Leadership and Management Styles at Apple Inc.: A Case Study

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MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS
APPLE INC.
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CONTENTS
LO 1.............................................................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................................4
ORGANIZATION...................................................................................................................................4
MANAGEMENT....................................................................................................................................4
LEADER................................................................................................................................................4
ROLES OF A LEADER.............................................................................................................................5
CHARACTERISTICS OF LEADER.............................................................................................................5
MANAGER............................................................................................................................................6
ROLE OF A MANAGER..........................................................................................................................6
CHARACTERISTICS OF A MANAGER.....................................................................................................7
LO 2.............................................................................................................................................................7
ROLE OF LEADER AND MANAGER IN ANY ORGANIZATION......................................................................7
ROLE OF LEADERS................................................................................................................................7
THEORIES USED IN APPLE INC..................................................................................................................9
IN LEADERSHIP.....................................................................................................................................9
IN MANAGEMENT..............................................................................................................................10
LO 3...........................................................................................................................................................10
KEY APPROACHES FOR OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT............................................................................10
1. SIX SIGMA (6σ)...........................................................................................................................11
2. LEAN PRODUCTION....................................................................................................................11
3. JUST IN TIME (JIT)......................................................................................................................12
4. TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM).....................................................................................12
IMPORTANCE AND VALUE OF OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT IN ACHIEVING BUSINESS OBJECTIVES.....13
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WAYS TO IMPROVE THE EFFICIENCIES OF OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT............................................13
LO 4...........................................................................................................................................................14
DEMONSTRATE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT IN A CONTEMPORARY BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT........................................................14
ASSESS THE FACTORS WITHIN THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT THAT IMPACT OPERATIONAL
MANAGEMENT AND DECISION-MAKING BY LEADERS AND MANAGERS...........................................15
ANALYSIS OF THE DIFFERENT FACTORS AFFECTING THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT AND THE WIDER
COMMUNITY.........................................................................................................................................16
CONCLUSION.........................................................................................................................................17
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................18
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LO 1
INTRODUCTION
ORGANIZATION
It can be describe as a hierarchy in which a balanced relation made between the management
and workers of the company. Organizations are shaped by societal contexts (Harper, 2015).
The organization is a part of the management which executes its other function. Most of the
organizations have a management structure that defines the relationships between different
works to be performed. An organization can also be defined as a set of people that is
managed and structured to perform a task. Organizations are the open system which affects
and affected by the system. It is moreover handled by a leader.
MANAGEMENT
Management is the process to execute the processes of getting work done by the subsidiaries.
It is related to administration work. Management is the sum of activities such as making a
plan, execution the organization, giving direction and commands, boosting the employees,
controlling and coordinating various functions of the group. With the help of the
organization, managers perform their action. The work of management can be defined as to
admin the organization. It puts a huge impact on the working performance of the enterprise.
Manager performs all the required actions of the management (Fayol, 2016).
We can define the base of a management and an organization, i.e. manager and leader as: -
LEADER
A leader is the one who leads a collection of persons for performing an appropriate action. It
is the one who holds a dominating position in its field. A leader always prefers to take all as
one. It is moreover focused on quality other than quantity (Murphy, and Murphy, 2017). It
provides a direction for the company and the workers. A leader is the one who sets a positive
example in front of the employees. It involves making and getting aims, taking action and
beating the queue of competition. It provides support to the employees for getting their work
done efficiently. Leader itself involves the team for achieving the target. Leadership also can
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be refers as the tone a company's management sets in terms of the corporate culture (Schein,
2010).
ROLES OF A LEADER
The person who fulfils the following criteria can be termed as a leader.
 Provide a Vision
A person with a proper vision can give a better direction to its assisting team. An
employee cannot be expected to deliver a common result if they are not aware of the
results, whereas if they know their target then they can achieve that target by proper
planning and executing.
 Inspire trust
The leader should be credible to get the faith of the team workers and should also
shoe believe in them. It is the responsibility of the leader that get assure about the
teamwork and their capabilities.
 Inspirational and motivator
The leader’s role is to boost the employees for achieving their common target
(Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H., 2011). It is the person who delivers a vision and
mission to the team. A leader has the role of motivating the team if the team stuck
anywhere in the task. The team also gets inspired by the leader because it has more
healthy communication with the team.
 Effective time management
Effective time management is one of the essential roles of a team leader because if
the person spends most of its time on resolving the complaints and resolving the
problems then it will be hard to achieve the desired goal in adequate time.
CHARACTERISTICS OF LEADER
A leader should possess the following characteristics: -
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 A leader should be creative. The creative approach always gives the right way of
thinking which helps in getting good results.
 A leader should have good communication skills which are required for making
healthy professional relations with the team.
 A leader should be a good decision making skill because a decision can change the
entire result of the project. Organization's profit and loss directly related to the
decision making of a leader.
