The Dark Side of the iPad and iPhone?

Here is a story that will really get students thinking about the products they buy and use…

The story has been rumbling for a while now, and this article in the Independent goes into some depth on the background to the problems being experienced at a massive consumer electronics factory in China.

The sheer scale of the operation at the Foxconn factory in the southern Chinese boom town of Shenzhen is mind-boggling.  As the article reports: “The chefs slaughter 6,000 pigs a day to feed the company’s nearly 400,000 workers in this giant industrial complex, spread over 1.2 square miles”

Foxconn is clearly benefiting from huge economies of scale at the industrial complex, but at what social cost?  It is alleged that up to ten employee suicides are linked to working conditions at Foxconn - a major supplier of components and sub-assemblies to the likes of Apple & Dell.

The article raises many issues of corporate social responsibility - and perhaps asks questions of us as consumers?  Are we comfortable with the kind of working conditions endured by people who manufacture the electronic products that we desire and demand?

You could also use the article to highlight some alternative methods of employee management and motivation.  You don’t find examples like these in many of the standard business studies textbooks:

“The company, which employs over 800,000 workers around the world, is now playing soothing music along the production lines. Over 2,000 singers, dancers and gym trainers have been recruited, and the group is also hiring psychiatrists and Buddhist monks to help with stress. New fences are also being installed on every worker’s dormitory building, according to local media, which are up to three metres high and are meant to prevent suicidal workers from jumping off the roof.”

