‘How Ethical are Major Internet Companies?’

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’
o Briefly describe that you are going to report on the ethical standards and actions of the following major internet companies:
? Google
? Dell
? Apple
? Facebook
o 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?’
o Survey 10 people and ask: How ethical do you think each of the following companies is?
o Rate the answers from 1-10 (totally unethical to completely ethical)
o Report the average result for each company in a table
o Report your own initial ethical rating of the same companies

• ‘Ethical/Code of Conduct Policies’
o Locate the ethical policy/code of conduct for each company
o Suggestion: Search <company name> ethics policy or code of conduct
o Write a brief summary of the policy
o 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’
o Locate and briefly describe any reports of unethical conduct by the companies (maximum 3).
o Suggestion: Search <company name> unethical
o Do these reports match the companies’ policies?
• ‘Australian Tax’
o Locate reports of the tax paid in Australia by the companies
o Do these companies pay a fair share of tax in Australia?

• ‘Summary’
o Are the companies as ethical as they claim?
o Are some companies better than others?
o Do you have any recommendations for better ethical behaviour?
o Having done the research, what is you final ethical rating for the companies