Apple Essay for Communication ESSAYS PDF

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Apple Essay for Communication ESSAYS. The paper describes leadership, organizational structure, and trends in Apple Inc. The type of leadership defines include trans-formal leadership....

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Surname 1 Name Professor Course Due Date Analysis of Apple Inc. Organizational Structure and Design, and their Impacts to the Company Introduction: Apple’s Profile Apple Inc., is a multinational technology company established in 1976 by three investors, namely Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and Ronald Wayne and has its headquarter in Cupertino in California, United States (Cable News Network Business). The company engages in the designing, marketing, and manufacturing of personal computers (PCs), smartphones, tablets, accessories and wearables, and other range related services. Apple operate in different geographical segment, including Americans, Greater China, Reset of Asia Pacific, and Europe. Apple has produced several products and services in the past decades. The products and services include iPhone, iPad, AirPads, Mac, Apple TV, Beats products, Apple Watch, iCloud, Apple Care, digital content stores, licensing services, and streaming. Shareholders of the companies are different into three, namely individual stakeholders, mutual fund holders, and other institutional. Further, in 2019, Apple had approximately 137,000 employees globally (Cable News Network Business). Finally, Apple Inc. organizational structure and design, and their impacts on its culture, internal and external influences, change, and innovation, as well as challenges facing the company’s internal workforce during COVID-19 pandemic are critically analyzed. Influence of Apple’s Organizational Structure on its Culture, Internal and External Influences, Change, and Innovation

Surname 2 Apple Inc. organizational structure is hierarchical that developed by its former CEO and founder, Steve Jobs. This corporate’s structure has divisional characteristics and a weak functional matrix (Pauline). The divisional characteristics are the product-based grouping in Apple, including iOS and macOS, and the weak functional matrix involves inter-divisional collaboration, while the hierarchy is preserved. The primary characteristics of Apple’s organizational structure include spoke-and-wheel hierarchy, product-based divisions, and weak functional matrix. Spoke-and-wheel hierarchy is described as a bird’s-eye of this company’s corporate structure, which showed considerable hierarchy in the past since everything had to go through Steve Jobs. Jobs was the decision makers of all primary strategic management decisions (Pauline). However, when Tim Cook took the leadership of the company in 2011, he has slightly changed Apple’s organizational structure. According to John, in the present, Apple has collaboration among various parts of the company, such as hardware teams and software team. The company’s vice presidents have autonomy that was limited and minimal under Jobs (John). The firm’s organizational structure is less rigid, but has a spoke-and-wheel hierarchy where Cook is at the center. The upper tier of the corporate structure has function-based grouping that is an element derived from the functional type of organizational structure. Senior vice presidents have to report to Cook are handling business functions. For instance, the company has a senior vice president for retail, and a senior vice president for international marketing. In this structure feature, Apple’s top leaders address business requirements based on business function areas. The lower and upper tier of the company’s organizational structure has product-based divisions. The product-based division is an aspect derived from the divisional type of corporate structure in which there are senior vice presidents, as well as vice presidents for various products

Surname 3 or outputs. For example, Apple Inc. has a senior vice presidents for hardware engineering, hardware technologies, and software engineering (John). This element of organizational structure is utilized to manage specific products components, which the company delivers to its targeted market. Apple’s weak functional structure defines the collaborative interactions among aspects of the business. Pauline stipulate that in a weak functional matrix, top management determines projects direction and project heads have limited authority and control. For instance, the organizational structure enables hardware team to cooperate with software teams. On the same, the organization facilitates information circulation, which is necessary for innovation processes. The structural feature contributes to rapid and effective innovation processes, which is the main business strength of Apple (John). Through this organizational structure’s characteristic, Apple Inc. maintains resilient innovation processes, supporting brand development and the use of premium-pricing strategies (Pauline). Apple Inc.’s corporate structure has contributed to rapid and effective innovation, which is an essential success factor for the company in information technology, consumer electronics, and online services industries. The organization’s structure has contributed to its culture. According to Abhijeet, Apple is known for intense focus on productivity and performance linked to pressure and secrecy since the times of Steve Jobs. Although this culture was derived from Apple’s organizational structure proved to generate results, it had impact on workers morale which influenced the company internally. Innovation and creativity of Apple has changed in the leadership of Tim Cook. Apple has shifted towards creating a balanced environment with work. The pressure remained to be part of Apple due to highly competitive nature of the industry in which this company is operating due to

