Verified Document

Managing To Keep Apple Fresh Book Report

Managing to Keep Apple Fresh: Organizational Culture Issue Identification

Employees

Competitors

Critical Discussion

Path-goal Model

Today, Apple can be regarded one of the most successful companies in the industry within which it operates. At some point, the company was headed for collapse. After Steve Jobs took control as CEO (from 1997), he instituted a drastic turnaround of the firm which has since then more or less dominated the industry. A number of factors have contributed to Apple's success; one of those being effective leadership skills. Steve Jobs knew how to set goals and get everyone to work towards achieving them by amongst other things aligning the organizational culture with the organizational goals. Apple's success story is proof that effective culture management is one of the ingredients of effective leadership. This text will explore the different culture-management practices that have been employed by Apple's leadership.

Issue Identification

Organizational culture refers to the values, practices, and beliefs held by the members of an organization (Balthazard, Cooke & Porter, 2006). These members can be categorized into three basic groups; employees, customers, and competitors (Balthazard, Cooke & Porter, 2006). In basic terms, all these groups play a role in the success or failure...

Effective culture-management more or less cements these groups together, and at the same time responds to each one's needs in the best way possible.
2.1 Employees: Effective culture-management takes into account the various needs of employees. These needs are best taken care of when the leadership fully makes use of its employees' abilities. Essentially, these abilities can only be fully realized if the employees' conceptual, technical and human skills are tested and improved (Keller, 2007). This could involve coaching, which would suitably ensure growth and learning that is more or less continuous (Schermerhorn et al., 2012). The implication is that employees get to feel that their abilities are properly utilized and hence give their best to be part of the achieved goals (Keller, 2007).

2.2 Customers: An effectively managed culture is responsive to customer needs. Customers' needs are best met through the provision of quality products. Apple is known for the production of the world's most robust, yet elegant devices (Schermerhorn et al., 2012). Effective culture-management, therefore, incorporates aspects of customer satisfaction. This is crucial if an organization is to succeed in the highly competitive global market (Bucker & Poutsma, 2010). Customers develop a mindset that any future product will be better than the previous one. 2.3 Competitors:…

Sources used in this document:
References

Balthazard, P.A., Cooke, R.A. & Potter, R.E. (2006). Dysfunctional Culture, Dysfunctional Organization: Capturing the Behavioral Norms that Form Organization Culture and Drive Performance. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21 (8), 709-732.

Bucker, J. & Poutsma, E. (2010). Global Management Competencies: a Theoretical Foundation. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 25 (8), 829-844.

Keller, D. (2007). Leading on Top of the World: Lessons from 'Into Thin Air'. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 9 (2), 166-182.

McLaurin, J.R. (2006). The Role of Situation in the Leadership Process: a Review and Application. Academy of Strategic Management Journal, 5, 97-113.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Apple Inc. An Assessment and
Words: 3843 Length: 8 Document Type: Term Paper

Table 2: Distribution of Revenue by Product Area Source: (Apple Investor Relations, 2008) (Prudential Equity Group LLC, 2006) Planning The cornerstone of Apple's planning processes is the continual development of products and services that compliment the product and services ecosystem shown in Figure 1 (Apple Investor Relations, 2008) (Prudential Equity Group LLC, 2006). Figure 1: Apple Product and Services Ecosystem Source: (Apple Investor Relations, 2008) (Prudential Equity Group LLC, 2006) For Apple, their future planning revolves

Managing Changing Managing Change Reflect Critically Personal
Words: 2703 Length: 8 Document Type: Case Study

Managing Changing Managing Change reflect critically personal perspective philosophy managing change changed ( ) semester Drawing learning experiences semester (group case study, relevant change management theory, reflections relevant personal experiences organisational change), reflect critically personal perspective philosophy managing change changed ( ) semester. Managing change The world we are living in is always changing. The nature of the business world today is very different than the way it was decades ago. Change is inevitable.

Apple Corporation and Ethics Apple Corporation and
Words: 2499 Length: 8 Document Type: Essay

Apple Corporation and Ethics Apple Corporation and Its Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies Apple Inc.(2014) is an American corporation, which designs and produces computer hardware, software and other consumer. Its best-known products include the Macintosh personal computer line, Mac OS X, iTunes media applications and the iPod personal music player. Its headquarters are in Cupertino, California and has 284 retail locations in 10 different countries. It was opened on April 16, 1976

Management According to Gareth Morgan's
Words: 1048 Length: 3 Document Type: Research Proposal

But a less obvious form of discrimination is gender inequality, which poisons a culture more slowly but just as surely. Priority Four: Stop being imprisoned with expected, predictable policies. One of Morgan's more interesting metaphors is his "psychic prison metaphor"; this alludes to a company being "trapped by favored ways of thinking" (men can do a better job because they have more experience, for example, or immigrants are too new

Management Theory Brings the Best Process for
Words: 1935 Length: 6 Document Type: Term Paper

Management Theory Brings the Best Process for Change? In these times of economic sluggishness - a period in which corporations face the grim realities of shrinking profits, restructuring, layoffs, cutbacks, downsizing, and overall belt-tightening - it would nonetheless seem to be an ideal time for rethinking / retooling a corporation's theory of management. And, what better time than during times of economic stagnation - when companies decide which workers to

Culture and Management
Words: 2947 Length: 8 Document Type: Term Paper

Management Overview In the discussion of cultural forces, we identified 10 fundamental person values that are often listed by individuals as central to them and the American culture. How would you rank these values in terms of their relative importance to you? What was the basis for your selection of the top three ranked values? Ethics help in defining proper and improper behavior and these set of standards show what comportment is

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now