NAME: HABIB AYODEJI SUNDAY

STUDENT ID: 1812672

LECTUERER NAME: MARY MARCH AND DR. STEPHEN

SOMMERVILLE.

DUE DATE: 20TH SEPTEMBER 2019.

COURSE TITLE: MANAGING IN COMPLEX ENVIRONMENT:

STRATEGIES, INSIGHT AND SOLUTIONS

COURSE CODE: LCDB 7002

Executive Summary

Apple is an international company that is renowned for its quality brands such as the iPhone.

Just like any other company, Apple has its strengths as well as weaknesses. In terms of

diversity, Apple has not been good at it in that, most of the organization’s employee

population is white while the other groups form a small percentage. Moreover, the senior

management level of the company is predominantly white, with fewer women in it.

Nevertheless, there are ways in which the organization can solve these challenges. On the

other hand, change management has been well handled by the company. The company has

been able to slowly introduce their products in the market, prioritizing user experience and

design and prioritizing organizational strategy, among others. Regarding the change

management framework, the organization should switch to a task culture from a power

culture integrated by Steve Jobs. The models that the company has employed in change

management include the 7s model, Lewin’s model, and the eight-step model by Kotter.

Moreover, the Gemba Kaizen strategy has also been utilized in the company’s change

management approaches. Apart from that, leadership at the company has not been left behind.

Leadership has employed the servant leader model of the 1990s and the Great Man theory. It

is noteworthy that Steve Jobs is accredited for transforming the company from its struggling

era into a profitable and successful company. Some of the recommendations are that the

company should move to a task culture to retain its innovativeness and creativity culture; it

should also recruit more women and the other groups into the senior management level. The

company can implement these recommendations through various strategies, including putting

in place the necessary practices and policies and prioritizing on diversity.

Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................................2

Introduction................................................................................................................................4

Diversity.....................................................................................................................................4

To Positively Influence Performance, Apple should start with the hiring process................6

Creation of Inclusive Practices and Policies..........................................................................6

Apple should adopt the access-and –legitimacy perspective.................................................8

To Create a Fair and Just Society, Apple Should integrate the Discrimination-and –Fairness

viewpoint................................................................................................................................8

Increasing Female Leadership at Apple’s Senior Management Level...................................9

Change Management................................................................................................................11

Prioritizing user experience and design................................................................................12

Prioritizing of the organization strategy...............................................................................12

Change Management Framework............................................................................................13

How Apple has applied the Change Management Theories....................................................15

The 7-S model by McKinsey................................................................................................15

Eight step model by Kotter...................................................................................................16

Three-phase model by Kurt Lewin.......................................................................................17

Change Management Approaches applied by Apple...............................................................17

Theories on Leadership Applied by Apple..............................................................................19

Recommendations....................................................................................................................20

Conclusion................................................................................................................................21

References................................................................................................................................22
Apple Inc. on Diversity and Change Management

Introduction

Apple, whose headquarters are in California, is a transnational corporation that deals

with designing and developing as well as selling computer software, online services as well

as consumer electronics. Along with Facebook, Amazon, and Google, the company is

considered to be among the Big Four technology companies. Just like most companies in the

present era, the organization has employed diversity as its workers are from various racial

groups, including whites, Asians, blacks, among others. However, at the senior management

level, it is mainly dominated by men with the majority of them being whites. Although

exercising diversity, the company is still far from perfection, and there are things that it

should consider, such as accelerated recruitment policy. On the matters of change

management and employee resistance, it is well comprehended that change is hard to

actualize because of the tendency of people fearing to step out of their comfort zones thus

resisting new ways of doing things. Concerning the company’s employee resistance to

change, there are various causes of the resistance and ways in which it can be managed by the

company. Diversity with change management and employee resistance has interrelated

connectivity relationship in term of using Apple Inc. as a case study for review in analysing

the needful of people management in a complexity environment which will be provided with

more details analysis as we are going further into more details and deriving at a conclusion

and recommending solution on how these two concept of diversity and change management

with employee resistance could help people management in a complex environment.

Diversity

Diversity has struck a lot of debate in the technology industry. As of July of 2017, the

company is still 32% female globally (Ng et al., 2018). The company is 54% white in the

United States. However, the percentage is 2% less from 2016. The Hispanic employees sum

up to 13%, which is a 1% increase from the previous year, while blacks constitute 9%

(Yusoff & Husnina, 2018). The number of blacks, however, has not changed from 2016.

