Case 1 Apple

7/29/2019 Case 1 Apple

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Key Aspects of Apples Corporate Culture

Apple Inc.(NASDAQ: AAPL; formerly Apple Computer, Inc.) is anAmerican multinational corporation that designs and sells consumer electronics,computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware

products are the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Itssoftware includes the Mac OS X operating system; theiTunes media browser;the iLife suite of multimedia and creativity software; the iWork suite of productivitysoftware; Aperture, a professional photography package; Final Cut Studio, a suite ofprofessional audio and film-industry software products; Logic Studio, a suite of musicproduction tools; the Safari web browser; and iOS, a mobile operating system.

Apple was one of several highly successful companies founded in the 1970s thatbucked the traditional notions of what a corporate culture should look like inorganizational hierarchy (flat versus tall, casual versus formal attire, etc.). Other highlysuccessful firms with similar cultural aspects from the same period include Southwest

Airlines and Microsoft. Originally, the company stood in opposition to staid competitorslike IBM by default, thanks to the influence of its founders; Steve Jobs often walkedaround the office barefoot even after Apple was a Fortune 500 company. By the time ofthe"1984" TV ad, this trait had become a key way the company attempted todifferentiate itself from its competitors

Functional & Dysfunctional aspects of Apples corporate culture

At Apple, employees are specialists who are not exposed to functions outside their areaof expertise. Jobs saw this as a means of having best-in-class employees in every role.For instance, Ron Johnson who was Senior Vice President of Retail Operations until

November 1, 2011, was responsible for site selection, in-store service, and store layout,yet he had no control the inventory in his stores (which is done company wide by then-COO and now CEO Tim Cook who has a background in supply-chain management).This is the opposite ofGeneral Electric's corporate culture which has created well-rounded managers.

CULTURE DRIVES INNOVATION

Culture is a shared set of norms. David Caldwell, professor of management at SantaClara University, talks about "culture as a shared understanding of assumptions andexpectations among an organization's members, and it is reflected in the policies,

vision, and goals of that organization."In other words, culture informs success, not theother way around. Leadership drives a culture. Stephen Sadove, chairman and chiefexecutive of Saks, says culture drives numbers: "Culture drives innovation andwhatever else you are trying to accomplish within a companyinnovation, execution,whatever it's going to be. And that then drives results," he said in a recent New YorkTimes article. "When I talk to Wall Street, people really want to know your results, whatare your strategies, what are the issues, what it is that you're doing to drive yourbusiness. Never do you get people asking about the culture, about leadership, about the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASDAQhttp://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/aaplhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multinational_corporationhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_electronicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintoshhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPodhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_Xhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_systemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITuneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILifehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWorkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture_(software)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Cut_Studiohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_Studiohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safari_(web_browser)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_culturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlineshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlineshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsofthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBMhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_500http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_(television_commercial)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Johnson_(businessman)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Cookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electrichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electrichttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Cookhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Johnson_(businessman)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_(television_commercial)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fortune_500http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBMhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsofthttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlineshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southwest_Airlineshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_culturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOShttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safari_(web_browser)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logic_Studiohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Final_Cut_Studiohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aperture_(software)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IWorkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ILifehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITuneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_systemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_Xhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhonehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPodhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintoshhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consumer_electronicshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multinational_corporationhttp://www.nasdaq.com/symbol/aaplhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASDAQ


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people in the organization. Yet it's the reverse, because it's the people, the leadership,and the ideas that are ultimately driving the numbers and the results."

So culture might feel like a soft idea, but it's the stuff that formulates how you get things

done. Thus it's a key driver of results and its importance should never be

underestimated.

Jobs could have focused on near-term fixes. Instead, he focused on building a high-

performance culture by doing three things well.

1. He refocused the strategy to be about one thing. That meant he killed off even good

things. I led server channel management at Apple when Jobs returned to the company

in 1997, and I was there when he made the decision to shut down big portions of

revenue-generating businesses (including my division) because they didn't fit with his

vision for the company. Some people thought he was crazy. But he was being

extremely clear, and in doing so, he "Murder Boarded"eliminated many options to get

one cohesive strategyhis way to greatness.