Surname 4 its culture of innovation and creativity from its organizational structure. Further, the secrecy, competition, and pressure has remained in Apple’s environment since they are part of technology’s organizational culture and structure. The organizational structure brought by Tim Cook in culture change of the company is collaboration in which efforts of all people in the company are needed. Impact of Apple’s Organizational Design on its Culture, Internal and External Influences, Change, and Innovation Apple Inc. organizational structure is classified as product differentiation. According to John, Apple has differentiated its services and products on the basis of simple, but attractive design and advanced functionality. This company’s business design comprises of three elements, including focus on design and functionality of products, strengthening company’s ecosystem, and lessening dependence of the business on the sales of iPhones (John). Apple Inc.’s organizational design is focused on design and functionality of products. John stipulates that Apple’s business strategy has adapted advanced capabilities and features of its products and services based on its competitive advantage. Apple has introduced different innovation, including iPad. This device stores many songs with a simple capabilities. The strengthening Apple’s ecosystem is characterized by vertical integration in which the company has enhanced its software, hardware, and services expertise. The vertical integration is the significant factor, setting Apple from its competitors. Pauline mentions that Apple has benefited from the vertical integration immensely. The important source of the organization’s competitive advantage relates to its ecosystem enabled by integration. Apple software and devices sync easily and work well with each other. Applications are working on multiple Apple devices at the same time and there is difference in the user interface.

Surname 5 However, these products are not compatible to products of other companies, creating closed ecosystem. The ecosystem also offers the opportunities to leverage relationships with current customers to provide other products and services. Declining dependence of the company on the sales of iPhones. Apple’s organizational design is transitioning from depending on iPhone sales to prioritizing its services and other divisions. For example, the promotion of John Giannandrea to a machine learning and artificial intelligence role. The change indicated that Apple is focused on services and other business divisions to reduce dependence on the sales of iPhones. The organizational design determines how the organizational structure is managed and developed. The organizational strategy supports the company’s strategies, pushing for further technological innovation. The success of Apple is linked to innovation and the leadership of Steve Jobs, and its corporate structure, which is partially responsible for ensuring support for such leadership. How Influences have Forced Apple to Re-examination its Organizational Structure and Design Organizational structure and design are significant for the success of any company. For this reason, Apple Inc. had to re-examine its structure and design based on different influences, including company’s culture, internal and external influences, change, and innovation. Pauline explains that these influences have shown that Apple’s organizational structure has low flexibility. According to Terri, hierarchical organizational structure prevents lower levels of the structure to flexibly for a firm to respond to its business needs and market demands. For instance, the Apple’s product-based divisions have to wait for directives from Chief-Executive Office or other top executives to proceed with the implementation of changes, addressing trends in the

Surname 6 market for consumer electronic. Although, Tim Cook has made some changes, improvements by increasing collaboration among various parts in the firm. These collaboration improve the company’s flexibility. However, in the present, Apple’s corporate structure does not support rapid changes since everything has to go through Cook and the company’s top management. Apple’s structure and design have faced a number of challenges arising from rapidly decreasing life cycle technology products and decreasing sales of iPhones, Mac products, and iPads (John). For this reason, John argues that the company’s corporate structure has been subjected to specific changes in the medium-term perspective. The characteristics of organizational structure such as matrix and divisional can be integrated into the company to increase its efficiency of new product development practices (John). Organizational structure and design, which are effective assist an organization to improve its communication, increase its productivity, and inspire motivation (Terri). Effective company’s structure and design create a working environment in which employees can efficiently work in (Terri). Performance and productivity issues that impacted Apple were attributed to its organizational design. Terri explains that ineffective corporate’s design leads to confusion within roles, insufficient coordination among functions, and failure to share ideas. Thus, regardless of Apple having talented workers, definite mission, and effective leadership, it cannot perform well by having poor organizational design. Therefore, for Apple to be effective, it had to align the overall organizational design with its business strategy and the market environment where the business operates (Terri). The company had also to review its business controls, the right flexibility, the right incentives, the right individuals, and the right resources. Moreover, influences have forced Apple to re-examine its organizational structure. The effective ways in which the company has utilized to review the structure include developing a

