Apple Inc Culture Has both Advantages and

Disadvantages
Apple Inc, a multinational company delivers high standard computer products, communication products, and
entertainment product such as Mac Computers, Iphones, Ipads and Ipods. The American company was developed
and formed in Cupertino, California in the year 1976. The company was incorporated in 1977 as Apple Computer, Inc.
The company started as computer manufacturer, and over the years the company grew rapidly was soon more than a
computer manufacturer. The high standard operating system Mac OS made them unique among the competitors from
the same industry. At the moment Apple, Inc is one among the top rated in the fortune companies and is well
established as a PC, Mobile phone, and software developers and distributors worldwide.
The company was formed in the year of 1976 the incorporation took place in the year of 1977; also the first computer
was introduced in the year of 1977. The founders of Apple Inc (founded as Apple Computer Inc) are Steven Paul
Jobs, Stephen Gary Wozniak, and Ronald Gerald Wayne. But Wayne has left Apple before the incorporation, the real
twist in its growth and development was with the entry of Mike Markkula who was the former marketing manager at
Intel Corporation. Markkula offered a financial support for Apple Computer Inc. He had invested $ 250, 000 and some
expertise for expanding Apple's business.
At first, they manufactured a computer without key boards and monitors, the computers even sold without a case.
The first computer is named as Apple I.
Following Apple I the company had launched Apple II which covers all the drawbacks of Apple I. Apple II had added
advantages over its predecessor, including a color display and cassette storage drive. The introduction of Apple II
was a great success and it enhanced $ 1 million annual sales.
By the year 1979 Apple launched Apple II+ computers which came out with better memory and features that Apple II.
During the 1980's Apple introduced their Apple III computers. The launch was a big failure. The analysts stated that
the PC had launched without sufficient tests, as a result many of the units turned out to be defective.
Following that Apple continued to remain innovative in product development. One of their greatest innovations was
their Ipods which is able to store and play music files with the help of their own ITunes software. The unique design
and ultra portability made the product favorite for all kinds of customers.
Following that they have introduced their first mobile phone, which was there entry in to the booming mobile phone's
industry. The mobile phone is top rated for their unique features, and enormous designs. It was great success in the
smart phones category. With all their high standard products and innovations the company had remained top rated
even in the recession. According to the second quarter report Apple Inc, the 2010 second quarter revenues raised up
to $ 13.5 billion, the second quarter revenue of 2009 reported as $ 9.08 billion. Also the profit margin raised from $
39.9 % to $ 41. 7 %, Mac PCs shows 33 % unit growth and Iphones shows 131 % unit growth compared to the
previous quarter. Whereas, Ipods shows 1 % decline in unit growth, the major portion of the revenue is contributed by
Iphones.

Organizational behavior
According to Mullins, (2005), Organizational behavior as the study and understanding of individual and group
behavior, and patterns of structure in order to help improve organizational performance and effectiveness, (Mullins,
2005, p.26)
Organizational culture is complex and multi-faceted. Culture is intangible and varies from organization to
organization. Many authors came up with relevant theories regarding these subjects. It can be defined in simple
terms as the way things are done in an organization.
Mullins, 2005 stated that according to Handy there are 4 main ways that organizational culture can be classified, they
are as follows:

Power Culture
Organization in this category tend to have minimal rules and regulations, also it is largely dependent on a central
character. The decisions are made by this central character or a central group. The focus group of Apple Inc has
proved to be best at what they are doing so far. Though this type of culture is adopted by small enterprises, Apple Inc
has adopted this due to the fact that they emphasize on delivering quality over anything else.

Role Culture
The organization in this category, tend to have a bureaucratic way of organizational culture. It very much sticks to the
rules and regulations of the company. In this culture, organizations tend to work as the strong 'pillars', where
individual values have less importance, whereas the positions play important roles. In Apple Inc, there involved a
level of secrecy as individual opinions were not accepted at all points and there were flaws in communication as well.
While looked upon from a human resource view, this proved to have affected the product development at various
stages. Whereas, when looked upon from a product development prospective, this proved to is a more challenging
and more demanding quality of significant importance. In most cases the pillars are controlled by the role, also roles
and job descriptions are more important than individual performance.

