Apple Inc.'s Management and Leadership: A Critical Analysis

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MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONS
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................. 3
1. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE..........4
2. DEFINITION AND ROLES OF BOTH MANAGERS AND LEADERS, HIGHLIGHTING THE
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP.......................................................7
3. THE DIFFERENT ROLES OF MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN APPLICATION TO DIFFERENT
ORGANIZATIONAL SITUATIONS, SUPPORTED BY THEORIES AND CONCEPTS...........................11
4. HOW CLASSICAL THEORIES AND BEHAVIORAL THEORIES APPLY TO THE ORGANIZATION
AND HOW THESE HAVE SUPPORTED GROWTH AND SUSTAINABLE PERFORMANCE...............13
5. CONCLUSIONS OF HOW MANAGERS AND LEADERS HAVE MADE AN IMPACT ON THE
ORGANIZATION AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FUTURE IMPROVEMENTS...........................16
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................... 18
REFERENCES.................................................................................................................................19
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INTRODUCTION
As an operation manager appointed for the apple company, the report will give information
about the organization apple and its management structure. The report will also discuss the
different roles of the managers and leaders in different situations and their different leadership
styles. Later in the report, the different theories and concept of leadership will be explained. In
the end, the report will give different recommendation and future Improvements for the
organization.
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1. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE ORGANIZATION AND MANAGEMENT
STRUCTURE
Organization overview
Apple is an American based multinational company; the head office of apple is in Cupertino
California. The company operates in different countries of the world; the company was founded
in the year 1976 by Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne and Steve Wozniak. The company manufactures
a different product like computers, laptops, hardware, system software and different
accessories. Usually, the products of the apple company are known for high price, but the
company delivers a high-quality product and accessories for the customers and used all over
the world. The apple company believes in one quality of worldwide products. The products of
the company are manufactured in such a way they can meet the requirement of all the
consumers of the world. The apple company keeps the price of the product high as per the
quality and profit margins (Mogensen, 2018).
Apple Company’s management structure
Apple Company has a strong and complex organizational structure as per the requirement and
needs of the working departments; Apple Company has a hierarchical management structure.
apple has this structure because the authority and command flow from the top management to
the bottom. This is a traditional organization structure adopted by Steve Jobs but later when
Steve Jobs resign because of the health complications the Tim Cooks assigned as a CEO for the
apple. Tim made different changes in the management structure as per the functional
requirement and coordination of the different departments (Morschett, et al., 2015).
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The organizational structure of the Apple Company
Figure 1: Organization structure of Apple
Source: (Morschett, et al., 2015).
Importance of this structure
Apple Company has more than 123,000 employees who are serving in 24 countries worldwide.
Apple management structure is based on divisions and functions of a different department. This
structure is important is it shows strong organizational and corporate control. Apples corporate
culture is unique and the organizational structure is designed as per their culture and
management styles. Apple has a hierarchical structure of the organization this structure allow
strong management and flow of command, in this type of structure the policies and strategies
are easy to formulate and implement as there is a strong connection between staff and
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managers of different division and department. The company also follows a functional structure
in different divisions so as to minimize the communication gap. The functional structure allows
different types of facilities as there is strong communication between the different department
and staff supports (Morschett, et al., 2015).
Apple Company has a different department that like R & D department, marketing department,
HR department and finance department and they all carry out a different task as per the
company norm and goals. Tim Cook is the CEO of the company and handles the top
management like the board of directors. There are called as the first line of command they
make business plan and policies for the apple. Tim has little different management style than
Steve as Tim has made different changes in the company since its joining. When the company
started working on the iPhone the company has assigned and put their best worker for the
project. CEO Tim prefers to centralize governance rather than mix and participative
governance. Tim has given authority and powers only to the top management and has given
very less power to respond and interfere with the low-level employees (WRITER, 2018).
The apple company believes in keeping everything secret like the launch of the new iPhone or
other products. Apple has the highest user of the iPhone and has high brand loyalty. The
company has gone to restructuring in the year 1997 because of the low profit and less market
share. Apple Company is continuously improving its capabilities in term of innovation and
creativity of the product design and its functions. As per structure, the lower level employees of
apple shows less flexibility as lower-level employees cannot respond to the current needs and
demands of the market. Due to no flexibility of Apple Company, the rapid change cannot be
supported (WRITER, 2018).
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2. DEFINITION AND ROLES OF BOTH MANAGERS AND LEADERS, HIGHLIGHTING THE
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP
A leader is a person who leads a team or individual, motivates them to help them to accomplish
the organizational goals. A leader is a person who influences and motivate others to move
towards accomplishing goals. A leader can also be defined as a person with different qualities
and traits and experiences that helps the organization and employees to move toward
achievement of goals (Mom, et al., 2015).
