Leadership in Apple Inc.

Leadership in Apple Inc.

Introduction

Organizational behavior is the study of individual and group performances and also the activities within the organization. It is a multidisciplinary field that studies people in their work environment and behaviors drawing from different fields such as applied psychology, sociology, communication, economics, and cultural anthropology. The principles of organizational behavior are majorly applied to help companies to operate more efficiently and also to improve how employees experience their work. Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company that specializes in the designing, development, and selling of electronics, computer software, and online services. The company was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Stephen G. Wozniak and has grown into one of the most successful companies in the world. The company has continued to expand its product and revenue portfolio since it was created and attained much success in the business. Profiling the organizational behavior of Apple can provide an understanding of how behaviors influence the success of companies.

Leadership in Apple Inc.

One crucial aspect of any organization is leadership that involves guiding and directing behaviors. According to the polls conducted by Gallup, organizations indicated that the primary reason that 70 percent of the employees in the United States feel dissatisfied with their jobs and disengaged from their organization is leadership. The success of organizations is highly dependent on the effectiveness of its leadership. The success of Apple Inc. has been highly attributed to the exceptional leadership of Steve Jobs. According to reports from CNBC, the primary reason for Apple being so successful can be traced to Jobs (Umoh, 2017). Jobs was a transformational leader who was considered as autocratic by employees. Jobs was a visionary leader with the ability to articulate his vision for Apple and bring various groups such as employees, investors, and customers to contribute to its fulfillment. He was very demanding and strict when it came to tasks and following orders, was directive, and had a meticulous eye when it came to details and perfection. According to reports, directive leaders give specific instructions regarding tasks, set deadlines, rules, and standards of performance. As such, directive leaders are considered very demanding, which is an aspect attributed to the success of Jobs. Through his directive leadership style, Jobs was able to encourage behaviors such as adherence to rules, getting the job done, innovation, creativity, and task excellence. Research indicates that the behaviors of transformation leaders are those that seek to mobilize extra efforts from followers. Transformational leaders emphasize on change by articulating new visions for organizations. Some of the behaviors associated with such leaders include idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. Some of the major traits of transformational leadership that Jobs possessed are the idealized influence, inspirational motivation, and intellectual stimulation. Jobs was a leader who loved to be admired, inspired achievement of Apple’s goals, and encouraged high levels of innovation and new ideas. It is through Jobs’ ability to influence and promote such organizational behaviors that Apple became successful.

Empowerment in Apple

Apple Inc. has a culture that encourages employees to be well rounded and knowledgeable about their tasks. The culture has widely inspired empowerment behaviors in the organization. Managers and upper-level staff are dedicated to ensuring that employees are empowered to ensure that jobs are done more efficiently. The firm provides frequent onsite training and educational courses for its employees in all its aspects. According to research, empowerment largely influences the effectiveness of organizations. An empowering workplace is one that promotes meaning, competence, and self-determination. Goals need to align with the values of the organization and those of employees. Employees need to have confidence in their capabilities to show mastery in tasks.

Additionally, employees need to believe that they can influence work outcomes in the organization. Reports also indicate that empowerment has a positive impact on organizational commitment. Employees who are not committed in their work are absent often, less motivated in tasks, and low-performance levels. An organization can promote employee commitment by promoting empowerment behaviors that would raise the affective, continuance, and normative commitments of employees. Some of the empowerment behaviors exhibited by Apple Inc. include onsite training, educational courses, and strong policies on the need for employees to participate in the empowerment programs. It has also been argued that empowering in the workplace positively impact the motivation of employees. According to the job characteristic theory (JCT), employees can be more motivated in the organization by factors such as skill variety, task identity, and task significance. An empowering organization is likely to ensure employees are motivated to ensure the goals are achieved. Apple Inc., for example, has an empowering workplace that ensures employees grow and develop new skills, better understand tasks, and find meaning in their work. Empowering is, therefore, organizational behavior in Apple that has largely contributed to its success.

