How you deal with ethically questionable business practices

Assignment Help Computer Engineering
Reference no: EM133633775

Assignment

The case study-based assignment is based on the case study involving Apple. This case has six questions at the end for students to answer. I want you to answer any five of these questions for ONE of the case studies. The one case (Apple) presents respective organizations negatively about the business organization. You must refrain from including your own personal bias towards either of the two companies.

Case Study - Apple Suppliers & Labor Practices

Apple Suppliers & Labor Practices

With its highly coveted line of consumer electronics, Apple has a cult following among loyal consumers. During the 2014 holiday season, 74.5 million iPhones were sold. Demand like this meant that Apple was in line to make over $52 billion in profits in 2015, the largest annual profit ever generated from a company's operations. Despite its consistent financial performance year over year, Apple's robust profit margin hides a more complicated set of business ethics. Similar to many products sold in the U.S., Apple does not manufacture most its goods domestically. Most of the component sourcing and factory production is done overseas in conditions that critics have argued are dangerous to workers and harmful to the environment.

For example, tin is a major component in Apple's products and much of it is sourced in Indonesia. Although there are mines that source tin ethically, there are also many that do not. One study found workers-many of them children-working in unsafe conditions, digging tin out by hand in mines prone to landslides that could bury workers alive. About 70% of the tin used in electronic devices such as smartphones and tablets come from these more dangerous, small-scale mines. An investigation by the BBC revealed how perilous these working conditions can be. In interviews with miners, a 12-year-old working at the bottom of a 70-foot cliff of sand said: "I worry about landslides. The earth slipping from up there to the bottom. It could happen."

Apple defends its practices by saying it only has so much control over monitoring and regulating its component sources. The company justifies its sourcing practices by saying that it is a complex process, with tens of thousands of miners selling tin, many of them through middle-men. In a statement to the BBC, Apple said "the simplest course of action would be for Apple to unilaterally refuse any tin from Indonesian mines. That would be easy for us to do and would certainly shield us from criticism. But that would also be the lazy and cowardly path, since it would do nothing to improve the situation. We have chosen to stay engaged and attempt to drive changes on the ground."In an effort for greater transparency, Apple has released annual reports detailing their work with suppliers and labor practices. While more recent investigations have shown some improvements to suppliers' working conditions, Apple continues to face criticism as consumer demand for iPhones and other products continues to grow.

Task

Question A. Do you think Apple should be responsible for ethical lapses made by individuals further down its supply chain? Why or why not?

Question B. Should Apple continue to work with the suppliers in an effort to change practices, or should they stop working with every supplier, even the conscientious ones, to make sure no "bad apples" are getting through? Explain your reasoning.

Question C. Do you think consumers should be expected to take into account the ethical track record of
companies when making purchases? Why or why not?

Question D. Can you think of other products or brands that rely on ethically questionable business practices? Do you think consumers are turned off by their track record or are they largely indifferent to it? Explain.

Question E. Would knowing that a product was produced under ethically questionable conditions affect your decision to purchase it? Explain with examples.

Question F. If you were part of a third-party regulating body, how would you deal with ethically questionable business practices of multinational corporations like Apple? Would you feel obligated to do something, or do you think the solution rests with the companies themselves? Explain your reasoning.

Reference no: EM133633775

Questions Cloud

Discuss the processes for successfully implementing : Discuss the processes for successfully implementing and sustaining change. Provide examples designed to help make change stick.
Discuss why this is a learning issue that needs : Which learning design approaches do you currently think is most appropriate for your scenario and why? What is the problem that the learning design will solve
Describe the professional change initiative : Describe the professional change initiative. Discuss the change initiative as seen through the eyes of the leader and the follower.
Write program that prompt the user to input radius of circle : Write a program that prompt the user to input radius of a circle. The program should then calculate the area and print computation on the screen. Using oop.
How you deal with ethically questionable business practices : If you were part of a third-party regulating body, how would you deal with ethically questionable business practices of multinational corporations like Apple?
Comparison and contrast between tcp/ip and the osi model : The Individual Midterm Report will entail the development of a report. Write a 4 to 6 pages paper on Comparison and contrast between TCP/IP and the OSI model
What is meant by the culture of a society : MG 615- What is meant by the culture of a society, and why is it important for international managers to understand it?
Write down all the foods and beverages you eat : Write down all the foods and beverages you eat over five-to-seven-day period, including one weekend day. Record amount and description of each food or beverage.
What legal and ethical considerations should frank be aware : How do you think that Frank improve his recruitment and selection process? What legal and ethical considerations Frank be aware of when recruiting individuals?

Reviews

Write a Review

Computer Engineering Questions & Answers

  Mathematics in computing

Binary search tree, and postorder and preorder traversal Determine the shortest path in Graph

  Ict governance

ICT is defined as the term of Information and communication technologies, it is diverse set of technical tools and resources used by the government agencies to communicate and produce, circulate, store, and manage all information.

  Implementation of memory management

Assignment covers the following eight topics and explore the implementation of memory management, processes and threads.

  Realize business and organizational data storage

Realize business and organizational data storage and fast access times are much more important than they have ever been. Compare and contrast magnetic tapes, magnetic disks, optical discs

  What is the protocol overhead

What are the advantages of using a compiled language over an interpreted one? Under what circumstances would you select to use an interpreted language?

  Implementation of memory management

Paper describes about memory management. How memory is used in executing programs and its critical support for applications.

  Define open and closed loop control systems

Define open and closed loop cotrol systems.Explain difference between time varying and time invariant control system wth suitable example.

  Prepare a proposal to deploy windows server

Prepare a proposal to deploy Windows Server onto an existing network based on the provided scenario.

  Security policy document project

Analyze security requirements and develop a security policy

  Write a procedure that produces independent stack objects

Write a procedure (make-stack) that produces independent stack objects, using a message-passing style, e.g.

  Define a suitable functional unit

Define a suitable functional unit for a comparative study between two different types of paint.

  Calculate yield to maturity and bond prices

Calculate yield to maturity (YTM) and bond prices

Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd