Analyzing Change Management: Apple and Atlassian Strategies Report

This report delves into the intricacies of change management by examining the strategic and operational shifts within Apple and Atlassian. It explores the impact of leadership changes, such as Steve Jobs' influence on Apple, and the evolution of performance review systems at Atlassian. The analysis covers the internal and external drivers of change, evaluating their effects on leadership styles, team dynamics, and individual employee behaviors. Furthermore, the report assesses measures to minimize the negative impacts of change on organizational behavior, including two-way communication, employee training, and gradual implementation of changes. Finally, the report identifies barriers to change and suggests strategies for effective leadership decision-making in organizational contexts, offering a comprehensive understanding of change management principles.

Understanding and Leading Change

Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
P1: impact of changes in Apple and Atlassian on their strategy and operations..........................................3
P2: Evaluate the ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership, team and
individual behaviors within an organization................................................................................................5
P3: Evaluate measures that can be taken to minimize negative impacts of change on organizational
behavior.......................................................................................................................................................6
P4: Explain different barriers for change and determine how they influence leadership decision-making in
a given organizational context.....................................................................................................................7
P5: Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change in a range of organizational contexts...9
References.................................................................................................................................................11

Introduction
The process of organizational change is all about the technique to review as well as modify the
ongoing management structures as well as business processes of the existing company. This is
most needed so as to adapt with the changing business environment and outperform the
competitors that are affecting the success of the firm. The present study has thus focused on
changes that took place in Apple and Atlassian. Apple is a well-known name in Software
Company that specializes in its designing, developing and selling. As per the research carried
out, Apple has been named as the largest company in IT sector in terms of revenue all over the
globe. It underwent a change in its management when Mr. Steve Jobs was appointed as an
interim CEO so as to bring the firm back from the brink of bankruptcy (Dudovskiy, 2013). The
second change management to be discussed is in Atlassian which is also a software firm that is
specializes in developing of tracking software. The firm has around 85000 consumers in the
world and is known for its honest business, amazing work culture and consistent growth. It
underwent a change in its performance review system that was previously decreasing the morale
of employees (Groen, Wouters and Wilderom, 2017).
The current study has thus laid emphasis on carrying out a discussion about a change that took
place in both the organizations and how it impacted the overall operational working as well as
strategic framework of the company. This will be followed by carrying out an analysis with
respect to the internal as well as external drivers of change and there overall effect on leadership
style, team working and employee behavior within the company. Last but not the least, a study
will also be done on the barriers that impacted change process and how they can reduce them to
the minimal.
P1: impact of changes in Apple and Atlassian on their strategy and operations.
Change is inevitable in any organization but it has been found to put an impact on the overall
working of firms. This is especially true for large sized and multinational companies such as
Apple and Atlassian that underwent a drastic change.
Change in leadership of Apple – Apple Inc. is a number one IT company of the world with
respect to revenue but had faced quite tough times during 1996 when its product line being Mac
was not so successful. Issues further arose when an attempt was made to recreate the mac

operating system (Sherman, 2014). This was also a crucial time for Apple as it was near to the
stage of bankruptcy and was devoid of any innovation which could have taken the company
forward. A large amount of investment was made in the research and development activities but
the actions were lacking any major output. It was during this time that Mr. Steve Jobs joined the
company as an interim CEO. The firm under his management was able to receive an investment
of 150 million dollar from Mr. Bill Gates who was the principal founder of Microsoft
Corporation. This money was utilized by Mr. Jobs in carrying out advertising activities in order
to highlight the saleable product offerings of Apple. He further started working on the ideology
that the company needed new products that were wanted by the customers and the ones to appeal
the mass market (Faas, 2011). Hence, Macintosh series was removed from the market and iMac
series was launched. This resulted in a much needed boost that was wanted by Apple since a long
time. IT happened as the company sold around 800000 units in its first five months. With his
ideas and creativity and the ones instilled in the team members, iMac became one of the best
personal computer of the world and also had a presence of new OSX to support it. A revolution
was all brought with the launch of iPod and iTunes (Change Management Lessons from
Microsoft and Apple, 2018). All this was made possible because of a visionary leadership style
adopted by Mr. Steve Jobs that not only saved Apple from bankruptcy but also made it as the
greatest innovation firms of the world.
Change in performance review system of Atlassian
Atlassian till the year 2011 was adhering with performance review system whose basis was
traditional rating and was done on a biannual basis. The approach was not giving good results as
employees felt unhappy because there performance was not reviewed on a frequent basis. The
system instead of inspiring the employees to increase performance was leading to anxiety and
demotivation (Hansen, 2018). Hence the management team during the year 2011 removed the
exiting process and replaced it with a one that was more continual and less numeric in nature.
Increased emphasis was given on monthly performance review through one on one meeting
session with the concerned person. This resulted in an overall shift with respect to corporate
culture; increase in overall employee satisfaction as well as more productivity amongst the teams
(Failure to Perform, 2016). After this change, the company became a proud owner of Trello
which was a company worth of 425 million dollar. As of now it has been regarded as one of the
fastest growing tech company in the world.

