Comprehensive Report: Change Management at Apple Inc.

This report provides an in-depth analysis of change management strategies implemented at Apple Inc. The report identifies key organizational challenges, including employee motivation, workplace culture conflicts, and the need for increased productivity in a highly competitive environment. It examines various change management approaches, such as developmental, transformational, and transitional changes, and how these strategies can be applied to address the identified issues. The report highlights the importance of leadership in driving change, emphasizing the need for clear communication, employee training, and the establishment of a strong relationship between employees and management. Furthermore, the report assesses the quality of change agent activities, such as flexibility, diversified knowledge, and responsibility, while offering recommendations for improving organizational performance, including employee incentives, workforce planning, and understanding client culture. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of change management for enhancing overall business performance and competitive advantage.

Running Head: Change Management
Change and innovation

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Analysis of change management approaches..................................................................................3
Assess the quality of the change agent’s work activities.................................................................5
Recommendations............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
The paper discusses the change takes place in a chosen company and here, the selected company
is Apple Inc. from the United States and the headquarter of the organization is located in
Cupertino, California. The organization is a technology-based company who designs, retails and
develops consumer electronics along with the mode of online services as well as embedding
computer software. Moreover, the company is considered to be one of the most popular brands
on Facebook, Google, and Amazon. Recently, Apple is facing an organizational problem which
needs to be fixed with the help of the change management process. A change process is a
management process undertaken by the organizations to bring development and improvement in
the business process. The organizational problems of Apple are employee motivation issues,
high-competitive environment issue, productivity, and cost-cutting issues. The Change
management is the process of Apple which needs to be part of corporate planning and it needs to
be efficient. Besides that, the leaders associated with the change should work with departmental
leaders and HR department to develop a business culture that accepts change. The leaders can
implement this by maintaining communication with Apple’s employees and implement
comprehensive training approaches to the individuals in organizational changes. The paper
discusses the change management approaches and it also assessed the quality of the change
agent’s work activities.
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Analysis of change management approaches
As discussed earlier that Apple needs a change due to some organizational problems, such as
workplace cultural issues, high-competitive environment issue, motivation issues, productivity,
and cost-cutting issues.
We know that there are three types of change by which organizations, such as Apple can perform
the change management activities. The three change management types are developmental
change, transformational change as well as transitional change. When the management of Apple
needs to make developments on the current workplace condition then developmental change
comes into the function while transitional change occurs when the company needs to implement
an absolutely new course of activities. Besides that, when the management needs to shift the
business culture out of the past underlying processes and strategy to a new one, transformational
change comes into function (Galli, 2019).
Currently, Apple is operating under the leadership of Tim Cook and the company continues to
improve its cultural characteristics for maximizing HR support for business significance in
various markets internationally. The organization shaped its corporate culture and used it as a
tool for strategic management and accomplishment. During working hours, the employees were
feeling stressed and they demanded for flexible working hours. Due to this, their motivational
level was going down and the organization was facing a huge loss in their production structure.
Thus, these situations were posing a competitive threat to management. Moreover, the
organization is also facing workplace cultural conflicts and the communication process was
becoming weak (Czichos, 2014). Therefore, Tim Cook decided to bring a change in the
workplace for strengthening communication system and avoiding cultural conflicts. The vision
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for the change is to bring a competitive advantage in the workplace and increase organizational
productivity.
Actual Change
 The management of Apple needs to establish a foundation list. The more an employee
trusts the leaders of Apple, the more they would become friends and communicate with
the managers for workplace issues. Besides, it is a great way to lay that foundation is to
establish a relationship with the organization’s employee (Hunt, Page & Brychta, 2011).
 Communication is a form of exchanging information. In a leadership role, clarifying and
illuminating leadership thoughts and ideas is significant. But passing on information
to the team is only half of the equation. The leaders of Apple should perform language
training and development process for effective communication. It would also avoid
cultural conflict.
 The efforts of change must include plans for the identification of leaders throughout
Apple and pushing responsibility for implanting and designing organizational objectives
for change (Jassowski, 2013). At each layer of the business firm, the leaders who are
identified and trained must be aligned to the organization’s vision. Besides, the company
should be equipped with training materials to execute their specific mission, and the
leaders should motivate them to make change happen.
Transformational Change
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Later, a transformational change process was applied for the development and improvement of
organizational productivity. In order to carry out transformational change, the leaders of Apple
should follow the steps below:
 The management of Apple should ensure the commitment of the senior management
towards the change which should be informed to all members of the firm.
 Moreover, the management should produce a written statement of change mission as well
as the futuristic direction of Apple. These documentations would help the management to
provide guidance on the values, policies, and objectives of the business to the employees
