Why Is Apple Company Unethical

Apple Company was formed by Steven Paul Jobs and Stephen Gary Wozniak in 1977 in California, the United States. It mainly deals with consumer electronics, computer software and commercial services, such as iPhone, iPod and Macintosh computers. In present, Apple already became a leader in the consumer electronic industry and also it is one of the biggest technology company in the world with over $60 billion revenue per year. As an international American company, Apple Inc. has a great number of cooperative partners (Figure. 1) in different countries, such as China, Japan, the United States and South Korea. Compared to other counties, Chinese Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) is the most unethical manufacturer in terms of values and non-rigorous

This difference causes Foxconn, the worldwide largest contract suppliers, to become the most unethical manufactures among all the cooperative partners that the Apple has. Terry Guo, who is the CEO of Foxconn, his values is influenced by John Stuart Mill’s ideas “HomoEconomcus” which refers to self-interest is the only motivation for humanity to work. Thus, he forces his employee to work overtime like machines to maximize productivity and increase profits. On the contrast, Western manufacturers are influenced by George Elton Mayo, who became one of the best-known theorists after his Hawthorne experiment. Mayo overthrew the idea that people went to work purely for money and a living, and states work was much more than money, people’s morale and productivity are affected not by the working conditions they have, but the recognition that they receive from others. This difference in terms of Western and Chinese values is one of the main reasons that cause Chinese OEM becomes the most unethical manufacturers among all the other partners that the Apple

In Canada, the purpose of trade unions is to avoid both corruption and never-ending battles between employers and employees. It states that trade unions must represent employee fairly during the negotiation, and their decision should not be tainted by their ill-will. In addition, it also states that the trade union can negotiate or sue companies if the CEOs treat their employees horribly, meanwhile, the companies can sue the trade union if the decision of trade union is ill-will. These complete and rigorous policies that the Canada government established help a lot to decrease conflicts between employees and employers. In general, Non-rigorous of Chinese policies is the second factor that causes Chinese OEM to become most unethical