Asians encompass 21% of the total workers, which is about a 2% raise and a 1% increase for

the multiracial workers who make up 3% (Lesch, Rau & Choi, 2016). The other workers sum

up to 1% and reveal no change (Arocha, 2017). The company further claims that as from July

of 2016 to the same month in 2017, the historically underrepresented groups, which include;

women, Hispanic, black, Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders as well as Native

American made up half of its new hires. An example being, as compared to its present

population of black employees, which is 9%, the new hires black population was 11%

(Yusoff & Husnina, 2018).

As compared to other tech companies, Apple has a more significant percentage of

Hispanic and black workers. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that some of these workers are in

retail roles, which are lower-paying. The company’s retail worker base is made up of 18%

Hispanic, blacks 13%, 57% white, and 7% Asians (Ng et al., 2018). The leadership of this

particular company is run predominantly by the male, and they make up to 71% of the firm’s

leaders globally. Out of this 71%, 66% of the company’s leaders in the United States are

white, and only 3% of the leaders in the same country are black (Arocha, 2017).

On the other hand, the multiracial group makes up 1%, while Hispanic holds 7%. At

the company’s leadership level, diversity has become a heated subject (Gehani, 2016). Often,

the implementation of an accelerated recruitment policy has been called for severally by one
of the company’s shareholders, Tony Maldonado. Tony’s aim for the implementation of the

policy is for diversity increase in the board of directors as well as at the senior management

level. However, Tony’s efforts have been shot down repeatedly by the company’s board of

directors. The board remarked that the policy is neither appropriate nor essential since they

had already proven their obligation to a holistic view of diversity and inclusion. Moreover,

they claimed to have made comprehensive information about the company’s diversity and

inclusion initiatives as well as the progress made with respect to the same initiatives. Apple

has really diversify in a lot of ways in terms of technology sense, seeing it from the point of

view that Apple is been generated in many countries of the world with their product been

known as the best in term of different applications and tech which their competitor struggles

to have with make them a unique in their ways. Since the company is large with a total of

about 130,000 workers globally and 83,000 of them in America, change may take place at a

slow rate not forgetting the fact that the company has higher retention rates (Arocha, 2017).

Considering the benefits that come along with diversity such as facilitating a broader market,

increased productivity and adaptability, innovation as well as easier retention and

recruitment, the company should try as much as possible to equalize the number of workers

in their senior management levels and other sectors.

To Positively Influence Performance, Apple should start with the hiring process.

To positively influence performance, Apple should embrace diversity right from the

hiring stage. They should ensure that their hiring policies embrace and encourage diversity.

For the organization to hire for diversity, bias will have to be overcome in both interviewing

and assessment processes. For this to be achieved, the company should come up with a

diverse hiring panel (Page, 2019). The panel will thus ensure that the recruitment process is

free of biases or prejudices and that candidates get selected on merit. Various research studies

reveal that there exist correlations between group performance and diversity. Most of these

studies suggest that physical diversity physiognomies such as race impact positively on

performance. Reason being, unique cognitive attributes are contributed by the team members

centered on their experiences from their diverse demographic backgrounds. If Apple

considers this and equalizes its employee population such that all groups get equally

represented, then the performance of the firm is to improve by a significant margin.

Creation of Inclusive Practices and Policies

Apple will have to ensure that their policies, as well as practices, are inclusive and do

not discriminate or favor a particular set of workers. The diversity report on the company

indicates that the underrepresented groups have been undersigned the low paying roles in the

company as compared to the whites. The company’s policymakers will have to deliberate on

the differential impact practices, and policies will have on the varied group of employees

before they get them enforced. They should ensure that the division of roles is based on

merits and not on other non-significant characteristics such as race or religion (Barak, 2016).

The performance of the company is likely to improve if the company becomes more

heterogeneous than it is currently. In the year 1993, a study was conducted by Watson and his

colleagues on the evaluation of group performance between groups that are culturally

heterogeneous and those that are culturally homogeneous.

The above study involved assigning the groups business cases for them to analyze

with the performance of each group measured over time based on four factors. The factors

include; the engendered perspectives range, the number of identified problems in the case, the

number of produced alternatives, and the quality of the solution. The average of the four

factors was calculated as the overall performance in four intervals. The overall performance

in the first two intervals for the homogeneous groups was greater than for the other group

(Barak, 2016). Nevertheless, the third and fourth intervals showed no noteworthy

dissimilarities in the performance, but the homogeneous group was outperformed by the

heterogeneous group in coming up with a greater number of alternatives and a greater

perspectives range. The study proposes that even though the heterogeneous groups may

initially outdo the heterogeneous groups, the diverse groups over time from a varied range of

ideas to pick from when solving problems.

