Leadership Report: Apple's Strategies and Ethical Approach

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Apple Inc.'s leadership, examining the leadership styles and practices employed by its leaders, particularly focusing on Tim Cook. It explores how these practices contribute to the company's success, including the application of transformational leadership and the fostering of a positive organizational culture. The report evaluates the current leadership practices, emphasizing the establishment of professionalism, mutual trust, respect, and support within teams, and how these practices support employee development and understanding of organizational direction. Furthermore, the report critically analyzes Apple's ethical and value-based approach to leadership, assessing the impact of culture, values, legal requirements, and stakeholder expectations on leadership within the organization. The analysis highlights the importance of employee engagement, the use of soft skills, and the role of ethical considerations in driving the company's performance and maintaining its competitive edge. The report uses theoretical frameworks to support its analysis and provides a comprehensive understanding of leadership in a real-world context.

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Leadership
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Executive Summary
The aim of this report is to analyse the case study of Apple Incorporation to understand how
the company has achieved success in its sector while relying on effective leadership practices.
This report will analyse leadership styles and practices which are used by leaders at Apple in
different situations and scenarios. Current leadership practices adopted in Apple by leaders
such as Tim Cook will be analysed along with evaluation of different leadership styles.
Ethical and value oriented approach that is prevailed in the leadership of Apple will be
examined to understand culture at Apple and how the company fulfils legal requirements and
expectations of its stakeholders.

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Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Leadership styles and practices employed.................................................................................3
Current leadership practices.......................................................................................................6
Ethical and value oriented approach of leadership....................................................................9
Conclusion................................................................................................................................11
References................................................................................................................................12

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Introduction
In today’s competitive business world, effective leadership enable companies to tackle their
challenges and exploit business opportunities in order to extend their operations on a global
scale. Effective leadership practices play a crucial role in the success of a company and it also
allows the organisations to properly manage their operations as well as workforce. Leaders
play a major role in promoting trust and respect between their teams and they also encourage
them to comply with ethical as well as legal requirements (Eisenbeiss, et al., 2015). The
objective of this report is to analyse the case study of Apple Incorporation in order to
understand how leadership plays a role in its success. This report will analyse the leadership
style and practices adopted by leaders in Apple. This report will also evaluate current
leadership practices that allow leaders in Apple to create a positive culture, promote mutual
trust, and support the development of employees and teams. Lastly, the key aspect relating to
ethical and values oriented approach of leadership in Apple will be analysed to understand
how the company complies with relevant laws and protect the interest of its stakeholders.
Leadership styles and practices employed
While analysing companies, management and leadership are considered as the most common
aspects or beliefs for reaching success based on the capabilities and qualities of managers and
leaders. Within this process, employees are influenced to achieve common goal within an
organisation by fulfilling it efficiently, orderly and consistently. In this context, focusing on
leadership shows the responsibility of leaders to design and develop appropriate management
system for accomplishing desired goals systematically and orderly. The leadership role
describes the setting of progressive direction within an organisation while reflecting on
creating and shaping organisational culture (Al Khajeh, 2018). Leadership is to make sure for
the development of companies while driving growth in future which is possible through
leaders creating strong ideas. Furthermore, it is essential to evaluate leadership styles
concerning leaders such as Tim Cook of an organisation named Apple known to be as
world’s largest and number one technology company through making innovation across the
globe.
Within the context of leaders, qualities impacts group of individuals towards achieving the
goals and success of a company. Leadership styles have a varied impact while taking

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strategic decisions for the fulfilment of organisation’s success. There are differences in
leadership styles based on the behaviour and control of a leader as portrayed. The leadership
styles based on control consists of autocratic, participative also termed as democratic and
laissez faire leadership style whereas leadership styles based on beliefs consists of critical,
development, and benevolent or paternalistic leadership style (Fox, 2017). A good example
shows the leadership skills and qualities of the Apple’s CEO Tim Cook as a leader following
transformational leadership style by being a charismatic leader inspiring its employees. He
can also be a leader taking decisions based on the changing situations while influencing its
employees working under him. Instead of controlling operations overall, Cook thought of
working with coordination involving employees in decision-making while focusing on the
changes needed for transformation as well (Gilchrist, 2018). Cook inspires his team and
creates a vision helping to see through by using valuable assets with adapting, growing and
improving during facing challenges and inspiring employees with his charismatic qualities of
a leader.
Charismatic leaders have the qualities of communicating with their employees, performing
maturely while making decisions, can easily feel humiliation where they value employees
within an organisation, they have the compassion to reach at success by working with
employees considering honesty and integrity as well. Furthermore, other qualities consists of
substance charismatic leaders have to capture attention of employees, there confidence while
achieving goals, positivity through their body language shows openness and warmness; other
than this, their listening skills, making improvements if needed by their own, and monitoring
consistency by self is also considered as qualities of charismatic leaders (Luenendonk, 2016).
While following transformational leadership style, Tim Cook has qualities of a charismatic
leader where he keeps on working on motivating employees to work efficiently and
effectively.
Cook has a positive attitude towards the team no matter how complex a situation can get.
Also, he finds it essential to share knowledge with employees while engaging them in
decision making and performing innovative activities within an organisation. Cook believes
in promoting self-esteem where he requires individuals to trust their own guts and feel
confident, motivated and successful being in a team working to achieve the corporate goals.
Being a charismatic leader, following transformational leadership style shows affability of
him thinking ways to manage relationships between co-workers with the company having
some sort of emotional level (Dicob, 2016). Lastly, approachability shows the quality of

