In the light of the globalization, the problem of corporate responsibility and ethics in a business problems have come to the fore. In order to promote corporate responsibility in a business balance, it is necessary to strike the balance between compliance-based and integrity-driven approaches.
In particular, managers should pay attention to the way employees adhere to legal standards; yet, understanding the value of integrated approaches to accomplishing organization objective is important as well. With regard to the cases under analysis, the strict emphasis should be placed on the role of utilitarianism viewpoint as the foundational principles in considering conflicting situations.
Implementing compliance or ethics programs does not directly relate to the ethical dilemmas that occur in the workplace. In fact, the actual reasons for emerging conflicts consist in manager’s ability to shape organization vision, mission, and codes of conduct. As a prove Payne states, “…organizational ethics means more than avoiding illegal practice” (106).
Therefore, Apple’s case of launching new products is justified from utilitarian perspective because the outcomes of their actions are more reasonable than original intent. From an ethical perspective, mitigating $ 200 decrease seems to be approved because the company strived to avoid decline in sales and profitability.
Besides, boosting the capacity of other products has also allowed the organization to sustain normal development and motivate employees to work efficiently. Once again, utilitarian perspective approves the decision made by the managers because it does not do any harm both to the buyers and to the employees.
Therefore, introducing decrease in price can only attract more customers and increase the popularity of the new model. The moral worth of the case is more focused on the outcomes rather than on the initial purposes.
While applying utilitarian point of view, Apple’s actions could be ethically justified because the new product has been launched for maximizing the utility of the old model. On the one hand, launching a new model in half a year is an ordinary process in a rapidly developing technological world.
Therefore, a price increase for the products could not be regarded as an ethical dilemma because experienced customers should be aware of the paces of the product development and could have waited for the new model to appear. On the other hand, Apple could immediately present a discount on iPhone 5 model, or provide a beneficial offer.
For instance, a $ 200 rebate on old models can be established, which is a good substitution for $ 200 increase for the development of the new model (Reeves n. p.). As a result, utilitarian ethics rigidly confronts the deontological perspective because the virtue ethics could not be applied in this case.
The utilitarian viewpoint provides a full picture of Apple’s case challenges and problems. In particular, the company was expected to launch a new product, although the original intentions seemed to be unclear. However, further business actions were directed at reducing the price for the models, as well as developing new products that could enhance the demand and increase the customer base.
Such a decision also positively influences the welfare of the Apple employees. With regard to the SOX disclosure initiative, Apple’s case could be approved a swell because transparent reporting could become beneficial both for the company managers and for the customers buying this product (Siegel n. p.).
Finally, utilitarian perspective focuses on the outcomes and, therefore, consumers could be more encouraged to buy Apple products.
Works Cited
Payne, Lynn Sharp. “Managing for Organizational integrity”. Harvard Business Review. 1994: 106-117. Web.
Reeves, Clayton. “Subtle Innovation: Apple’s Incremental Improvement Strategy”, Seeking Alpha. 2012. Web.
Siegel, Marc A. “Option Backdating: Corporate Governance Remains a Challenge”. The CPA Journal. 2007. Web.