Exploring the Dynamics of Organizational Behavior in Apple Inc.

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Organizational Behaviour
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................6
Reference List..................................................................................................................................7
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Introduction
Organizational Behaviour is the way through which the actions, performance and other traits of
the employees are analyzed. The subject of organizational behaviour assists in knowing the
needs of the employees as well as understanding how they will react in the future. For the
following study, the case study of Apple has been selected where multiple aspects of the
organisation’s politics, culture, power, and motivational drives will be explored. Apple is a
technological multinational organisation that focuses on selling consumer electronics, the
software of considers and other digital products that help the life of consumers be easier. The
enterprise has over 500 retail stores and 132,000+ employees as per 2018 (Apple, 2019).
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TASK 1
(LO1) Analyse the influence of culture, politics, and power on the behaviour of others in an
organisational context
P1 Analyse how an organisation’s culture, politics and power influence individual and team
behaviour and performance
Influence of culture
There is huge of importance being culturally aware within the context of Apple as there are
several types of employees that are present within the organisation that help support diversity,
equality fair treatment, and others aspects so that there is more efficiency within the enterprise.
Cultural differences such as being from a different race, having a different religion, a different
background all have impacting effect on the way person conducts themselves. With there being
cultural differences such as the mentioned, it cannot be known that minority is being supported
or not. In the case, they do not feel supported then it would lead them to feel being more
oppressed in the work place of Apple as well (Moran et al., 2014).
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Figure 1: Organisational Culture
(Source:toolshero.net)
To determine the cultural diversity within Apple, the Hofstede’s dimensions of culture theory
can be utilized as well. Through which six factors of the Hofstede’s dimensions theory can be
determined. For this study, a comparison between Apple’s employees in China and America will
be considered. The employees that are present in America have a much higher power distance
than those in china, as it is a developed the country (Hofstede Insights, 2019). However, the
sense of collectivism is much more in china than in America cause of its rich heritage. Similarly,
other factors in this theory have varied results when comparing both the companies (Guiso et al.,
2016).
When evaluating the organisational psychology of the managerial heads as well as the
employees within Apple, it can be determined the impact of globalization and the technological
advancement has played a key role within the enterprise. Unlike other organisations where
innovations from outside businesses influence the company, in the case of Apple things are the
opposite as there are more innovations that are being made within the organisation. All this can
be attributed to the research and development team of Apple.
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Influence of politics
Organisational politics is the method through which there is an exchange of power and social
networking within an enterprise whereby which the enterprise is benefited or affected negatively.
The basis of organisational politics is placed in employees relations between the managerial
heads of the organisation and the employees. The better the relationship, the lesser power
dynamics will be utilized against employees (Cacciattolo, 2014).
Through organisational politics, four changes are caused within the enterprise, within the
enterprise. These differences include personal, decisional, structural, and organisational changes
(Falkner, 2017). Personal changes occur at that time when there is an alteration in the hiring
system of Apple and more people are employed which is both a threat to existing employees and
beneficial to the productivity of the enterprise. On the other hand, decisional change is when
there is an alteration in the managerial strategy of the enterprise causing them to take new
pathways in the market and explore new target audiances. Furthermore, structural change
occurs when their managerial heads of the organisation are replaced with a new set of people
who give a new direction to the enterprise. Additionally, organisation change occurs when there
is massive change within the enterprise, this occurs when activities such as mergers, acquisition,
and others take place (Jackson and Tansey, 2014)
Influence of power
Several managerial heads are present within the organisational framework of Apple. These
managerial heads have different levels of power, through which they influence various sectors of
the society. Several types of power are present within an organisation, which include aspects
such as reward power, expert power, informational power, coercive power. While some of these
power such coercive power focus on forcing the employees to perform tasks, other powers such
as reward power assist there to be employee incentives so that they are motivated. Power
control in the organisation is performed by being more stringent laws that prevail in the
organisation so that there is a higher and better compliance within the employees to make them
more productive.
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TASK 2
(LO2) Evaluate how to motivate individuals and teams to achieve a goal
P2 Evaluate how content and process theories of motivation and motivational techniques
enable effective achievement of goals in an organisational context
Several types of motivational theories are present for enterprises to use. However, the most basic
two forms of motivation theories are i.e. extrinsic and intrinsic motivation theories. Extrinsic
motivation is that type of motivation through which the employees of Apple focus on attaining
external needs such as money, incentives, rewards, and other aspects. Intrinsic motivation
theories focus on achieving mental satisfaction through work, where a person feels nice about
achieving something (Reeve, 2014).