A manager is a person in a company who takes charge of certain tasks and individual or groups.
A manager is a post or a designation in which a person delegates or assigns different duties to
the staff and helps them to accomplish them, managers take to order and command from the
higher management and share them with the staff (Mom, et al., 2015).
A leader and a manager both are important for the apple in different ways and they have
different roles which are as follows
Roles of a leader
Provide a vision: the first role of the leader of Apple is to understand the mission and vision of
the company and then the second task is to share them with the individuals and groups. The
leader of apple share mission objectives to the staff and explain to them how it is important for
the company and how it is important for the staff and how the carrier opportunities and
benefits are related to the goals. Steve Jobs was a visionary man and has certain leadership
qualities like leading, convincing and encouraging individual and groups to attain different task
and goals. Vision can be explained as what a company wants to achieve in future (Bird and
Mendenhall, 2016).
Motivate and inspire: The quality of a leader in the apple company is to motivate and inspire to
see through difficulties and obstacles. Apple Company believes in delivering high-quality
product and service which becomes the reason for such a good brand name. To bring out
quality the leaders of the company set an example and them motivates other staff and
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employees to work effectively and establish a high performing team. The leader of the company
helps the employees and tells them that the obstacles and problems are temporary and helps
them how to get rid of the problem by solving them with expertise. The leaders also motivate
the employees by sharing different reward and incentives plan of the company (Bird and
Mendenhall, 2016).
Delegation and empowerment: The leaders delegate different authorities and task to the staff
and help them to carry out those tasks and duties in the best possible manner in order to save
time and energy. Apple Company has a structure in which strong command and authority flow
from top to bottom in order. In apple Delegating task and duties does not mean overloading the
employees with work but helping them by sharing the task and duties with the group. The
different department delegate’s different responsibility like marketing department wants their
staff to be skilled in communication and should have convincing power to entertain the
customer. And the HR department wants its staff to manage human resource and make a high-
performance team of experts. In Apple company does not allow lower-level employees to
participate in the decision making but leaders and managers can seek help and suggestion to
the employees of the staff to participate in work planning and accomplished activity and small
tasks (Bird and Mendenhall, 2016).
Effective role model: Leaders play the role of a model in the apple the CEO of Apple company is
Tim Cook and is one of the best role models for the company. Since Tim has started as a CEO
Tim has made different changes in the company in term of leadership style, management and in
the structure of the company in order to make the company competitive and successful.
Leaders of Apple Company share knowledge and invites other and team members to provide an
opinion in making strategies. The leaders of Apple set an example and use their expertise in
different activities which ultimately help others to motivate. Leaders of Apple Company also
shares scope and areas of personal growth to the employees and encourage them to work
efficiently for the company and for themselves (Bird and Mendenhall, 2016).
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The different roles of managers of the apple company are
Strategic planner: The apple company is very large and the company is operating in different
countries, the apple has a vast number of employees working to meet the needs of the
consumers. The apple company managers perform different activities and manage different
tasks in order to accomplish short term and periodic goals. The managers of Apple Company
plan different strategies as per the requirement in a different situation. The managers also help
the staff to implement different strategies at different places for the company. Apple Company
has different product and different department the company has very unique products and has
a vast market. The different managers have to identify the market and its differences and then
they plan strategies according to the market. Formulating strategies is tough work, the
manager’s uses their expertise and they also seek advice from the staff in strategy making. The
managers of the Apple Company make different strategies like positioning, targeting and
market analysis to plan their work employees (Petrou, et al., 2018).
Resource organizer: Apple Company has a vast range product. The managers of the different
department of the apple company use resources effectively and efficiently to make a high-
performance quality product. In recent years the apple and its managers of the R & D
department has done a great job in bringing advance quality product like the notepads with
retina display, software assistance Siri and different models and upgraded iPhones which has
proved that the company’s managers are innovative and they have the ability to use expertise
and resources to improve the services of the product. The company like Apple has to manage
the different resource for manufacturing a different product and Apple Company finds best
resources like apple recruits skilled employees and provide the proper training and then utilize
them in best possible way. Resources could by anything like human resource, machines,
equipment’s, facilities and most important finance employees (Petrou, et al., 2018).
Monitor and controller: Apple Company has different managers and they all work to establish
the norms and policies of the company. The staff managers of the company delegate different
task to the staff member and they regulate the activities of the team and the managers also
evaluate the performance of the employees. The line managers of the company make sure the
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make sure that the different department is working as per the goals and objectives of the
company or not. The top management makes policies and objected for a different time interval
for the company. The objectives and goals are breaks down into small department goals and
the manager’s work is to make sure the objectives should be accomplished with the time frame
employees (Petrou, et al., 2018).
