Business Ethics: Apple Inc. (Essay Sample)

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APPLE INC
Through all the years, Apple Inc. has been involved in business it has tried to ensure that all its employees and other business associates adhere to certain ethical issues in the society. Basing on the economic or individualism theory, apple has maintained fair transactions and quality products. In addition to integrity, the company has managed success in many of its transactions without violating ethical issues. Through this theory, the company tries to make sure that its stakeholders and shareholders are happy (Mellahi and Geoffrey 12). Through the stockholder theory in its business ethics, Apple Company has related its activities on four main principles to its operations, which are integrity, respect, honesty and confidentiality. The company has its business code of conduct supplied to all its associates and employees. The company has also a dedicated business conduct helpline that employees can use to report any misconduct.
However, not all Apple business transactions have been related to positive theories of business ethics. In some transactions, apple has been seen violating the Kantian theory of business ethics. This theory insists that every company should act rationally while making any business decisions. The company uses outsourcing as one of its business strategies. Most of Apple's products are assembled in china. This form one of the potential areas of misconduct (Mellahi and Geoffrey 12). This is the reason Apple has the supplier code of conduct due to the differing labor standards and less direct oversight than in the United States of America. The country has experienced several incidences of ethical issues over the last few years. Some of these ethical issues pose a great danger in Apple's reputation. These ethical issues have been observed in several sectors of the company operation. These Ares include the product quality, privacy sustainability and intellectual property and patents.
Apple is also related to the Utilitarianism theory of business ethics. It has tried to make everyone happy in its operation (Mellahi and Geoffrey 12). It has tried to make the customers happy by providing quality products. In the instances where apple’s quality is compromised the company has tried to react faster. This is because Apple has banked its success on brand quality. However, there have been several reputed incidences of quality concerns that have been reported against the company. One of the recent incidences of quality reported was when the company introduced the I- phone 4. Many consumers who bought the phone reported serious incidences of reception problems. These problems were mainly reported in the antennae inferences when the consumer used the phone. Due to the nature of competition and increased pace to launch new products every year apple has been faced with the problem of detecting problems in its products. There were complains about how apple handled this situation. Many people though the company only acted by minimizing the problem rather than making a complete removal of the problem. Apple reacted by providing bumpers and cases for a certain period that helped in resolving the problem.
Apple transactions have also been related to the virtue theory of business ethics (Mellahi and Geoffrey 17). In the year, 2011 apple was faced up with another ethical problem. It was revealed that apple, through Google maps in its phone, and i-pad could collect date on the phone location (KIA 1). This was seen by many as consumer privacy infringement. In fact, the government blamed the company for such a move. However, Apple inc was quick to announce that the user were able to disable the feature in their phone. This was not; however, the fact since it was reported that some phones were still collecting location information moments after users had disabled the feature. Apple quickly solved this matter by creating an application.Ethical Issues of the environment have posed a challenge to every company in the world (Mellahi and Geoffrey 34). In the year 2009, the company management admitted that its operation only contributed to over 9.6 million metric tons of gases being released. The life cycle of its products contributed about 97 percent of its emissions. The environmental impact of apple is a serious ethical issue since the company is constantly creating new products in the market.
Another way of dealing with business ethics and situations used by Apple is through Replacement buying. This strategy was introduced by the company to curb ethical issues and maintain customers. However, the strategy has also been blamed for creating environmental concerns. In order to counter this issue, the company has embarked in developing products that are easy to recycle. Most of apple’s products are designed to last many years. It also recycles most of its products (Apple 1). The company through replacement buying ensured that its old products are not thrown away but returned to the company for proper recycling. The company has also established a recycling program in its stores to collect all old i-phones, iPods and other products that are manufactured by the company. The company also offers discount to every person that recycles the company product to a new version of the product. The company has also tackled this ethical issue by building products that emit fewer wastes than before as its iPods have less light - emitting diode than other phones.
Many technological firms are faced with the problem of intellectual property. Apple has been struggling to keep its innovation secretive as much as possible. In order to avoid further ethical issues in the business, Apple maintains top secrets in most of its innovations. For instance in 1982 the company filed suit against franklin computer for violating its intellectual properties by formatting copies of Apple II operating system. The company also applied a lawsuit against Microsoft Corporation. However, Apple Inc has also been accused of violating other company’s intellectual properties. For instance in 2000, in the case of itunes.co.ke which was registered by Ben Cohen to direct users to other sites The company took the domain name, itunes.co.ke from Cohen, who had registered the name first. Many people thought that the company was being favored against smaller companies (Mc Cathy 1).
In the year 2007, the company faced another ethical issue of stealing other company’s properties. In this case, Apple took a different strategy in dealing with the issue from the previous ethical cases. Cisco claimed that Apple had infringed its iPhone trademark. This is because cisco had owned the trademark from the year 2000. The two companies had been for a long time engaged in negotiations on whether apple would use the trademark. However, instead, APPLE is said to have walked out of the negotiations and opened up another company in the united states called the Ocean Telecom Services and filed the IPhone...