore, as Employees tend to form the most important stakeholder of the
organization and hence, it is the duty of the firm to offer a well being to the employees.
According to Mousavi et al., (2013), Apple should increase its Corporate Social
Responsibility efforts towards the employees and make sure that they are able to match their
competitive strategies that is being the leading phone company with its well being plans for the
employees (Porter & Kramer, 2006) .It can take out various strategies which help the company to
take better care of its employees to ensure that it remains the global lead in terms of employee
satisfaction as well.
CSR can be a source of opportunity, innovation and competitive advantage regardless of
economic concerns
Although engaging in the Corporate Social Responsibilities is considered to be a costly
affair, the engagement proves to be a source of opportunity, innovation and competitive
advantage for the firm in the following manner:

6MATCHING COMPETITIVE STRATEGY WITH SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Greater ability to attract talent and retain talent serves as a competitive advantage- With a
better Corporate Social Responsibilities program for the employees, the firm gets the attraction
of various talents around the globe. Hence, it will be easier for the firm to gain competitive
advantage in cases where it is a storehouse of talent.
Positive business reputation increases the opportunities for the business-As the companies who
have their social missions and responsibilities extremely clear and well defined, tend to gain the
praise of the government and various companies all around the globe (Dudovskiy, 2018). For
this reason, various other companies want to collaborate with the firm and ensure that they
prosper along with the firm.
Better funding responsibilities help to seek innovation in the operations-Generally, firms which
have a better corporate social responsibility for their employees and the general public tend to
seek funds which are better for the innovation aspects of the firm.
Conclusion
Therefore, from the given analysis it could be analyzed that corporate social
responsibility forms an essential aspect of any firm`s activities. The given essay examines the
social mission and corporate social responsibility of Apple and its activities with reference to
employee well being. The company has taken several steps to ensure that the activities of the
firm are taken always keeping in mind the welfare of its employees, which it takes as seriously as
its competitive strategies

7MATCHING COMPETITIVE STRATEGY WITH SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
References
Apple.com (2018). Apple. Retrieved from https://www.apple.com/
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Cheng, B., Ioannou, I., & Serafeim, G. (2014). Corporate social responsibility and access to
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Clapp, J., & Rowlands, I. H. (2014). Corporate social responsibility. The Essential Guide to
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Crane, A., Matten, D., & Spence, L. (2013). Corporate social responsibility in a global context.
Dudovskiy, J. (2018). Apple Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Research-methodology.net.
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Grayson, D., & Hodges, A. (2017). Corporate social opportunity!: Seven steps to make
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Pedersen, E. R. G. (Ed.). (2015). Corporate social responsibility. Sage.

8MATCHING COMPETITIVE STRATEGY WITH SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Porter & Kramer (2006) Strategy and Society: The Link between Competitive Advantage and
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Schwartz, M. S. (2017). Corporate social responsibility. Routledge.
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