OB AND LEADERSHIP

Project Part 1

SECTION C

SUBMITTED TO : MA’AM INJI AKHTAR

GROUP MEMBERS :

ALI NAQI i170076

ASFANDYAAR BARKI i170202
MUHAMMAD NAUMAN i170079
ZARAK khan Mahsud i170515
Organization :

Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in

Cupertino, California, that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics,
computer software, and online services. It is considered one of the Big Four
technology companies, alongside Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.[6][7][8]
The company's hardware products include the iPhone smartphone, the iPad
tablet computer, the Mac personal computer, the iPod portable media player, the
Apple Watch smartwatch, the Apple TV digital media player, the AirPods
wireless earbuds and the HomePod smart speaker. Apple's software includes
macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and tvOS operating systems, the iTunes media
player, the Safari web browser, the Shazam music identifier, and the iLife and
iWork creativity and productivity suites, as well as professional applications
like Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, and Xcode. Its online services include the iTunes
Store, the iOS App Store, Mac App Store, Apple Music, Apple TV+, iMessage,
and iCloud. Other services include Apple Store, Genius Bar, AppleCare, Apple
Pay, Apple Pay Cash, and Apple Card.

Apple was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne in April
1976 to develop and sell Wozniak's Apple I personal computer, though Wayne
sold his share back within 12 days. It was incorporated as Apple Computer,
Inc., in January 1977, and sales of its computers, including the Apple II, grew
quickly. Within a few years, Jobs and Wozniak had hired a staff of computer
designers and had a production line. Apple went public in 1980 to instant
financial success. Over the next few years, Apple shipped new computers
featuring innovative graphical user interfaces, such as the original Macintosh in
1984, and Apple's marketing advertisements for its products received
widespread critical acclaim. However, the high price of its products and limited
application library caused problems, as did power struggles between executives.
In 1985, Wozniak departed Apple amicably and remained an honorary
employee,[9] while Jobs and others resigned to found NeXT.[10]
Apple can be a tough place to work.
Employees have to put up with excessive levels of secrecy, crazy hours and
non-stop pressure to perform at the top of your game.However, working at
Apple isn't all bad. We went through hundreds of reviews from current and
former Apple employees on the job site Glassdoor.com. While there definitely
seem to be more complaints than compliments about the company, we did find
plenty of things that employees love about working for Apple.

Employees feel like their work has a big impact on the world.
The biggest perk of working at Apple, at least based on the number of reviews
that mentioned it, is a feeling that your work really matters and has an impact on
the world. We saw this point made in dozens of reviews from current and
former Apple employees from departments throughout the company.
"Engineers at Apple get to make real contributions that will benefit tens or
hundreds of millions of people everyday. That's awesome," one software
engineer wrote. Likewise, a store manager said, "I joined Apple because I
wanted to be part of something bigger than myself."
Others described the thrill of being part of the cutting edge and the pride that
comes with doing meaningful work. Apple, for its part, clearly tries to hammer
this point home for employees starting on day one by handing out this
inspirational quote about doing meaningful work.

The salaries are pretty good for many positions.

Many employees ranging from engineers to managers praised the compensation

and benefits that Apple provides. (The notable exception being employees who
work in Apple's retail stores, though the company is reportedly planning to give
these workers a raise this month so maybe they'll stop complaining.) In fact, an
analysis of Apple salaries on the salary comparison website Payscale.com
shows that many positions at the company earn well above the industry average.
Even part-time workers get benefits at Apple.

While some retail workers complained about their salaries, many praised Apple
for providing them with benefits - even if they only worked part-time. At the
moment, Apple offers all employees who work 20 hours or more a week with
health and 401k benefits

The company has excellent leadership.

Multiple employees praised the company's excellent leadership. In fact, Tim

Cook has an astoundingly high 94% approval rating on Glassdoor, showing just
how well-respected he is by employees.

Apple feels more like a startup than a giant corporation.

