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Poll Results: Microsoft is one of the world's most ethical companies

April 23, 2012, 8:27 AM PDT

Takeaway: TechRepublic member poll reaffirms that Microsoft is, indeed, one of the world’s most ethical companies.

I must admit that when I created this poll on March 19, 2012, I was expecting a different result:

Do you agree that Microsoft is currently one of the most ethical companies in the world?

If all you had to go on was the negative comments we receive in the Microsoft Windows Blog here on TechRepublic, you would assume Microsoft would be categorized as one of the least ethical companies in the world. But that is not the case.

The majority of poll respondents consider Microsoft one of the most ethical companies in the world, which only goes to affirm the company’s recognition from The Ethisphere Institute.

The results of the TechRepublic poll speak for themselves.

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About Mark Kaelin

Mark Kaelin is a CBS Interactive Senior Editor for TechRepublic. He is the host for the Microsoft Windows and Office blog, the Google in the Enterprise blog and the iOS App Builder blog.

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2 Votes

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Microsoft's Ethics

emailads=spam 26th Apr 2012

Microsoft has always been my choice since 1996. That's why I can never understand people like "Judge" Adrian Kingsley-Hughes constantly blasting Microsoft. Does the competition pay him extra for that?

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2 Votes

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Why were you surprised?

Tony Hopkinson 26th Apr 2012

People who understand ethics have always been a minority....

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2 Votes

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Moderator

This shouldn't be a surprise to anybody

NickNielsen 29th Apr 2012

...Microsoft makes decisions in their own interest, above that of their customers.

All businesses do this; it's part of being a business. And almost all such decisions are made with the understanding that you're not going to make all the people happy all the time. It only causes problems for the business when those making the decisions allow the interests of the business and the interests of the customers to diverge too far.

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0 Votes

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Didn't someone here recently look into the 'Ethisphere Institute'

hippiekarl 29th Apr 2012

and discover that it's a shill for its donors (corporate contenders for its 'awards')? Maybe it was in a ZDNet article....these kind of 'awards' should be looked into before they're picked up and used as being indicative of anything...especially if they fly in the face of one's own experience and knowledge.

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Moderator

This shouldn't be a surprise to anybody

NickNielsen 29th Apr 2012

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1 Vote

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Microsoft Ethics

cnaw@... 29th Apr 2012

I am retired from IBM. I've always felt IBM to be an ethical company, but in observing with 20-20 hindsight, I can see that others had difficulty in accepting that, because of their dominant position in computer industry in the 60's and 70's. IBM had guiding principles that we all believed, and operated under. But IBM was heavy-handed at times, and eventually had to abide by a consent decree.
Microsoft has also had a dominant position in the software world with Windows, and has operated in a heavy-handed way, also. I strongly believe that they deliberately harmed competitors, on purpose, to maintain a "monopoly" position. The federal government did not apply sufficient anti-trust measures against Microsoft.
But, now Microsoft appears to be losing their monopoly position, with strong competitve action. I also see that their actions appear to be more ethical than before.
To me, they have debatable ethics, and they manage their business in a "heavy-handed" manner. By that I mean, Microsoft makes decisions in their own interest, above that of their customers. However, they seem to be "mellowing" towards their customers more now.
They have become much more security conscious, and with the "free" Security Essentials", they are better aware of customer needs. After their fiasco with Vista, they are listening to their customers much better with Windows 7 and Windows 8.
Their current trend is good, and they can be a big winner, if they can win customers minds and hearts! It worked for Apple, it can work for Microsoft.

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