 The study applies to Apple Inc. in that, if the company hires more diverse groups to

equalize with the white employees, then the problems that come along with the complex

environment in which they operate will be dealt with more easily. Reason being, their senior

management level is predominantly run by the whites (Barak, 2016). The level is majorly

homogenous and making it heterogeneous will offer the company with a greater number of

alternatives as well as a greater perspectives’ range.

Apple should adopt the access-and –legitimacy perspective.

Apple is an international company that ventures in different global markets. The

above perspective mainly emphases on the benefits that can be brought into a business by a

diverse workgroup. Particularly since Apple does not only wish, but it operates with

culturally diverse clients as well as varied sets of markets. Most companies that operate under

this specific perspective do so intending to gain entry to the diverse markets (Barak, 2016).

Another reason is that their multiplicity affords them some legitimacy levels when trying to

gain entry to the varied markets. Apple is not an exemption since the company produces

products used globally by diverse people. The perspective will prove to be of help in making

all levels of their organizational structure diverse. However, the perspective is functional in

terms of its diversity type as it does not try to value multiplicity at the core of the business

(Barak, 2016). Although the perspective may prove useful to Apple, it has a limitation in that;

the perspective tends to frontier the roles of specific minority groups. It achieves this by

valuing this group’s members merely because they can upsurge the diverse markets access as

well as markets and not because they can make other contributions that are potentially

valuable to the organization. Apple should put the perspective in place but should try to

suppress this limitation. In return, they will be able to gain more diverse markets and outdo

their competitors.
To Create a Fair and Just Society, Apple Should integrate the Discrimination-and –
Fairness viewpoint.

The viewpoint comes from the belief that a culturally diverse workforce is an ethical

duty that should be upheld to create a society that is fair and just. By Apple recruiting more

whites in their senior management level and in in their entire employee population, it does

not in any way create a fair and just society. Commitment in equal opportunities in terms of

promotions and hiring is what characterizes this viewpoint and does not link the productivity

of a workgroup or its success to diversity directly (Barak, 2016). However, most

organizations that which employ this perspective in their operations have unspoken as well as

spoken presumptions that assimilation into a culture that is predominantly white should take

place by the other members of diverse cultural identity. Nevertheless, everything has its own

limitations, and this particular perspective has certain drawbacks in that it measures the

retention and recruitment of diverse individuals, and this can result in the underrepresented

groups feeling undervalued. Apple should not undervalue the minority groups as they aim to

create a fair and just society, but it should be committed to offering equal promotion and

hiring opportunities even to those underrepresented groups. The groups should be considered

in the senior management level too.

Increasing Female Leadership at Apple’s Senior Management Level

The senior management of Apple is indeed predominated by men. McKinsey 2015

report indicates that organizations that exercise more gender diversity among leadership had

more significant financial gains as compared to those that did not. To increase and retain the

likelihood of success, Apple should put in place diversity goals that are intertwined to the

management goals. It is vital for their goals to be tied to individual goals with the aim of

making workers accountable rather than merely being objective. The report also suggested

that there exist organizations with diverse leadership experienced the relationship between
performance and diversity in that, more competitive advantage and higher performance.

There are various ways in which Apple can attract as well as retain female leadership in the

organization.

Diversity cannot take place overnight, as there must be a concentrated effort to

emphasize the goals and initiatives of organizational diversity. One of the reasons as to why

most of these goals and initiatives succumb to failure is because they are not prioritized

within an organization (Chin et al., 2008). Also, workers may doubt the initiatives’

effectiveness or be apathetic to goals that have been put in place. To increase and retain the

likelihood of success, Apple should put in place diversity goals that are intertwined to the

management goals. It is vital for their goals to be tied to individual goals with the aim of

making workers accountable rather than merely being objective. The report also suggested

that the organisations with diverse leadership experienced the relationship between

performance and diversity and can be competitive advantage and higher performance. There

are various ways in which Apple can attract as well as retain female leadership in the

organization.

By Apple having a particular number of women leaders they strive for is a good

example of a precise measurable goal that can be implemented by the organization.

Apple should be very transparent regarding its diversity successes. Workers at the

company will be able to see that the firm is making affirmative strides in the correct direction

if the firm publishes reports on some of the diversity achievements as well as goals. Apart

from that, workers will be able to give a supplementary response to what is not working and

what is working. By exercising transparency, it will be a great way for Apple to permit

prospective workers to scale their obligation to diversity thus making the firm more attractive

to the job seekers (Chin et al., 2008). Making senior women leaders more visible is also
significant as it can serve as an inspiration source to other workers to see women leadership.