Revision Presentation - Training [17 May 2012]
Flaws in Tesco’s strategy [24 Apr 2012]
A detailed look inside Apple’s Foxconn factory [24 Apr 2012]
Strategy - How Nokia was overtaken by Apple and Samsung [17 Apr 2012]
Apple under fire for e-book deals [17 Apr 2012]
CSR - Ethics and Pay Day Loans [14 Apr 2012]
Strategy & Technological Change - Whatever Happened to BlackBerry? [14 Apr 2012]
Sony - Hirai’s Turnaround Strategy - in Video Clips [13 Apr 2012]
Organisational culture, strategy and performance in fewer than 1000 words [9 Apr 2012]
Revision Presentation - Business Ethics [7 Apr 2012]
Revision Presentation - Emerging Markets [7 Apr 2012]
The Dawning Age of the Chinese Multinational [7 Apr 2012]
Move over Apple, Samsung, Sony & Nokia. Here Comes China’s Huawei [7 Apr 2012]
BUSS4 M&A - the Benefits of Foreign Takeovers of UK Firms [7 Apr 2012]
Walmart targets leadership of the online shopping market in China [6 Apr 2012]
Revision Presentation - Corporate Social Responsibility [6 Apr 2012]
Revision Presentation - Business and the Environment [6 Apr 2012]
The Downsides of Downsizing - Does Retrenchment Work? [4 Apr 2012]
It’s Time for a Global Luxury Chinese Hotel Chain - for the Chinese [25 Mar 2012]
Two Lesson Videos on Nokia - Will their Strategy Work? [13 Mar 2012]
Apple’s new CEO and a new iPad - A Change in Leadership [9 Mar 2012]
CSR - Tesco leads firms having second thoughts about unpaid work experience scheme [22 Feb 2012]
Tata and the rise of Jaguar Land Rover [22 Feb 2012]
Video starter - Inside the iPad factory [21 Feb 2012]
Ideas not Hierarchy Makes a Business - Steve Jobs on Teamwork & Culture [13 Feb 2012]
The history of Apple’s product innovation - in 30 seconds [10 Feb 2012]
Happiness in the workplace still proving elusive [6 Feb 2012]
Leadership - Tough decisions to turn Starbucks around [29 Jan 2012]
Manufacturing strategy: Is China losing its competitiveness? [29 Jan 2012]
Strategic choice: What should Apple do for its investors? [29 Jan 2012]
The tablet takeover? [23 Jan 2012]
External influences: the threat that is China [22 Jan 2012]
Its Ethics, not Airfix you Plonker!! [5 Jan 2012]
In Business - technology developments in 2012 [3 Jan 2012]
BUSS3 Quiz on Human Resource Strategies [28 Dec 2011]
CSR - Growing public support for responsible capitalism [28 Dec 2011]
Unemployment and motivation [28 Dec 2011]
Investment in People - Google and Human Capital [26 Dec 2011]
Online marketing at children [19 Dec 2011]
Ethics - Coca Cola ‘Happiness is Home’ Project [13 Dec 2011]
Is this CSR Champion Acting Like Scrooge? [11 Dec 2011]
Ho! Ho! Ho?  No No No! Motivation and the Xmas Party [4 Dec 2011]
International operations decisions - Adidas trainers for $1? [26 Nov 2011]
Olympus Epic Fail [9 Nov 2011]
Strategy case study - does Microsoft have a long-term strategy? [21 Oct 2011]
Meet the CEO of Dropbox - the man who said no to Steve Jobs! [20 Oct 2011]
Leadership video - A heartfelt apology from the boss [15 Oct 2011]
The Simpsons and Financial Motivation [11 Oct 2011]
De-layering: do firms need middle managers? [5 Oct 2011]
CSR - 40 Years of Upsetting Big Business [15 Sep 2011]
Can investment in R&D provide a competitive advantage? [31 Aug 2011]
Apple and Innovation - Iconic Product Launches by Steve Jobs [24 Aug 2011]
Leadership - Farewell to Steve Jobs [24 Aug 2011]
Taking Italian to the Chinese - Pizza Express Expansion Strategy [24 Aug 2011]
Smartphone market shares spell trouble for Nokia [17 Aug 2011]
Automation and the arrival of 290,000 robots [2 Aug 2011]
The Case for Transformation [29 Jul 2011]
Motivation in a time of austerity - financial benefits become more important [27 Jul 2011]
New study shows CSR pays dividends [11 Jul 2011]
Shareholder revolt over executive pay at Burberry [7 Jul 2011]
Samsung seeks a ban on Apple products [30 Jun 2011]
Evan Davis ‘Made in Britain’ - and a new trade data tool to play with [21 Jun 2011]
CSR - £20m extra annual profit for M&S from Plan A [18 Jun 2011]
BUSS4 CSR Research Bullet 6 [18 Jun 2011]
BUSS4 CSR Research Bullet 5 [18 Jun 2011]
BUSS4 CSR Research Bullet 4 [18 Jun 2011]
BUSS4 CSR Research Bullet 3 [18 Jun 2011]
BUSS4 CSR Research Bullet 2 [17 Jun 2011]
BUSS4 CSR Research Bullet 1 [17 Jun 2011]
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Or who guards the guardians? Primark and The BBC. [16 Jun 2011]
CSR & Strategy - Why the Cooperative Group changed to survive [16 Jun 2011]
CSR - Evidence of Failure to “Walk the Talk” when it comes to Carbon? [15 Jun 2011]
CSR - Should Apple Pay More for its Geniuses? [14 Jun 2011]
Corporate longevity: the lessons from IBM’s 100th birthday [14 Jun 2011]
CSR - Greenpeace takes on Barbie by recruiting Ken [13 Jun 2011]
CSR - The Top UK Businesses for CSR in 2011 [13 Jun 2011]
CSR - The Business Case For CSR - Superb Data for BUSS4 [13 Jun 2011]
Crisis? What Crisis? [31 May 2011]
CSR - Is it time for McDonalds to ditch Big Ron? [22 May 2011]
CSR - Puma first to publish environmental impact costs [16 May 2011]
CSR - Has Social Responsibility Failed? Insights from Dame Anita Roddick [12 May 2011]
CSR - Chocolate the Bitter Truth [12 May 2011]
CSR - Can better social responsibility boost the UK economy by £17bn? [12 May 2011]
CSR - Can we trust CSR claims or is it greenwash? [12 May 2011]
CSR in 3D [12 May 2011]
Tesco’s overseas strategy: next steps [10 May 2011]
CSR - Sustainable Fish Needs a Packaging Boost [5 May 2011]
CSR - The PPI Scandal - so much for being socially responsible [5 May 2011]
CSR and Business Legislation - The Bribery Act comes to town [5 May 2011]
CSR - Evidence on the Greenhouse Gases of the top 300 European Firms [26 Apr 2011]
Private firms that grow big! [26 Apr 2011]
CSR - Picture Quiz [22 Apr 2011]
CSR - A responsible company from day one? [21 Apr 2011]
CSR - Apple: Big Profits but Dirty Data? [21 Apr 2011]
CSR - Evidence that Sustainability Works as a Business Strategy [19 Apr 2011]
CSR - Ikea’s Never Ending List… [25 Mar 2011]
CSR - Adidas restate’s its CSR objectives [25 Mar 2011]
CSR - Sport and Business Rediscover the CSR Buzz [25 Mar 2011]
CSR - Visioning the Future (Great Lesson Videos) [23 Mar 2011]
CSR - Corn: A Matter of Life or Death? [23 Mar 2011]

BUSINESS TEACHER RESOURCE NEWSLETTER
Get first news of business teaching resources, ideas and other materials from tutor2u. Over 9,400 business teachers from the UK and around the world receive our regular teacher email newsletters. Sign up for free here!