Business Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 10

Business Ethics - Essay Example Ethical and social responsibilities require companies to have a sense of responsibility to the environment in which it operates through participating in programs that are aimed at improving the wellbeing of the community. Over the past years, Apple Corporation has not been performing well as far as corporate social responsibility is concerned. Its workers working in the China based factories have been reported on several occasions as going through harsh working conditions. These poor working conditions involved extremely low wages, forced overtimes with no corresponding remunerations and other unfavorable treatments. Recently the organization has been linked with child labor after Foxconn, which is a major supplier of Apple admitted of being involved in child labor. In its Yantai assembling facility in Shandong province of China student interns who were as young as fourteen years were required to work forcefully at a certain amount of fee. Its environmental practices have not been fr iendly as evidenced by the many criticisms it has been receiving. The company has been accused severally of consuming a considerable percentage of global electricity, which has raised questions on the commitment of the firm to using alternative means that do not cause a lot of pollution to the environment (Icke, 2013). Currently Apple seems to be heading on the right direction in corporate social responsibility especially after Tim Cook became the CEO. He has displayed having a vision of being socially responsible, which previously lacked in the management since Steve Jobs was only concerned with equipping the society with the best technology. He therefore never took keen interest on public grants to charity organizations and other programs that are aimed at improving the well-being of the society. Cook after assuming office introduced a charity program that is similar to the ones embraced by majority of the successful large multinationals. The program involved a dollar-to-dollar