Responsible Ethical and Business Practices of Apple

Responsible Ethical and Business Practices: Apple Case Study
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Responsible Ethical and Business Practices: Apple Case Study
Company Overview
Apple Inc. is an American-based global technology company that designs and makes tablet computers, personal computers, computer software, computer peripherals, and smartphones, among other products. Some of its renowned products include iPod, iPad, iPhone, MacBook, Apple Watch, Apple TV, iOS, MacOS, WatchOS, iCloud, Apple News+ Apple Card, Apple Pay, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and Apple Store (Global Data, 2021). Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne, and Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer Inc. in 1975 in Cupertino, California, United States, which was later changed to Apple Inc. to reflect the company’s ongoing expansion into the electronics market. Today, the company is the most significant information technology firm by revenue and is the world’s most valuable entity. By 2022, the company had employed over 160,000 workers globally and owned more than 500 stores worldwide, including over 200 stores in the United States. Apple has a business presence in nearly all corners of the world, including North and South America, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, and Pacific Asia.
Apple’s Approach to Responsible and Ethical Business
Apple is one of the largest companies globally. As such, its business operations are poised to significantly impact various environmental, social, and ethical issues. For instance, the materials the company uses to manufacture its products, such as plastic, usually negatively impact the environment, particularly the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide. Equally, some of the materials, such as cobalt sourced from African countries, are said to be unethically acquired due to several deaths and poor working conditions related to their production. The company appears to be aware of its business operations’ environmental and social impact, and it has engaged in various corporate social responsibility activities and initiatives to try and reduce such an impact (Apple Press Release, 2021). Corporate social responsibility refers to the self-regulating model that helps an organization be socially accountable to itself, its stakeholders, and the public at large (Bucur et a., 2019). On its Website, Apple states that its operations globally are carbon neutral, and its goal is to achieve carbon neutrality across its entire footprint by 2030 (Apple, 2019). They indicate that they are dedicated to reaching carbon neutrality for the company’s supply chain and the energy that uses their products. In the past year, the company claims to have doubled the number of suppliers who have committed to running Apple production on renewable energy, accelerating the progress towards 2030’s environmental goal (Apple, 2019). Some other initiatives to promote environmental responsibility include recycling and reusing worn-out products. The company also claims its products are free from toxic materials such as PVC, Beryllium, and mercury (Apple, 2022b). For social responsibility, Apple has indicated that its suppliers should offer safe working conditions and treat their workers with dignity.
Various responsible and business approaches can be viewed through stakeholder theory. The theory of capitalism stresses that a company is responsible for ensuring the well-being of suppliers, customers, employees, investors, and the community affected by its operations. The theory emphasizes that a company should create value for the shareholders and other stakeholders. It suggests that it is ethically wrong for the management to do nothing about their company’s operations contributing to climate change that can drastically impact the society in which the company operates. For instance, while a company can increase its operational costs, it is responsible for installing means to reduce carbon emissions. Equally, providing excellent working conditions may incur a firm extra expenditure. To engage in its current corporate social responsibility activities, Apple applies this theory because apart from accumulating profits, the company is also trying to create value for its stakeholders by investing in environmental preservation and various social initiatives.
Unethical Business Practices at Apple
While Apple is undertaking various corporate social responsibility activities to improve its relationship with various stakeholders, including customers, government, and suppliers, it has been accused of various unethical behaviors such as poor working conditions, child labor, tax avoidance, and poor environmental reporting that has tarnished its reputation to some extent (Shields, 2011). For instance, despite some environmental initiatives, some activities undertaken by Apple contribute to environmental damage through air, land, and water pollution. For instance, manufacturing new series of iPhones within a short time suggests that the company is more concerned with profit-making and less about sustainability and environmental preservation. If Apple cared about environmental conservation, it would not hurriedly launch iPhone 14 in 2022. It is estimated that one handset of iPhone 14 in the entire of its lifecycle will produce over 60 kilograms of carbon, with 81% of this emission coming from the phone’s production phase (Apple, 2022a; Kilgore, 2023). The new series will contribute to massive carbon emissions with severe environmental implications because Apple makes millions of units of phones every year (HT Tech, 2022). Thus, considering iPhone is just one product of the company that manufactures several products, the company’s operations are contributing significantly to climate change.
Apple has also been accused of mistreating people working in factories where the company’s products are being manufactured. In 2012, New York Times reported that the Foxconn Technology factory in China, where the company makes many of its products, violated several of the human rights of the workers ‌ (Duhigg & Barboza, 2012). Some of the violations included forcing workers to live in crowded dormitories and to stand for a long time, child labor, improper waste removal, low wages, and increased suicidal attempts by workers. Such violations had a negative social impact on people working in this factory (Mielach, 2022; Liu, 2022). Low wages would lead to workers failing to afford basic needs such as food, clothes, shelter, and education.