Task Culture
In this culture, organizations are more concerned about the objective and tasks. It does not pay much importance to
HR rules and regulations as this culture is more tasks oriented. Expertise and individual performance are more
valued than the positions and roles. The communication tends to be both ways and the employees are free to
express their ideas and suggestions at Apple Inc. Also decision making is not relied on information from a single
source and the employees take part in expressing their opinion or the managers gathered ideas from the co-workers.
But reports at Apple Inc show that this culture can be difficult to achieve economies of scales. In today's fast moving
digital world, many companies including Apple Inc adopted this style of operation. In olden days this has been seen in
the aeronautic engineering, but now-a-day's some of the multinational IT companies are adopting this style, because
they are keen about their organizational goals and tasks.

Person Culture
Individuals are the key factors for this concepts, this culture is normally seen in animal protection organizations.
According to Mullins, (2005) Geert Hofstede also identified four dimensions to organizational culture and work place
differences. They are as follows:

Power Distance
In this culture there is high level of disparity. According to Hofstede this culture is totally dependent on the
management; in this concept subordinates should obey the superiors. Communication tends to flow from top to down.
It is seen in military operations, at the moment organizations are trying to reduce power distance and putting their
maximum efforts to bring equality in organizations. Apple had this within the management and this was a factor that
affected the overall performance to a certain extend.

Uncertainty Avoidance
As Hofstede linked the national culture and organizational culture, uncertainty avoidance refers to the unexpected
situations or unusual situations that a society or the employees of an organization feels that they are going to face.
Apple Inc had this problem as there was a level of secrecy maintained among the employees. They themselves were
not aware of what was happening around them.

Individualism
Individualism refers to the individuals being capable of looking after them. At Apple Inc, the context of organizational
behavior is applicable to some parts of the organization that the employees are self driven. They are highly
committed to what they do pertaining to work and were not able to take care of themselves.

Masculinity
It refers to the gender difference in organizational behavior, in some society the women's value is not differed from
men's but in some society it differs women has less value that the men. Automatically it affect the organizational
behavior, if an organization provide the same positions for men and women, it may bring internal conflict in that
particular organization.

Leadership
"Leadership is not about the leader, it is about how he builds the confidence of everyone else. Leaders are
responsible for both the big structures that sever as the cornerstone of confidence, and the human touches that
shape a positive emotional climate to inspire and motivate people. Leaders delivering confidence by espousing high
standards in their messages, exemplifying these standards in the conduct they model and establishing formal
mechanism to provide a structure for acting on those standards". (Mullins J. L, 2007, p.362)

What is good at Apple, Inc?

Innovative and task driven culture
Apple Inc is totally focused on innovation; in another word they always tries make superior and unique products to
gain competitive advantages. For this purpose they are very keen to choose the best work force available. Hard work
and commitment is the main quality that the company seek from it employees. There is a common saying that there is
always more work to do than the employees. A relaxed and informal atmosphere is created in the working campus,
many researches proved that the employees at Apple Inc is relaxed and at the same time highly committed to tasks
given by the company. The company is always taking keen interest to entertain their employees after the working
hours. As discussed, the company is recognized as innovator therefore it always prefers workaholic people. In one

way the company is adopting Handy's task oriented organizational culture, in this culture Handy described that
organizations are less formal and highly task oriented.
It is agreed that Apple Inc is adopting an innovative and task driven culture, but at the same time they have very
strong work ethics and very strict deadlines. The best example for this there working hour, an employee is working 60
to 70 hours per week. The employees believe that apple is not just for making money.
The innovations helped the company gain market reputation; at the same time it helps the employee to learn more
things every day. That is one of the main things that employees are seeking for, especially in software and computer
related fields. The technology is changing day by day, and Apple Inc is always trying to innovate something which can
surprise the world. It helps the employees even after they left the organization, the world knows that the employees
coming out from Apple will be highly committed, task driven and hard working, also they can contribute expertise in to
other business in which they are selected for.

