Apple, Inc.

’s Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility

Introduction

Today, international businesses are fast-changing in political, economic, social,

technological, ecological, and legal structures with competing stakeholders as well as power

claims. Such organizations are embedded in and interact continuously with dynamic local,

national, and international environments. These demand that businesses must portray superior

business ethics and social responsibility to all relevant stakeholders. With such expectations,

business ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) have gradually become essential and

inherent aspects for all companies seeking to thrive in the highly competitive contemporary

business world (Falck & Heblich, 2007). Companies are now expected to show unlimited

concern for the interests of their stakeholders as well as other areas such as environmental

conservation, ethical governance, and social aspects among others. The primary aim of this paper

is to evaluate Apple, Inc.’s ethical practices and social responsibility programs with the goal of

examining the level of its moral and social responsibility.

Apple, Inc. and Its Stakeholders

Unquestionably, Apple, Inc. is among the most outstanding, respected, and lucrative

firms in the world. Rising from a crumbling rubble in 1997, Apple, Inc. has speedily developed

to apex success within a short period of 15 years. The center of its extraordinary success lies in

its ability to make truly innovative products with an immense customer appeal. Additionally,

Apple’s success is partly because of its capacity to satisfy its stakeholders and corporate social

responsibility (CSR). Today, Apple, Inc. acknowledges that business ethics and social

responsibility are fundamental to its ways of doing business. Apple Inc.’s stakeholders

significantly affect the business in sales revenue and customer perception. Bearing in mind its
constantly high value of its brand, Apple, Inc. excellently accounts for its stakeholders in all

strategies and policies it articulates and implements. Apple has a stable and all-inclusive method

of addressing the wellbeing of stakeholder groups important to the business. These stakeholder

groups compel Apple, Inc. to improve by satisfying their interests.

Apple, Inc. has various major stakeholder groups. These are customers, employees,

investors, suppliers and distributors, and the local communities. Firstly are the consumers, who

top the priority list. Their primary interests are effective and efficient products that are

reasonably priced. However, Apple’s products are higher priced when compared to other

consumer electronic products. The second stakeholder group comprises the employees at Apple,

Inc. facilities. Their central interests are proper compensation and career development. The third

stakeholder group consists of the investors. These are interested in maximizing the returns on

their investments. Apple, Inc. addresses this stakeholder group through excellent financial

performance, high liquidity, and minimal debts. The fourth stakeholder group consists of

suppliers and distributors, who are primarily connected to the company’s supply chain. Although

these are indirect stakeholders, they significantly determine Apple, Inc. corporate social

responsibilities. They are mainly concerned with proper compensation packages and job security.

The final stakeholder group comprises the community. Local communities that live close

to Apple, Inc. facilities are concerned with environmental and social impacts. Apple, Inc. is

supposed to respond by ensuring environmental protection, conservation, and preservation.

Apple, Inc. has environmental programs meant to address customer’s demands for business

sustainability. Apple, Inc. sponsors development programs that impact the local communities

socially.
 Apple, Inc. Ethics and Social Responsibility in Addressing Stakeholders’ Interests

How ethical and socially responsible Apple, Inc. is can be gauged from the way it treats

and commits to the welfares of its customers, investors, employees, suppliers, and local

communities. When it comes to this, Apple, Inc. can be viewed from two different perspectives,

that is, a positive perspective and a negative perspective.

To start with is the positive perspective, which focuses on Apple, Inc.’s ethics and social

responsibility in addressing the interests of its customers and investors. Ideally, Apple, Inc. puts

its best possible efforts in addressing the interests of its customers and investors. When it comes

to customers, Apple, Inc. strives to create truly innovative products with vast customer appeal

(Sethi, 2012). Apple, Inc. flouts the conventional wisdom in the consumer electronics industry,

which emphasizes on low commodity prices, me too products, and gradually shortened product

life. Rather, Apple, Inc. chooses constant and discrete product innovation, which leads to fanatic

loyalty and high profitability (Sethi, 2012). When it comes to investors, Apple, Inc. strives to

maintain an excellent financial performance. For instance, Apple, Inc. has become among the

most profitable companies in the world. Apple, Inc. maintains high profitability margins and has

a strong financial position, which involves high liquidity through massive amounts of cash. The

company also strives to minimize debts.

In the contrast is the negative perspective in which reports indicate that Apple, Inc.

mistreats its employees and suppliers, and is less concerned with interests of the community.

Even though Apple, Inc. is committed to ensuring that the working conditions of all its

employees and suppliers are safe and that workers and local communities are treated with respect

and dignity, Apple, Inc. does not fulfill these promises (Friends of Nature, 2011). It has not

succeeded in ensuring the highest standards of social responsibility on its workers in making and
distributing its high-tech products. After a series of careful investigations by various

investigators, it has emerged that Apple, Inc. has two contrasting sides when its commitment and

actual performance are compared. For instance, cases of workplace injuries and disabilities are

common among employees. Other employees and suppliers continue to be mistreated through

breaches in occupational and workplace laws. Local communities’ environments have been

polluted to extents that people’s health and wellbeing are at stake (Friends of Nature, 2011).

Departing from these premises, Apple, Inc. can be said to have broken its promises in three

aspects of being socially responsible to the interests of its employees, suppliers, and the local

communities. Some actions in Apple’s manufacturing processes imply direct breaches of

environmental protection, occupational health, and right labor laws (Friends of Nature, 2011).

Under these circumstances, the extravagant promises that Apple, Inc. makes can be classified as

empty promises. In precise terms, Apple, Inc. lags behind the constraints of prevalent industry

practices by holding firm to procedures that violate not only local and national laws, but also its

self-inflicted codes of conduct.

Conclusion

The paper discussed the ethical and social responsibility of Apple, Inc., a consumer

electronics company. Over the last couple of years, Apple, Inc. has grown to pinnacle success

thanks to its ability to create truly innovative products and satisfy its stakeholders and corporate

social responsibility (CSR). It notes that Apple, Inc. has five stakeholder groups. These are

consumers, investors, employees, suppliers and distributors, and the local communities.

Investigations into how Apple, Inc. responds to the interests of each stakeholder group shows

that there is a huge disparity, and Apple, Inc. can’t be said to be truly ethically and socially

responsible as its increasingly valuable brand name suggests. While Apple, Inc. seems to be too
concerned with the interests of its customers and investors, Apple, Inc. has a little score in ethical

and social responsibility in addressing the interests of its employees, suppliers and distributors,

and the local communities. Its commitments and promises are empty as evident through direct

breaches of environmental protection, occupational health, and right labor laws. Even though

Apple, Inc. is a renowned, valuable, and profitable company, it maintains two contrasting sides

when its commitments and actual performance in ethical and social responsibility are compared.

Therefore, this paper concludes that Apple, Inc. is not ethically and socially responsible in

addressing the interests of its stakeholders.