Aristotle's Four Principles in the Mobile Phone Production Industry - Case Study Example

Running Head: ANALYSIS OF ARISTOTLE’S FOUR PRINCIPLES Customer inserts His/her name Customer inserts grade course Customer inserts Tutor’s name 14th December 2011 Introduction In his book, he evaluates the causes of an idea in four components namely the formal idea, the material, efficiency cause and the final purpose for the event contemplated. The mobile telephone industry production is one of the most thriving, mass markets for fast moving consumer goods. The efficient cause of the study is the manufacturing company Nokia which has been producing handsets with improved features such as camera, dual sim applications, television, radio, internet services as well as security settings which guarantee the safety of the handsets. Equally, those settings come in handy as they are able to be configured to tracking devices to guard vehicles among other assets in the company. As a competitor with other established brands, constant research on improvement and accommodation of new technology is done to improve the mobile handsets (Falcon, 2008). Discussion In ensuring efficiency is met, the widespread branches of the company ensure that handsets by Nokia company are available in the market to their customers. The material cause of a phone is the raw materials used in their manufacture. This includes the plastics and metals which make the casings, the micro chips which make up the gadget and the screens displaying the various contents of the phone. The formal cause in this case is the desire of telephony companies to come up with superior phone gadgets that conform to the modern changing life of the consumer. These phones are meant to go beyond the primary function of communication to include comfort and convenience in the users lives. The final cause of the phone includes the gadget itself as a communication device used for making calls, messaging, browsing the internet, taking snaps as well as storing data among other functions (Ammonius, 1991). Nokia Company as a mass producer has innovatively made additional features to their products that make them unique. However, in relation to James and Aristotle’s arguments, the company is purely in the business for commercial interests and not to providing services to the consumers. The company’s efforts are motivated by getting the most gains in the free market at the expense of efficiency (Hillman 2007).In attracting this market; most companies have had to sacrifice ethical considerations in a bid to keep in the market. Modern day commerce require companies to constantly keep reviewing their products against sales to enable them know their profitability margins. According to Aristotle (2005), efficiency as a primary objective, should be tied closely to the other three causes to further the interests of commerce by enhancing efficiency and fairness. This shift is necessary as it ensures that business entities have humane regards to other factors besides making profits. One of the key considerations in the company is the maximization of profits and minimizing costs or overheads. However, these considerations in pursuit of profits have affected the main factors of production. The employees in these big multinational companies have to contend with downsizing, low wages and poor working conditions at the expense of the company making profits. The public is also affected when the companies pollute their immediate environments (Adler 2007). Competition in the market has led to ‘poaching’ employees from competitors in order to have leverage over their competitor’s products. The advent of mass markets which Nokia as a corporate entity pursues is predicated by profit making which sometimes leads to making of faulty or substandard products. This is because the initial cause of product delivery is lost and the employees are not motivated to work but only do so as a ‘routine’. According to Hilman (2007) the consumers are greatly hurt by the substandard products since they innocently buy the products they find in the market which are substandard and of bad quality. The pursuit for profits has also led to emergence of low quality of raw materials for the phones. These compromises the quality of the phones produced as well as the human resource component which includes the integrity of the employees. Humanity is lost as employees work as ‘robots’ for their masters to cash in huge returns. The pressure of employees especially engineers, to compromise the quality of raw materials (material cause) affects the final product (final cause) which Aristotle discourages as it affects productivity (Adler, 2007). The four components (the causes) when implemented ensure better delivery and quality high products. This is possible when all the causes are employed in any production line. According to Aristotle, a manufacturing entity must also pose the question ‘that for which, your actions are performed’ which ensure that employees work passionately to improve their livelihoods, the company and the target markets at large. A company should strive to acquire quality raw materials (material cause) in order to churn out competitive products in the market. Although the use of superior or quality materials will reduce on the profit margins (formal cause) consumers will be more inclined to buy the products since they will be genuine and of high quality .This to Aristotle, is a means of demonstrating efficiency. Consequently, the final product, the phone, being the ‘final cause’ is achieved from the motivated labor force. This is because humane considerations are factored in the product not merely for profit maximization hence improving quality and sales as Aristotle confirms. The implementation of the four cause’s results in efficiency and increase in the profits margins since customers will be more inclined to purchase the products offered to the market. In a nutshell, efficiency is not being treated independently of the other causes when coming up with a competitive strategy to sell products in a company. A company should regularly conduct an appraisal of its long term strategy. It should avoid getting sucked into the whims of the ‘free market’ where profits are to be realized at whatever cost. By compromising standards, a company or any other corporate entity loses its respect and grounding in the market making it difficult to market the products on offer. Such a company is also faced with the danger of attrition and employees dissatisfaction which affect productivity in the work place. Efficiency must also be warped with the other causes in order to constantly inform a company when it falls short of its objectives. According to Aristotle, there is a bad unethical impression formed that good citizens must be bad workers which encourage them to employ ways of encouraging inefficiency. Similarly, large companies place huge premiums on getting profits at the expense of the welfare of its employees and the public. He terms this as unjust, unethical and evil. Most companies mask their activities through the ‘double bottom line’ where they engage in social responsibilities upon making their huge profit margins. These initiatives help in harnessing efficiency but do little to help improve employee’s satisfaction especially if they are badly remunerated or have bad working conditions in the work place. Aristotle’s ideas and arguments are reflective of the disregard multinational companies commanding large markets have over improvement of working conditions of the labor force. His insistence on following the four causes stipulate that companies must always and justly treat human beings well especially its internal and external publics as they are the true reflection of the company. When a company maintains its quality surveillance as well as addressing to its human resource component it is bound not to have internal conflicts therefore increasing the profits margins. Conclusion Through keeping tandem with the stiff competition brought by the ‘free market’ companies among other corporate entities must adopt very sensitive and humane approaches in the whole chain of product delivery. By implementing the causes as stated by Hilman (2007) companies will engage in activities that are beneficial to the communities around them. In our instant case, Nokia is to ensure that it considers mitigating the levels of pollution in its manufacturing plants. Equally, the companies should also help in absorbing labor drawn from the immediate community (Hilman, 2007). Although most companies have engaged themselves in corporate social responsibility where they support worthy causes such as afforestation, medical causes, sports among other ventures little has been done to directly improve the working conditions of workers who generate these products. Increasingly, cases of attrition dominate as companies try to outdo one another. This is because some companies do not invest in building a human resource component and prefers ‘poaching’ from established entities. Finally, in the recent years there has been a proliferation of substandard products especially in the mobile telephones industries which have had adverse effects to the unsuspecting consumers. As Aristotle observes, efficiency is highly compromised by the input of an employee who engages absenteeism, buck passing among other elements of laxity. These destroy the positive energy within an organization and leaves the workers disillusioned and unmotivated. In keeping with the market trends, companies are increasingly embracing the concept of adopting green initiatives. These initiatives have also spread wide especially now that the world has become a global village thanks to Information Technology (Woods, 1991). References Adler, W. (2007). Priceline for Pollution: Auctions to Allocate Public Pollution Control Dollars Ammonius, H. (1991). On Aristotle's Categories: Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press Falcon, Andrea. (2008). Aristotle on Causality: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy Hilman J. (2007), Kinds of Power, A guide to its intelligent uses 22(1), 23-29. Lindberg, David.(1992). The Beginnings of Western Science, p53 Woods, M. J. (1991). Universals and Particular Forms in Aristotle's Metaphysics: Aristotle and the Later Tradition. Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy: Suppl. pp. 41–56. Read More