Apple may be the most valuable company in the world, but that doesn't mean it
functions like a big company. Several employees wrote that one of the best
things about Apple is that it operates more like a cluster of startups under the
umbrella of a larger company. As a result, you get the job security of a big
company with the career flexibility that comes from working at a smaller
operation.
"Apple is run like a bunch of small companies (work groups)," one senior
software engineer wrote. "When your job gets old and boring - and they all
eventually do - it is easy to move within the company to get a fresh outlook
without having to change employers completely. Likewise, if you need to
stretch or improve your skill set, there are plenty of opportunities for
advancement."
The culture at apple :
Apple Inc.’s organizational culture is a key factor in the continuing success of
the business. A company’s organizational or corporate culture establishes and
maintains the business philosophy, values, beliefs, and related behaviors among
employees. This business analysis case shows that Apple has a corporate culture
that enables human resources to support various strategic objectives. For
example, the company’s cultural traits are aligned with the drive for innovation,
which is a major factor that determines business competitiveness in the
information technology, online services, and consumer electronics industries.
Based on the organizational culture, this business condition facilitates the
fulfillment of Apple Inc.’s corporate mission and vision statements. Through the
leadership of Steve Jobs and, now, through the leadership of Tim Cook, the
company continues to enhance its cultural characteristics to maximize human
resource support for business relevance in various markets around the world.
Apple shapes its corporate culture and uses it as a tool for strategic management
and success.Through its corporate culture, Apple Inc. strengthens its
competitive advantages against other firms in various industries. The company
competes against information technology firms like Samsung,
Google,Amazon.com, Dell, Lenovo, Sony, and PayPal, as well as IBM and
Intel. These competitors impose a strong external force that influences strategic
management among firms in the industry, as illustrated in the Porter’s Five
Forces analysis of Apple Inc. As a result, cultural traits must reinforce necessary
competitive advantages through the workforce. The company partially achieves
this strategic objective through its organizational culture.

Apple Inc. has an organizational culture for creative innovation. The company’s
cultural features focus on maintaining a high level of innovation that involves
creativity and a mindset that challenges conventions and standards. The
business depends on cultural support and coherence, which are determinants of
competitiveness and industry leadership, especially in addressing aggressive
and rapid technological innovation and product development. The following are
the main characteristics of Apple’s corporate culture:
1. Top-notch excellence
2. Creativity
3. Innovation
4. Secrecy
 5. Moderate combativeness
Top-notch Excellence. Apple’s organizational culture comes with a policy of
hiring only the best of the best in the labor market. Steve Jobs was known to fire
employees who did not meet his expectations. This tradition continues under
Tim Cook. Such a tradition maintains and reinforces a corporate culture that
promotes, appreciates, and expects top-notch excellence among employees.
This cultural trait is institutionalized in Apple’s organization. For example, the
company has programs that recognize and reward excellence among workers.
Excellence is emphasized as a critical success factor in the business, especially
in product design and development, which is a major growth strategy

Creativity. This cultural characteristic pertains to new ideas that help improve
the business and its products. Apple’s management favors creativity among
employees’ knowledge, skills, and abilities. This characteristic of the corporate
culture enables the company to ensure sufficient creativity, especially among
employees involved in product design and development processes. Such
creativity is observable in the design and features of iPhones, Macs, and iPads,
among other products included in Apple’s marketing mix or 4Ps. In this regard,
the organizational culture helps maintain the company’s capacity to satisfy
customers’ expectations and preferences.

Innovation. Apple’s organizational culture supports rapid innovation. The

company is frequently appraised as one of the most innovative companies in the
world. Based on this cultural trait, the firm trains and motivates it employees to
innovate in terms of individual work performance and contributions to product
development processes. The corporate culture facilitates rapid innovation,
which is at the heart of Apple Inc.’s business. Rapid innovation ensures that the
company continues to introduce new products that are profitable and attractive
to target customers.

