Leader vs. Manager: Application in Apple's Organizational Situations

This report examines the distinct roles of leaders and managers within Apple Inc., a leading technology company. It differentiates between the responsibilities of leaders, who focus on vision and motivation, and managers, who concentrate on planning, organizing, and controlling operations. The report analyzes how leadership styles, such as autocratic and democratic approaches, are applied in fast-changing and slow-changing market situations. It also explores theoretical frameworks like situational leadership and system leadership, evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. The analysis covers various aspects, including motivation, problem-solving, team spirit, communication, planning, organizing, staffing, directing, and controlling, to provide a comprehensive understanding of effective leadership and management practices within the context of Apple's organizational structure and operations. The report concludes with an overview of how different leadership styles are utilized in different organizational contexts.

MANAGEMENT
AND
OPERATIONS

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASKA............................................................................................................................................3
Differentiation of role of a leader and manager and how this role can be applicable in different
organisational situations..............................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Management and operations are the important part of the business organisation. The
management of the company is concerned with devising proper plans, organising, coordination,
controlling the different actions. Whereas operation is the act of where there is a series of
different task involved in a single procedure. Therefore, the concept of management and
operation is referred to managing the internal processes, systems and structure in the business
organisation. This is important to manage so that business goals and objectives can be attained
successfully. This report will explain the differentiation between the role of a leader and function
of a manager. It will make use of role of a leader and function of a manager in the given
organisational context.
TASKA
Differentiation of role of a leader and manager and how this role can be applicable in different
organisational situations.
Brief introduction of the organisation
The organisation which is to be considered for this task and report is Apple. This
company was founded in the year 1976 by Steve Jobs. This company is considered to be one of
largest technological based company (Strande and Brdjanovic, 2014). It produces the products
and services like consumer electronics, computer software, online services. The products
includes, iPhone, tablet, iPad, apple TV, mac-book, etc.
Leaders and managers
Leader
A leader is a person working in the organisation who is responsible for leading the people
by making them clear with the organisations vision and mission. Leader of the Apple is
accountable for motivating and encouraging people to work for the attainment of business
objectives with full efforts and potential.
Characteristics of leader
 Honest: The leader must be honest in their work and actions. This is very important
because without honestly, the business will fail to achieve the desired objectives and
goals.

 Ability to delegate: Leader of the apple must be familiar and known to the process of
delegation. This is crucial because the leader will be able to assign the work as per the
skills and potential of the individuals.
Manager
The manager of the organisation is concerned with the individual who is in charge and
responsible for the overall operations of the company. They are the people who sets the goals
and objectives for the company and establishing proper plans through which the objectives can
be attained. Therefore, the manager of Apple has successfully set the plans which has helped the
company in reaching at the higher level of heights and success.
Characteristics of a manager
 Flexible: The manager of Apple is highly flexible which makes them adoptable to the
dynamic business world. It is one of the most important characteristic of the manager
because they are working in fluctuating business world.
 Critical thinking: The manager has the potential to take decisions by considering the
proper and critical analyses (haheen, InterDigital Technology Corp, 2014). This is an
important characteristic because it takes into consideration the different alternative and
evaluates them by taking into account the advantages and disadvantages.
Analyses of role of leader and manager
Role of a leader
 Motivator: The leader is responsible for motivating the people who are working in the
Apple. This is because in order to accomplish business goals and objectives, the leaders
are required to provide the financial and non financial motivation to the employees as per
their needs and requirements.
 Problem solving: The leader of apple is responsible for solving the various problems
which are faced by the employees. They provide the proper solution where each and
every employees remain satisfied with the company.
 Team spirit: The role of leader in apple is to encourage people to work in team. It
enhances and builds the team spirit among the people and makes them understand that by
working in team, the results can be generated in a more productive and suitable manner.
 Communication: The leader act as a link between the employees and management
(Mohammadi, Soleymani and Mozafari, 2014S). This is where they communicate the