Multiple types of motivation theories are used by multiple organisations around the world. This
includes motivational theories such as Maslow hierarchical needs, Herzberg motivation theory,
and others. Through these theories, the managerial heads can determine what the actual needs of
the enterprise are. In such a case, these leaders provide employees with the elements and material
that they require so there is an increase in productivity
Maslow Hierarchical of Needs
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Figure 2: Maslow Hierarchical of Needs
(Source: businessjargons.net)
There are six stages in this motivational pyramid where the theory addresses six basic stages of
needs of the employees. These stages include physiological needs, safety needs, love, and
belonging needs; esteem needs, self-actualization needs (Herzberg, 2017). All of these aspects
help analyze different areas of the human mind. While extreme side focuses on needs such as
food, shelter and other aspects, another extreme side focuses on needs such as the desire to
become more knowledgeable. An employer can know which needs are vital to an employee
through a series of questions that will reveal their inner characteristics and through determination
of this aspect, the managerial head such as Tim Cook can know which leadership styles to apply.
Alderfer’s ERG Theory
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Figure 3: Alderfer’s ERG Theory
(Source: yourarticlelibrary.net)
This theory focuses on the most basic needs of human puts emphasis on three aspects, which are
growth needs, relatedness needs, and existence needs (Peters, 2015). The creator of this
motivational theory states that there is an exchange of negative emotions within the enterprise.
There are two driving forces, which either push or motivate a person to shift from the mentioned
block to another. These driving forces within Apple are regression or frustration and other is
progression or growth and development. Through this theory, managerial heads within Apple can
know which side of this theory works better on the employees of the enterprise. In the case if its
regression or frustration then punishments can be used as a means to push employees however,
rewards in the form of progression or growth and development can be there as well (Mooijman et
al., 2015).
When analyzing the behavioural psychology of employees at Apple, the most crucial aspects that
help understand their decision making process is emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence
is the way through which a person reacts and is control of their emotions within an enterprise.
The more emotional intelligence a person has a higher degree of control they have when
engaging with their managerial heads and officers. Apart from the employees, the managerial
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heads must have emotional intelligence in the form of soft skills through which they can
motivate and build bonds within Apple (Pinder, 2014).
Within the organisational sphere of Apple, there two types of leaderships that help in giving
better direction. One is task based and another is relationship based. Task based leadership is
individualistic in natural and focuses on optimizing and reaching the goals of a single individual.
While on the other hand, relationship leadership focuses on making the team as a whole better so
that there is team-orientated achievement within a smaller frame of time within Apple.
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Conclusion
In the above report, several aspects have been explored in the case of Apple. In this report,
several aspects of cultural differences and its impact on there being more diversity within Apple
has been stated. Following which, Hofstede’s dimensions of culture theory a few aspects of the
theory have been explored through a contrasting effect between the employees of China and
America employees of Apple has been stated. After that, organisational psychology in the
context of globalization and technological advancement is explored. Apart from those
motivational theories such as Maslow, Herbergm and behavioral psychology aspects such as
emotional intelligence and others, aspects that help understand the minds of the employees is
explored.
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Reference List
Apple. (2019). Apple. [online] Available at: https://www.apple.com/ [Accessed 12 Mar. 2019].
Cacciattolo, K., 2014. Defining organisational politics. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 10(10).
Elsmore, P., 2017. Organisational Culture: Organisational Change?: Organisational Change?.
Routledge.
Guiso, L., Herrera, H. and Morelli, M., 2016. Cultural differences and institutional
integration. Journal of International Economics, 99, pp.S97-S113.
Herzberg, F., 2017. Motivation to work. Routledge.
Jackson, N. and Tansey, S.D., 2014. Politics: the basics. Routledge.
Mooijman, M., Van Dijk, W.W., Ellemers, N. and Van Dijk, E., 2015. Why leaders punish: A
power perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(1), p.75.
Moran, R.T., Abramson, N.R. and Moran, S.V., 2014. Managing cultural differences. Routledge.
Peters, R.S., 2015. The concept of motivation. Routledge.
Pinder, C.C., 2014. Work motivation in organizational behavior. Psychology Press.
Reeve, J., 2014. Understanding motivation and emotion. John Wiley & Sons.
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