The apple company has a very impressive reward system for its employees. Apple believes in
performance-based payments there are different bonus and incentives provided by the apple
company to their employees like the employees can purchase products of the apple at a 20 %
discount. The apple company has a different reward system for the different departments like
for marketing and selling department they get incentives as per their sales of the product at
different stores. The apple also offers different facilities and perks for the employees (Petrou, et
al., 2018).
The difference between the leadership and management
Manages Leaders
Managers of apple usually avoid risk and work
as per rules and regulations
Leaders of the apple company motivate
employees to go for innovation and deal with
the risk involved in it.
Apple Managers controls and monitors the
work of the employees
Leaders encourage and motivate the task
force of apple to bring out performance
Managers explain the importance of goals of
the company and shared those goals with the
timelines
Leaders explain how the company’s growth
can give opportunities to employees person
growth
Managers are shortsighted as they see short
term goal, tasks and activities
Leaders have visions and they believe in long
term goal planning.
Managers focus on the staff their resource and
importance tasks
Leaders focus on the employees personal
problems their rights and their relationships
with each other
Managers manage staff and control activities
in order to establish a sound department
(Alasadi and Al Sabbagh, 2015).
Leaders believe in organizational growth,
personal growth, and development of sound
and positive environment (Alasadi and Al
Sabbagh, 2015).
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3. THE DIFFERENT ROLES OF MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN APPLICATION TO
DIFFERENT ORGANIZATIONAL SITUATIONS, SUPPORTED BY THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
Apple company follow different management and leadership theories and the company use
these theories in different situations. The company is facing tough competition in different
regions of the world.
The different theories for the management are as follow
Max Waber's bureaucratic management: this theory is proposed by Max Waber, Max was a
German sociologist. This theory put emphasis on the hierarchical and bureaucratic style of
management and governance. This theory is best practised in apple as the policies and rules are
strictly followed in the company. The apple has an organizational structure in which the
command and directions flow from the top to bottom. The management of the company keeps
the document, data and resource and different assets in a proper way and utilizes them in the
best possible way. The apple company believes in performance and delivering results and the
promotions are based on that, not on the personal relation. The management of the apple
company clearly defines and explains the roles and duties of the different department and gives
them a time interval to accomplish them (Ljungholm, 2016).
Douglas McGregor proposed X and Y theory. Douglas was a psychologist who proposed this
theory in the year 1960. In this theory, the x denotes that the employees are lazier and does
not want to work unless external pressure works on them like reward and incentive for the
work and punishment and salary deduction for nonperformance. This theory denotes that the
worker will be given task and duties to carry out and worker do not participate in the
management of the company. Y in the theory states that the employees perform well and
effectively if they have the willingness to work and if they are satisfied with the work and
workplace. The theory is used by small scale business models but the x theory is used by the
large scale organization like apple. In apple believes that to deliver a high-quality product and
service the management should be strict and should abide by the policies of the company
(Lawter, et al., 2015).
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The different leadership theories for the apple company
Autocratic leadership theory: In this theory, the Apple Company and its leaders assign or
delegates different task and duties to the employees and help them in accomplishing tasks. This
theory is most popular in large scale business organizations. This theory states that employees
and subordinate cannot participate in decision making or strategies planning. In apple
company, the leaders give very less or no scope to the employees to contribute to the company
directions and working styles as the company command and directions flow from top to
bottom. The apple company has been running under the leadership of CEO Tim and Steve jobs,
as both follow autocratic styles and they take very less consultation while making and changing
policies for the company (Bonsu and Twum-Danso, 2018).
There are some pros and cons for using these styles of leadership but after all the autocratic
style has given the success to the apple company. This style of leadership used by Steve jobs
helps in fast decision making and implementing of strategies. There are disadvantages of using
the autocratic style of leadership such as lower-level employees feels less value as they don't
get a chance to share their opinions to the higher management.
The concept of leadership and management
Management concept can be explained, that governing body that takes the responsibility and
make work done through others. Management is made by different managers working and
accomplishing different tasks. Management includes different process and different works like
organizing, planning, staffing and controlling. Management concept is explained by different
authors like the process of using and managing the different resource to accomplish
organizational goals (Dembek, et al., 2016).
Leadership concept can be defined as a process of inspiring and influencing others. Leadership
includes different skills like knowledge, confidence, believes and characters. The leadership is a
process that includes different job roles like motivations, encouraging and problem-solving
(Dembek, et al., 2016).
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