Business Ethics
Q1 Answer: Apple Company Overview
Apple Inc. is an American technology company based in California, which operates both in U.S. and internationally. It develops and offers consumer electronics, hardware, online services and computer software. The company stands to be the largest in the information technology industry in the world as per assets and revenues. In the phone manufacturing, Apple Company stands second in the world after Samsung Company. Innovation and quality service are the two most important features that have helped the company to stand proudly in the market.
Apple Inc. has four important stakeholders that play a great role towards enhancing their success of the company. These stakeholders include the investors, Apple employees, consumers, and suppliers and distributors employees. Apple is committed to ensuring quality service for its consumers. The consumers’ main interest from the company is to receive quality products at affordable prices. Although the price of its products remains high, its quality matches the price thus encouraging consumers to remain loyal to the company
Secondly, the company takes its employees as the second priority in its corporate social responsibility. The commitment of the company towards these stakeholders is to ensure fair compensation and promote career development. The employees of Apple Company play a role in promoting innovation and enhancing productivity.
Furthermore, the investors are other major stakeholders of Apple Company that determine the responsibility of the company. Their major interest is to ensure that the company maximizes wealth on their funds invested in the company. Today the company stands to be one of the most profitable and has an outstanding financial position. These two factors imply that the company offers high returns for its investors.
Finally, suppliers and distributors’ employees mark the company’s fourth important stakeholders of Apple Company. Although they are not directly linked the organization’s operations, they play a great role in promoting corporate social responsibility for Apple Inc. The interest of these employees from the company is proper remuneration and job security. Besides, they are also interested in the employment practices portrayed by their employers.
Q2 Answer: Ethical Practices in Apple Company
Severally, Apple Company has been subject to unethical conduct in its operations. Firstly, the company has behaved unethically in hiring employees in its supply chain. The company identified a problem in its supply chain which involves recruiters charging their employees to avail problems for them. Besides, some of its products were found to have violated human rights, environmental and health and safety provisions. An outstanding example of this issue was in China where one of its suppliers was involved having iPhone and iPad parts with the mentioned violations. Despite a warning of the same, the company has failed to improve such status.
Furthermore, the company has also being charged for its unethical issue when it comes to child labor. Apple Company acted unethically for violating workers’ rights by using children as laborers in mining cobalt in DR Congo. The cobalt is a key material in making batteries that are used in the company’s electronic devices. It is worth noting that the use of children as workers breaches the children act hence amounts to unethical conduct. All the above-mentioned behavior have seen the company suffer much due to fines and penalties arising from the lawsuit filed against the company (Hawthorne n.p).
Q3 Answer Successful life and good life
A successful life and the good life have no much difference, but one promotes the development of another. Successful life means achieving the planned goals and objectives for oneself. However, good life refers to that life that one wishes to live. The main fruit of good life is that presented by high living standards. The difference between successful life and good life is that one can promote good life by being successful. One plans to various goals to pursue in his or her life. He or she focuses on to ensure that success. The attainment of the plans by somebody is the success. The success brings joy and happiness to the person leading to improved standards of living which marks a comfortable life. The comfortable enjoyed by a person is what can be said to be his or her good life. This explanation means that both successful and good lives are interdependent.
Q4 Answer
Adam Smith reveals the ill motive in which people have towards ensuring fairness and justice to the others, although many have the sense of ensuring and receiving fairness and justice such actions are difficult to play a course. His arguments in this part are similar to the arguments provided in the last chapter about capitalism. It is true that people have a feeling that fairness and justice is a good thing, but they do not work towards that area. The same issue is evident in the last chapter which argues that people strive to enhance wealth and improve the standards of living. However, it still opens doors for more wealthiest to those who are wealthy and poorest to those who are poor. It is a status quo that has failed to address the issue of fairness and justice as well as wealth inequality in the world today (Rossouw and Leon 213).
Works Cited
Hawthorne, Fran. “Apple’s Appalling Ethics.” Huffington post.” May 7. 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/fran-hawthorne/apples-appalling-ethics_b_1651264.html
Rossouw, Deon, and Leon Van Vuuren. Business Ethics. Cape Town, Republic of South Africa: Oxford UP, 2010. Print.