Individualism
According to Hofstede, in this culture employees are capable or expected look after themselves. Apple Inc is allowing
their employees to work themselves. The employees must run their own shows. Because of that the company is
always seeking for the best talents, also the guidance are given occasionally, as a result the employees are
becoming self confident and self motivated, and they clearly focused and showing high commitment to the tasks. Also
they always ready to take more responsibilities. There is common belief in the employees' mind that Apple Inc is
always seeing for accomplishment rather than the relationship building. Individual has the opportunities to prove their
ability and get the reward. The opportunity to grow is wide open in Apple Inc. As it is highly focused on the innovation
and their keen interest to launch something new and inspiring allow the employees make the days creating and
challenging. It is widely accepted by the employees at Apple Inc is that every day that they can learn and they can
experience something new. Therefore the individual opportunities to grow and learn is more compared to any other
multinational firms, also the employees are capable to their own tasks without any guidance.

Diversity and Cross - functionality

Apple Inc is a multinational which is always looking for the best talents and committed work force, therefore from all
the parts of world talented people are appointed. Employees are most often used to work with multinational
workforce. It is also allowing the employees to learn different culture and working styles. According many studies
conducted, it has been realized that employees are often find cross functional activities to perform the
accomplishment of the company's objectives or organizational goals.
Apple Inc. took all the necessary steps to promote diversity among its work force and also there always make sure a
non - homogeneous workforce. Furthermore they have set up partnerships with several of organizations. Apple Inc
has a partnership with National Black MBAs, National society of Hispanics MBAs and the society of Women
Engineers. This Kind of organization promotes diversity and allows the employees mix with diverse work force. Apple
Inc believes that the diversity in work force is one of the important tasks to execute a successful corporate culture
Managers are asked to do different tasks other than their working area. Many of the multinational firms are adopted
cross functional activities in order make their employees multitask oriented and to broaden up their abilities. Many
mangers in Apple Inc stated that they have often asked to cross functional activities which are out of their working
area. For instance according to case study, an input manager commented that he is involved in many of the cross
functional activities, one day he may asked to involve in industrial design, another day he may asked to involve in the
product design and software engineering. These kind of cross functionality will make the employees to work and
enhance knowledge in different fields, also they may not be stick in position they will always be creative and active. At
the same time the organization will allocate a smooth operation in regards human resource management, it may not
stuck if one or more employees are off or on holidays, someone can easily cover up the situations.

Bonus and Benefits

The benefits in Apple Inc are differs from locations to locations and it is also depends on the employment status. The
company has taken number of steps to make the employees feel good about the benefits offered by the company.
The companies benefit programs starts with the insurance coverage schemes, also they initiated Flexible spending
accounts, employees stock purchase program, 401 saving and investment plan, product discounts for the staffs, on
site fitness programs also they offered the opportunities to work in big projects where extra bonus is offered.
As discussed the bonus and benefits somewhat depends on the performance, in the year 1995 Apple Inc has
designed and implemented a program called Apple Fellow Program. The main aim of the program is to identify the
best performer and from which employee the company has received extra ordinary contribution. The Fellow program
winners used to be the leader and they can guide other for company's progress activities. In return the company
offered the Flexi benefit program to its staffs. Also the studies and researches shows that Apple Inc had given free
Iphones to its staffs after the unique mobile phone has launched in the industry.

Opportunities and Job Securities

Career opportunities are very wide in Apple Inc, as it recognized as an innovator the employee are having wide range
of opportunities to prove their caliber and can build their career on a performance wise. Also Apple Inc conducting
many internship programs which allow the employees to gain the thorough knowledge in different fields. The
employees working with Apple Inc is coming out with a great confidence. According to Maslow's pyramid after basic
need of human it very essential that employees feel job security. In case of Apple Inc it is not only a job security, in
Apple Inc's words the company is not providing employment security but it is providing employability security. The
people coming out from Apple Inc is highly demanded, employers are happy offer opportunities for this candidates.
Employers worldwide are well aware that these candidates have a wide range experience and they can cope up with
any organizational culture. They expect a strong contribution from these candidates.

