Apple Incorporation: OB essay

The management perspective and implications

Introduction

Apple is a global giant today having competitive advantage over other companies not only in one market segment but it is ruling the market of Mobiles, Hi-tech gadgets, Laptops and this has been because of its strategic policies.

There are various perspectives which an organization employs to plan out its policies and Apple has also done the same to achieve its goal.

There are three perspectives of organization theory which is followed by Apple for its success and growth.

These perspectives are:

1)Classical Perspective which includes two theories: scientific theory and the bureaucratic theory

2)Neoclassical Perspective which is based on the Hawthorne study and offcourse on the concept that there are  social psychological needs apart from, economic needs of people

3)Environmental perspective considers the contingency factors affecting the organization, the environmental factors which the organization, the internal or may be external.

Classical Perspective will help to identify how Apple has done the optimum utilization of its manpower and what are the policies it ahs adapted for increasing the efficiency and for efficient production system. This will also focus on what are the strategies it has implemented to maintain the industrial relations and conflict management.

Neo classical perspective will focus on identifying how apple focuses on the social and psychological need of employees apart from concentrating on their economic and financial needs, what are the strategies it ahs implemented for improving the interpersonal skills among employees.

And the Environmental perspective will help to identify how Apple adapts itself to its external environment. This helps the Apple to understand and analyze the external environment to expand its business globally.

Apple is the market leader in terms of the products it ahs introduced in the market be it MacBook, iPod, iPad, iPhone etc. These products are designed and configured in such a manner that will actually attract the consumer perception. Now Apple is expanded over 6 countries with more than 200 outlets and offices across the world. This is not a small achievement. This could be achieved only due to the diversifying and creative strategy in their product and services at each stage of product and organization life span. Apple makes a full and detailed analysis of the economic condition of the particular country to make a profitable business out of the total investment. Apple is very much ahead and proficient in technological innovation and idea generation. Apple has a different kind of strategic formulation related to the environmental scanning and expansion to the new market. They keep a keen eye over each and every issue or concern that may affect their product or brand to that particular market. Then after a details analysis they make any decision.

The exponential and competitive growth of Apple is very much dependent upon the kind of strategy and management perspective they are focusing upon and implementing to make the organization more sustainable and competitive.

Neoclassical Perspective

Neoclassical theories help in understanding the human behavior and social concern and its relation to the effectiveness at workplace (Roethlisberger and Dickson, 1943). Various management researchers argued that it is very much important for the organization to provide a better and effective work place and environment to make the organization more effective and satisfied. This way the organization will be able to get the optimal and effective workers productivity.

Principles of the neoclassical approach

The neoclassical approach was come into existence after the classical approach of management. According to the classical perspective of management, the human workers/resources were treated as a machine and tools to get the work done. But Neoclassical theory changes this perspective and they came up with the new approach which was quite better than the classical approach and now the human resources were given more importance than just treating as a machine or tool.

The team work and individual work perspective being discussed under this approach and it was really an effective and efficient approach of management. It was leading the performance enhancement of the workers and employees at the workplace.

The Neoclassical perspective began with the Hawthorne studies in the 1920s. This approach emphasized on “socio-psychological aspects of human behaviors and its effect on organization performance.”

Hawthorne Effect was the improvement of productivity between the employees, it was characterized by:

The satisfactory and effective interrelationships between coworkers.

It classifies personnel as social beings and proposes that sense of belonging in the workplace is important to increase productivity levels in the workforce.

An effective and competitive management understood the way people interacted and behaved within the group.

The management attempts to improve the interpersonal skills through communication, inspirations, motivations, leading, and counseling.

This study encourages managers to acquire minimal knowledge of behavioral sciences to be able to understand and improve the interactions between employees.

Environmental Perspective

The environmental perspective of management is again an important perspective for the global expansion of the organization. This perspective helps the organization to understand and analyze the need and requirement for the effective and competitive expansion globally. Until and unless the organization is not able to understand the internal and external environment, we cannot expect that the organization will grow exponentially. It is very much important for organization to understand the need and requirement of the analysis of internal and external environment to make an effective and competitive move to gain the sustainability and competitive advantage. If we talk about the economic concern of the organization then one thing will be very clear that Apple’s manufacturing plant Foxconn plant. They were having more employment for the people who were willing to work more. In this respect, Australia is the best and Japan is following them and giving a tough competition in terms of capacity building for Apple production. There are two perspective of a business model that is being followed by the organizations; work hard to get the more payment from customers and to work hard to minimize the const for the customers. This way the new customers will be attracted towards the brand equity of Apple Inc (Fraud, Lever & Williams, 2012).

