Module 03 Ethics Project - Creative Issues

Trending Ethical Issues in Consumer Electronics Industry

Name: John Blair

Institutional Affiliation: Rasmussen College

Trending Ethical Issues in Consumer Electronics Industry

In the consumer electronics industry, players are competing with each other to create cutting edge devices that are more appealing to the consumers. Due to this need, majority of the manufacturers have employed various strategies such as partnering with third party manufacturers in a bid to lower operational costs hence being able to present consumers with competitively priced devices. However, it is imperative to note that adoption of the various strategies by the industry players has led to a number of ethical issues such as unfair labor practices as looked into in the following section.

One, partnering with third party manufacturers has led to a major ethical concern when it comes to utilization and management of labor. A good example is Apple and the manufacturing company Foxconn. After scrutiny, it was established that Foxconn had provided unsafe working conditions and also employed child labor in the production processes (Stahl, Timmermans & Flick, 2017). Foxconn was a major partner to Apple hence leading to an ethical question regarding Apple’s stand on fair labor practices. Foxconn represents many factories in Asia that partner with players in the consumer electronics industry. The manufacturing plants tend to practice unfair labor practices in a bid to maintain low operational costs. If the firms cut ties with the manufacturers, they are likely to experience rising operational costs hence leading to an ethical dilemma.

Two, the players in the consumer electronics industry are also facing an ethical dilemma when it comes to quality assurance. Mainly, the assembling process depends on key components and parts from other manufacturers. Last year, Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones exploded and it was later found out that batteries which were manufactured by a third party had been faulty (Newcomb, 2017). This highlighted an ethical dilemma being faced by a majority of consumer electronics manufacturers. There are third parties that do not comprehensively ensure quality products are manufactured. When faulty components lead to problems such as exploding phones, the brand owner’s reputation is heavily impacted. There is a need for performance agreements to be reached to avoid such occurrences in the future.

Three, there is an ethical dilemma when it comes to corporate social responsibility. In various regions such as China and Indonesia, the manufacturing plants established by industry players have been causing a lot of pollution and there have been calls for the companies to invest in measures that will help curb pollution. However, due to the intensity of the pollution especially in China, it is deemed costly meaning that the companies must be ready to part with millions of dollars which may have an impact on their overall performance (Stahl et al., 2017). The companies feel that investing heavily in corporate social responsibility will negatively impact their business performance hence are not ready to do so.

From the above accounts, it can be seen that ethical issues surrounding the consumer electronics industry mainly entail the manner in which production is attained. Partnering with third party manufacturers has been the leading cause of issues as the players strive to attain minimal operational costs. Third party manufacturers do not put in place sufficient measures for upholding ethical business performance which is then blamed on the industry players. In order for a firm to deal with the said ethical issues, it is imperative that an agreement on performance between it and the third party manufacturers is reached.

References

Newcomb, A. (2017, January 23). Samsung Finally Explains the Galaxy Note 7 Exploding Battery Mess. Retrieved from NBCNews: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/samsung-finally-explains-galaxy-note-7-exploding-battery-mess-n710581

Stahl, B., Timmermans, J., & Flick, C. (2017). Ethics of Emerging Information and Communication Technologies: On the implementation of responsible research and innovation. Science and Public Policy 44(3), 369–381.