Microsoft Manages Legal and Ethical Issues
Microsoft Manages Legal and Ethical Issues
S. Nevarez
Olympic College
OLRM 202: Introduction to Organizational Ethics
Microsoft is the global leader in computer software, and well recognized in the field of corporate social responsibility and philanthropy. However, since 1990 the computing giant has been plagued by allegations of antitrust violations and monopolistic, non-competitive business practices. By answering the three questions posed in Part 5, Case 7 of Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases; this review will address how such a legal and ethical dichotomy is possible, and how the issues relate to one another in terms of corporate reputation.
1. What unique aspects of the software industry created the opportunity for Microsoft's monopoly and anti-competitive practices?
The field of computer software development is highly competitive and constantly evolving. With the release of Windows 3.0 in 1990, Microsoft introduced the world of personal computing to a Graphical User Interface, or GUI. The primary Operating System (OS) prior with Windows 3.0 was text-based DOS (also a Microsoft product, produced under contract with hardware manufacturer IBM). Later that same year, Microsoft also released MS Excel 3.0 and MS Word for Windows 2.0, programs that integrated seamlessly with the Windows GUI, while other leading spreadsheet and word processing programs were still based in DOS. The simultaneous development of OS software and Application software poised Microsoft for market domination. Because both the OS and the Applications were developed by the same company, Microsoft application programmers had access to Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) codes earlier than third party developers. This allowed their products to hit the market faster than the competition, while creating a strong, co-branded marketing platform. Though the simultaneous development itself is not unethical, early access by the Microsoft Application programmers to the
S. Nevarez
Olympic College
OLRM 202: Introduction to Organizational Ethics
Microsoft is the global leader in computer software, and well recognized in the field of corporate social responsibility and philanthropy. However, since 1990 the computing giant has been plagued by allegations of antitrust violations and monopolistic, non-competitive business practices. By answering the three questions posed in Part 5, Case 7 of Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases; this review will address how such a legal and ethical dichotomy is possible, and how the issues relate to one another in terms of corporate reputation.
1. What unique aspects of the software industry created the opportunity for Microsoft's monopoly and anti-competitive practices?
The field of computer software development is highly competitive and constantly evolving. With the release of Windows 3.0 in 1990, Microsoft introduced the world of personal computing to a Graphical User Interface, or GUI. The primary Operating System (OS) prior with Windows 3.0 was text-based DOS (also a Microsoft product, produced under contract with hardware manufacturer IBM). Later that same year, Microsoft also released MS Excel 3.0 and MS Word for Windows 2.0, programs that integrated seamlessly with the Windows GUI, while other leading spreadsheet and word processing programs were still based in DOS. The simultaneous development of OS software and Application software poised Microsoft for market domination. Because both the OS and the Applications were developed by the same company, Microsoft application programmers had access to Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) codes earlier than third party developers. This allowed their products to hit the market faster than the competition, while creating a strong, co-branded marketing platform. Though the simultaneous development itself is not unethical, early access by the Microsoft Application programmers to the