Apple Policies Justification and Employees Empowerment Program - Case Study Example

Apple Company CSR Course: Tutor: Institution: Date: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 1.0 Introduction 3 2.0 Apple CSR Policies Justification 3 3.0 Apple CSR Policies 5 3.1 Employees Empowerment Program 5 3.2 Beta Seed Program 7 3.3 Supplier Development 8 4.0 Recommendations 10 4.1 Potential Suppliers List 10 4.2 Second Tier Suppliers CSR Practices 11 5.0 Conclusion 12 References 13 Barbroza, D, (February 22, 2011). Workers Sickened at Apple Supplier in China. New York Times. Retrieved from < http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/technology/23apple.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0> 13 1.0 Introduction Corporate social management (CSR) has been a major organizational strategic management practice adopted in the recent past. Industrial reviews on consumer base reputations, establish that organizations applying these strategies achieve increased consumer base influence and control. As such, organizations serving the highly competitive global market have resulted to the application of this strategy. This report reviews the Apple Inc. Company, a multinational and global leader in the electronic industry, application of CSR practices. 2.0 Apple CSR Policies Justification The Apple Company under the leadership of its founder Steve Jobs as well as the incumbent C.E.O Tim Cock has increasingly engaged in corporate social responsibility programs. In this regard, the organization has actively participated in corporate social programs aimed at benefiting the society as well as boasting the corporations’ image in the market. As already outlined, CSR is a new form of strategic management through which corporate organizations are developing, retaining and guarding sustainable competitive edges. Therefore, Apple Company, in line with the global market demands resulted to the use of CSR as not only a production efficiency programs but also a public relations (PR) and marketing strategy. Apples integration of CSR practices in its strategic management plans was informed by a growing public dissatisfaction in its operations. A decade ago, the organization faced a major public and media criticism campaign on its use of conflict minerals in the production process. Conflict minerals, as Eichstaedt (2011, p.13) describes them, are minerals whose acquisition is based on conflicts and the eventual denial of human rights to the involved parties in the supply chain. Conflict minerals emanate mainly from Africa where the mining processes are normally exploitative characterized by civil wars and human rights violations. Therefore, based on these revelations and the establishment that Apple relied on these minerals to manufacture its electronic products such as the Laptops, phones and I pads, consumer interest groups and the media resulted to a global campaign against the use of any electrical products manufactured with the conflict minerals as a raw material. Consequently, international governments such as the UK and Australia developed policies regulating the importation of conflict minerals. In this regard, companies operating in these markets, Apple Inc. included, were required to submit certification of conflict free raw materials prior their operations authorization. Further, advocacy groups urged the consumer based to check and demands for such verifications prior to purchasing any products. Therefore, like other players in the industry, Apple was obliged to establish CSR policies to regulate and streamline its supply chain. Further, Apple had been accused of labour mistreatments by its suppliers. An example offered was the case of Foxxcon Company in China. The organization served as a critical Apple Company supplier and representative in the Chinese and Asian market at large. However, it was established that the organization relied on sweat shops to produce its supplies to Apple Inc. Consequently, this propagated negative publicity on the organization. Therefore, the organization resulted to the use and application of CSR practices in its supply chain management as way of enhancing public reputation as well as curtailing the recurrence of such negative implications on its supply chain. Therefore, Apple Inc. Company developed its current supply chain management CSR plan based on these developments in order to facilitate its market competitiveness. Moreover, Microsoft Company, a major competitor in the industry had initiated the process and was gaining increased influence that had to be countered radically. 3.0 Apple CSR Policies 3.1 Employees Empowerment Program CSR policies are definite strategies and organizational operational frameworks developed in the establishment of a link between the organization and its market environment. Traditionally, organizations CSR practices were geared towards aligning an organization with its external stakeholder’s interests such as the consumers, government and interest groups. However, the current CSR programs target both the external and internal stakeholders’ interests such as the employees. Employee interests in an organization include their remunerations and career development. Under the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs in motivation, it argued that employees needs vary overtime. In this regard, the theory held that employees were increasingly motivated when their needs were successfully met. Therefore, based on this understanding the Apple Inc. Company developed and established CSR policies in its employee’s management programs. This was aimed at increasing employee satisfaction, retention, and productivity. The electronics industry is highly competitive and dynamic. As such, in order for organizations to remain relevant and competitive they should possess a large pool of qualified, skilled and experienced workforce. As such, Apple developed employee training programs and career development opportunities to not only develop its employees, but also enhance their satisfaction. This is evident in the Apple employee development programs. In these programs, the organization seeks to empower its employee base through a range of approaches. On one hand, the development programs incorporate employee training workshops and seminars. These forums provide the organizational employees with opportunities to discuss and argue issues in their profession. Further, they play a significant role of keeping the employees up to date on new developmental issues in their respective professions, a major determinant in eventual professional decisions quality. On the other hand, the Apple employee