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.”