management objectives to the employees and employees problems and issues to the
management. They make people understand the importance of communication which
helps in making clear with goals and objectives.
Role/Function of manager
 Planning: The manager of Apple is responsible for making desirable plans which will act
as roadmap in order to attain the goals and objectives. In this the manager decides the
certain blueprints and schedules through which the future stages of the plans are need to
work.
 Organising: Under this function, the manager of apple is responsible for taking care that
everything is going as per the plan and if there is any issues arises then manager will look
into depth analyses and makes sure that the plan is working as per the decided actions.
 Staffing: The process of staffing is concerned with identifying and putting the right
candidate at the right place and at the right time. In this, the team has been formed and
the members of team has some dispute who will be required to report to the team
members (Kato, NEC Corp, 2014).
 Directing: The act of directing is related to provide proper direction and guidance to the
different situations of the organisation which will help in minimising the problems and
conflict among the team members. Managers of the apple are required to lead the
employees so that they will get clear idea of what is required to do and how it is to be
done.
 Controlling: This is one of the most important role of managers of Apple. In this, they
keep proper control over the plans and different actions which is being taken in the
company. They make sure that all the plan is being implemented and executed as per the
decided process and regularly review and monitors it. If any kind of problem or deviation
arise then this is required to be cleared (Hitka and. et. al., 2018).
Basis Leaders Managers
Creation The leaders are responsible for
creating the vision for the
company in which the
employees will be aware of
what and where they have to
The managers are responsible
for creating the goals and
objectives of the company.
This helps the employees in
knowing what must be attained

reach in future. in future.
Unique/ copy Leaders are unique in nature
because each leader has
different traits and style of
working which makes them
different from one another.
Managers are the copy and do
what they have learned from
other. They adopt the
leadership style rather than
describing it.
Risk The leader of the organisation
is responsible for taking
certain risk in order to achieve
the business goals and
objectives.
The managers on the other
hand always works to
minimise and control the risk
factors which is associated
with the business.
Builds The leaders are responsible for
building relations and it
emphasis on people. They
interact with them in an
informal way which gives rise
to friendly employee relations.
Managers of the organisation
are responsible for building the
different processes and
systems which are crucial to
attain the business objectives
and goals.
Role of a leader and manager in different organisations situations
Fast changing market
The business world is highly dynamic in nature and this requires to keep on changing and
modifying the policies and procedures in the company. For instance, the Apple will be largely
affected by the social factors. This consist of customer trends and preferences. Due to greater
amount of innovation in technology, the customers of Apple demand new and innovative
products on regular basis. In this situation, the role of leader will be to use the autocratic
leadership style in which the the leader will quickly take actions with the changing demand of
the customers without asking or taking suggestions from the employees or staff at the workplace.
In such situations, the role of manager will be to quickly modify the plan by doing effective
market research (Hasegawa, NEC Corp, 2014). The manager will make new plan for marketing

the new product in the market. It will invest huge amount of resources and money in order to
meet the changing social market.
Slow changing market
There are situations in the market of business where changes does not take place rapidly.
Such situation occurs when the different factors of external business world is stable and does not
have any impact in the organisation. For instance, there is economic stability in the Apple
organisation and the country as well then this will provide an opportunity for the company to
introduce something new and different. Under such situations, the leader will make use of
democratic leadership style where they will going to interact with different employees and other
staff members, takes their suggestion and opinions. This will help in properly conducting the
new operations in apple (Ellis and Creasman, Smart Storage Systems Inc, 2014). Whereas in
such situations the role of manager will be to make use of strong financial position in the market
by making huge investment because the economic environment is highly stable and this provides
an opportunity of generating greater returns.
Theories and models of approach
Situational leadership
The situational leadership is one where leader makes use of the multiple leadership style
and uses the style as per the situation. This is the most adaptive leadership style as it enhances in
fitting best as per the situation (Caniani and. et. al., 2015). The leader can change the style as per
the requirements. This theory underlines the common perspective regarding that there is no
effective leadership style. There is framework which was developed by Paul Hersey and Ken
Blanchard in year 1970, originally conceived as the ‘life cycle theory of leadership.’ This is
because it depicted the different style which are need to be adopted by the leader of the Apple in
order to work effectively. The following are the styles discussed below:
 Telling and directing: In this situations, the leader of apple will be responsible for
making the respective decisions and informing the same to the people so that they work
in accordance with it.
 Selling and coaching: In this, the leader of apple will be highly involved in everyday
activities. The final decision is taken by the leader only but the input id required from the
employees before the leader finally implements the decisions (Bott and Luna, Seven
Networks Inc, 2017).