Analysis and implications of both the perspective on Apple’s management

As we all know that the Apple is one of the most powerful electronic brand and if we talk about the laptops, iPods, iPads then the Apple comes on top. In whole US market, there is no other brand to compete with Apple. If some brand is so much powerful and sustainable then there must be some specific reason behind this, and when we analyze all the facts and the management styles of Apple. Although they are manufacturing most of the parts in China, but they are differing in the considerations of various strategic aspects like the software development, R&D team, product management, marketing and other top notch and high paid wages works are management and handled in US itself. That is really a kind of different and unique strategy to avoid any kind of duplicacy in technology and innovation of Apple. We come to know that their management perspective and the work culture is the main reason behind their sustainability and exponential growth over the other market players like SONY, HP and other brands.

If we think that the Apple is doing some magic then it’s totally wrong but the one thing is quite clear that they are utilizing their creativity to make themselves more effective and sustainable in a different approach.

First perspective argues about the human resources and its utility. Apple is able to make the organization socially and psychologically sustainable with its management strategies and the implementation of Neo classical approach of management. Organizaional creativity plays an important role in making the organization more effective and sustainable. Apple is one of the most creative organization due to its effective and creative human resources. This could be possible only with the effective and efficient relationship between the employees and employers at the workplace. This is very much important for any organization to understand the employees social and psychological needs rather than just looking after the economic and financial needs. As we know that the human being is a social animal and until and unless we people get the social and psychological satisfaction of our needs, we won’t be able to perform our best whether it’s Apple or Google or any SMEs. The main concern is the internal satisfaction of employees and the correlation between the coworkers at work place. Unless these things will be patched up then performance enhancement of employees will not be possible and this will have an impact on the organization performance in turn.

Apple could understand the need of this perspective and used it effectively to make themselves more competitive and powerful in context of human resources and its effective utilization.

The kind of communication, culture, work environment and others psychological and social needs being judged and analyzed by the management people and based on the findings the organization implements the various strategies to fulfill these needs of the employees. This way the employees are getting more competitive and dedicated towards the work. Until and unless the employees are not satisfied and motivated we cannot expect the full cooperation of them towards the organization. According to the Neoclassical approach, it is clear that the social and psychological needs of the employees is also required to be fulfilled rather than only fulfilling the economic and financial needs. Apple has considered these aspects of Neo-classical approach and implemented this strategy and the result is in front of us. We can see the height of Apple and this is just the starting, Apple has long way to go in this race of brands in electronic gadgets. They are the one who came up with iPod MP3 player. Which changed the whole music market and it was like a change in the whole scenario of the music industry. Whole thing was just synchronized to a small gadget. It was not just a change but its was a drastic change in the whole music market.

If we talk about the business model of Apple then it is again very different kind of creative business model which consists of vertical business modeling and that shows the kind of compact and tight business strategy they have implemented in their organization.

These all aspects make a different perspective in our mind and give a different imagination about the organization strategy and work culture. That is really creative and competitive. If we see the difference in their strategy and the other competitors strategy, then it makes us more clear about their perspective towards the management and their people is quite different and they take up each and every small perspective in counting, whereas the others are just inclined towards the profitability of the organization. This is a thin line of difference between Apple and their competitors but makes a big difference between them.

Apple’s creativity can be seen in its logo itself that speaks a lot about the company and gives a perspective of the organization in itself. We can make a judgment about the organization and their concern by just seeing their logo.

If we talk about their products, it again makes us bound to think differently about their products. So much of creativity is present in their products.

Their management style and communication style, everything is so much synchronized and effective that creates a kind of different and creative phenomenon to work with. At this kind of place, the sustainability is bound to come and the competitive advantage is obvious for them.