Secrecy. Steve Jobs developed Apple to have an organizational culture of

secrecy. This cultural characteristic continues to define the company’s human
resource development. Secrecy is part of the company’s strategy to minimize
theft of proprietary information or intellectual property. It is also a strategic
management approach that enables Apple Inc. to maximize its leading edge
against competitors. Through the corporate culture, employees are encouraged
and expected to keep business information within the company. This cultural
trait is reinforced through the company’s policies, rules, and employment
contracts. In this context, Apple’s organizational culture helps protect the
business from corporate espionage and the negative effects of employee
poaching.

Moderate Combativeness. Apple’s organizational culture has moderate

combativeness. This feature is linked to Steve Jobs and his combative approach
to leadership. He was known to randomly challenge employees to ensure that
they have what it takes to work at Apple. However, under Tim Cook’s
leadership, the company has been changing its corporate culture to a more
sociable and a less combative one. Nonetheless, combativeness remains a major
influence in the business. Apple’s corporate culture exhibits a moderate degree
of combativeness that presents challenges that aim to enhance employees’
output.

Apple’s Corporate Culture – Advantages, Disadvantages,

Recommendations
Advantages and Benefits. The combination of top-notch excellence, creativity
and innovation in Apple’s organizational culture supports the company’s
industry leadership. The business is widely regarded as a leader in terms of
innovation and product design. These cultural characteristics empower Apple
and its human resources to stand out and stay ahead of competitors. This
corporate culture enables success and competitive advantages, as well as the
further strengthening of the company’s brand, which is one of the key business
strengths shown in the SWOT analysis of Apple Inc. Creativity and excellence
are especially important in the company’s rapid innovation processes for
continuous competitiveness and business development.

Drawbacks and Weaknesses. Apple’s corporate culture brings challenges

because of the emphasis on secrecy and the moderate degree of combativeness.
An atmosphere of secrecy limits rapport among workers. Also, moderate
combativeness has the potential to limit or reduce employees’ morale. These
cultural issues can reduce business effectiveness and increase employee
turnover. Apple Inc. can address this situation by modifying its organizational
culture to reduce but not necessarily remove combativeness. This
recommendation focuses on reducing the disadvantages of combativeness,
without eliminating the benefits of combative approaches in the company. Also,
Apple can integrate new cultural traits to keep the business relevant, given
trends and changes in the information technology, cloud services, digital content
distribution, and consumer electronics industry environment.

Motivation

Apple are able to motivate their employees to not only do they're job effective
and efficiently, they also make sure the employees enjoy doing it. To achieve
this, Apple uses both Intrinsic and Extrinsic rewards .

Intrinsic motivations uses internal rewards to motivate the employees. The

employees will be motivated to do a task because they found pleasure and
enjoyment in it. They will have a feeling of gratification and fulfillment in
achieving the task .

“Our goal and what gets us excited is to try to make great products” said Sir
Jonathan Ive, the man attributed with the creation of iPad and iPhone. Apple
makes sure that all their employees are proud and in love with the brand so the
employees would feel inspired in delevoping Apple to be the best instead of
feeling forced.

Apple makes sure their employees are given jobs that are not easy, instead they
give them challenging ones. The employees are pushed to their maximum
potential so that they could improve and have better performance. The
employees will feel respected because they are believed that they have the
potential to achieve challenging task and thus strive for good performance
results.

When Apple hire excellent people, they will give them a part of the business
and make them run it by themselves as this allows them to make good
decisions.If they fail, they can learn from their mistakes and plan better
decisions. To achieve this, Apple makes sure that all the employees understand
and know everything about the business. Every Monday, Apple review how
much they sold for the week before. They review all their products that are
under development, products that they are having difficulties with and products
with demands greater than their production rate. They do this to make sure their
employees know how is their business doing and how to improve and makes
sure the employees are in the same page. The employees will feel respected and
wont feel left behind.

Extrinsic motivation uses external rewards such as money, gifts and recognition
to motivate the employees. Apple are able to attract and also gain loyalty from
their employees through these types of rewards.