It will also permit both current and prospective workers to see that ascension is possible at

Apple. In the creation of more female leadership, visibility is critical.

In 2018, a report by Namely Diversity discovered that men are more likely to

obtain acknowledgment at the workplace while female workers succumb to under-recognition

within the institution. The same report also showcased that as compared to the female

workers, the male employees obtain more promotions and praises. Individual bias can be

attributed to the cause of these inconsistencies. On the way to generating a surrounding to

enhance more women leadership, Apple should recognize that their own bias and prejudice is

imperative to incapacitating obstacles. Apple should implement inclusion and diversity

training on an ongoing and recurrent basis as well as an emphasis on strategies aimed at

changing long-term behaviors (Gehani, 2016). However, the training might not be successful

if at all, they do not first carry out an examination of present policies at the company. By

doing so, it will guarantee fairness, objectivity as well as clear pathways for women

leadership. The examination should also focus on accountability of the management

regarding the accomplishment of diversity goals, mentorship and certifying the visibility of

present female leadership.

In their urge to increasing female leadership at Apple, mentorship forms a critical

part. Research reveals that strategies such as reverse mentoring increases women leadership

within an organization. Reverse mentoring involves the pairing of high potential workers

with senior leaders to permit each person to learn something from the other (Gehani, 2016).

Also, a strong pipeline for women leadership can be developed by offering effective training

and pathways to help the workers with the highest potential growth. Another way in which

Apple can improve female leadership and increase diversity within the company is to revamp
and reassess procedures and policies. According to Chin et al., (2008), female workers can be

attracted at Apple through various ways such as permitting workers to have flexible working

hours, work schedules that are modified, day-care services that are discounted, competitive

maternity leave policy and enforcement of equal pay.

Change Management

Change management refers to a designed approach to transitioning organizations as

well as individuals to a future from a present state. Most organizations have failed to master

this particular concept, but Apple Inc. has mastered the concept. The company has been able

to introduce new technologies and ideas, has gained almost complete adoption of changes as

well as building a following of users. Since the company experienced massive loses in the

year 2001, it has adopted various change management models. Some of the models include;

Slowly introducing new features

Apple Inc. follows its release cycle. Unlike other tech companies, Apple does not pre-

maturely issue any function or features to either catch up with the industry or beat their

competitors. No organization is perfect, and Apple is not an exemption. Nevertheless, the

firm releases features when it is ready to do so. For instance, the App Store was not yet a

function upon the first iPhone’s release. The company needed an environment that was

thoroughly tested before getting the function released to the general users. The changes in

Apple’s iOS functions take place often, though slightly unlike Windows, where the release of

the version takes years (Ng et al., 2018). The releases are wholly entwined in the firm’s

policy of applying incessant improvement strategy which has been spelled by Gemba Kaizen.

Unlike other techs such as Microsoft, the strategy has worked well for Apple.
Prioritizing user experience and design

Various products of Apple often grow right from simple to greater versions with

exemplary features that make their clients classify themselves with the company. For

instance, the iPhone and iPod evolution is a strategy that has made Apple to be on the move

and have continuous production. Apple’s iOS has steadily grown to version 4.0 right from

version 1.0. Very minute and subtle changes are included in each release. As the system gets

adopted by the users, the firm is gradually introducing them to a common system that is able

to work across all of Apple’s devices be it iPhones, iPods, Apple TV among others (Yuseff &

Husnina, 2018). It is noteworthy that the devices do not require instructions and does not

come with extensive user manuals as well. The company has an operating design that is well

designed and intuitive applications that can be picked and used by users.

Prioritizing of the organization strategy

Apple is dedicated to conveying the best mobile communication experience,

personal computing as well as portable digital music to businesses, students, customers,

government agencies as well as educators via its innovative software, services, internet

offerings, hardware, and peripherals. Apple’s business strategy influences its unique

capability to develop and design its application software, operating system, hardware, and

operating system (Ng et al., 2018). Apart from that, it also gives the company the ability to

develop services to offer its consumers new solutions and products with superior, innovative

industrial design, seamless integration, and ease of use. Prioritising strategy change for apple

is base of adaptive innovation change to the industry. Apple believes that incessant

investment in development and research is vital to the enhancement and development of

innovative technologies and products. Other strategies that have been embraced by the

company and have positioned them in a better position in terms of change management
include; consistent strategy, marketing policy, multi-channel retailing, strategic alliances, and

market segmentation.

