APPLE

7001MKT ASSIGNMENT 2 COMPANY COMMUNICATIONS

REPORT: COMPANY CSR AND CORPORATE
COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

Vaishnavi Dhinakaran
S5077837

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Executive Summary:
This report focuses on the Corporate Social responsibility of the company Apple. The topics
that are widely discussed are definitions of Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) and the
issue management. The inter-relation between the CSR and the issue management is been
discussed. The Role of CSR in Apple is been widely discussed with the Corporate Social
Responsibilities practices in Apple. The CSR communication strategy with the stakeholders
of Apple is studied. The issues that are prevailing in Apple is briefed in the report. The
recommendations are provided to improve and for the betterment in the field of CSR for Apple.

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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION: ............................................................................................................... 3
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: ............................................................................... 3
ISSUE MANAGEMENT: ...................................................................................................... 4
CSR AND ISSUE MANAGEMENT: .............................................................................. 5
CSR PRACTICES IN APPLE: ....................................................................................... 6
APPLE STAKE HOLDERS AND CSR COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES: ..................................... 9
ISSUES IN APPLE AND MANAGEMENT: ............................................................................ 10
CSR Ranking: .................................................................................................................. 11
RECOMMENDATIONS: .................................................................................................... 11
CONCLUSION: ................................................................................................................. 12

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INTRODUCTION:
The corporate Social Responsibility of the company “Apple” has been detailed in this report
based on the current reports on the company. In the last 50 years the CSR plays a major role
in the public image that a company has that could influence the profit margins to a greater
extent. It is evident that Apple has undergone certain issues in terms of the CSR. Since it is
emerged as most profitable organization it has a very high capacity to rework on the required
fields with an equipped team.

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:

Corporate Social Responsibility is a theory that has been a predominant concept in the recent
years. CSR is a concept to understand the degree of responsibility of the corporate in terms
of social and environmental implications despite the economical aspect. It is also called as
triple bottom line that includes the environmental, social and the economic aspect of a
corporate ("Corporate Social Responsibility & Human Rights | Australian Human Rights
Commission", 2008).
Corporate social responsibility is the key to manage the business process and to provide a
positive impact on the society. It overviews the quality of the management and the impact that
is created on the society (Baker, 2004).

Fig.1 source: (Baker, 2004)

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 There are two circles in the above-mentioned figure 1, the inner circle contains Environment,
workplace, community and the market place. Whereas in the outer circle the rest of the
elements in the corporate is shown. The corporate social responsibilities are also referred as
corporate sustainability or responsible competitiveness (Kh. Tomba Singh, 2013).

THEORIES OF CSR:

Theories Approach Description

Instrumental Theory  Value of shareholders are Long term value

(when the Firm focuses on maximized
reaching economic objectives in
the form of social activities)
(Mourougan, 2015)

Political Theory  Constitutionalism The responsibility in the corporate

(when the firm focuses on using firms increases when the firms
the corporate power in the field of have social power.
politics) (Mourougan, 2015)

Integrative theories  Issues in the management The response from corporate for
 Responsibility of the social issues and political issues.
public Balancing the firm’s interest.

Ethical theory  Development Moral theories are used.

(when the firms reach the  Sustainable Respects the human rights and
objectives in ethical way to have a the environmental policies.
good society) Inclined towards the good of
(Mourougan, 2015) society (Mourougan, 2015).

ISSUE MANAGEMENT:
The term was coined in the year 1970, it was the time for stakeholders to question about the
legitimacy of the companies and the way of approach to the stakeholders and the issues

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(Nylander, 2010). The major issues were the health, environment, practice of the labour and
safety were critically analysed by the media. Issue management can be defined as a tool that
the firms can use to identify, analyse and to manage the issues that are prevailing in the firm
(Nylander, 2010). To identify the issues, it is necessary to engage with a stake holder to devise
the expectations on the firm (Nylander, 2010).
The issue management provides the firm a chance to answer the issues that are emerging
before it goes to the public forum (Nylander, 2010). The issue management processes work
in a cycle. The issue management helps us to identify the risk and it has to be recorded for
the further analysis of the issue, the issue is analysed, and the magnitude of the issue is found.
The issues are being prioritized and reported to device new policies or to go with the existing
policies (Nylander, 2010). It goes to the implementation process based on the issue and the
performance is being evaluated and the cycle keeps continuing for every issue that is been
raised (Nylander, 2010).

Fig 2: ISSUE MANAGEMENT PROCESS

(source: Google image)

CSR AND ISSUE MANAGEMENT:

CSR and Issue Management are interrelated with each other. As the activities of Corporate
social responsibilities increases the corporate reputation thus it reduces the legitimacy gap.
The higher the CSR in a firm the issues management is required less.

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 CSR PRACTICES IN APPLE:

Apple cared for the environment and produced the products that can give better
environmental performance.

CSR activities Apple performance

Empowering women They are committed in empowering the employees

to gain access in the forum’s health and education.
By 2020 apple forecasted to have 1 million women
who would be educated with health awareness
through community interactions(Dudovskiy, 2018).