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Cook as he never misses an opportunity and devotes time in individuals while building their
networks by being open to everyone and values their resources during appreciating
employees.
Leadership practices involve employee engagement to improve organisational culture
considering retention and productivity in business. As per the study of Gallup, there was an
estimation of losing $450 and $550 billion in productivity due to disengagement of
employees where effective leaders like Time Cook make sure to engage employees for
generating a competitive edge driving out better customer outcomes and increasing
productivity through employee engagement for fostering culture in an organisation
(Florentine, 2018). The practices performed by Cook for keeping employees active is asking
them series of questions to make sure that they work through their responsibilities while
using this method for dividing Apple’s operations based on issues occurred and need to be
solved. Being a leader, Cook has capabilities and intelligence to handle employees by asking
difficult questions encouraging them to find answers (Eadicicco, 2019).
For instance, Apple’s Time Cook thinks of leading differently by maintaining the company’s
unique culture through the solid foundation of using influential and powerful technology by
engaging employees based on their values and principles. He was capable enough to build his
team full of faith and patience at the time when Apple lost its stock of $200 billion as per the
market cap at high where Tim did not even panicked and implemented massive share buy-
back program where divined increased with a ratio of 7 is to 1 while splitting stock which
paid positive results as well (Tobak, 2014). These practices performed by Cook shows the
effectiveness through his leadership skills where he was dedicated towards delegation,
focusing on both big and small by balancing through interacting with employees to make
them understand, he always ignored the misleading competitors, and make sure to learning
the company’s business from all the levels (Bahreini, 2018). Hence, this was understood that
productivity can increase when a leader steps out to take effective leadership practices for
enhancement by building a positive workplace for employees which Apple already and just
requires maintenance, and it essential for cutting the time of meeting where employees loses
their work of tasks completion as well. Moreover, it is essential to make sure that a leader
such as Cook encourages autonomy while building organisational culture and lastly, there is a
need of developing clear purpose along with employees collaborating to drive career goals as
well (Lashinsky, 2015). Hence, this will enhance the power of employees to perform better

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and a leader will get relax while working smoothing and achieving corporate goals for better
success and growth in future.
Current leadership practices
In companies, culture helps in setting rules for a team to work relating to development of
ideas, approach and behaviour. It is considered that good working culture along with strong
cohesion with every team member is important. To make it successful, it is essential for
companies to work with professionalism for focusing on the vision by task completion and
positive approach towards the accomplishment of clear goals. Professionalism brings out the
sense of responsibility in leaders along with removing their casual attitude towards work by
helping through increase in discipline and forces team on tasks completion within the given
time frame (Kapp, 2012). It is essential for leaders to develop trust, respect and support
within working environment among employees for the achievement of goals. Culture is
dependent on the trust between employees without which there can be threat to task quality
due to clashes among individuals’ ideas leading towards their increasing ego. It is crucial to
enhance trust through showing confidence in each other’s ideas and motivating them for
making best efforts in terms of leaders’ professionalism. The focus is on respecting level and
kind of support to each other important for healthy environment development which
considers professional attitude and knowledge of one another where high knowledge level
helps in gaining respect (Daicoff, 2012).
In case of Tim Cook, leader of Apple believes in his capability of treating every individual
with respect and dignity which is based on our choice of doing so. There are numerous
opportunities for a leader to show such respect and dignity towards people based on their
interaction with and there is an unintentional engagement of behaviours at work by
individuals which might cause tension or sending of wrong signal that leads to unnecessary
violations (Seaton, 2018). In professionalism of leaders such as Tim Cook, respecting is like
priority and valuing affecting the entire culture of the company through making changes. The
ways of showing respect to employees by leaders along with some dignity in it for ingraining
daily activities consists of leaders to inquire and listen by using W.A.I.T. principle, to stay
approachable and available, to be proactive in seeking out for opinions of others as well, to
understand the mind state of others, to be respectful in different communication styles by
taking help from R&D (research and development) individual, to be every time on time,
crucially recognise existence of others, showing respect to employees for the role they played