Unique Corporate Culture

The organizational culture at Apple is highly focused on the jobs and innovation, May CEQ's came and made some
changes in the culture, but over the time the ultimate corporate culture is totally focused on innovation and the jobs
done. They are enjoying an informal culture at the same time they have employed very strong deadlines and making
the employees to have clear focus on the objectives.
The founder Jobs did contributed the best of to make this unique culture possible for this company. Many of other
multinational firms are adopting this kind of organizational culture. The difference between these companies and
Apple Inc is that the other companies will be more flexible and they might lose the focus and they won't be strict on
the deadline like Apple Inc. On the other hand Apple Inc is maintaining the informal culture and task oriented culture
but at the same time they are very much focused on the objectives and tasks and they have very strong deadline with
no compromise.
The corporate culture of Apple Inc is making the employees or it is encouraging the employees to make something
"Insanely Great" and the CEO Jobs said to be the founder of this culture. As discussed earlier many CEO's came and
altered the organizational corporate culture, but at the end of the day Jobs came and restructured the culture, after he
has come back he realized that the company is lacking their original culture which was at time he was the CEO.
Experts opinioned and stated the result of this change is Imac.

What is bad at Apples, Inc?

Lack of transparency of information

Apple Inc is recognized as an innovator and the products they are offering to the market are unique and high
standard. There is secret behavior has maintained from the beginning of the business. In a way it is acceptable that
company is mainly focused on Innovations therefore a secrecy in information is necessary, but may reports shows
that the secrecy somehow making trouble for smooth operation of the company. Their tight control over the
information caused many troubles; even it had led an employee to commit suicide in China. Though they have not
affected by the recession, considering future growth of the company transparency of information is necessary.
Transparency of information helps the investors as well as the stake holders. Many of the multinational companies
showing keen interest in making the information available to the public, but at Apple Inc secrecy is there part of the
corporate culture.
Reports show that the many of the product launches are surprising the staffs, because it is kept secret, only the
product developer and the senior management are aware of the product. But thinking globally many great ideas and
suggestions can come out from the internal staffs, especially from the marketing team, because they are the have the
clear picture of market needs and wants. Even the managers used to make wrong information product even during
the meetings.

Dysfunctional culture
There are assumptions many times that Apple Inc's corporate culture moved to dysfunctional. There are cases
reported that many talented people they left the company because they could not adjust and adopt the unique culture
of the company. According to the case study vice president is enjoying a greater power in the company. Analysts
pointed out that the company has less feeling towards relationship with the employees but they strictly focused on the
jobs. An incident reported that vice president hired people and assigned a pay scale twice than the senior employees
working the firm.

Unfair Promotions and compensations

There are many cases that reports unfairness in promotion and analysts say that the employees are treated unfairly.
This is mainly because of their unique corporate culture, as discussed earlier personal values have less important in
Apple Inc they prefer jobs and innovations but at the same time they are creating a relaxed atmosphere for their
employees. Also report says that only top executives are compensated and appreciated for jobs done. The
employees claiming that even if they come out with new product, they don't get enough appreciation. Also the
promotions are given depends on the interest of the managers. There are comments from employees that they are
not given enough opportunities grow their career.

Long Working Hours

Apple Inc is always preferred hard working people in another word they prefer workaholic people who does not care
about the working hours. An average working hours per week in Apple Inc is 60 to 70, which is more than the normal
companies working hours. As we can see this will affect employees family life. The job is also bit stressed and the
employees must be creative and enthusiastic all the time. For instance if an employee is working in the product
development department for 60 to 70 hours per week continuously they might get over stressed, the particular
department needs full concentration all the time he or she is working. There case that former employee sued Apple
Inc for violating the labor law California, he complained that he used to work 7 days every six weeks. The company is
also aware of that, there are cases after working these kinds of long hours the employees were in therapy.