From an ethical point of view, deontologists would consider Apple’s practices immoral and unethical. The deontology approach would suggest that it is unacceptable for the company to continue with its operations, although the management is aware of the negative impact they are having on the environment and welfare of workers ‌(Tseng & Wang, 2021; Laakasuo & Sundvall, 2016). Deontology suggests that the morality of an action is determined by whether or not the action itself is right or wrong, meaning that, unlike the utilitarian approach, the morality of an action is not based on the consequences of that action (Conway & Gawronski, 2013). Thus, since Apple knows violating workers’ rights is wrong, deontologists would argue that they are morally wrong.
For the utilitarian approach, the morality of an action is based on its consequences, which indicates that an action is right if it produces positive consequences and vice versa (Marseille & Kahn, 2019; Savulescu et al., 2020). Thus, utilitarianism would justify poor working conditions because it only affected a few workers compared to the greater number of consumers worldwide and provides the company with high-profit margins. Thus, Apple’s business strategy is morally right (Byskov, 2020; Santa Clara University, 2014). Nevertheless, from a personal perspective, the company’s focus on maximizing profits at the expense of environmental preservation and employee welfare is morally wrong. As Friedman indicated in his stakeholder theory, a company should consider the welfare of all its stakeholders while conducting its operations.
Analyzing the ethical behavior of Apple from the virtue point of view, the company appears to have failed to comply with the four virtues; integrity, trustworthiness, courage, and empathy (Misselbrook, 2015). First, the company has failed to halt its operations despite various sentiments concerning the working conditions of workers in countries such as China and DRC. Second, the company has failed to abide by the virtues of trustworthiness and honesty by failing to disclose the plight of workers in China and other supply chain sectors. Lastly, the company has not shown empathy to the workers, which is apparent in how employees are treated and the failure of the company to offer any compensation or apology to the mistreated employees. The virtue approach to morality suggests that virtue is acquired through practicing, meaning that virtues are habits (Misselbrook, 2015). Thus, Apple’s failure to exhibit traits such as courage, transparency, empathy, and integrity, means that they have not been practicing them all through.
Viewing Apple’s case through idealism lens, it is clear that the company is making itself appear like a responsible and sustainable entity. According to idealism theory, the reality is a mental construct closely connected to ideas (Griseri & Seppala, 2010). Most companies have realized that presenting themselves as strong CSR candidates strengthen their public image. While Apple engages in various CSR activities, including environmental conservation initiatives, it is far from achieving what companies such as Netflix, Disney, Microsoft, and Google have achieved in CSR matters (Smith, 2023). Thus, it is unethical for the company to exploit idealism to dupe its customers into thinking they have the best CSR strategy.
Recommended Ethical and Responsible Business Approaches
While profit generation is the primary purpose of any business, a business must be socially and environmentally responsible and ensure that its operations contribute to sustainability and environmental preservation (Chen et al., 2021; Tilt, 2016). For instance, to become more socially responsible, Apple should ensure that it revises its wage structure and offer competitive salaries, especially to individuals working in factories such as Foxconn technology. In addition, the company should finance the restructuring of the company to provide workers with the best working conditions. Child labor should also be addressed by ensuring all factory workers produce birth certificates and national identification cards during recruitment. This way, consumers of Apple products will be assured that their devices for personal and professional use are not made by mistreated and underpaid workers (Latapí et al., 2019; Newman et al., 2019). Environmental conservation is a crucial undertaking in the modern business world. People are now more aware of the benefits of environmental conservation and are more willing to buy sustainably produced products (Bucur et al., 2019; Singh & Misra, 2021; Carroll, 2021). Thus, Apple should abandon some of its business practices to become more sustainable in matters of environmental conservation.
Apple also needs to contract a CSR company to conduct its corporate social responsibility audits to improve its public image and become more responsible and ethical. The third parties ensure an independent process and objective outcome. Conducting supplier and internal operations audits will allow the company to obtain crucial information, which will help the management fine-tune the company’s CSR policies in the strategic piloting and regulation of environmental, governance, and social risks. Likewise, consumers are more likely to believe reports published by an independent body than internally generated ones. Thus, seeking external CSR auditing services will allow Apple to become a more responsible, sustainable, and ethical company.
The Role of Stakeholders in Apple’s Ethical and Responsible Business Strategy
Various Apple Stakeholders have a considerable role in helping the company in its responsible and ethical approach. Employees are crucial stakeholders who have a role to play in this strategy. A large pool of employees, if properly nurtured, can provide the company with various innovative ideas for reducing the environmental impact of its operations. Companies such as Honeywell, Shell, Microsoft, Cemex, and Alphabet have embraced innovations d...