20501210
PHIL215
ASSIGNMENT 2
November 26, 2014
1900 words
Apple and Corporate Social Responsibility
As an evolving technology company, Apple is one of the most successful companies in history. In today’s society, we cannot live without Apple products such as the Pad or IPhone. Apple 's success has come at a high cost with regards to safety to the workers of Foxconn, a supplier which makes products for Apple and plenty of other tech giants. As a result, some workers have committed suicide and many riots and fights have broken out.
The main moral issue in this case study is whether Apple is responsible for the mis-treatment of Foxconn Employees. In this paper, I will use the moral theories of rights-based ethics, moral relativism, and moral universalism as well ethical views from well-known authors Jacobsen and Friedman to explore where Apple 's moral responsibilities should lie. There is no doubt that the conditions at Foxconn are unfortunate, and ought to be improved; however in my opinion I believe Apple is not morally responsible for the mistreatment of Foxconn Employees since Friedman and Jacobsen argue the social responsibility of Apple should not include charitable actives such as supporting Foxconn employees and since what is right or wrong varies between different cultures according to the principle of moral relativism.
For a long time now, there has been much debate over the social responsibility of a business. Friedman is one of the most influential
Milton Friedman’s shareholder theory of management says that the purpose of a business is to make money for the owner or the stockholders of the business. Friedman says that there is only one social responsibility for the business: to use its resources in order to increase
First thing let us start with a little overview of what Milton Friedman exposed in his article. It seems that the whole point of his essay revolves around one basic statement which clearly says that the only social responsibility of business is to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long it stays within the rules of the game (Milton Friedman, the social responsibility of business is to increase profit).
What Friedman implies is that shareholders should only be concerned with maximizing profits and not be obligated to be “socially responsible.” In that case, the manager would only have one priority, to maximize profits. However, what if that manager determined that social endeavors is the best option to maximize profits? This would make the corporation socially responsible while still maintaining maximum profits. The argument presented by Friedman in this case is that while the manager is performing as expected by maximizing profits, this type of “social responsibility is frequently a cloak for actions that are justified on other grounds rather than a reason for those actions.”
Subsequently, Denning may have misinterpreted Friedman’s main argument. The actual title of Friedman's article is "The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits". Denning hastily substituted the word "sole" for "social" and misinterpreted Friedman’s argument to be that that the sole purpose of the firm is to make money for shareholders. This is not true. The main issue Friedman was tackling was the social responsibility of business; the responsibility that it has to the society. In fact, the word “sole” was not mentioned even once in the
How does Milton Friedman present the common understanding of socially responsible acts on the part of business?
The more powerful case against social responsibility was begun by the late Milton Friedman (1962). And his argument was. The management have one responsibility, and it’s to maximize the profit of its shareholders. And he said the social problems are government responsibility, and business is not equipped to solve social problems.
Apple the pursuit of perfect, it also led to the growth of its ups and downs. Jobs not willing to give up work and control anything, especially when it may affect the customer experience. But he was faced with a problem. There is a part of the process he does not control: in a store to
First, with the many organizations targeting to take the position of apple in the market it has been a base to strategies market strategies for the different competitors. The marketing strategies are crucial for the improvement of the market performance and the competitors maximize on the disadvantages of Apple it is face with high market competition (Gary, 2014). On the issue of poor working condition, high employee turnover has emerged, which is risky for the performance of the company. Taking political side has also had great impact on the performance of the organization for those of a different political opinion may change their preference for the Apple’s products.
Friedman, M. (1970, September 13). The social responsibility of business is to enhance its profits. The New York Times Magazine.
Friedman’s second argument follows a similar idea, but with another reason why the businessman’s ideas of social responsibility aren’t to be fulfilled through the business. If the agent of a business would spend money to further his supposed social responsibilities, he is using something that is not his to spend as he sees fit. Any money earned by increasing the price to consumers, decreasing the wages of the workers, or withheld from the stockholders belongs to the business and has been taken from these parties to be used in ways that they could have used it on their own. If the agent uses the money in
Big companies such as Apple Inc. focuses on ethical principles. They have a code of conduct that applies to their four main principles. Also, they have guidelines and codes of conduct that applies to all of their operations even their overseas operations. Even though Apple has different guidelines for their company and manufacturers to follow, doesn’t mean that they’re always going to be followed to the letter. Because of that many different issue has arose and occurred in America as well as in other countries that were associated with Apple Inc.
Therefore when Friedman mentions the role of a corporate executive, it doesn’t make sense for an individual working towards improving the business to care about social responsibilities if it isn’t a desire of his employer (Friedman, 1970). A corporate executive should only worry about social responsibility in his personal life not when the corporations stakeholders and employers money is at stake (Friedman, 1970). When a corporate executive acts voluntarily, he is “acting as a principle, not an agent; he is spending his money or time or energy…” (Friedman, 1970,
most visible and wealthiest part of the supply chain, it carries the biggest responsibility. In this way, I oppose Friedmansʼ view that the only social responsibility a
Title: Apple Inc., and their success with Sustainability, Ethics, Leadership, Corporate Social Responsibility and Triple Bottom Line reporting and Globalization.
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician and writer, who had a massive impact on the research agenda of the economics profession. His famous words “the only responsibility of business is to increase its profits” (Friedman, Milton. 1970) led to many controversial debates on whether businesses should have ethics or if profit should be their main goal. Corporate social responsibility has many definitions, as its interpretation is quite loose, so I have chosen one that relates the most to this essay, given by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, in 2000: “Corporate social