P2: Evaluate the ways in which internal and external drivers of change affect leadership,
team and individual behaviors within an organization.
Change drivers are those that make a difference on the industry and force the firm to modify or
even replace their actions so as to be in tune with the changes taking place in outside
environment. With respect to this ideology, there is an existence of external as well internal
drivers to change that has created a huge impact on leadership style, team working as well as
employee behavior in both Apple as well as Atlassian (Groen, Wouters and Wilderom, 2017).
Apple had a presence of many internal drivers to change such as a requirement to innovate,
introduction of new products that appeal to mass market, capturing market share and attaining
growth (Laschinger and Read, 2017). External drivers were in form of meeting the demand of
consumer with respect to new technology and providing a hardware system that was easy in
terms of comprehension. Atlassian on the other hand had a presence in internal drivers to change
such as increasing employee morale and motivation; implementing new technology in
performance review system; maintaining a positive work culture in the employees among
others. External drivers to change included meeting up the competitive landscape as employee
had the tendency to leave the firm and join other ones. The impact that these drivers to change
have caused on Apple and Atlassian are as follows;
Leadership style was impacted due to change in Apple as Steve Jobs became highly focused
towards overall working of the company. This was done in order to remover the confusion that
surrounded the hardware system and he also wanted to streamline the employees in such a
manner that were able to give their best for the company. The leadership of Jobs further led to
increased innovation within the company which can be seen from the creation of novel products
such as iPod portable digital audio player, Apple iTunes that revolutionized the entire world. An
impact was also seen on team as well as employee working as there was an adoption of focused
approach but also a fear towards the unknown such as being fired from the company if work was
not up to the mark (Ramesh and Ravi, 2017). There was further a presence of secrecy in the
working as demanded by Steve Jobs which was done to make the incidents of thefts related to
proprietary information or intellectual property to a minimal one. There was further a
development of moderate combativeness as Jobs challenged the employees to make sure that
they have the necessary skill set to keep working at Apple.

Similar kinds of impact was also seen on leadership of Atlassian as management adopted
approach that helped in close supervision of the working done by employees so as to aid in
proper review of monthly performance. They were also required to adopt two way
communications with the supervisors so as to review the employee work in a proper manner
(Strauss, Parker and O'Shea, 2017). A change was also observed in behavior of employee as an
individual and within team. This happened as they started working in a hard and smart manner so
that better review so done for them by the supervisors by the end of the month (Jluijke., 2010).
Team behavior led to the creation of conflicting situations as individual focused on their own
performance rather than working for the team goal in order to get a good review by month end.
P3: Evaluate measures that can be taken to minimize negative impacts of change on
organizational behavior
It is very essential for both Apple as Atlassian to undertake various steps so that negative impacts
of the above mentioned changes can be reduced to the minimum. The measures are inclusive of;
Two way communications with the employees – the management team of Apple must give a
listening ear to what the employees feel about appointment of Mr. Steve Jobs. This will assist in
analyzing the issue faced by them which can then be addressed in a proper manner. Interview as
well as meeting sessions should be carried out with those employees who are not happy with the
change. There fears and concerns should be worked upon in order to maintain a positive work
culture (Gruman and Saks, 2011). The strategy of two way communication has already been
followed within Atlassian as supervisors took the feedback from the employees about biannual
review system so as to assess the issues that were being faced by them. This was quite
encouraging for the employees as they felt a feeling of involvement in the change and there was
positive chat within the organization about upcoming system of monthly review system.
Train and prepare – this strategy is most needed for both the companies as Apple needs to
prepare its supervisors about the new working style of Steve Jobs so as to manage the employees
accordingly. In the same way, Atlassian requires the managers to get training with respect to how
the monthly review is required to be carried out (Laschinger and Read, 2017). This can be done
by appointing an executive coach so as to generate best possible results.
Increasing expectation level of employees – in order to meet up the working style of Mr. Steve
Jobs, the employees must be given with realistic goals so that they do not feel frustrated while
working and are able to give their best possible work that demands focus (Ramesh and Ravi,