Job Satisfaction in Apple Inc,

Job satisfaction is one of the most researched variables in organizational behavior. It is defined as the positive emotional state of employees regarding their work and organization as a whole (Alegre, Mas-Machuca, & Berbegal-Mirabent, 2016). Job satisfaction refers to the perception that employees have regarding their work environment, relationships with colleges, earnings, and promotion opportunities. By ensuring job satisfaction, organizations create positive attitudes towards work among employees that translate into better performances. Reports indicate that Apple is considered as one of the best companies to work for based on employee reviews (Cain, 2018). According to the report by Cain, 90 percent of the employees working at Apple are happy with their jobs and feel that their work has a significant impact on other people. The report indicates that most of the employees feel that they are continually learning in the workplace and also part of something big. Based on Cain, Apple is dedicated to ensuring creativity and innovation in the workplace by providing its employees with work independence, freedom, and opportunities to develop skills and knowledge. Reports further indicate that the company also offers good salaries and benefits, with most of the employees satisfied with what they are paid based on the tasks they perform and competing firms. Research also indicates that good leadership is an essential aspect of ensuring job satisfaction (Girma, 2016). Girma argues that leadership is an inspiration process that impacts the perception of employees regarding their work and organization in general. Cain, in his article, indicates that 73 percent of the employees in Apple approve Cook’s leadership style when it comes to dealing with people and handling the operations of the organization.

Motivation in Apple Inc.

Motivation is one of the topics that has gained much popularity in organizational behavior. Research on organizational behavior indicates that motivation is essential in organizations as it positively impacts performance, efficiency, commitment, and satisfaction. From the classical view perspective, both extrinsic and intrinsic motivations are crucial to the organization. Extrinsic motivation is based on the reward system, while intrinsic motivation is related to the value of the work in the organization (Scandura, 2017). According to reports, Apple makes use of both extrinsic and extrinsic rewards to motivate people (Vozza, 2017). In intrinsic motivation, Apple tries to motivate its employees by helping them find satisfaction in their work. The company strives to ensure that employees feel a sense of gratification and fulfillment in tasks. The tasks are usually meant to challenge employees to explore their full potential and gain pride in their achievements. According to Vonza, extrinsic motivation in Apple Inc involves the use of external rewards such as money, gifts, promotion, a 3 percent recognition bonus for the salary of their executive, and benefits such as life insurance. Maslow’s theory is based on the arguments that employees can be motivated by fulfilling specific needs in their order, starting with physiological needs, safety needs, belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization. The fact that Apple pays its employees fair salaries, promotes health and safety in the workplace, rewards and recognizes performance, and increases employee responsibilities exemplify the dedication of the organization to motivate employees. The organizational practices exhibited by Apple is a revelation of the motivation behaviors of the organization. As stated earlier, based on facts, motivation behaviors are essential aspects for organizations that want to be successful. Goals in the workplace can be hard to achieve when organizations have workforces that are not motivated enough.

Teamwork in Apple Inc

Teamwork is an essential aspect of the success of any organization. Teamwork behaviors can help organizations to achieve goals faster and get jobs done efficiently. According to reports, teamwork encourages commitment to shared goals and performance strategies that ultimately lead to high performance (Scandura, 2017). As an innovation and creative technology company, teamwork is an essential aspect of Apple (Lashinsky, 2014). According to Lashinsky, departments in Apple are required to work together in every project. In their collaboration, these departments need to consider various factors, such as the technology, marketing, finances, and usage of the project. As a result, the success of products in Apple is highly dependent on how well employees from different field team up and work together.

Additionally, reports by Lashinsky reveal that teamwork in Apple is dependent on the trust and confidence that employees have with one another. This is one of the primary reasons why Apple tends to hire and train well-qualified employees based on the position applied for by a candidate. The hiring process in Apple is majorly based on the person-fit model, where the abilities of the chosen candidate must fit with the open position. Lashinsky also indicates that collaboration skills play a significant impact on whether one would be hired to work in Apple.

Conclusion

The profile of Apple reveals that the company applies some of the concepts, principles, and theories of organizational behavior. The company encourages behaviors and practices that are supportive of its employees that have largely influenced its success. Based on the profile of the company, there is evidence of empowerment, job satisfaction, teamwork, motivation, and effective leadership. Due to such organizational behaviors, Apple has been able to create a working environment that supports efficiency, goal achievement, and tasks within the organization. It is, therefore, evident that organizational behavior has a significant influence on the success of companies. Just like Apple, firms can implement the principles, concepts, and theories of organizational behavior to build the right working environment to facilitate success at all levels.