MAN 202 Business Ethics: Organizational Ethics of Apple

Questions:

Part A

Week 10 contained a youtube video on the culture at Apple. Watch the video and answer the following three questions:

Based on the on the youtube video, analyse the organisational ethics of Apple as a company.

In your answers utilise theories learned in class.

What changes would you suggest to improve the situation?


What evidence is there that Apple maintains its Ethical Values?

3. What do the expressions “Push the envelope” and “Think outside the square” mean and how do they relate to Ethical Behaviour?

Part B

Please read the following scenario and answer the two questions.

Scenario

You are employed by a very profitable organization that makes computer components for Apple and Microsoft. To maintain high profit margins the organization reduces operating costs by paying its employee the minimum wage possible whilst increasing production targets to almost unachievable levels. Employees who complain are routinely dismissed as are those that fail to meet their production targets. The organization operates in a country where employment laws are still being developed.

You feel that if the owner became an Ethical Leader it would benefit both the employees and the organization.

Question One:

1. In the given scenario, what would the practical application of being an “Ethical Leader” be?

Question Two:

2. Give examples how acting as Ethical Leaders would benefit both the organization and its employees?

Answers:

Part A

The organizational ethics of the company Apple has been very profound that has worked to be the stepping stone of their success (Apple 2017). They have always focused on building the best products for the customers. This is aggravated by the fact that they will be keen on giving the best efforts for the clients. Some ethical issues have been noticed recently and these can be improved in collaboration with their motivation organizational culture. They should seriously cut down the environmental impacts on their service facilities. They should reduce the emission of the metric gases from their products immediately. Thus the challenges could be solved (Apple 2017).

Apple has been maintaining their ethical values in the industry like no one else. They have been awarded the first place in the ethics and organizational culture (Alvesson 2012). They have always been creating the highly innovative and customer friendly products at random. The products are very much high in quality standards and they are very much aware of the fact they should follow some simple principles like responsibility to customers, honesty, confidentiality and compliance (Schaubroeck et al. 2012). These things have to be incorporated within their integrating skills. Apple always provides their employees with the Business Conduct Helpline by the use of which they can contact the higher authorities about any misconduct and discrepancies of the employees (Apple 2017). 

There are two terms that have been identified in their working territory. These are ‘push the envelope’ and ‘think outside the square’ (Apple 2017). The first term ‘push the envelope’ signifies the fact theat their employees are always keen on taking up new challenges and cope up with all kinds of risks and issues. The employees are the main players who contribute to the excellence of the company. They can be motivated by their leaders to ‘think outside the square’ and produce the goods that no company has ever done in the industry (Yidong and Xinxin 2013). For instance, when Apple came up with the smaller battery with more energy and a magnet cover on the front, this innovation was an impeccable one.

Part B

An ‘Ethical Leader’ is the most needed identity for the organizations and it is the duty of the leaders that motivate the employees to achieve more. He should not be forcing the employees to achieve some targets that could be unachievable. These factors are very much not with the compliance of the employment relations of any country. In this scenario, it can be said that the leader of the organization has not been performing his job well enough so that the employees can feel a proper organizational culture. He did not motivate his employees nor did he put up any refreshment things for them. This had hampered the culture of the organization and corrupted the whole system. It should be remembered that the employees are not resources but the players who contribute their level best to bring the success for the organization (Kaufman and Guerra-Lopez 2013). 

This company prepares the computer components for the big companies like Apple and Microsoft. They should be aware of their brand image. The leaders should not do any such thing by which their entity and brand reputation can be harmed by any means. The employee should be united against this kind of leadership and file a petition against the leaders at the legislative department. Apart from that, they could urge the leaders to be lenient about the dismissal of the employees and the production targets. The ethics related to the employment relations should be followed strictly by the company (Budhwar and Debrah 2013).

After the discussion on the practical application of the Ethical Leaders, the topic of discussion will be on the benefit of the organization and the employees if the leaders get ethical. At first, it must be said the employees who are hired in the very recent times will always require some assistance from the teammates and the higher management. The organizational sustainability is one of the main factors that should be achieved from the perspectives of the management. If the organization is not sustainable enough, job candidates will not show any intention to join that organization. The sustainability of the organization will help to benefit the society from many aspects (Thomas and Lamm 2012). The employees will feel secure and safe within that organization. These things will be a positive aspect of the activities of an Ethical Leader.

The ethical programs will help to maintain a better sustainability for the organizations. The rate of employee retention will be increased in this course as well. If the Ethical Leader apply his duties properly, the employees will motivated and show a better teamwork that will increase the productivity by itself without any outside forces (Armache 2013). The growth of the employees and the expansion of the organization will be aggravated by this proper application of the Ethical Leader.  The insurance policies and health benefits by the organizations as a part of the ethical leadership will benefit the employees from a great perspective.

References

Alvesson, M., 2012. Understanding organizational culture. Sage.

 Apple. (2017). Apple. [online] Available at: https://www.apple.com/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2017].

Armache, J., 2013. A kinder and Gentler Workplace: A Path to Employees' Retention and Organizational Productivity. Conflict Resolution & Negotiation Journal, 2013(2).

Budhwar, P.S. and Debrah, Y.A. eds., 2013. Human resource management in developing countries. Routledge.

Kaufman, R. and Guerra-Lopez, I., 2013. Needs assessment for organizational success. American Society for Training and Development.

Schaubroeck, J.M., Hannah, S.T., Avolio, B.J., Kozlowski, S.W., Lord, R.G., Treviño, L.K., Dimotakis, N. and Peng, A.C., 2012. Embedding ethical leadership within and across organization levels. Academy of Management Journal, 55(5), pp.1053-1078.

Thomas, T.E. and Lamm, E., 2012. Legitimacy and organizational sustainability. Journal of business ethics, 110(2), pp.191-203.

Yidong, T. and Xinxin, L., 2013. How ethical leadership influence employees’ innovative work behavior: A perspective of intrinsic motivation. Journal of Business Ethics, 116(2), pp.441-455.