 A leader should have good observational skills. As a leader has to take decisions
instantly so it is just that it observes the situation as soon as possible.
 A leader should have committed for its work which motivates the entire team to
perform in the right manner.
MANAGER
According to kotter, (2013) Management is a discipline and the practitioner of this discipline
is termed as manager. A manager is still not a leader. A manager is an entity in any group
which performs the management task. It is responsible for controlling and administering any
organization. A manager is one who has to forecast, to manage, to organize, to command, to
communicate and to control (Fayol, 2016).
ROLE OF A MANAGER
A manager posse these roles in any management t group: -
 Administrative Roles
A manager has to perform administrative duties as its role. It has to receive the
delegates come from the outside or preside over a social function of employees. It
might have to sign on the documents. It is the only authorized person for any
paperwork in the enterprise.
 Informational Roles
A manager is the representative of the organization. It has to collect information from
the organizations or group outside their own. Managers are only liable for sending
any information outside the company.
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 Decisional Roles
A manager is a person who initiates and oversees the opportunities for the company,
where it plays the role of an entrepreneur. By resolving the problems it covers the role
of a disturbance handler. By arranging resources like human, physical, and monetary
resources, it plays the role of resource allocation. He also acts as a negotiator when it
does the bargaining for getting an extra benefit to the company.
CHARACTERISTICS OF A MANAGER
 A manager has short term focus with attention to steps. It should have problem-solving
ability and approach used should be enterprise friendly.
 According to Soo and Quazi, (2005) A manager monitors and directs its team to get their
specific aim. It should the skills to provide the desired task appropriate person.
 A manager is a task-oriented person who only centred on completing the task. It always
results in an oriented person who merely cares about the results.
 A manager is most stable in the organization and it is very essential to a concern. It
requires leading its subordinates.
Apple is chosen as a research organization in this project. It is a multinational technology brand
headquartered in California, US. It develops and sells electronics products, online services and
computer software. It was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne.
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LO 2
ROLE OF LEADER AND MANAGER IN ANY ORGANIZATION
ROLE OF LEADERS
Role of leaders depends on some theories and models which are given below: -
AUTOCRATIC LEADERSHIP THEORY
Autocratic leadership is a management style where merely one person controls all the
decisions and allows very little input from the other members of the group even if it
needed. However, this style can demotivate, and it can lead to an upper level of staff
absenteeism and turnover from the organization.
DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP THEORY
This leadership style known for taking subordinates into the consideration of important
decisions of the organization but the final decision is taken by the leader only. With
respect to statistics, democratic leadership is preferred to use. A most important
quality of this leadership is communication with up line and down line.
TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORY
Leadership can be defined as transactional when one person takes the initiative to
make relationships with others for the purpose of exchanging the valuable things or we
can relate it with “leaders approach the followers with an eye towards exchanging”.
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP THEORY
Other than the above leadership style, transformational leadership style is all about
related to initiating any creative shuffle in organizations, teams, oneself and others.
Transformational leadership has integrity and high emotional intelligence they have
greater command on their emotions.
BUREAUCRATIC LEADERSHIP THEORY
Bureaucratic leader desperately follows the rules and regulations and also wants others
to follow the same. They desire to have all the work in a proper way with following
the procedure. This approach is less effective in those organizations which rely on
flexibility, creativity and innovations.
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PATH-GOAL THEORY
This theory was given in 1971 which gives the new style of leadership. According to
this theory, a leader should also have to think about the needs and wants of the team
members. It gives a way to think to handle the employee according to its capacity,
capability, emotional control etc. it gives a way that to lead each worker with different
approach what they want.
ROLE OF MANAGERS
Manager’s functions can be defined by assessing the following theories: -
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT THEORY
Scientific management theory is also known as classical theory. This theory was given
by Fredrick Taylor and his associates. This theory believes in observing and measuring
the data for increasing the productivity of the organization. After that evaluation of the
data in numerical terms is done. This approach is effective for mechanized operations
but not suitable for human workers as they play an important role in creativity and
innovation process. According to Taylor, cost is the key term of any organization and
that’s why he developed a concept describing “fair day’s wages for a fair day's work."
After that, this theory is in use worldwide
SYSTEM MANAGEMENT THEORY
System management theory gives an alternative approach for planning and managing
the organization. By applying this theory organization is consider as a system. It can
be an open or a close but most theories treat it as an open system. In this theory,
employees are one of the most important parts of any industry. This theory proposes
that businesses like the human entity or those who consist of multiple elements in it
work harmoniously for better functioning of the larger system.
CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT THEORY
Fred Fiedler gives the Contingency management theory. This theory is based on the
concept that no one management approach suits the organization only some internal
and external factors affect the chosen approach. According to this theory, three
variables influence an organization's structure that is: - the size of the organization,
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technology is chosen, and way of leadership. It is based on the LPC scale which means
the least preferred coworker scale.
THEORIES USED IN APPLE INC.