(Gunderson & Folke, 2011).
 In order to make a transformational change successful, the company needs to build a
shared awareness as well as a change in the employee's perception regarding the demand
and need for change.
 The management should also develop an understanding that conflict to change is
inevitable and it needs to be managed effectively and efficiently.
 At last, the company should maintain open communication channels regarding the
fundamental processes, challenges, failures as well as learning from the new initiatives
(Zülch, Koruca & Börkircher, 2011).
Assess the quality of the change agent’s work activities
We know that change is inevitable and it is part of business activities impacted by various factors
like globalization, evolving customer demands, and technology. Besides that, change
management of Apple has shifted from specialty to leadership qualities that impact how
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management and team conform to shifting marketplaces and continue with step by step
operations. Some of the change agent’s work activities are discussed below:
Flexibility: In order to bring a flexible work environment, the leaders need to have an
entrepreneurial approach. Besides, Apple's leaders need to exploit creative driving forces for
finding non-standard ways for a business so that the management can exploit and create business
opportunities. This consists of people of different ages and establishments to get an increasingly
significant understanding of experiences, personalities, and perspectives (Hayman, 2010).
Diversified Knowledge: The leaders of multinational organizations avoid workplace conflict
issues in their business. Apple’s leaders can achieve valuable insights and spot new open
opportunities for improvement by observing what's going on in various divisions, and observing
what is working and material to their own one of kind undertakings.
Focusing on priorities and outcomes: During a change period, it is helpful to stick to the
business priorities to achieve organizational objectives. Apple’s leaders must create change to
win that choose success or failure are revolved around improving the association's introduction
in business purposes. The organization can streamline fundamental leadership and make a
sensible picture of how the association is measuring up to need for change (Reardon, 2010).
Responsibility and Ownership: The employees respect quality and obligation. In order to lead
successfully, the leaders of Apple need to finally think about themselves accountable for their
team management. Besides, the change agents need to settle on decisions regarding workplace
cultural issues and conflicts. The outcomes of the decision will finally show that their objectives
are energized by the best points of interest of the association, thusly getting the trust of their
employees.
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Recommendations
We know that the mission of the change is concerned with the improvement of organizational
productivity and competitive advantage. In order to increase organizational performance, the
change agents must build a strong relationship between the employees and help them understand
the business strategy and objectives (Parsells, 2013). Moreover, the workers need to get
motivated and the management of Apple should provide incentives and bonus based on their
level of hard work. Training and development of employees are significant for the increase in
organizational productivity. Apart from these, the management should develop a workforce plan
for ensuring recruitment and hiring is done in time to develop people. It is significant for leaders
like Tim Cook to understand and learn the client's culture. By doing this, the management of
Apple can achieve a client's trust and loyalty. The change agents must take time to research and
inquire about another culture and then implement the knowledge during a conversion period. The
change agents of Apple can also implement the ADKAR Model of Change to successfully
achieve a change in the workplace. After the change process gets integrated completely, the
change agents must regularly meet with the change team as well as encourage them to provide
feedback on the change process (Blokdijk, 2012).
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Conclusion
The paper concludes that each and every company must implement a change in the workplace to
increase the overall business performance. This paper has covered the types of change that are
undertaken by the leaders of the business firm. Moreover, the paper is concerned with the
improvement of organizational productivity and competitive advantage. Actual change vs.
transformational change was discussed in this paper. The employees and managers should
develop individual skills required for an organizational change. However, training and
improvement ensure that Apple’s managers have the skills and talents required to manage their
team or group by means of a change procedure. Besides, it enables them to deal with the change
procedure as well as to evaluate and monitor change. As a result, it helps to reduce conceivable
confrontation to change and establish if the change goals were accomplished.
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References
Blokdijk, G. (2012). Change Management 100 Success Secrets - The Complete Guide to
Process, Tools, Software and Training in Organizational Change Management. Dayboro:
Emereo Publishing.
Czichos, R. (2014). Change Management. Freiburg im Breisgau: Haufe-Lexware.
Galli, B. (2019). An Engineering Manager's Guide for Commonly Used Change Management
Approaches. IEEE Engineering Management Review, 1-1. doi: 10.1109/emr.2019.2896301
Gunderson, L., & Folke, C. (2011). Resilience 2011: Leading Transformational Change. Ecology
and Society, 16(2). doi: 10.5751/es-04287-160230
Hayman, J. (2010). Flexible work arrangements: exploring the linkages between perceived
usability of flexible work schedules and work/life balance. Community, Work &
Family, 12(3), 327-338. doi: 10.1080/13668800902966331
Hunt, R., Page, T., & Brychta, A. (2011). The apple. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jassowski, M. (2013). Organizational Dynamics: Understanding the Impact of Organizational
Structure in Team Productivity. IEEE Design & Test, 1-1. doi: 10.1109/mdt.2012.1
Parsells, R. (2013). Change and Learning in the Workplace. Change Management: An
International Journal, 12(1), 61-71. doi: 10.18848/2327-798x/cgp/v12i01/50785
Reardon, R. (2010). Informal learning after organizational change. Journal of Workplace
Learning, 16(7), 385-395. doi: 10.1108/13665620410558288
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Zülch, G., Koruca, H., & Börkircher, M. (2011). Simulation-supported change process for
product customization – A case study in a garment company. Computers In Industry, 62(6),
568-577. doi: 10.1016/j.compind.2011.04.006
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