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in past, and to respect individuals coming out from their social comfort zones. Hence, leaders
showing respect and dignity to employees solve a lot of problems within an organisation
while performing best in the work they do resulting personally and across the globe (Mautz,
2019).
In companies, leaders like Time Cook of Apple use their soft skills for helping employees to
cope up while making technology change within business. While using thoughtful approach,
Tim Cook stood for achieving new heights and earned praising by listening to his employees
working with him and respecting them for maintaining transparency. It is essential to make
employees understand the importance of technology for driving change where soft skills of
Cook showed broad knowledge of getting and working along with united and inspired
employees to reach at success based on their personality power (Davies, 2019). Thus, these
soft skills of leaders like Cook include listening, humour, relatability, persuasiveness, and
empathy.
Employees of Apple understand to balance the culture of an organisation when leaders like
Tim Cook motivates them through monetary benefits such as providing them job satisfaction,
creating competitive and extensive benefits package. Such benefits consists of disability,
vision, health, life, and dental insurance, employee stock purchase plan, paid time off, 401K
plan, employee discount, maternity and paternity leave, gym membership, sick days, paid
holidays, professional development course, and transportation assistance (Arocha, 2017).
Hence, this is all possible by Tim Cook’s charismatic leadership style reflecting
professionalism culture in an organisation along with balancing employees’ experience and
skills by showing mutual respect, trust and support to them. This will also lead to
development and supporting teams by making them understand the direction of an
organisation to achieve its goals and reach towards success (Dudovskiy, 2019). The leader of
Apple makes sure to take care of consistent creativity and innovation through using
technology and making change along with the support of their inspired employees.
Leaders have various qualities to establishing the growth of companies where Tim Cook,
leader of Apple possessed some of the leadership qualities for keeping making the company a
powerhouse of tech continuously. Cook has the capability of taking Apple to the next level
with his required leadership skills which helps in continuous refinement of progressing
through making career of employees. There are reasons of Tim Cook representing
professional culture development along with mutually respecting, supporting and trusting

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employees within the company (Onorato, 2013). The reasons consists of his positive attitude
towards taking risks, attentively listening and focusing on employees putting their ideas
through, he maintains the trust on individuals working around him and giving their opening
and speaking about their points.
Other reasons consists of believing in importance of diversity within an organisation where
Apple featuring in innovation requires distinct individuals with unique and mindful thoughts
for the creating of future, he is humble with his employees while managing time and
engaging with customers, he always prefer to admit when he or any of his employee is wrong
about something, he believes in the work people do while also doing it well along with
looking towards them and accordingly take actions for reflecting (Lisak & Erez, 2015). He is
one of the best leaders when it comes to working as a team with their employees where he
believes in being yourself and do not pretend who you are not, the trust he has for his
employees let them work on their own rules but in a right way and ethical manner, and lastly,
he wanted him and his team to maintaining transparency at every step within an organisation
for sustaining success in future based on Apple’s operations and their standards for global
employees (Morello, 2018).
The development of culture consisting trust and respect among employees is possible for
leaders like Tim Cook through employee engagement for making them feel satisfied that they
work effortlessly within an organisation. There should be management and perks tricks and
how one individual treats other matters as well for further growth (Dorfman, et al., 2012). It
requires leaders to listen their employees where communication is a key factor to maintain
relationships between employees and making them comfortable by sharing information and
collecting daily feedback from them. It is also important to show employees that you care by
making efforts while going through working on their feedback where they expect to help each
other along with supporting culture. In business, it is vital for leader to build a team by
encouraging every employee by maintaining culture and gaining a competitive edge across
the globe as well (Besner, 2015). Moreover, leaders like Tim Cook focuses on influencing
goal achievement and team performance with ability through their leadership skills for
meeting organisational demands and making development which is not possible while having
complexity among employees. It is essential for leaders to balance team development to
achieve success by performing effectively and efficiently while reflecting behaviour
motivating and inspiring employees to change. Also, it is necessary to keep employees
motivated with an ability of creating clear vision and making them understand organisational