IN LEADERSHIP
In Apple Inc. Steve jobs were a very well known leader. He was one of the founders of this
company. He started this company from the ground level. His leadership style was
autocratic, visionary and transformational. He took all the important decision itself related to
the company without taking suggestions from the assistants. This shows high satisfaction of
the leaders. Leaders are known for three qualities that are inspired, motivate and encourage;
Steve jobs had all the three qualities mentioned over here. He used to inspire his teammates
by giving a visionary direction to them in any project also motivates for the hard work and
encourage for the achievements. A leader has a responsibility to make the followers fulfil
the desired work. Steve Jobs was very well known for his autocratic leadership which gives
results in a higher profit of the organization. Autocratic leadership at workplace permit
quick decisions facilitates instant action on the plan. It will be effective in that case when
subordinates are not so sound in terms of knowledge and skills.
IN MANAGEMENT
In Apple Inc., their current CEO Mr Tim Cook is a very famous manager. His management
style is democratic. He involves every useful element of the organization (Heizer, J.H. and
Render, B., 2008). He uses the system management theory for managing the company. As
above already discussed that in system management theory every organization is treated as a
system so in a system every small entity has the freedom to give an opinion. His
management style makes him a leader also as he has the vision to direct the employees of
the organization. A manager has the role to plan, organize and coordinate the task in any
organization. It has to make proper planning for any project because results depend on the
sound beginning of any work. After making a plan, its execution is very important. For that,
healthy communication is must between manager and organization. Tim Cook has great
communication with his down line. Management includes many parts and they cannot be
handled on the fly. Controlling and directing is also a major role of a manager in any. Most
managers also pretend as leaders, but only if they acquire leadership responsibilities of
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management, which include motivation, providing inspiration and guidance, and
encouraging employees to rise to the next level of productivity.
LO 3
KEY APPROACHES FOR OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT
According to Christopher (2016) Operations management is a necessary part of any business
organization. It plays a vital role in the profit or loss of any enterprise. It can be describe as the
field of management related to the design and execution of business activities in the
manufacturing of goods. The advantage of a firm is directly impacted by the efficiency of proper
uses of available resources fulfilling customer demand. Operations management completes the
functions of managing the processes of changing useful inputs such as man, machine, and labour
into useful desirable outputs such as goods and products. Operations management is a very basic
part of the human resource management system.
These approaches can be used for getting the best results from operations management: -
1. SIX SIGMA
Six Sigma is a collection of tools and techniques for the process environment. It may be
written as 6S in shortened form. It was established by engineer bill smith in 1980.
According to Mason, Nicolay and Darzi (2015) Sigma shows the standard population
deviation, which is a measure of the variation in a data set collected about the process. The
figure shows the specifications limit for any process.
Six Sigma can also be treating as a measure of performance, being on the goal. Different
stages shown in the figure describes the point of customer satisfaction. Benchmarking is a
very important process for analyzing any organization, in six sigma process an ideal level
of effectiveness is set as a benchmark and then different methods are used for achieving
the goal.
2. LEAN PRODUCTION
Lean production is an approach used in the management system of any organization. In
this theoretical approach of the management is to cutting out waste with ensuring the
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quality. It is the method to minimize the waste comes out from any process in the industry.
This theory firstly introduced by Toyota Production systems and that still used by that
company, as well as in many other companies also. It works on some main points like to
identify the value from the customer's view, then analyzing the requirements of the
material for the order; then ensuring proper time and process for the flow of the resources.
According to the lean production system theory, the waste can be anything that does not
any value in the gods for the customers. Both six sigma and lean production works on the
same concept that to reduce the waste but their selection of root cause is different. It
believes in reducing the waste because for any industry cost is the key factor and any
wastage can result in a huge increment in the total cost which will results in a higher loss
of the company because waste is equal to the cost.
3. JUST IN TIME (JIT)
Just in time manufacturing is also known as just-in-time production or Toyota production
system as it was introduced by Toyota production systems. It is mostly introduced as a
management philosophy, not as an industrial technique. It includes meaning production
with minimum waste. The benefits of JIT are as employee loyalty, low turnover costs and
fulfilment of company goals. This theory gives the concept of the inventory of the
organization that the company puts an order to the supplier when it is required. It increases
the overall effectiveness and eliminates the wastage of the material. The continuous
improvement process suggests the improvement in basic outcomes of the industry. The
manager gives the directions to the production and operational team for taking control of
the inventory. Leaders track the work performance of the employee in a constant time
period and keep the eyes on inventory.
4. TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)
Total quality management is related to the quality of the products of the organization.
Quality is generally referred to a parameter which decides the superiority of any function
in any production or manufacturing line in any industrial organization. According to
Yunis, Jung, and Chen, (2013) it is a structured approach for overall organizational
structure. Main principles used for TQM are to produce effective work in less time with
focusing on customer’s satisfaction. It is a customer-oriented process and always works
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