For extrinsic motivations, Employees are given free iPod shuffle or iPhone and
are given product discounts. It is also cheaper to give the employees products
rather than a raise. Apple has give recognition bonus of 3 percent for the salary
of their executive despite not achieving their target on a project. Apple do this
because they assert their team efforts. Apple also motivates they worker by
giving life insurance and increase their length of vacations in 2014.

-Motivation is at the heart of any company's performance. When work is done

for the love, outcome or developmental benefit of it as opposed to emotional or
economic reasons, people are better able to execute their plans. Furthermore,
motivated employees are able to skillfully diverge from a game plan when
something unexpected happens. Weeks were spent studying Apple's stores and
found that its employees exhibited high levels of total motivation because
managers do not use fear and emotional pressure to motivate employees. As a
result, Apple's stores produce more sales per square foot than any other retailer
in the United States,.

"When people use the right motives it creates far higher levels of customer
experience and bottom line performance,"
-THEORIES AT APPLE :
One of the process theories which are the “goal-setting theory” applies to the
firm, focuses on the motivational properties of task goals. Employees within the
company are highly motivated to attain task goals, which provide direction to
employees in their work. The proper framework & management of goals within
Apple helps clear out performance expectations in the organization. They
provide a base for behavioral self-management, which helps employees to
improve their performance and be motivated on their job.
Apple applies to the reinforcement theory of motivation because it focuses on
the external environment and the consequences it holds for the individual. The
organization mostly applies to the positive reinforcement strategy which
strengthens or increases the frequency of desirable behavior by making a
pleasant consequence contingent on it occurrence. Examples of positive
reinforcement at Apple include the rewards given by Jobs as mentioned above
(opening champagne, vacations, company parties). All employees are motivated
to do their best work to accomplish goals because of the rewards they can
receive.
Incentive compensation system is another method that Apple uses to motivate
employees. This includes bonus pay, which provides payments on
accomplishing the targets or goals given to specific employee during a
particular period. They also have an employee stock ownership plan as
mentioned earlier. The performance incentive and ownership’s share of one’s
employment is directly linked to each other. Employees who hold stock of the
company are self-motivated to work hard and perform better to raise the market
value of the organization.
Apple Inc. tries to keep a balance between both financial and non-financial
motivators. Although many a times its clearly indicated that Apple uses
monetary terms more for the welfare of the employee mainly because, then the
employee can use it the way he likes it. The organization also uses non-
monetary means to keep their employees pumped up on a frequent basis but
Apple obviously prefers to use financial incentive. This could be in wages/
salary form, bonus (executives paid 3-5% of their base salary), paid leave, to be
able to buy stocks at a cheaper value, different insurance policies, etc. All put in
a nutshell, Apple is definitely doing a lot for its employees as present, whether
at corporate level or for the workers, be it for full time employees or part time
workers. Before people did have complaints regarding the motivation, salary,
incentives, bonus, working hours, etc. but as time is passing by Apple is
learning the tricks and trade of it and also is making sure that it brings into
action the most suitable and the right motivational strategy for its employees to
perform better and make sure Apple stays real strong in the market. The
backbone for any company is its employees and so is for Apple. After the death
of Steve Jobs, people talked within themselves whether Cook will be able to fit
in Steve Jobs shoes or not? And all the critics were onto it in a flash. Keeping
all this in mind and the fact that many people believed that Apple may see a
downfall due to Jobs death, but from the time Cook has taken charge Apple
hasn’t looked back. In fact Tim Cook has 97% of Approval rating in comparison
to Steve Job’s 95% of Approval rating.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory

