This case primarily deals with the growing concern over the numerous suicides at Foxconn which raised doubts about its labor practices. The case charts the growth of Foxconn into the league of top players of the world in the electronics manufacturing industry and provides multitude of contradictory viewpoints of various stakeholders like employees, suppliers, government, media, non-profit organizations, etc. It provides scope for an analysis of the labor practices at Foxconn and the probable reasons for the suicides. The case unfolds the steps taken by Foxconn to counter the suicide problem and illustrates Foxconn management’s responses to allegations of poor labor practices. How various stakeholders play their part, react and counter-react to these measures is also seen.

Foxconn’s factories were dismissed as isolated events. However, the recurrence of such incidents and deaths sparked a controversy and Foxconn’s ‘military style’ corporate culture became the focus of media attention. Reports indicated that the deaths had followed a similar pattern—the workers, most of them young, had jumped off the buildings of Foxconn. The tragic events led to industry observers questioning the labor practices at Foxconn. The business model followed by Chinese companies, which was based on low-cost manufacturing, also came into question.

According to Xinhua7 News Agency (Xinhua), there had been many more such incidents in the year 2010 alone but not all of them had proved fatal. Foxconn blamed the deaths on the personal problems of the workers and followed up by closely monitoring its workers for any extraordinary emotional outbursts, setting up counselling hotlines, and hiring counsellors for the workers. Foxconn was confident that it could control the situation despite its large workforce of half a million. Industry analysts opined that Foxconn needed to take quick action, considering it was a key supplier to major corporations like Apple, Dell Inc.8 (Dell), etc. Terry Tai-Ming Gou (Gou), Chairman of Foxconn, denied that his factories were sweatshops. He said he had no idea why so many of his employees were killing themselves. “From a logical, scientific standpoint, I don’t have a grasp on that. No matter how you force me, I don’t know,”9 he said. However, Gou said the company would do everything possible to prevent the occurrence of further deaths of the kind.10

HRM Review Magazine, Talent Management, Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization, Corporate Resources, Learning Management, Performance Management, Recruiting Management, Corporate Goals, Organizational Goals, Corporate Strategies, Career Development, Competency Building Modules, Human Capital Management, Human Resource Management, Organizational Strategies.