2. He eliminated passive aggressiveness and encouraged debate when new ideas were

forming. When you are thinking about difficult problems together with exceptionally

bright people, there are going to be disagreements. But it is through the tension of that

creative conflict that new ideas get born, new angles get explored, and risks get

mitigated. Thinking together means you deal with conflict up front, rather than have to

counter passive aggressiveness on the back end.

3. He set up a cross-disciplinary view of how the company would succeed. This holistic

vision means there is cohesion throughout the company, from concept to product to

sales. For example, the retail strategy could have been a separate or disparate part of

the whole, but Apple has made its retail strategy part and parcel of its overall promise of

ease of use.

Organizational Culture at Apple Inc

Introduction

Apple Inc. is a global computer manufacturing company that is going through major

changes in its organizational culture and its organizational structure due to several


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events of the past few years. This is a company that grew extremely fast in little time,

that their management found themselves not being able to keep their operations and

finances under control. Apple Inc. has been forced to reevaluate and redesign its

organizational culture and organizational structure to avoid bankruptcy. The

organizational culture of Apple is one of change; with the drive to outperform and

succeed as their major objectives.

The organizational structure of the company has also transformed to be more

competitive in a critical juncture in the companys history. Apple is going through major

restructuring to regain control of its operations and finances in order to stay competitive

on the global market. This paper will describe the organizational culture and structure of

Apple (www.fundinguniverse).Organizational Culture The culture of Apple was based on

an ideal that self-motivated individuals will work harder if they do not have a boss

micromanaging every action. The unique structure of Apple had allowed it to grow and

react more quickly to changes than its competitors. The reason for the quick

responsiveness is simple; it is much easier to get a project started if there are only a few

people to obtain approval from.

Apple initially grew fast, because decisions were made at the lowest possible level.

Corporate headquarters made policy and oversaw all activities, but the local employees

made the day-to-day decisions on the ground in countries all over the world. This type

of top-down philosophy allowed for quick responsiveness and resolutions to situations

without involving the corporate headquarters, thus avoiding corporate red tape (Mc

Shane and Travglione, 2005, pp 89-290).Organizational Structure The organizational

structure of Apple was almost non-existent and focused on placing decision making in

the hands of the people in the field. Apple was doing incredibly well and had gotten the

attention of many people because the company worked well and was very responsive to

change. However, things took a downward turn and Apple found themselves in a

financial nightmare.

Apple suffered problems in regional areas, specifically in the accountability of spending

and in fiscal decision-making. The same "top-down" ideology that helped Apple grow

also opened the door for some serious financial losses. With employees at different

levels making decisions, it became difficult for the corporate office to keep track of

spending and purchasing (Offermann & Spiros, 2001, pp 376-92).Behavior at work

(personality traits)Apple Inc. case study Personality refers to the relatively stable pattern

of behaviors and consistent internal states that explain a persons behavioral

tendencies. Personality has both internal and external elements. The external traits are

the observable behaviors that people rely on to identify someones personality.

Personality is both inherited and shaped by the environment (Mc Shane and Travglione,

2005, pp 89-290). Some examples of personality traits are quiet, aggressive and


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ambitious (Robbins et al., 2003, pp 178-90).While working overtime late one night, you

accidentally overhear a colleague called Amanda having a telephone conversation in

which she states that she had stolen ideas from a co-worker and close friend of yours

called Bill. Amanda recently received a prestigious promotion on the basis of stealing

Bills ideas, while Bill has been reprimanded by his manager for not performing up to the

organizations expectations (Glinow, 2003, pp 189-67).

Values, perceptions and personality traits are the key concepts that shape an

individuals behavior and way of doing things in day to day life as well as in

organizational factors and issues. That is why the study of these concepts is vitalin the

context of organizational behavior theory. In the following, the issue talks about a

dispute about a staffer named Amanda stealing another staffer named Bills idea and

later Bill got reprimanded. In a circumstance like this, it isto be determined how an

honest employee who had known about the theft and misdeed towards Bill should react

in an organizational setting depending on the employees own values, perception and

personality(Sagie & Elizur, 2002 pp.503-14).Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy Self-Esteem

is a personal judgment ofones worth and the satisfaction or dissatisfaction with ones

own self. By this definition Self-Esteem is how each individual person views themselves

as a person both mentality and physically.