 Participating and supporting: Under this style, the leader of the apple will work on
transferring or delegating more responsibility to the employees. In this, the final decision
lies with the followers only and leader provides the guidance.
 Delegating to the employees: Under this, the leader of apple is involved less and
employees themselves selects the suitable task as per their abilities and potential.
Strength Weaknesses
The situational leadership style has been in the
market for longer period of time and it is
highly used in order to provide training in the
business organisations. It is highly practical
and easy to understand which can be applied
effectively and efficiently.
The situational leadership has limited
assumptions and propositions which will help
them in justifying the theoretical basis of this
approach. There is a difficulty in describing
that commitment is conceptualised according
to this model (Bahmani-Firouzi and
Azizipanah-Abarghooee, 2014).
System Leadership
It is developed and founded by Dr. Lan Macdonald. It is a form of leadership that enables
the leaders of a company to form a situation in which people at different levels can work in a
productive manner according to their potential. System Leadership take usage of effective
principles about behaviour of human for creating models of strategy of an organisation, social
process, design of system and good leadership. This form of leadership provides tools to leaders
for predicting behaviour of people in an organisation (Tian and. et. al., 2015). It also plays a
main role in building effective system that help to drive productive behaviour. In Apple, system
leadership approach can be used in order to increase productivity of work at different levels. This
will provide set of tools to leaders by which it become easy for them to predict people behaviour
in this organisation.
Strengths Weaknesses
It makes the organisation adaptable towards
changes in environment and decisions are
made on the basis of micro and macro
System Leadership may result in delay in
decision making as it is not always practical
and because of this it is not applied directly to

environment. The nature of systematic
leadership is dynamic and adaptive which
leads it to adapt according to the needs of
environment.
practical problems arising in an organisation.
In this , nature of interdependence is not
identified. This approach is not applicable to
small organisations as it is based on
assumption that most of the companies are big,
complex or open systems.
This form of leadership focuses on not only
achieving goals of an individual but also serves
in attaining overall objectives of an enterprise.
It also pays attention to multiple dimension of
management of a company. It concentrates on
final results and not means which will help the
management. It provides an effective plan of
action and a good basis of control.
This form of leadership can lead to counter
productive if interrelationship is not classified
properly. System leadership does not cater
specific form of performing in an organisation.
This approach is over conceptual as it does not
determines differences occurs in system.
Contingency leadership
This theory is given by Fred Fiedler in 1980. according to Fiedler leadership depends on
effectiveness of leader on having control of situation. In this style of leadership leader do not
need to adapt according the situation(like in situational leadership), rather the goals to achieve
are needed to match leader's style. According to this style success does not depends on the skills
of leader but depends how these skills line up with factors or situation to solve the current
problem in the best way. As per this approach proper orientation is provided to employees to
motivate and encourage them. This also provide grater importance to employees view point
regarding the changes taking place in the environment (Ulewicz, 2016). This theory of
leadership get affected and decisions get changed as per prevailing conditions both inside and
outside the organisation. This approach is used by apple to make their employees work according
to current conditions or situation and encourage the team to perform in best possible way. It also
provide a base for modification as per the situation making it easier to work in a dynamic
environment.

Strengths Weakness
Provide better assess and make it easy to
identify which leaders are best for which
situations.
It is not much flexible, if leadership style does
not match the situation you have to replace it.
Effectiveness of leadership directly dependent
on relation with employees, therefore it
become necessary for leaders to provide
sufficient value to employees opinion.
Here assessment of situation is subjective ,
hence more chances of incorrect determination
of situation which leads to future consequences
.
This has broadened the scope of leadership by
emphasizing the importance of leader's style
as per the demands of different situation.
In this leadership, Least Preferred Co -
worker(LPC) scale is subjective and if you fall
in middle of LPC then there is no guidance as
to which kind of leader you are.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that leaders and managers are the important
parts of the organisation. Without proper leadership skills and styles and proper management
function, the business organisation will ail to establish the control on achieving the goals and
objectives. The different roles and characteristics explained in this report depicts that there are
various aspects which are required to be covered by both of them for efficiency of the business
enterprise. The different leadership approaches and models depicted that the leader has different
style of working as per the different organisations situations.

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