Labour and human rights 3 million employees were trained on the rights

Health and safety Health training is being held at regular intervals

Environmental Aspect 320 thousand metric tons of carbon emission is

being reduced.
Water Consumption 5.1 billion gallons of water is being conserved.

CSR OF APPLE:
The firm under took certain corporate social responsibility programs that would help to build a
better profile in terms of CSR.

SUPPORTING LOCAL COMMUNITIES:

 The program global volunteer was started off in the year 2011 to boost the employees
to be volunteering in the local communities. Ever since this program was started 78
billion dollars were donated by the non-profits (Dudovskiy, 2018).
 The same program was revised in the start of 2015 were the employees were given
the choice of choosing the local communities that they would contribute.

EDUCATION AND EMPOWERING WORKERS:

 Education and the development programs by apple were being offered free education
and 300,000 employees took up education in various fields (Dudovskiy, 2018).

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  The vice president of apple in the forte of HR devised and expanded programs that
are more beneficial for the employees. The employees can take 4 weeks off before
delivery that is followed up to 14 weeks right after the birth of the child (Dudovskiy,
2018).

LABOUR AND HUMAN RIGHTS:

 The supplier code of conduct that is being enforced in the company apple is said to be
tough in this field of industry (Dudovskiy, 2018).
 The firm successfully reached about an average of 95 % compliance in the field of
suppliers to have 60 hours of workweek (Dudovskiy, 2018).

HEALTH AND SAFETY:

 An 18 months programs has been launched by the company named as EHS academy
that focuses on the employees’ health around the world. 300,000 workers have
indulged in this program (Dudovskiy, 2018).
 The design changes in the workstation in the supply chain of the apple has been said
to have better standards in terms of ergonomics.

GENDER EQUALITY IN APPLE:

 The company is said to have more than 32 % of female employees. The blacks are 9
% and the Hispanic’s 12 %. In the total global work force in recent 1 year it is found to
have 37 % of the new employees are women. And the minority group of employees in
the U.S has increased to 27 % in the last one year (Dudovskiy, 2018).
 The equal pay was achieved by Apple in the year of 2016.
 The CEO of the company Tim Cook is openly gay that is been praised for the diversity
and openly appreciated by other companies (Dudovskiy, 2018).

ENERGY CONSUMPTION:
 The environmental records that is held by the company is phenomenal that has a
decrease in the total energy consumption by 58 %. The laptop Mac mini is the most
energy efficient in the world that has phenomenal rating based on the guidelines by
the Energy Star (Dudovskiy, 2018).
 100 % clean energy index has achieved by Apple and it is the only company to have
this prestige’s record based on Greenpeace Report.
 The energy recovery by Apple world-wide is said to have almost 97 % that is generated
as renewable energy.

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  In 24 countries apple has successfully achieved 100 % renewable energy and it’s a
pride for the company to run all the data centres on totally renewable energy
(Dudovskiy, 2018).
 By the year 2020 it is targeted to achieve 4 gigawatts of renewable energy.

WATER CONSUMPTION:
 In the year 2013 Apple launched clean water program and they have achieved about
saving water of 8 billion gallon (Dudovskiy, 2018).
 The water reuse in the data centres has reached to 35 times in cooling systems.
 The Apple changed 1 lakh square feet of lawns as a drought tolerant lands which sums
up to saving water of 6 million gallons (Dudovskiy, 2018).
 Apple uses 75% of the non-potable water.
 Drought tolerant plants are being planted in the company.

WASTE REDUCTION:
 The company provides programs for recycling in almost 99 % of the countries that has
Apple workspace. 500 million pounds of E-waste from the landfill is being diverted from
2008 (Dudovskiy, 2018).
 Robots were introduced in the line of disassembling the iPhone with in 11 seconds that
can be recycled.
 99% of the products that are used in packing is from recycled papers.
 Apple is being associated with more than 150 recycling plants that is devised to have
90 million pounds of electronic wastes (Dudovskiy, 2018).

CARBON EMISSIONS:
 The carbon emissions that is being released in to environment by the company has
reduced in a significant manner where it has the foot print of 29 million metric tons that
is was 10 % less when compared to the last year.
 The below graph shows the Co2 emission per product that has a constant decrease
(Dudovskiy, 2018).

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 Fig 3 CARBON EMISSION PER PRODUCT

Source: (Dudovskiy, 2018)

APPLE STAKE HOLDERS AND CSR COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES:

Apple is one of the biggest companies in the world that has the major stake holders as
customers, employees, investors and the employees of the distributors and the suppliers
(Thompson, 2017).

Stake Holders CSR

Customers Customers are prioritized by the company
for the CSR strategies. The high pricing is
been accepted by the customers due to its
high quality and the company has several
environmental programs that satisfies the
customers in the field of CSR (Thompson,
2017).
Employees of Apple Apple prioritizes the employees right after
the customers in CSR. These stake holders
focus on their career development and the
company provides required compensation
packages that satisfy the employees in
terms of CSR (Thompson, 2017).