Environmental Perspective

As the globalization came into existence, Apple also evolved and expanded to the various other markets including Asia, China, Europe and various other countries. The global expansion is not an easy task for any organization. The same question was with Apple. But they made it easy by their own management perspective and they looked about the need and requirement of the other markets and their spending capacity. Accordingly they started to expand one by one to other markets out of their local market.

They keep on analyzing and researching their internal and the external environment to avoid any kind of inefficiencies and discrepancies within the organization. They are well aware about the fact that to keep themselves in the market they must need to implement a different strategy and they are also require to keep on checking that the competitors are not able to copy that strategy.

We can see a recent case of Samsung Galaxy SIII, which Apple claimed that they have copied their technology and design to make their product. They filed a case against Samsung and they won the case and Samsung paid $1 billion recovery amount for this. These could be only possible if the organization is effective and efficient and looking over the competitor’s strategy and other external environment to take a proper action or reaction against any illegal act.

So it is very much important for organization’s to keep their eyes and mind open to understand and take proper action on any issue of such kinds of cases. If it is not been taken proactively then it may affect the Apple’s brand image and name in the market.

These all requires an effective and efficient management which can make a creative and strategic implications to make a better planning over these kinds of environmental issues. There are various other issues which may occur in the environment such as the suppliers issue, transportations issue, resources scarcity, and various other issues. If these issues are not resolved effectively and proactively then the competitors will take advantage of that and they may overcome you.

Apple is very much conscious about these kinds of issues and their management team keeps themselves ready to take a prior and proactive reaction against these kinds of small or even bigger actions in the environment.

Conclusion

After going through various management perspectives which is being used and implied by Apple, we can make a perception that Apple is quite good and effective in utilizing the various management perspectives which is really playing a great role in Apple’s performance. To understand the organization’s work culture and other strategies, we need to correlate it with the various management theories and perspectives. It makes a great and effective approach to avoid any kind of issue and inefficiency in the organization or outside the organization.

The utilization of Neo-classical theory of management gives an additional advantage to understand the social need of people who all are working in the organization and to make their need satisfied for the effective and competitive work culture. They have understood the need and understood their perspective and even fulfilled it and as a result their employees and workers are showing their performance.

Most of the organizations are just avoiding these management perspectives and moving up with their own culture and perspective. But the one should understand the need of these kinds of management perspective which is not worthless but which can be of more use if it is being used with the strategic implementations.

Apple did the same and understood the need and requirement of these theories hand on hand and made a comprehensive approach and strategic implementation to make them the organization competitive and sustainable.

The Founder of Apple, Steve Jobs is one of the best and perfect manager and leader in itself. Under his leadership the organization considered all these aspects and management perspective and as a result, Steve Jobs could make his dream come true.

If we talk about the environmental analysis and strategic implications of environmental concerns, then again Apple is on top and keeps an active track over all the happenings in the internal and external environment. This is quite visible by the case of Samsung Galaxy SIII case. These kinds of strategic implications and environmental analysis give a new height to Apple.

To do a comprehensive analysis of internal and external environment is again required for the global expansion and Apple is successfully able to expand globally.

The way of behaving and understanding the people’s perspective is again a difference in itself that Apple has implement in its management strategy, it is nowhere easy to make the employees satisfied socially and psychologically. But they have done it by understanding and judging the social and psychological needs of the employees and made a proper fixation policy for these kinds of need rather than just looking over the economic and financial needs of the employees. This was a huge differentiation in the human resources effective utilization by Apple.

Communication, culture, environment, objective, effort, and strategic implementations are very much required for any organization to reach their objective, mission and vision. Most of the organizations just keep on working without any predefined goal and without any implications of management principles and perspectives. But it is not fruitful for a long run of business and sustainability.

Apple has discovered the way of achieving the success and sustainability by including the various management principles and perspectives to their strategic formulation. It was nowhere easy task to do but under the leadership of such a great leaser Steve Jobs, this could be possible and now Apple is making a new history and able to attain the height of success and sustainability.

They are making a new benchmark for the other market players to keep themselves more effective and efficient in terms of management perspective and strategic formulations. They are setting a new benchmark for their competitors at every step of their success, which is not easy for their competitors to break and even touch.

First they will have to learn all the lessons from Apple’s point of view and then only they could make themselves as effective as Apple.

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