2017). Frustration and fearfulness is likely to happen due to management style of Steve Jobs that
is autocratic in nature and demands for attention on minute details. The need is to bring changes
in working style of employees which can only be done when they are pushed beyond their limits
(Abrell-Vogel and Rowold, 2014).
Bringing in changes gradually - It was very important for both the management team at Apple as
well as Atlassian to not bring in a lot of changes at once. Time should be given to employees by
which they can absorb few and then move to new ones. This will make them less resistant. This
was a much needed strategy in case of Apple as the working of Steve Jobs was entirely different
and team members needed good amount of time to set themselves with the changes.
Hence the need here it make an application of few strategies as mentioned above so as to
minimize the negative impact that is caused on team as well as individual working to the
maximal possible extent.
P4: Explain different barriers for change and determine how they influence leadership
decision-making in a given organizational context.
There can be a usage of Force field analysis in order to assess the barriers that affected the
changes introduced. In this regard, the change in Atlassian was with respect to the performance
review system with a requirement to bring an overall reduction in anxiety and bring san
improvement in their team performance. The internal forces that led to change were in form of
decreased morale and employee motivation; anxiety in the minds of staff members while
external driver to change were gaining a competitive advantage against rivals and bringing in
technology with respect to performance reviews (Sessa and London, 2015). The change was
found to be a positive one but still there were a presence of many factors that resisted it to be
brought in smoothly within Atlas. These were in form of employees getting fearful for the
unknown that the new review system may reduce the performance of employees. it may further
make a few employees look less competent in front of others (Laschinger and Read, 2017). Some
employees further feared about the timing when the change was being introduced as a few of
them were expecting promotion or salary raise. Some of them also resisted change due to the
political strategy that was formulated by them hence they were eager enough to prove that the
decision for making the change was a wrong one (Tannenbaum and Cerasoli, 2013). This
ideology was mostly there in those managers who were not made involved in the change process
and there viewpoints were not taken care of. Hence they wanted the change to turn as a failure.

The next step as per force field analysis is to give scores to the above mentioned forces starting
from weak (1) and strong (5). The present score is on the basis of influence made by each force
on the change plan that has been made in the firm.
1 2 3 4 5
Forces in
favor of
change
Increase in
motivation of
employee
Reduction in
staff turnover
rate
Decrease in
anxiety level
of staff
members
Introduction
to new
technology
Attaining a
competitive
advantage
against rival
firms
Enhancement
in employee
productivity
Forces
against
the
changes
Employees
getting feared
about the
unknown

Less
competency
of employees
against their
team
members
poor timing
Office
politics
As per the above analysis it is quite clear that forces in favor of change are stronger than the ones
against it. Hence the need on part of Atlassian is to move forward with this change of
performance review system. This will aid to bring a good reduction in employee turnover and
also boost up the overall morale of employees.
P5: Apply different leadership approaches to dealing with change in a range of
organizational contexts
There are different types of leadership approaches used in Apple and Atlassian to deal
with organizational changes. These are as follows-
Authoritative leadership style - This style of leadership is applied when employees
require proper guidance and direction from their leaders. For example, change in vision might be
required to be introduced among employees of Apple in order to empower them to the latest
technology. Further, steps also need to be taken to meet customer demand and supply customized
of to them. In addition to this, coaching style of leadership can also be applied to train employees
of Apple with the latest technology (Dawson and Andriopoulos, 2014). For this, managers also
need to provide one to one training to employees so that they can be technically advanced and
provide best services to the customers.
Transformational leadership - This style of leadership is required if change happens in Apple
because of any merger or acquisition. This is required to gain trust and confidence among
employees towards their new managers. With this, it will be easier for the employees to adopt
new policies and rules in the organisation (Laschinger and Read, 2017).

Supportive leadership - This leadership can be introduced in Atlassian when change in
performance review process takes place in the company. This would help the employees to
understand the procedure of performance review according to which they can improve their
skills and perform (Ramesh and Ravi, 2017). Also, this would help the managers to guide and
train employees in the best possible manner.
Coaching leadership style - This way of leadership can be introduced in Atlassian when
supervisors need to understand their roles and responsibilities while reviewing the overall
performance of employees. They can establish two way and clear communication with the
employees so as to build their strengths and skills (Botha, Kourie and Snyman, 2014). This can
also lead to their all-round development which would be beneficial for the organisation as well.
In this regards, management can also employ coercive leadership to deal with those employees
who are not in support of the change implemented in the company.
Laissez faire leadership - This style of leadership can be applied in Atlassian among those senior
employees who are expertise in their work and do not require any training and can take their own
decisions beneficial for the organization (Fuchs and Prouska, 2014).
One or a few of the above mentioned strategies are most needed so as to deal with the change in
best possible manner. This is as after all best change management is the one that has been
supported by strong ideas so as to create the least amount of resistance.
Conclusion
A conclusion can be drawn from the above report that both Apple and Atlassian brought a
change in there working when they started facing a crisis within the company. The changes
however turned out to be a good one and there was no looking back since that time. In this
regard, many internal as well as external forces led to the process of change and common
amongst both was a need to maintain profitability and long term sustainability within the market.
The change however was accompanied by many barriers such as fear of unknown; office
politics, movement out of one’s comfort zone, loss of job among others. these can however be
minimised by the usage of techniques such as Two way communications with the employees;
training and preparation as well as Increasing expectation level of employees.

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