Highly Depending on Leadership

Apple Inc is highly depending on the leadership, The CEO Jobs has very much influence on the corporate structure of
Apple Inc. Analysts sees that without Job Apple will nothing other than a normal software company. Also analysts
stated that the company will be struggling without Jobs. Looking into the theoretical side one can see that Job the
CEO of playing both democratic and autocratic styles of leadership. In a way he is making an informal atmosphere
and creative opportunities for his employees at the same time the company is very strict on the tasks and deadlines
like a military camp. The information are very secret and the will not tolerate any leakage of the company information.
The always kept a secret behavior.

Conclusion
Many of the issues have been discussed, it has been realized that Apple Inc as multinational company has a unique
at the same very challenging corporate culture. Many supporters have written and many companies are trying to
adopt this culture, also many studies show some of the major draw backs of Apple Inc's corporate culture. The study
realized that the culture has both advantages and disadvantages, the capacity of innovating unique and high
standard products the company attract more talented people in to their business, the younger generation will love to
work with as they can learn something every day also they can expose themselves. On the other hand there are
some major draw backs, they have no transparency of information also they have long working hours compared to
another companies. With some changes the corporate culture of Apple Inc can be the best in the world.

Recommendations
There are major issues that the company can change, they are as follows:
The information can be more transparent, the investor and stake holder are always seeking transparent information.
Also it can help to improve product quality and can get tremendous ideas and suggestions from the co workers.
Transparency of information will help the company to know better the needs and wants of the market.
The long working hours can be changed, maximum of 40 hours working hours will help the employee to relax, a
relaxed mind can produce greater idea than a stressed and week mind.
Having multiple senior executives will allow the company to continue their activities, even if one senior executive left
the organization.
All the employee should be treated same, equality is another great fact for the success of an organization; more
talented people will be attracted to organization. Job appreciation will encourage the employees to work more
committed and task oriented.

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Organizational Culture at Apple Inc

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 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.
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 .
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 them 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.

Behavior at work (personality traits)

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.
Self-Esteem and Self-Efficacy
Self-Esteem is a personal judgment of ones 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. Self
esteem plays an important role of which people are and starts at a very young age. There are both
positives and negative cycles of self esteem. Self esteem is one of the most important aspects in
psychology because it can either give confidence or accept defeat. Similarly Self-efficacy is a
mechanism that explains an individuals behavior and perceived capability to perform behavior.
It is associated with a positive self-concept, and self-appraisal. It is the personal control that
comes from mastering new experiences with anticipation of successful performance. It is the
preservation 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 the
behavior and having positive outcomes. Self-esteem and self-efficacy both is necessary to
influence a persons work behavior.
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
senses. 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.
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.
Personnel policies
The adoption by companies led to a lot of benefits the personnel, company and society generally.
Specifically personnel have the opportunity to work from its home a fact that allows dealing with
other facilities too as well as it influence individuals behavior at work. It provides a solution to
the problems of office expansion. Moreover allow people to be more productive by working
from their homes. Another benefit of Personnel policies is the creation of better
communications. Additionally Personnel policies lead to a reduced traffic a fact that creates
better environmental policy. They have to point out personnel through policies. Additionally they
have the opportunity to deal with their family and work to. So these kinds of policies help
employees to work in a better situation .
Organizations such as Apple Inc. in this case are the dominant cultural foundation of our times;
the study of behavior within this Organization is of active interest to many audiences. Many of
our daily activities are regulated by Organizations called governments. And most adults spend
the better part of their lives working in Organizations. Given the widespread of organizational
influence, there are many reasons to be concerned about how and why Organizations (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, people as resources, and people as people. In conclusion all these lead to an
ultimate goal of improved productivity; have people perform at full potential, and reward
workers for performance. Environmental factors are increasing the need for effective leadership
in todays Organizations. In order to better motivate, guide, and direct employee teams, leaders
require specific skills and expertise in behavioral studies to change their environment.