Task:Research and Write a Business Report that Addresses the Question:
‘How Ethical are Major Internet Companies?’
Methodology:
Write a Business report with the following report headings and content:
- ‘Introduction’
- Briefly describe that you are going to report on the ethical standards and actions of the following major internet companies:
- Microsoft
- Apple
- Briefly describe that you are going to report on the ethical standards and actions of the following major internet companies:
- You will do this by conducting a short survey, locating and summarizing the company’s Ethical and/or Code of Conduct policies, comparing their ethical policies with their actions, and drawing some conclusions about their ethical behaviour.
- ‘What do People Think?’
- Survey 10 people and ask: How ethical do you think each of the following companies is?
- Rate the answers from 1-10 (totally unethical to completely ethical)
- Report the average result for each company in a table
- Report your own initial ethical rating of the same companies
- ‘Ethical/Code of Conduct Policies’
- Locate the ethical policy/code of conduct for each company
- Suggestion: Search <company name> ethics policy or code of conduct
- Write a brief summary of the policy
- Briefly describe how each compare to the policy statements of the others? Longest/shortest, easiest to read/full of air, strongest stand/weakest, etc.
- ‘Ethical Behaviour’
- Locate and briefly describe any reports of unethical conduct by the companies (maximum 3).
- Suggestion: Search <company name> unethical
- Do these reports match the companies’ policies?
- ‘Australian Tax’
- Locate reports of the tax paid in Australia by the companies
- Do these companies pay a fair share of tax in Australia?
- ‘Summary’
- Are the companies as ethical as they claim?
- Are some companies better than others?
- Do you have any recommendations for better ethical behaviour?
- Having done the research, what is you final ethical rating for the companies