Apple Inc. produces highly motivated individuals who work hard at their job.
Managers within the organization, including Steve Jobs, lead through
motivation to create conditions where employees constantly feel inspired to
work hard. Apple’s highly motivated workforce is one of the major reasons for
their high-performance results.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory is being applied in the Apple company.
Managers in the Apple Inc. have created ways to motivate its employees by
carefully considering how needs play into job design, compensation,
management style and so forth.
Apple Inc. fulfills the employees’ physiological needs by providing wages that
sufficient for employees to purchase their basic needs. It makes the monthly
payment to its employees regularly. It also provides some financial incentives to
its employees such as flexible benefits, investment and savings plans,
investment options and stock purchase options. Besides, Apple Inc. provides a
good environment to employees for eating. For example, the corporate cafeteria
-Caffe Macs, which is the place to eat on campus, offers a variety of good
quality food. It sells various type of food such as pizza, sushi, pasta and salad.
The level of excitement and electricity in the café are perfect. On a daily basis,
at least one of Apple’s top executives will be seen in Caffe Macs such as Steve
Jobs. Apple Inc. also provides good working environment in the aspect of water,
shelter and other facilities.
Next, Apple Inc. satisfies its employees’ safety needs by providing them job
security, retirement benefits and a safe working environment. Apple Inc.
provides full-benefit medical insurance to its full-time employees as well as
part-time employees who working as few as 15 hours a week and have at least
one year of service with Apple since January 2010. It also provides pension and
sickness schemes to its employees.
Apple Inc. then satisfies the employees’ social needs. The company has
developed team atmosphere and made sure employees know that they are a part
of something bigger. For instance, from its lack of bureaucracy within projects,
to its engineer-focused culture, to its emphasis on passionate and loyal
employees, the huge company has maintained the corporate culture of its startup
days. And that culture is a huge part of what makes it so successful — and, not
surprisingly, a good place to work.
Furthermore, Apple Inc. fulfills its employees esteem needs by valuing
emphasis self-respect and respect for others and praise for hard work. Appraisal
system helps to recognize individuals’ contributions and importance of celebrate
achievement. For example, Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook has noted that employees
will be given a major discount on Apple products, starting in June. Employees
already get 25 percent off Macs and iOS products, but in a few months they will
also be given an extra $500 off Macs and $250 off iPads. For example, the low-
end Macbook Air will cost just $250 after the discount and new credit.
Next, Apple Inc. also satisfies its employees’ self-actualization needs. Apple has
pushed the limits of how people create with technology in everything it has
done. Steve Jobs directed the company towards excellence by helping people
create in ways they could never achieve before. Consequently, the iMac, the
iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad all played a big role in the introduction of new
markets. The self-actualization need of a business is tied tightly to the man
steering the ship, such as CEO of a company who will dictate a company’s
direction. For example, CEO Steve Jobs led Macintosh through each of its
largest innovations, but when he left, it began to lose its way and market share.
Upon his return, Macintosh quickly returned to its initial direction and to
profitability.
Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
To better understand employee attitudes and motivation, Frederick Herzberg has
proposed Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory which states that there are certain
factors in the workplace that cause job satisfaction, while a separate set of
factors cause dissatisfaction. This theory proposes two factors which are
intrinsic factors that are related to job satisfaction and extrinsic factors that are
associated with job dissatisfaction. Satisfiers are motivators, while dissatisfies
are hygiene factors. The motivators symbolized the psychological needs that
were perceived as an additional benefit. The hygiene factors symbolized the
physiological needs which the individuals wanted and expected to be fulfilled.
Motivating factors are achievement, recognition for accomplishment, increased
responsibility, opportunity for growth and development and creative and
challenging work, whereas hygiene factors are company’s policies and
administration, supervision, working conditions, interpersonal relations, salary,
job security, status, personal life and employee benefits.
The Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory is being applied in the Apple Inc.. The
employees of the Apple Inc. are praised and recognized for their
accomplishments by the managers through bonus and promotion (motivating
factors). The employees’ works are very meaningful, interesting, motivating and
challenging for the employee to perform (motivating factors).
Apple Inc. salary structure is appropriate, reasonable and competitive (hygiene
factors). Besides, it has offered health care plans to its employees and provides
a safe, clean and hygienic working environment as well as update and well-
maintained work equipment to the employees (hygiene factors)

When we are analyzing Apple Inc., we found that the working environment in
Apple Inc. is less comfortable and relaxing compared to the insane perks that
are provided by Google. For instances, Google provides freedom in the working
area, free food, transportation and on-site care. However, Apple Inc.’
management paid less attention in the degree of comfort of their employees and
did not equip the company with advanced facilities. As a prove, an engineer in
Apple Inc. said that there were no gym or free lunches and a software engineer
complaint about the perks were incomparable with those provided at Facebook
or Google. (Fiegerman, 2012) This shows that, Apple Inc. is not providing
enough safety needs for the employees according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of
Needs as well as dissatisfaction of employees with hygiene factors for working
conditions in Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory.