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culture while focusing on encouraging innovation and performance development (Starks,
2015).
Ethical and value oriented approach of leadership
After analysing the leadership styles and practices employed by leader taken as an example
Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple along with understating his professionalism culture while
balancing experience and skills with employees’ mutual respect, trust and support, it is
essential to determine the values and culture impact as well along with regulatory, legal and
ethical requirements, and expectations and needs of stakeholders in and outside the company
based on his leadership. Being a leader derives the position of making decision along with
involving employees for creating better attitudes and opinions while managing this
responsibility (Eisenbeiß & Brodbeck, 2014). Every leader has an impact based on their
actions, words and values playing huge role while going in the direction of achieving success.
In leadership, credibility and responsibility is an important components based on leaders
interacting with employees and other individuals as well. Every practice performed by Cook
made sure to involve employees while building trust and engaging them in decision making
process where ethics is an important part impacting it. Based on the legal concept, leaders
really need to analyse every step while making decision by understanding regulatory system
for functioning based on directives, inspections, agency, regulations, and reviews (Loi, et al.,
2012). In this consistent changing business environment, there is also a change in regulatory
and legal requirements within an organisation where it is required to implement them with
sudden effect impacting decisions made by leaders such as Tim Cook and the company’s
management as well.
There is a need of flexibility while leaders making future goals, directions or decisions to
adjust when there is a changes impact in regulatory and legal requirements within practices to
be performed ethically. Leaders face numerous challenges in terms of the society, profit
maximisation and legal compliance where they need to act in way of responding to growing
demands, pressures, expectations and concerns of different stakeholders as individuals or
groups (Lipman, 2013). In companies, stakeholders are necessarily taken into account where
their activities impact the environment and society as well. Leadership is impacted by social
concerns and expectations within an organisation based on leaders having ethnocentric
perspective while working in such as way in relation to diverse ethnicity which can lead to
the challenges they face such as differentiation as per religious beliefs, racial discrimination,

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geographical location discrimination and others. It is essential for leaders to show there
charm to employees while performing activities such as done by Tim Cook in Apple where
they can create a work environment along with balancing their personal lives as well (Zetlin,
2019). It is essential for leaders to maintain their strategic position as per their rising concern
across the globe as a leading organisation.
Employees are always motivated when they receives flexibility in terms of working hours
positively but challenge faced by leaders due to social expectations affects their supervision,
training and controlling aspects where it is necessary to bring change within an organisational
framework and its processes through leaders innovative leadership styles and practices
employed within an organisation. In recent times, employees are concerned about their
privacy concerns based on the perspective of personal information where they expect from a
company to not lead their data to any other companies which require strict supervision and
security increment levels for maintaining their position within an organisation (Baraniuk,
2018). In such cases, Apple makes sure to secure and protect employees’ data privacy where
being a leader, Tim Cook make sure to take care of this concern by himself. Also, Cook
makes sure that no employee uses a privilege to misuse any clients’ personal data and
provides full protection and safety to each one of them (Cook, 2019). In terms of business,
the time keeps on fluctuating and is highly volatile where leaders are required to be prepared
for adapting any varying situations within an organisation. This environment become
turbulent to due mix of culture, ethnicity and professionalism which shows the importance of
leaders based on their efficient style to work and achieve goals accordingly.
Tim Cook being a leader and the CEO of Apple applies transformational leadership style with
his charismatic qualities also reacts on situation at the time of occurrence to respond it
evidently along with employees in an appropriate and approachable manner while working as
a team with proper communication and sharing of ideas to perform efficiently, effortlessly
and effectively (Liao, 2019). Leaders are efficient in terms of moulding their leadership styles
and so does Tim Cook who has a versatile personality making changes along with the
increasing time demands. He is flexible enough to show his strength of achieving anything
through making tech changes with his employees working with and helping him even at the
time of survivals. It is essential to run any practice smoothly with positivity at the time of
making change to move towards leading solution and direction of success where leaders need
to stand strong even in hard conditions (Eadicicco, 2019). With the help of leadership styles,
leaders like Cook are ready for any unpredictable circumstances to make right decision with

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the involvement and engagement of employees to perform practice for generating a
competitive edge and leading in this changing business environment. However, it is essential
to understand the importance of organisational values and cultures as well for leaders to
perform better by maintaining or transforming based on some outcomes, behaviour, and
communication lines between leaders and employees (Du, et al., 2013). The success of
leaders is dependent on understanding organisational culture and maintaining trust, respect,
support and relationship with employees in terms of making decisions and opinions towards
achieving the goals within an organisation.
Conclusion
Based on above observations, it can be concluded that effective leadership is the reason of
Apple’s success in the industry which has created a positive brand reputation allowing the
company to attract a large number of customers. The leadership style adopted by Tim Cook is
transformation leadership approach with charismatic qualities which allows him to focus on
the interest of different stakeholders while taking decisions in different scenarios. Tim Cook
also encourages employee engagement, trust among employees’ career and personal
development, positive workplace culture and building of high performing team in his current
leadership practices. Apple’s current leadership framework is ethical and value oriented since
the company complies with relevant laws and it also protects the interest of its stakeholders.
There are different frameworks and policies which are used by Apple with an objective to
make sure that laws which are applied on the organisation are followed correctly. A culture is
created in the company which enforces all employees to make sure that they did not violate
any laws while discharging their duties. Tim Cook himself sets an example for subordinates
to show how they can act ethically while fulfilling the core values of the organisation. These
factors shows that effective understanding and implementation of leadership approach by
managers and executives at Apple are the key factors that contributes to the success of the
company.