Projects
Apple is based in Cupertino, California. It was founded on April 1st, 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. As the company was still developing the main focus was on the computer market in the late 80s to Early 90s. The Company did not make its break until after Steve Jobs had returned to the company. He and his team launched the creation of the iPod in 2001 which soon led to more innovations like the iPhone, iPad, and MacBook. According to, Apple and its Suppliers: Corporate Social Responsibility: In 2013 Apple’s revenue spiked to $170 billion and its net income past $37 billion.
Apple is one of the many companies that use CSR. CSR standing for Corporate Social Responsibility is an international private business self-regulation that aims to enhance society and the environment rather than ruining it. In other words, CSR aims to stop the mistreatment of employment workers and populations overseas. CSR is known to help improve society and the image of the company participating in it. There are four different levels types of CSR: Ethical, Economical, Legal, and Philanthropic. Ethics is defined as accepting principles of wrong or right that govern the conduct of a person member of a profession, or action of an organization. Ethics can be applied in a Business context, some known issues are fair competition, employee practice, common goods, and environmental practices. Legal helps to ensure companies are following the local, state, and federal laws and regulations constantly. Economical is when businesses decide what they want to put their money into whether it is to raise employees' wages, renovate buildings, or research how to improve the product. Lastly, Philanthropic is when companies give back to the community by donating money to nonprofits. This can attract more customers as it shows to the new customers that the company cares for others. In 2014, Apple was ranked fifth on Forbes's best CSR reputation list, even though the company has many international struggles when it comes to producing its products. Out of the four levels of CSR Apple struggles with Ethical, Economic, and Legal the most. In Apple and its Suppliers: Cooperate Social Responsibility, the author regarding Apple’s suppliers states that “ China had violated 86 Chinese regulations, including legal and 50 ethical violations ranging from the use of the juvenile workforce to violations of women’s rights, excessive work hours and environmental pollution” This is an example of unethical and illegal decision making as theses choices harm the workers who work in these factories.
It is reasonable for Apple to apply different ethical standards like Common goods, employment, and environmental pollution to different countries because then those countries have different sets of rules, cultures, economic environments, legal, social and standards theses rules need to be implemented to protect the workers's safety and rights.
If I were in the position of Jeff Williams, I would have taken a different approach. I would work hand and hand with suppliers like Foxconn and Pegatron to create guidelines a regulations to help improve the conditions of the workers. An example of doing this is sending a designated team to watch over the progress, if the suppliers break any of these guidelines then the contract with be breached and Apple will look for another supplier to work with. Another example is making sure the building and machines are up to date and if they are not updating as well as providing training to workers in these factories. This can affect manufacturing and will prevent accidents from happening less often. Apple can also enforce a no-minors employment law, and if there is a situation where a minor is independent and needs to work to live apple can lessen their hours but raise their pay. By doing this more people will come to the knowledge of Apple’s attempts to improve their employee's work life and more people will support and buy from Apple knowing that the money is going to pay their employees for their efforts or to further improve the work environment.
Works Cited
Sun Hye Lee, Micheal J. Mol, Kamel Mellahi. (2016). Apple and its Suppliers: Cooperate Social Responsibility.