Case Study : Apple Inc.

Immediately after the allegation, Apple launched an investigation and worked with their manufacturers to ensure that conditions were acceptable by its standards. In 2007, Apple started yearly audits of the labor conditions of all its suppliers, slowly raising standards and severing relationships with suppliers that did not comply—yearly progress reports have also been published since 2008.

In relation to Apple’s internal environment, the company encourages an innovative culture, involving staff creativity and open-mindedness to novel ideas. In addition, Apple stresses the use of environmentally friendly practices, and protection of employees’ safety and health at work (Schneider, 1995, p. 70). Apple’s external environment poses a challenge to the company in terms of emerging firms in the technology business line, competitors selling substitute products, charging lower prices that entice customers because of their affordability, in comparison to the high quality and pricing of similar items from Apple (Apple, 2012, p.1).

Apple Inc. (Apple) is an American Multinational Corporation which was established in 1977 by Steven Jobs và Wozniak Steven. It functions are designing, manufacturing and marketing mobile communication and media devices, personal computers, and portable digital music players, and selling a variety of related software, services, peripherals, networking solutions, and third-party digital content and applications (Apple Inc, n.d.). The company is headquartered in California, United States. In 2011, Steve Jobs died at the age of 56 by pancreatic cancer and Tim Cook became new CEO of Apple and helped Jobs took over his career (Bucktin, 2015).

China Labor Watch (CLW) is an independent not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. CLW conducts investigations of factories in China and creates report to educate the communitity on supply chain labour issues as well to enforce corporations to improve conditions for workers. According to Li Qiang, the founder and executive director of China Labour Watch, the Apple is making technological advancements resulting in fantastic profits. It can also make great improvements in the working condition of the workers, but have not made sufficient efforts. Apple CEO Tim Cook said: "We care about every worker in our worldwide supply chain." However, sufficient efforts have not been made to keep up the promise. In a report by CLW, human rights and labour

Since Jobs’s gaunt appearance at the WWDC in June 2008, Wall Street has been keeping a close eye on Apple. Its share price has been shifting with the different emerging announcements. While there is a segment of the public that feels that a person’s medical condition is a matter of privacy and not under the realm of public disclosure, there is a segment that insists that, in this case, it is indeed within the purview of shareholders. Michael Hiltzik of the Los Angeles Times emphatically stated that “Apple has allowed its institutional arrogance, its culture of secretiveness, and possibly its solicitude for and fear of Jobs to lead it down a path of rank corporate irresponsibility.”4 Apple is facing credibility issues with both its corporate communication and with concerns regarding the company’s success without Steve Jobs. As Dylan Ratigan stated on CNBC’s Fast Money, “…the quality of information we’re getting from Apple is inconsistent at best and misleading at worst.”5 Combined with post-Jobs jitters, it seems unlikely that such a highly praised, successful company with an extremely loyal customer base would invoke such backlash and concern about its future over any single employee, but clearly Steve Jobs proves to be the exception. Early Days Apple Computer was established on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald

As it is illustrated by the article “In China, Human Costs Are Built into an iPad”, Charles Duhigg and David Barboza show the detrimental impact of this corporation upon its Chinese employees. Apple is now identified for its harmful working condition in its factories. Employees work excessive overtime without a single day off during the week as these sweatshops work all day, every day. To produce the merchandise efficiently and effectively, the workers stand at all hours of the day and leave with a decreasing amount of energy every passing day. The company provides most of its workers with the benefit of satisfying dorms. 70,000 Foxconn, Apple’s major manufacturing partner, workers are obligated to live with 20 other people in a slum three-bedroom apartment. Under age workers are unfortunately adding onto Apple’s

In 2006, the Mail on Sunday stated that Apple’s China factories had sweatshop conditions. It also said that the iPod factory workers had 60 hour weeks. (Heffernan 2013) Following this allegation, Apple started an investigation, working with their manufacturers to ensure that conditions were acceptable by Apple’s standards. (Heffernan 2013) Audits of the labour conditions of all its suppliers, raising standards slowly and stopping relationships with non-complying suppliers. (Heffernan 2013) Progress reports post 2008 have been a reality. (Heffernan 2013) Chinese workers in 2010 had planned to sue iPhone contractors over poisoning from a cleaner used to clean LCD screens, with one worker claiming they weren’t informed of possible occupational illnesses. (Heffernan 2013) Following the 2010 Foxconn suicides, A 2014 BBC investigation found excessive hours & other problems persisted, despite Apple promising to change factory practices. (Heffernan 2013)

