Leadership and Organizational Structure for Innovation: A Case Study of Apple Inc.

Running head: ADVANCE INNOVATION MANAGEMENT
Advance Innovation Management
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1ADVANCE INNOVATION MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Innovation management is the combination of innovation management process and
change management. It is the business discipline, which is aimed at driving sustainable
innovation process within organization (Donate & de Pablo, 2015). This study will discuss the
topic leadership and organizational structure for innovation. Leadership and organizational
structure define the allowance of the employee generate and put innovative business ideas in
organizational decision making process. The study will discuss the key theories associated with
the topic and apply those theories on the innovation of Apple Inc. Apart from that, the study will
also identify the issues faced by the organization. On the other hand, the study will propose
suitable solution to Apple Inc. and discuss the impact of those solutions on the competitive
advantage of the organization.
Literature Review
Leadership and Organization Structure for Innovation
Leadership defines the philosophy and technique, which combines different styles for
influencing the employees in inputting creative and innovation ideas for leading organizational
innovation. Innovative leaders can make crucial addition to the traditional thinking for bringing
new ideas and product and service offerings in their organization. On the other hand, Mihalache
et al. (2014) opined that organizational structure formulates the way of interaction between the
managers and employees. Moreover, free flowing of opinions from the employees to high level
managers can foster creative and innovative ideas for leading organizational uniqueness.

2ADVANCE INNOVATION MANAGEMENT
Theories Related Leadership and Organizational Structure
The types of leadership are extremely important for fostering innovative ideas and
thoughts targeted at organizational innovation. Anderson et al. (2014) pointed out that
transformational leadership adopts the philosophy to move towards the change, rather than
resisting or avoiding them. Such leaders thrive on changes and take excitement through the
prospects of evolving their organization into better place. Moreover, the leaders encourage the
employees and allow their innovative ideas for fostering creative ideas. On the other hand,
Camisón and Villar-López (2014) opined that contingent leaders properly understand the unique
needs of a particular situation and make unique decision that can best be applied to that situation.
In this way, such leaders are highly inclined towards make changes and innovation in their
organization as required by the specific organizational situation.
The structure of an organization defines the way of interaction between the management
and employees. Innovation is best explored in the organizations, where the employees can freely
communicate with the upper management and suggest their innovative ideas in for fostering
organizational innovation. According to Sarooghi et al. (2015), flatter organizational structure
allow for more decision making among different levels of organizations. In such structure, the
employees can directly interact with the upper level managers and suggest their innovative ideas
for fostering organizational innovation.
Theories of Innovation
Disruptive innovation fosters an innovation, which helps in creating new value network
and new market and ultimately disrupts the existing value network and market. Disruptive
innovation is something that is not the iteration of something and completely new to the market.