Apple Inc. Ethical Issues

Confidentiality. Protect the confidentiality of Apple’s information and the information of our customers, suppliers, and employees.

Apple is one of the most valuable brands in the world. The company has strong brand loyalty, impressive revenue growth and superior innovations in technology. There are many aspects of the company that contribute to Apples success. One of the most important aspects is the company’s ethical decision making. Apple has a strong ethical code of conduct that represents the company as being ethical in all decisions being made. Despite Apples positive representation, the company has been faced with many ethical issues. Apple has been involved in many litigations ranging from a domain name dispute and patent infringement, to the use of refurbished products in their repairs. These unethical acts are risky for the company and can affect the company in negative ways. Another aspect that can affect the company is their competitiveness in the technology industry. This industry has many competitors that Apple has to compete with. However, Apple has been overly aggressive in protecting their property rights.

Ethics and Morality are defined as the distinction of right and wrong. On the other hand morals are also largely based on the social values of “good and bad.” However, people tend to define them as the standards and customs that guide the way of life towards good. In most cases of ethics and morality they are referring to acts of both good and bad deeds. Nonetheless, in a recent case with the FBI vs. the Government against Apple Inc. Company arose one of the key moral issues in the business world. Apple refused to offer a backdoor to one of the iPhones considered to be of the terrorists. The ethical issue involved two genuine values; privacy and security.

Use the Internet to research the Apple Corporation, its current position and reputation regarding ethical and social responsibility, and the strategies that it currently employs to market its products.

Apple can face some contractual issues which may contribute to the problems they are currently facing. The first issue is that tech companies should not be required to have an entry way into their products. How can a customer trust a company that does not have their privacy as part of their contract? Customers value their privacy to the utmost fullest. Apple believes that this will weaken the security of their computer systems and consumer’s privacy protection. Next, if you are a company that is viewed as being too vocal, it can jeopardize government sales as well as relationships with law enforcement. Apple has noticed that many companies often comply with the request, but that feels this again is a violation of their rights as a company and the millions of customers they cover as a company. Will they ever be trusted? Will they continue to have the same customers or lose to their competitors? Apple also makes a lot of their money through advertising. Everyone wants to have the next and the new iPhone, but if Apple has a bad

* Apple’s niche audience provides the company with some lagging from the direct price competition.

Ethics are values and principles that individuals use to govern his decisions and activities. Ethics are about moral judgment of an individual about right and wrong. In an organization, code of ethics refers to set of guiding principles and organizations use these principles in their policies, programs, and decisions for business. Within organizations, decisions are taken by groups or individuals and these decisions are influenced by the culture of the company. Decision making and relevance of ethics may also differ for nonprofit and for profit organizations. In contemporary business environment, organizations must have a clear ethical policy and implement it in proper manner. There are many social, legal and economic outcomes that company has to face in case of any ethical dilemma, so there must be a smart strategy to deal with ethical dilemmas. In this paper, we will address the ethics for nonprofit and profits organizations, ethical dilemmas being faced or faced by each of these companies and the outcomes of these ethical dilemmas. Critique of actions of each of these companies will be provided from the point of view of applicable philosophical theories of organizational ethics.

(Panza & Potthast, n.d.) Ethics is very important to a company’s success. Ethical behavior can bring benefits to a business. They can attract customers, which can lead to a boost in sales and profits. It can attract the right employees and increase productivity. It can also attract investors and keep the company’s share price high. Unethical behavior on the other hand can damage a company’s reputation and make it less appealing to stakeholders. It could also result in lower profits.

Title: Apple Inc., and their success with Sustainability, Ethics, Leadership, Corporate Social Responsibility and Triple Bottom Line reporting and Globalization.

Apple Incorporated was founded in April of 1976 by Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. The founders of the corporation were college dropouts that worked together to build computer boxes which were sold without keyboards and power supplies. Apple Incorporated is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and online services understands that without their stakeholders The purpose of this paper is to specify the nature, structure, and types of products or services offer. This paper will look into the factors that influence Apple’s external environment. This paper will also explore Apple’s stakeholder influence and its controversial corporate social responsibility. (Apple Computer, Inc. - Company Profile, Information, Business Description, History, Background Information on Apple Computer, Inc.)

The international business environment can be defined as the environment in different sovereign countries, with factors exogenous to the home environment of the organization, influencing decision-making on resource use and capabilities (Morrison, 2011). Global business environment can created challenges for companies that are found to be linked to unethical business practices. This paper discusses the code of ethical conduct of Apple Inc. and issues faced by the company on a whole when it comes to ethical behavior. Apple is a manufacturing, distributing and selling company. They sell a computer software and technology to stores all over the world. Apple is one of the world’s largest manufacturers and distributors of technology and they operate in around 10 countries.

Companies such as Apple, Dell, HP, IBM, and Sony outsource labor and hardware manufacturing to a company called Foxconn Technology Group. Foxconn Technology Group is a multinational business anchored in Shenzhen, China. Some of the typical hardware being manufactured are, motherboards, chipsets, smartphones, tablets, and laptops. The majority of the factories are in China, three in Europe, one in India, and four in Mexico. Currently there are contracts to expand and build a new factory in Brazil. I believe that there are many ethical problems related to this example; first, the general idea of outsourcing mass amounts of labor, and secondly the mistreatment of

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.

Despite its global recognition and status, Apple Inc. has come under scrutiny in recent years. Criticism concerning Apple’s unethical labour conditions (causing both physical and emotional distress to employees) on a considerable number of occasions has led to this. Unethical labour conditions has not been an isolated incident, rather a disapprovingly common occurrence for such a well-regarded global brand.

Business ethics, social, and environmental guidelines frame the expectations of an organization's stakeholders including customers, employees, and regulatory bodies. An organization's ethical guidelines encompass how the organization and its employees embody ethical principles in their dealings, with each other, and other stakeholders. Therefore, Ferrell, Fraedrich, and Farrell (2008) have defined Business ethics as "The principles and standards that guide behavior in the world of business" (p.6). In many situations, individuals must incorporate their personal ethics to match those of the organization's ethical culture. For this reason, business ethics theory indicates that an organization's ethics are evident in its organizational mission and vision (Hummels & Timmer, 2004). This is because the mission and vision determine organizational structure and culture, and thereby organizational and individual behavior.