Company Profile – APPLE INC.Apple Inc. is a technology company based in California, United States of America. It is best known for its iPhones, iPads, Apple TVs, iPods and Mac products. Founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak & Ronald Wayne today has a worldwide presence with 500 retail stores as of 2018. It is the world's largest computer company and the second largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. It also has well-known subsidiaries like Shazam. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essay The name "Apple" was inspired by Steve Jobs' visit to an apple farm where he thought the name "Apple" was fun, spirited and non-intimidating. Apple was one of the most successful companies of the 1970s and rose to number 3 on the Fortune 500. It developed its own operating system for its devices, MacOS for personal computers, iOS for iPhones, iPads and iPod touch, watchOS for Apple Watch and tvOS for Apple TV. Human resource management is defined as the process of hiring employees. which, with development, will become more valuable to a business. The HRM process includes recruiting the right people for a position, providing them with orientation and training, managing salaries and benefits as well as evaluating staff performance and ensuring clear communication with all employees. Ethical Issues: Sexual and Racial Discrimination and Harassment: Apple's California headquarters has faced lawsuits from numerous female employees claiming the sexual harassment and pranks went on for far too long. Women make up about a third of the workforce at Apple and many women have reported a hostile work environment and fear retaliation if they take action against their colleagues. Additionally, women said they struggled to advance in the company, regardless of the level of experience they hold, due to a male-dominated organization being assigned high-level positions. . Right to Privacy: After Facebook came under fire for violations of its consumers' privacy rights, all companies, including Apple, updated their privacy policies. In the past, a group of hackers known as The Turkish Crime Family claimed access to around 250 million iCloud accounts, threatening to reset passwords and wipe their devices if a ransom (in Bitcoin) was not paid. was not paid. 2017 audit, Apple details the working conditions of workers manufacturing its products. It was found that there were 44 “fundamental violations” of labor rules, twice as many violations as in 2016. Serious violations included falsification of working hours data. Employees were forced to pay extra just to get a job. In one case, more than 700 foreign workers recruited from the Philippines were accused of working for a supplier, Apple then forced the supplier to refund the money. Patentability Issues: Apple has been the subject of several lawsuits against its biggest competitor, Samsung. In 2011, Apple filed a lawsuit claiming that Samsung phones and tablets violated their intellectual property: style, patents, trademarks and user interface. In 2012, the jury found in favor of Apple, awarding it $1.049 billion in damages. By appealing, Apple has officiallylost $120 million in damages received from Samsung. Labor and human rights: Apple's main supplier, Foxconn, is the world's largest electronics manufacturer. It makes iPhones and iPads for Apple and also employs more than 900,000 people. 240,000 of these workers work in the factory. In 2010, several media outlets reported several cases of suicides at Foxconn. 13 workers committed suicide between 2009 and 2010. An investigation found that Foxconn's internal management was poorly managed, with military-style management where workers were not allowed to interact with each other and worked more than 70 hours per week (which is 10 hours above Apple's Supplier Code). Additionally, it was reported that child labor problems among computer, iPod and iPhone suppliers had worsened in 2011, revealing that 91 children were working at these suppliers. Gender/Racial Discrimination and Harassment: To stop such misconduct, Apple can take these 3 practical steps:i. Tone comes from the top – To take the lead in stopping such reports of harassment, Apple must have a say over all employees directly from the top, i.e. the CEO. The CEO has the biggest impact than anyone else in the company and no one else can make it as clear to staff as to the seriousness of this ethical issue and that any type of racial or sexual judgment will be taken as lightly as he can. Effective establishment, enforcement and encouragement of rules must be implemented. HR alone cannot do anything unless it comes from above.ii. Establish the procedure in everyone’s performance evaluations – Integrate a 0 tolerance policy relating to harassment into the performance objectives of each manager. Make it as strict as possible when workers know that a mistake will make them regret it. One strike and you're out. Zero margin for error helps grab people's attention. And also, for the record, sexual harassment is not always the man's fault (women have also been reported to have sexually harassed men) and women can also falsely accuse men, and each allegation should be investigated carefully. Establish Reporting Programs - So Many Racial Reasons Sexual harassment issues go unnoticed because no one knows where to report the problem or is afraid of being ridiculed. There is only one solution to this problem: provide a universally known, accessible and safe place to report it. This could take the form of a website, a hotline, or even a unit within the organization. If the process is handled with fairness and integrity, it's good. Apple has the ability to find any reported lost devices because it has a database of their serial numbers and an internal kill switch maintained by the company for all devices. This switch can stop and erase any app from the user's phone if it is used maliciously. Since Apple's iPhone is equipped with GPS, it can provide location anywhere on Earth using a combination of 24 satellites. Thanks to Apple's huge servers, iPhones can be located anywhere on earth. Apple may also be able to track the frequency of use of its products and have consumption data by country. Using GIS, mapping and tracking lost iPhones can be made possible by Apple. There may be iPhone tracking and recovery services, but this whole course might be more effective if Apple was in charge. A theft monitoring system would cost the company a significant budget, as more than 100 million iPhones.