On the other hand, Apple Inc. created a culture of secrecy which served well in
many areas. However, the adoption and adaptation of the culture have its pros
and cons. The pros are there will be no leakages of company high-profile
information to the public and protects the company from the huge competition
as well as generate creativity. The disadvantages are tight controls of
information and keeping their privacy as well as confidential caused many
employees to feel stress in keeping company’s secrets. For example, Apple Inc.
strictly limits the number of employees with the privilege to know about their
new product. Apart from these employees, the rest of the employees will only
know about the new product when it is launched. (Lashinsky, 2012) There are
also some cases happened that many talented workers tend to leave the
company because they cannot adjust themselves to adapt a unique culture of the
company. We can conclude that this happens due to the employees’ social needs
and esteem needs in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory are not being
fulfilled.
While according to Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, the employees are
dissatisfied with the hygiene factors for company’s policies and administration.
Besides, Apple Inc. is more focus on the hard work and commitment from the
employees rather than building the social relationships in the workplaces. The
employees who are working in Apple Inc. have to be task-oriented where they
have a strict deadline to accomplish their works. Apple Inc. is more focused on
expertise and individual performance as compared to the position and roles.
Besides, the employees are free to express their opinions and suggestions at
Apple Inc and they can also gather information from various sources for
decision making purpose. Nevertheless, the task-oriented culture is difficult to
achieve economies of scale. )\ So we conclude that, even though Apple Inc. is
successful in implementing the goal-setting theory and fulfilled the employees’
self-actualization needs but they ignore the social needs of employees which are
more important compared to self- actualization needs according to Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs. Furthermore, according to Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory
the employees will have satisfaction with motivating factors for achievement as
well as creative and challenging work but they will have dissatisfaction with
hygiene factors for interpersonal relations and personal life.

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 various of organizations. Apple
Inc has a partnership with National Black MBAs, National society of Hispanics
MBAs and the society of Women Engineers. These Kind of organization
promote diversity and allow 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
bonu 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 is 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 wrote and many companies are trying to adopt
this culture, also many studies shows 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.

-People who work at Apple, whether it be at a retail store or at Apple

Headquarters, have a tough job. That being said, Apple employees have given
feedback saying Apple is a great place to work. The Huffington Post ranked
Apple as 8th in their article titled, “The 10 Best Companies to Work For”.
Among the feedback from Apple employees, the majority are happy with their
jobs. Employees say they like working at Apple because they feel like their
work has a major impact on others. They like knowing that what they do
directly impacts someone and that they are a part of something bigger.
Employees also like knowing that they are working with brilliant people.
Everyone who works at Apple is innovative and creative in their own way, and
employees feel like they are constantly learning from coworkers and bettering
themselves. Contrary to popular belief, many employees say that there is a lot of
independence and freedom while working at Apple and they are not
micromanaged like many people assume. There is always room to grow and
move in the company and Apple is flexible when it comes to wanting to move
around in different fields in the company. The salaries and benefits from Apple
are good, even for part-time employees. Business Insider reports that part-time
employees who work 20 or more hours a week are given health and 401K
benefits. A key concept employees talked about was the excellent leadership.
The late Steve Jobs was applauded for his excellent leadership, and his
predecessor Tim Cook has a 94% approval rating among his employees. Job
satisfaction is essential in a company, because the happier employees are with
their jobs, then the more productive they will be .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, eve if one senior executive left the organisation.
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
organisation. Job appreciation will encourage the employees to work more
committed and task oriented.
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