Workers Sickened at Apple Supplier in China

With our group talking about ethics in the workplace I’m going to be providing a situation where I strongly believe that the overall company needs to adapt to the followers needs such as the workers and going to present a leadership style/approach that is critical to the companies long term survival. 

This company is known as Apple.  When you think of them, you think of faultless management, superior products and a leader that stands out with competitive advantage.  Is this all true though?  In an article that I found in The New York Times titled, “Workers Sickened at Apple Supplier in China” by David Barboza, he truly did beg the differ.  This article is about Apple and how workers at a supplier plant in Suzhou China are being injured by a toxic chemical .  The plant is known as Wintek, in which 137 workers at that factory had been seriously injured by a toxic chemical used in making the glass screens of the iPhone.  “The chemical that is used is called n-hexane and it can disrupt the central nervous system of humans and induce vertigo and muscular atrophy” (Barboza).  With this happening and workers getting affected by this chemical, Apple refuses to help them in any possible way.

Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman at Apple’s headquarters, said that the “company was committed to the highest standards of social responsibility in its supply chain,” clearly they don’t follow through with their mission. (Barboza). They undeniably don’t treat workers with respect and dignity and don’t use environmentally friendly manufacturing processes.  With this said, I feel that the company should adopt a procedure/theory know as transformational leadership.  Transformational leadership is a theory that stresses “that leaders need to understand and adapt to the needs and motives of followers, and also that leaders should be recognized as changed agents who are good role models, who can create and articulate a clear vision for an organization, who empower followers to meet higher standards, and who act in ways that make others want to rust them, and who give meaning to organizational life” (Northouse, pg. 200).

In the article, it is stated that the workers that are affected by this illness “say they don’t trust the factory because some managers continue to press injured workers to resign, sometimes by insisting they work longer hours even through their health is impaired” (Barboza). Management is not paying for any medical bills, and are tying to make the employees quit instead of trying to provide support. The first thing management needs to do is win back the company/workers trust.  To do that, the workers which are affected by the chemical should seek medical attention that should be paid for by Apple.  Apple then should redesign the process and figure out how they can make the screens with a different technique.  After that, they should follow through and reimburse the workers for medical leave.  With these little tasks getting done, it will show the workers that Apple is indeed trying to help.  Management should be evaluated and be given the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire “which measures a leaders behavior in seven areas: idealized influence, inspiration motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, contingent reward, management by exception and laissez-fair” (Northouse, pg. 200)  This will show the management team what their strengths and weaknesses are and will then lead them to focus and correct their original behaviors that will then make them into a better role model/leader.

Apple should live up to their end of social responsibility and to adopt the theory of transformational leadership to help upper management be attentive to the needs and motives of the followers and try to help each worker/follower reach their true potential.  Upper management strongly demonstrates Laissez-faire leadership which is defined as having no leadership at all.  It implies a “hands-off, let-things-ride” approach (Northouse, pg. 182).  Apple needs to move far away from this approach and needs to start giving feedback to the workers to let them know how their doing or even try to help them a little bit.  Management can offer incentives for hard work or meeting quotas, and this will create trust among the company and will be better on both management and the workers.

After reading this article, I encourage you click here and do the same. How do you feel about this situation as you continue to purchase products from Apple.  Yea they have great technology and products, but the workers are all in danger while building the products.  What would you suggest to Apple’s management? 

- Steve Fagiano