development programs incorporate the career development centre, a major organizational functional centre. The centre offers the employees emotional and psychological guidance and counselling an imperative approach towards employees’ skills and talents personal realization. In its policies, Apple Company advocates for the self-career management approach. In this regard, the organization absolves itself the sole responsibility of developing employee careers and instead offers its support as a facilitator in individual employees’ career growth and development endeavours. Conaway and Laasch (2014, p. 347) argued that through its vast career resource library, the organizational management provides employees with the required information and knowledge on career development. Further, the organizational weekly networking session in the organization allows inter-functional interactions where employees and share and exchange ideas on career development. The establishment and retention of these practices has led to the organizations increased reputation and its eventual ranking as one among the best places to work in. Besides focusing on its internal employee’s development, the Apple organization realized the role played by their suppliers’ employees. Although a majority of the suppliers have instituted and incorporated technology in their operational activities, the human resource role in the enhancement of quality production as well as on time production and delivery remains paramount Therefore, in a bid to enhance quality and on time raw materials delivery, Apple Company developed a CSR program for the first tier suppliers training programs. Through its training programs, the organization trains the supplier’s workforce on business ethical practices as well as relationships management in order to boost ethics and relationships improvement between the organization and its suppliers’ employees. 3.2 Beta Seed Program Apple is an electronic company that has diversified its operations ranging from technology hardware equipments development such as Laptops to the development of technology software. Unlike other industries, the software development industry is highly sensitive and quality is of paramount importance. Further, the wide global consumer base increases the software development standardization and customization aspects conflict. A majority of software programs have failed in the market, not due to poor technology or non-functionality, but due to lack of features customization. In order to mitigate these challenges, Apple Inc. Company developed a market pre testing programs for all its software applications and programs. Through the program dubbed the Apple Project seed, the organizations offer the consumer base an opportunity to offer their views prior to products release. This is in line with the core CSR principle on stakeholders’ involvement. Through the provision of the pre launch window to the consumer base, the organization develops and opportunity through which the diverse market stakeholders such as the consumer base, regulatory agencies and other interest groups review he products and offer their suggestions (“Apple Inc.”, 2014). Consequently, the product development teams incorporate these views into the products and subsequently improve their features prior to market roll out. Through the project seed approach, the organization has reduced its products rejection rates considerably as well as facilitating increased product sales as the stakeholders feels as part of the developed product when their suggestions are reviewed and incorporated in the subsequently released products. Therefore, based on this analysis, it is apparent that Apple has facilitated increased efficiency and market influence and goodwill through its testing CSR program. 3.3 Supplier Development Over the years, the Apple Company has established a market reputation based on its wide scope and comprehensive supply chain management CSR programs. The organization is among the most vigorous in its supply chain management. As such, its CSR practices focus on supplier issues ranging from supplier evaluation, appraisal to partnerships development. On one hand, the organization faced supplier practice challenges as demonstrated in the case of Foxconn Company use of sweat shops in its strategy of production of the i phone 5 Apple products. As such, the organization developed a supplier evaluation and review program. Through this program, Apple recruited and selected verification organizations in charge of inspecting and valuing the ethical nature in which respective existing and potential organizational suppliers’ practices and operations ethics. Under this review, the assessment criterion evaluates the respective organizations treatment of their employees. In order for an organization to qualify as an Apple supplier, it must provide reasonable employee remunerations based and determined by the supplier country economic conditions and wage regulations. In addition, the organizations must allow their employees appropriate and conducive working conditions as well as develop sufficient official communication channels through which the employees can raise their grievances. In addition, the Apple Company supplier management CSR program focuses on environmental pollution aspects. In this regard, the organizational inspection reviews seek to establish systems and structures instituted by the suppliers in order to reduce environmental pollution as well s a verification of their conformance to international environmental conservation regulations such as the Kyoto protocol. Finally, under the supplier checklist, the organization focuses on evaluating the supplier’s network. This incorporates the evaluation of its other industry partners to establish their conformance to the CSR policies. Upon successful suppliers’ evaluation and selection, the organization conducts a supplier appraisal program. This is a strategic program aimed at developing the suppliers systems and structures in order to meet the minimum societal expectations. Apple Inc. Company attains this objective through a range of approaches (Sollish & Semanik, 2012, p. 122). On one hand, the corporation provides technical support to its suppliers. For instance, an example of technical support to suppliers can be cited in the case of the organizations supplier diversity program. Through this program, the Apple Company in liaison with other groups such as the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC) and the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the company targets at developing and helping nature minor suppliers. Under the Apple diversity program, the organization classifies the minority suppliers as supply forms owned by Women, veterans as well as shareholders form marginalized geographical locations and societies. Suppliers join this program through filling of online forms subsequent to which selection is developed based on a verification process. The organization ensures representation of these groups in is supply base and in addition supports them through employees training and expert opinions to facilitate their eventual development. 