Tim Cook Case Summary

Using the “dirty-hands problem” framework discussed in the case, Apple CEO Tim Cook had to face “right-versus-right” dilemmas that people in top management positions often responsibilities face, involving the reconciliation of four different spheres of responsibilities: private life vs. economic agents vs. company leaders vs. beyond the firm’s boundaries.In his private life, Cook allegedly held strong beliefs on an individual’s right to privacy. This supposedly translated to Apple’s philosophy towards safeguarding iOS users’ rights to privacy, meaning that as a company leader in Apple, Cook would also have felt obliged to uphold the company values that Apple employees presumably believe in – he could not have “conscionably” asked Apple engineers to create a backdoor to the iPhone.As an economic agent with the mission of maximizing the wealth of Apple’s shareholders (not to mention his own personal wealth), Cook would have realized that compromising one of the iPhone’s …show more content…
2.Assess the ways in which Tim Cook may have resolved these dilemmas.Let’s look at the issue using the four questions mentioned in the case framework.Which course of action will do the most good (greatest good to the greatest number of people) and involve the least harm (cost, and risk)?The logic of this question is straightforward, but practically, the “right” answer depends on one’s values and where one stands.Firstly, it is important to differentiate between the nature of the harm – physical, versus non-physical. The FBI’s intention, in making its request for an iPhone backdoor following the San Bernardino incident, was to save people from physical harm: lives and bodies are at