These corporations make large sums of money despite the fact that the workers are the one’s suffering trying to produce their products under poor working conditions, for long hours, with small pay, while being denied their basic rights. Under a long list of violators Apple has been found guilty of such. Charles Duhigg and David Barboza’s article “In China, Human costs are built into an iPad” shines light on the terrible working and living conditions Foxconn’s workers must undergo each day.

In February 2011, the media reported the child labour issues had worsened at the suppliers for computers, iPods and iPhones. Apple’s Supplier Responsibility Report 2011 revealed 91 underage workers at the suppliers.

The consumer electronics magnate Apple Inc. has been accused of labor abuse in its Asian supply chain. The acquiescence of underage labor, excessive working hours and illegitimate low wage in China-based Foxconn factories is clear evidence of corporate social responsibility (CSR) omission. In fact, such acquiescence is the result of an exploitation chain, with Apple at the top, Chinese workers at the bottom and Foxconn in between.

We first must look at their organizational behavior. Organizational behavior is a field of study devoted to understanding, explaining, and ultimately improving the attitudes and behaviors of individuals and groups in organizations (Jason Colquitt, 2011). Now by Apple going into other corporations and handing out their black cards that is just making their employees think poorly about the corporations they work for; thinking there is better out there. To some, Apple’s behavior can be considered good, hard-nosed business, but to most it is considered to acting unethically. By developing this black card strategy Apple is not just trying to hire anyone, they are trying to steal employees from other companies, so they already know they will be good for the job. Apple really needs to take a step back and look at their behavior. They need to find the correlation between their actions and other organizations. The type of organizational behavior being displayed here by Apple is the method of intuition with a bit of experience. It is obvious that their strategy is working and there experience tells them so. That does not make it right though. They are still costing other organizations good employees. The job performance showed by their employees is very negative. Apple needs to go out and get a 360 degree feedback from an outside source.

While the business ethics of Apple should and does come under scrutiny, the company is, in fact, also dependent upon its employees' countless generations of ingrained Chinese, and a foreign workplace that does not easily change to match that which is considered acceptable by developed nations. Indeed, factory management staff who are Chinese may not understand why it is wrong for a willing teenager to work, as hard work is a virtue long valued by their culture.

Apple Inc is popular in the computer technology word; Apple Inc leads the computer industry in innovation thanks to the award winning desktop and notebook computer known as OS X operating system (Slind). Based in my researchable Apple Inc is the biggest company in the entire word. It is therefore important to define strategic management, according to (Certo, Peter & Ottensmeyer) , strategic managements is a continuous process that directs an organization to be appropriately suited to its internal and external environment. Strategic management benefits organizations by providing personnel, capital, helps to set standards and most importantly activates people. For an organization to have or successful strategic management plan, the mangers

This report investigates the suppliers of the components found on the logic board of the Apple iPhone 6. We find that while most of the product design and software development of this phone is carried out in Apple’s headquarters in California, USA, most of its components were indeed manufactured by companies scattered all over the world. The final assembly eventually takes place in China and Brazil before being shipped back to Apple’s USA offices for warehousing and marketing. A key finding is that Apple reaps quantum benefits from the global nature of the electronics industry and in so doing, increases the speed of its product development while lowering its overall cost of operations.

This paper presents a case study of Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is a technology based corporation with emphasis on computer software and hardware (MAC and Apps), tablets (IPad), smart phones (IPhone), and mp3 plays, (ITouch). Apple Inc. has grown tremendously over the years and ever since 2001 has expanded its brand and retail stores to over 375 stores/outlets globally. The business has seventy two thousand eight hundred employees in thirty eight countries. Apple Inc. has truly become one of the most efficacious corporations within its field behind or competing with Microsoft and Google Inc.