4.0 Recommendations 4.1 Potential Suppliers List Despite the existing Apple Inc. Company CSR policies as discussed above, the organizational CSR strategy is insufficient to control its supply base. Examples of the CSR policy failure are in the case of Wintek Company use of N-Hexane in its LCD plant in China to speed up its production speed and efficiently. Statistical analysis on the use of the chemical demonstrated that it was increasingly efficient than alcohol as a cleaning agent. However, the chemical vaporizes first and as such exposed the employees to inhalation challenges. As such, the organizational employees blew the whistle in the late 2009, but little was done until 2010 when the implications and negative consequences were inevitable (Babroza, 2011). In its defence, the Apple Company argued that upon the establishment of a contract, the organization could not terminate such contracts radically without altering its production and eventually causing market product shortages. Therefore, this illustrated that the organizational CSR is deficient of appropriate mitigation strategies in the event of defiant and non-conforming suppliers. The termination of a supplier’s contract demands the institution of new bidding and supplier selection process in the organization making it though theoretically possible, practically impossible. Based on this case study on Wintek Company in China, this report recommends that the Apple Inc. Company should develop a new CSR approach through which it should retain a list of not only existing, but also potential suppliers. As such, the organization should have alternative suppliers for each product who can take charge of production immediately a previous is terminated. Through the adoption of such an approach, the organization will increase its control over the supply chain as it will acquire not only the right, but also potential to terminate inappropriate suppliers’ contracts. In turn, this will serve as a major milestone towards the achievement of the organizational CSR practices objectives. 4.2 Second Tier Suppliers CSR Practices Organizational supply chain is a tier hierarchy that starts with the initial material supplier to the immediate supplier with which an organization acquires its supplies from. In this regard, in order to facilitate and enhance the development of an entire supply chain CSR practice addition, it is imperative for organizations to ensure that suppliers in all the tiers in the chain adhere to the CSR practices. Organizations such as Starbucks in the Coffee industry have successfully applied this CSR approach successively. Apparently, since the inception of this practice, Starbucks established a sustainable competitive edge in the industry (“Starbucks Coffee Company”, 2014). Currently, the Apple Inc. Company CSR program extends up to the first tier suppliers. Therefore, the organization remains at the risk of acquiring conflict minerals as in the case of Foxconn Company in China. Therefore, this report argues that in order for Apple to increase its control in the supply chain it must expand its suppliers score card criteria. Besides the existing requirements, the organization should establish a requirement for organizations to qualify as suppliers and inclusion in the potential suppliers list; they should subsequently employ a CSR program. Through this approach, the Apple Company will ensure that the entire supply chain is in conformance with the CSR requirements in the industry. Further, the organization should establish frameworks appropriate to ensure suppliers conformance to this requirement. In this regard, the organization should develop an additional team, similar to the existing inspection and verification partners for the second and third tier suppliers’ evaluation respectively. Alternatively, the organization can increase the mandate of the existing suppliers’ evaluation organizations. 5.0 Conclusion In summary, this report reviews the application of CSR practices by the Apple Inc. Company. As such, the report form a background on some of the influencing factors necessitating the adoption of CSR practices prior to an in depth review of the actual organizational CSR practices and the eventual of future expansion recommendations. In this regard, the study establishes that among the contributory and motivational factors for CSR practices application by the Apple Inc. Company included media and interest groups advocacy as well as the need to retain a competitive edge against progressive market competitors such as Microsoft Corporation. Further, a review on the organizational CSR practices, the report establishes that the organization applies the employees’ development program, supplier diversity programs as well as the project seed approach in products testing. Finally, based on the historical CSR challenges experienced by Apple and best practices in the global market, the report recommends the development of a potential suppliers list as well as the establishment of a second and third tier suppliers evaluation CSR practices. Conclusively, this report argues that the organization is bound to succeed in the electronics industry. References Apple Inc., (2014). OS X Betaseed Program. Retrieved from < https://appleseed.apple.com/sp/betaprogram> Barbroza, D, (February 22, 2011). Workers Sickened at Apple Supplier in China. New York Times. Retrieved from < http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/23/technology/23apple.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0> Conaway, R. N., & Laasch, O. (2014). Principles of responsible management: Global sustainability, responsibility, and ethics. London: Cengage Learning. Eichstaedt, P. H. (2011). Consuming the Congo: War and conflict minerals in the world's deadliest place. Chicago, Ill: Lawrence Hill Books Sollish, F., & Semanik, J. (2012). The procurement and supply manager's desk reference. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Starbucks Coffee Company, (2014). Being a Responsible Company. Retrieved from < http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility> Read More