According to William James, a psychologist, self esteem involves only one mental

perception of their own qualities and their physical appearance (Glinow, 2003, pp189-

67). Self esteem plays an important role of who people are and starts at every young

age. There are both positives and negative cycles of self esteem. Self esteem is the one

of the most important aspects in psychology because it can either give confidence or

accept defeat (Offermann & Spiros, 2001, pp.376-92).Similarly Self-efficacy is a

mechanism that explains an individuals behavior and perceived capability to perform a

behavior. It is associated with a positive self-concept, and self-

personal control that comes from mastering new experiences with anticipation of

successful performance (Schiffman etal, 2005, pp 78-90). It is the reservation of a

behavior until success is met.

Self-efficacy varies in its strength and the level of self-efficacy is impacted by the

experience of success or failure related to the risk of taking actions toward change. It

evolves from a persons perception of competence in performing behavior and having

positive outcomes. Self-esteem and self-efficacy both is necessary to influence a

persons work behavior (Stephen, 2005, pp 181-167).Perceptual Selection Influence

Perception is "the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory

information."

Perception plays a vital role in ones life as it depends on the five senses and triggers

the ability to acquire and mentally interpret information perceived by the brain from the


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senses (Toffler, 1991, pp 14-20). Everything which we see around us are converted by

the brain into nerve impulses, and these impulses are the only information the brain

receives as it has not direct contact with the external world, therefore creating the real

world inside our heads. We would not be able to see the world as it is today if it were

not for our senses and perception (Schiff man et al, 2005, pp 78-90).Persons ability to

perceive correctly the structure of his or her place within an organization is an

important source of power.

When it comes down to how well a persons perception skills are I think it has to do with

the persons position in the social makeup of the organization, and his or her personality

traits. People with keen perceptive abilities can precisely structure their relationships

within their work environment to get what they want, since they know which social

associations allow them to access the resources they need;those who skills are not as

keen may not be as successful, because of their lack of perception (Sagie & Elizur,

2002 pp.503-

oo as

of officeexpansion. Moreover allow people to be more productive by working from their

communications. Additionally Personnel policies lead to fact

that creates better environmental policy. They have to point out personnel through

Organizations (such as Apple Inc. in this case) are the dominant cultural foundation of

our times; the study of behavior within those Organizations (such as Apple Inc. in this

case) is of active interest to many audiences. Many of our daily activities are regulated

by Organizations (such as Apple Inc. in this case) called governments. nd most adults

spend the better part of their lives working in Organizations (such as Apple Inc. in this

case). Given the widespread of organizational influence, there are many reasons to be

concerned about how and why Organizations (such as Apple Inc. in this case) function.

The value of organizational behavior is that it isolates important aspects of our daily

interactions with people and offers specific perspectives on interrelation of the human

context:people as Organizations (such as Apple Inc. in this case), people as

for

todaysOrganizations (such as Apple Inc. in this case). In order to better motivate,

in

behavioral studies to change their environment


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Over the years, the US-based technology giant Apple Inc. (Apple) have earned the

reputation for its innovative products and for its ability to create a huge amount of hype

surrounding its new product launches. Experts felt that its success was, in part, due to

the mystique surrounding Apple and its products which has been created by thecompany by maintaining a veil of secrecy. So much so, that secrecy has become one of

the key elements of Apple's corporate culture. Critics contend that this aspect of Apple's

culture also has a dark side. Apple imposed harsh sanctions on employees who violated

rules by sharing information. Due to its obsession with secrecy, Apple sued bloggers,

online journalists and former employees for disclosing confidential details about

upcoming products.

In 2009, the company also attracted criticism for failing to disclose vital informationregarding CEO Steve Jobs' health to its shareholders. Some critics opined that this strict

insistence on absolute secrecy was robbing Apple of its humanity and has also become

morally and ethically untenable.

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Case 1 Apple