Apple Organizational Leader

 The second challenge to the organisation organisation is how how to approach changing the organisational culture in relation to communication. communication.  Taking  Taking into consideration consideration the global challenges, the human human resources resources management question for Apple is; do we change how the organisation communicates communicates and wait for this to impact on the culture? Or should the organisation take a proactive approach in tackling the culture head on?

 The obvious approach approach would be for Apple Apple to try and change the culture of the organisation? However changing the culture of Apple would prove to be difficult if not impossible. Particularly Particularly as lack of  communication and trust has been encouraged in the past through the actions of the management team. In order to address these types of behaviour the organisation would need strong focus and a managed approach to change. Kotter and Heskett (1992) believed that the longer an organisation was established the more difficult it would be to change.

It is critical that the organisation focuses on how to develop a robust approach to communication from both a top down and lateral perspective in order to compensate for poor information flows and to manage the impact of trust within the organisation. While lateral communication can be effective in doing this, it is not without its challenges. Cultural behaviour such as rivalry and competition would still prove challenging to the organisation. Apple would need to ensure that its communication strategy incorporated all approaches to meet the varying cultural demands of the organisation while ensuring its management management team are prepared prepared with the necessary skills and knowledge to take this forward.

Leadership & Development

Leadership is far more than just good management, and the impact of a good leader should not be underestimated. However leadership does not always come from the top. Leadership should involve stimulating and driving innovation and change enabling others to embrace change by managing external pressures into achievable goals (French, Bell & Zawacki, 1994).

Apple has a number of managers who have developed through the ranks because of their technical abilities. This has been seen as a success to the organisation as it encourages development although it is evident that these technical skills are often a world apart from managerial or leadership experience. It is for this reason that the strategic approach to leadership and development within Apple is critical. Alimo-Metcalf highlights that leadership within the UK is of  the archaic kind who set the vision and assume that staff members will follow (2001). This is a trait that is also visible within Apple.

Steven Jobs (an engineer by background) has openly stated that he values technical skills, innovation and natural talent above all else, demonstrating by his actions that he doesn’t share the same values for formality and leadership. Naturally a risk to any innovative organisation is that it (the organisation) becomes rigid and inflexible, therefore the balance between managing skills and leadership skills should be carefully approached.

“Leadership appears to be a rather sophisticated concept. There are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept”. (Bass, 1981, p7)

As a commercial organisation it is expected that Apple should look for ways in which to increase revenue, however it must also have the mechanism to deliver. Without skilled leadership the ideas and innovation promoted within the Apple culture may never leave the shelf, therefore it is critical that in order for Apple to maintain its position in a highly competitive environment it would need to reassess its approach to leadership development. In order to manage the balance between nature and nurture, Apple would need to ensure that its internal leadership development process is not about attending a one-day course, or reading the latest policy or strategy. In order for Apple to retain its success it must tailor development to meet the organisation goals while identifying characteristics of people who are already successful leaders within the organisation. Although Steven Jobs is a reluctant leader, he is also a respected one with decades of experience.  These and the skills of other prominent leaders within the organisation would need ‘bottling’ in order to share with potential leaders of the future. This could be in the form of mentoring? Newly appointed leaders may feel under pressure to lead in line with the culture of the organisation. In the case of Apple a cycle of  behaviour is taking place that is having a detrimental effect on the organisation due to poor leadership skills. New leaders often mirror existing leadership styles and traits, in some cases inexperienced leaders often approach leadership in a dominant way because they believe that is what is expected from a good leader. In revisiting the question, this is an area that would have a detrimental effect on the organisation and would need further work on the HRM strategy in order to address the challenges. In order for leadership to work within Apple, the organisation must connect and communicate its aims, objectives and expectations within a structured way that harnesses and develops the skills of  existing and potential leaders. Leadership is based on leadership behaviour. The case study identified how employees felt

disillusioned by being seen as ‘only a number’. This is a clear lack of  leadership. People respond better when they are encouraged, thanked and recognised for the work they do. Therefore when staff  feel ignored by the organisation, they are ultimately saying that their leaders are ignoring them. Alimo Metcalfe describes leadership as being based on