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 Investors They are the major stakeholders that
determines the CSR programs. Phenomenal
results are produced in terms of financial
performance of the company (Thompson,
2017). As it is very evident that apple makes
it to the first trillion company in the world that
has high profit margins. Based on the CSR
conditions the investors are very satisfied
(Thompson, 2017).
Employees of suppliers and distributors The workers in the supply chain is also
considered to be an aspect that plays a
major role in the corporate social
responsibilities. They prefer a secure job and
the compensations that are provided by the
Apple under the supplier code of conduct.
There are many policies that are devised for
them. Thus, it gives a satisfaction in the field
of CSR (Thompson, 2017).

ISSUES IN APPLE AND MANAGEMENT:

LACK IN STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT:
Apple shows low interest in engaging the stakeholders and to have a strategy. The issue that
prevails with the Greenpeace is an example (Godelnik, 2015). The Apple’s reply to the
questions from the media on the supply chain have been a disappointment that shows a lack
of interest in the stakeholder (Godelnik, 2015).

LACK IN TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE:

It is said that Apple has not adopted the triple bottom line (Godelnik, 2015). They have been
focusing on acknowledging environmental and social issues only if it shows significant
increase in the profits. They are practicing triple bottom line only focusing on the profits
(Godelnik, 2015).

LACK OF CSR TEAMS:

The Apple does not really focus on having efficient teams that focuses on the corporate Social
Responsibilities (Godelnik, 2015).

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TRANSPARENCY LEVEL IS LOW:
When compared to other competitors Apple is said to have less transparency level that is not
satisfied enough through the eyes of media (Godelnik, 2015).

Dated Approach:
The company lacks in sustainability where it is evident on the website that it has a separate
page for environmental aspect that is called as the supplier’s responsibility that focuses on the
supply chain (Godelnik, 2015). It does not have a separate page for CSR like their competitors
do. The Corporate social responsibility approach should be done on regular basis (Godelnik,
2015).

CSR Ranking:
Apple ranking went down to 49th place from seventh place, which is very big down fall for the
company in terms of CSR because of installation of the nets for safety that would prevent the
workers from suiciding form the office space (Raj, 2017). This issue was highly criticised by
the media due the work environment that is being provided by the Apple (Raj, 2017).

RECOMMENDATIONS:
 Steve Jobs was the best CEO who helped to build Apple in a glorious way and
someone with the same qualities would help the company to multiply in too many
folds in terms of CSR ("Managing Communications In Apple Company Commerce Essay",
2013).
 The understanding is lacking in terms of satisfying the supply chain employees. Apple
should provide more strategies in CSR for the employees. The company should be
more open and welcoming for the new innovation and ideas.
 The bureaucracy should be eliminated to implement and to manage scientifically.
Thus, it would help in better innovations and improves the relationship between the
management and the employees.
 The supplier code of conduct has to be strong enough to satisfy the employees to have
satisfactory CSR.

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CONCLUSION:
The Apple being one of the top most companies it has failed to maintain its position in CSR
field where they have been ranked in 49th place that is a major setback for the company. Thus,
there has to be a team to raise new policies based on the requirements of the stakeholders to
build back the reputation that it has lost in the recent year. Even though the company is
financially very strong they have to focus on enforcing the triple line bottom theory for better
corporate social responsibility strategy.

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Reference:

Corporate Social Responsibility & Human Rights | Australian Human Rights Commission.
(2008). Retrieved from https://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/corporate-social-
responsibility-human-rights

Baker, M. (2004). Definitions of corporate social responsibility - What is CSR?. Retrieved

from http://mallenbaker.net/article/clear-reflection/definitions-of-corporate-social-
responsibility-what-is-csr

Kh. Tomba Singh, K. (2013). Ethics in Corporate Social Responsibility. IOSR Journal Of
Business And Management, 9(2), 16-21. doi: 10.9790/487x-0921621

Mourougan, S. (2015). Corporate Social Responsibility for sustainable business. IOSR

Journal Of Business And Management, 17(5.Ver. I), PP 94-106. doi: 10.9790/487X-
175194106

Nylander, S. (2010). Corporate social responsibility issues management at Vattenfall

AB. Earth Science Centre, 16(SE-752 36).

RAJ, J. (2017). Apple, Samsung suffer in CSR reputation ranking, Lego takes top position.
Retrieved from https://www.marketingmag.com.au/news-c/apple-samsung-suffer-csr-
ranking/

Godelnik, R. (2015). 5 Reasons Why Apple's CSR Strategy Doesn't Work. Retrieved from
https://www.triplepundit.com/2012/05/5-reasons-apples-csr-strategy-doesnt-work/

THOMPSON, A. (2017). Apple Inc. Stakeholders: A CSR Analysis - Panmore Institute. Retrieved from
http://panmore.com/apple-inc-stakeholders-csr-analysis

Dudovskiy, J. (2018). Apple Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) - Research-

Methodology. Retrieved from https://research-methodology.net/apple-corporate-social-
responsibility-csr/

Managing Communications In Apple Company Commerce Essay. (2013). Retrieved from

https://www.ukessays.com/essays/commerce/managing-communications-in-apple-company-
commerce-essay.php

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