Apple Inc ethics, corporate responsibility, and charitable efforts

Apple Inc. Ethics

The Apple Inc. has grown exponentially from the years when it diversified from being strictly a computer manufacturing company to production of consumer electronics. It has then had several firms across the world and in some areas places where the labor cost is very low, hence predisposing the organization to possibility of labor abuse. This has then called for strict ethical policies followed by implementation of the same.

According to Apple Inc. (2009), the organization has strived to make sure the employees and those with whom Apple is associated with like the suppliers show appropriate conduct at all times. Its ethical foundation is that all the workers are treated with maximum respect and dignity and that the manufacturing processes are environmentally friendly from the start to the end of the chain. According to Apple, there are four components of integrity; honesty, respect, confidentiality and compliance. To ensure that this code of conduct is enforced, Apple has its own code of business conduct that encompasses all their operations including those that are overseas. Further, they have provided Helpline that can be used by the employees to report anonymously any misconduct.

Though there are no outstanding records of Apple getting involved in charity over the years under the stewardship of Steve Jobs, of late there are several strides that are taken by the organization to embrace Corporate Social Responsibility at a much higher level. It is worth noting however that the Apple employees were greatly involved in charities there before. Currently, Apple has been involved in charitable contributions in the form of matching up to $10,000 of any of the employee's charity contributions. These contributions will be channeled towards the 501 (C)(3) organization. The program is to cover the permanent employees and later on will spread out to the international employees as well (David Murphy, 2011).

Apple is also greatly involved in the back-to-school promotions every year offering great incentives like free iPods and discounts to the college and high school students. They are also known to give Apple gift cards worth $100 for the Mac App Store (Christina Warren, 2011).

Functions of management

There are generally four functions of management that are experienced in firms throughout the globe. In as much as there can be subdivisions, the main functions are categorized as Planning, Organizing, Directing and Controlling.

Planning is a continuous process and forms the core of the organization at Apple. The management regularly appraises where the organization is at and the next plan and direction. There are uncontrollable external factors like competition from other companies like Samsung and Nokia as well as computer manufacturers like Dell and IBM that pose a great threat to Apple Inc. hence they have to do a comprehensive and realistic evaluation of the same.

Organizing will deal with putting into proper channel the resources that Apple has in order to implement the course of action that has been identified in the planning step. Here is when the internal factors will matter and the relevant departments will be put into use plus the dissemination of information. Apple has always succeeded in ensuring there is good organization towards executing their plans since they depend on the internal creativity and initiatives that allows the utilization of the ingenuity that exists within the firm. Their engineers work in collaboration with each other to ensure their products are top quality in striving to lead the market.

Directing is yet another function of management that entirely involves influencing the behavior of employees towards achieving the goals of the organization. The employees of Apple are known to be highly motivated and take initiatives without much prompting. This emanates from the recognition of their talent and the commensurate pay that goes with the initiative that they put.