Ethics and Compliance

Ethics and Compliance

Workplace ethics and behavior is a very important part of working for a company. Ethical behavior can determine the future and success for a company and have a major impact on a company's profit. Companies such as Apple Incorporated, depend on their employees and investors to maintain an excellent degree of ethical behavior. Those ethical behaviors include the behavior itself, integrity, accountability, teamwork, and commitment. In this paper the reader will learn the role of ethics and compliance within the company, procedure to ensure ethical behavior, financial markets, and identify processes the Apple Inc. uses to comply with Securities and Exchange Commission regulations.

The role of ethics and compliance

Apple expects its employees and investors to master behavior by refraining from any kind of harassment. Apple trusts that their employees and investors will have integrity by honesty and doing what is right. Apple expects employees to be responsible and take accountability for their actions. Apple takes pride on employees mastering teamwork, and working together to reach a common goal, in a positive manner. Apple expects commitment and dedication from their employees and investors.

Apple strives to ensure that its employees always display certain ethical components in hopes of accomplishing and maintaining a successful company. According to Apple, there are four main components that demonstrate integrity in their company. They are honesty, respect, confidentiality, and compliance. To ensure that these ethical components are respected and practiced, Apple has adopted a code of business conduct that imposes to all its operations, including those not in the United States. Apple also has a website that states more specific policies that details corporate guidance, director conflict of interest, and guidelines on reporting unethical conduct. Apple also provides their employees with a conduct helpline that can be utilized to report unethical behavior to Apple's Audit and Finance Committee.

Procedures to ensure ethical behavior

Apple's products are widely known to be manufactured in countries that have a low cost of labor. This can create an easy target for potential misconduct because of the different labor standards. To prevent and try to avoid this potential misconduct, Apple has made it mandatory for its suppliers to sign its "Supplier Code of Conduct." Apple also performs routine audits to ensure compliance. If for some reason suppliers refuse to sign, it sends off a red flag, which will prompt Apple to refuse to do business with that supplier. Apple has also deemed it necessary to release and annual Apple Supplier Responsibility Report. This report gets into detail about the expectations and actions that will be forced if factories were to violate Apples code of conduct.

Although Apple has delivered some favorable components in hopes of avoiding unethical behavior, Apple has experienced some unethical issues, such as the quality of their product holding up to its word. For instance, Apple experienced many of unfavorable feedback from investors claiming that his or her IPhone 4 did not hold up to their standards. The phone had terrible reception problems. Consumers deemed this unethical because he or she thought Apple was not reacting swiftly enough to correct the problem. Apple decided to provide consumers with free cases that would rid the reception problems in order to remain an ethical company. Privacy was another major issue that Apple Inc. got flack for. Consumers were not happy about Apple creating a feature that tells his or her location. Both consumers and government officials recognized