Surname 7 communication strategy and providing effective training (Fionnuala). Creating the communication strategy to all employees was necessary phase for Apple to re-examine the organizational structure. The communication strategy included a timeline on how the review was to be communicated, key messages, and the communication channels to be used. Provision of effective training was essential in the structure re-examination process. The training included a suite of micro-online learning modules and face-to-face training sessions. These steps were essential in its re-examination of Apple’s corporate’ structure and design. Challenges faced by Apple Inc. in the Current Pandemic Environment for its Internal Workforce The continuous COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world, and in the United States companies have closed while others are struggling to operate by having to keep their employees comfortable, productive, and safe. In this pandemic period, Apple Inc. is faced with several human resource challenges for its internal workforce, including the scope of the disruption and creation of defined remote work policy. The main challenge for HR faced by Apple during this novel coronavirus is the scope of the disruption. The closure of non-essentials businesses and schools, as well as moving online, imply that organization’s workforce need understanding and flexibility to re-establish a work-life balance. This pandemic has forced Apple’s human resource to support its workers who are selfisolated or quarantined by expanding paid time off policies and facilitating remote work. The creation of guidelines and support framework for employees work at home is another challenge faced by this organization is. According to Tanya, 5.3% employees worked from their home in 2018, although during COVID-19 this remote work has become a standard model. For this reason, the companies, such as Apple have to establish a work-from-home system to support

Surname 8 its workers by creating norms and executing a defined remote work policy. The policy has to set definite expectations when team members, such as when they should be available, how to communicate, and what is each team member is responsible for. This plan have to ensure that the employees have necessary technology required to perform duties expected of them. Giving employees opportunity to adjust to their new lifestyle is an issue to Apple Inc. during this pandemic. If firm’s employees does not need to work on during normal business hours, managers might do well to let staff create their schedule and determine what works best for them and their families. The primary reason for this is because these workers may be having difficult times and individuals may be struggling with unwell family members or general anxiety. Keeping workers safe by maintaining a healthy work environment is a challenge that Apple is facing for its internal workforce during this pandemic period. Tanya experienced that there are workers at essential businesses in which they cannot work from home. The company’s HR departments need to prioritize the health and safety of their workers. To achieve this, the organization should ensure their families are in line with recommendations from the Center of Disease Control (CDC) and consider nominating a workplace coordinator to control office policy about COVID-19. Apple has to keep its employees safe by educating them about coronavirus transmission risks, such as offer training and development for establishment hygiene regulations, including washing hand with soap and clean water, as well as performing routine environmental cleaning. Furthermore, coping with the high level of absenteeism is a challenge to the company. HR of Apple Inc. has had difficult time to consider and cope with the rapidly increasing absenteeism among workers. For example, workers who have sick family members have break

Surname 9 out in the office to take care of them. The human resource is facing difficult because it has to create a definite action plan to be in control by offering long-leave period. Conclusion In summary, Apple Inc., is a multinational technology company established in 1976 by three investors, namely Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, and Ronald Wayne and has its headquarter in Cupertino in California, United States. The products and services include iPhone, iPad, AirPads, Mac, Apple TV, Beats products, Apple Watch, iCloud, Apple Care, digital content stores, licensing services, and streaming. This corporate’s structure has divisional characteristics and a weak functional matrix. The divisional characteristics are the product-based grouping in Apple, including iOS and macOS, and the weak functional matrix involves inter-divisional collaboration, while the hierarchy is preserved. In this pandemic period, Apple Inc. is faced with several human resource challenges for its internal workforce, including the scope of the disruption and creation of defined remote work policy.

Surname 10 Works Cited Abhijeet, P. “Analysis of Apple’s Organizational Culture.” NOTESMATIC. 2019. Cable News Network Business. “Apple Inc.” Cable News Network. 2016. Fionnuala, C. “6 Steps to Effective Organizational Change Management.” Pulse Learning. July, 2016. John, D. “Apple Organizational Structure: a brief overview.” Necessary knowledge to conduct a business research. 2019. Pauline, M. “Apple Inc.’s Organizational Structure and Its Characteristics.” Panmore Institute. 2019. Tanya, L. “Key HR Challenges Managers Face during COVID-19.” Factorial Blog. March, 2020. Terri, L. “The Importance of Organizational Design and Structure.” Faith Technologies, Inc. 2011....