Change Management Framework

Leadership has got many definitions with some of it being; forming a positive

surrounding where great things can happen, developing a vision that others want to be part of

and developing individuals to attain their full potential. Personality and leadership

implications of the leader in the establishment of organizational culture is massive in a way

that the low management imitates behaviors and actions of the leader in most times ranks

workers. Thus, corporate leaders often set the culture within their corporations via their work

ethics, general behavior, communication skills, and methods (Gehani, 2016). Similarly,

attempts to simulate any learning within a firm tends to be ineffectual if the organizational

leader daily does not exercise the cultural elements in an all-embracing manner. The 1972

Harrison’s Model of Culture the nature as well as the amount of impact of a leader in four

diverse organizational culture forms (Mihaela & Bratianu, 2012). According to this particular

model, the corporate culture of Steve Jobs reign can be described as a power culture.

Consequently, Jobs had focussed all the powers in terms of decision-making in his own

hands. He undiplomatically and blatantly critiqued his workers if at all their performance did

not meet his anticipations. Moreover, his subordinates were also challenged for better

performance.

Jobs is well-known for pressurizing individuals and teams to better performance as

well as developing a high level of performance corporate culture in which the workers in the

A list would prosper while the B list workers on the other hand which is mainly made up of

the workforce get imperilled to an excessive level of pressure. According to the model of

culture by Harrison, the power has its own share of disadvantages and advantages (Zhu et al.
2015). The advantages of power culture foresaw Apple into becoming achieving a high level

of success it has gained in the global marketplace. The advantages were showcased in the

Steve Job’s intuition, overall competence as a leader, creativity as well as his visionary

leadership. Steve Job’s power culture has greatly contributed to the firm becoming the most

valued organization globally in terms of market capitalization. It is noteworthy that times

have changed and even though the power culture worked perfectly for Steve Jobs, the

company presently needs to move from the power culture to a task culture.

Adoption of a task culture will prove to be of great help to the company since the

culture gives a greater level of advantages in terms of offering workers with flexibility and

freedom, creation of room for worker innovation and creativity as well as decision-making

with an improved level of speed. The company’s new CEO should, therefore, see to it that the

task culture is integrated into the organization. By incorporating the task culture into the

organization, Apple will be able to maintain its innovativeness and creativity culture (Leschet

al., 2016). It is notable that the two business strategies have been employed during Steve

Job’s era as vital elements of organizational culture and should be upheld in the future.

How Apple has applied the Change Management Theories

Apple has been able to adopt three theories of change management in change

implementation in the organization. The theories include; the eight-step model by Kotter,

three-phase model by Kurt Lewin and McKinsey’s 7-S model. A critical factor in owing to

the success of Apple is the company’s corporate culture.

The 7-S model by McKinsey

The model got more of a faced holistic structure and less of an order. Due to this,

organizations and businesses can organize their facets they require to address in whichever

order that bests fit their approach. Every aspect starts with an S and comprises of shared
value, systems, structure, strategy, skills, staff, and style (Ravanfar, 2015). The model, apart

from presenting itself as a template outright, it is also open-minded. The corporate culture of

an organization is a determinant of the company’s capabilities in supporting new strategies,

new policies as well as changes. In the case of Apple, workers are effectively integrated and

developed into a corporate culture that aids swift innovation. The innovation is showcased in

various products of the company, such as the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Apple Watch. Even

though the corporate culture of Apple, in general, contributes to the organization’s business

strengths, the challenges, and limits it imposes to the firm form part of its limitations

(Ravanfar, 2015).

Nevertheless, the firm has been steadily fine-tuning its corporate culture to match the

dynamics of its business environment appropriately. Moreover, the culture is effective in

backing up the leadership of the organization because of the main features that fit the firm.

Some of the significant characteristics of Apple’s corporate culture include creativity,

secrecy, and innovation. Also, moderate combativeness and top-notch excellence.

Eight step model by Kotter

The model comprises of eight steps which include; establishing and driving up the

earnestness for requiring change, building a team that is committed to change, creating goals

as well as a vision for change and conveying communication on the need for change. The

fourth step involves empowering staff to implement change personally, creation of short-term

goals, maintenance of persistence and the final step is the la Lewin refreezing which refers to

making the changes long-lasting/permanent (Calegari et al., 2015). Apple Inc. has been able

to employ this theory by creating a sense of urgency. Because of competitive opportunities,

Steve Jobs established numerous changes during the thirty years of the company’s existence.

During the era of the Macintosh, which was during the 1980s, a race market was created by

Steve Jobs. Just before, the Macintosh team had embarked on their project; the Lisa team had
begun to work on their product some years before. A bet was made by Steve that his team

would be the first to market its product, then it created a vision (Yoffie & Cusumano, 2015).

Apple came into existence because of a vision that was created by Steve Wozniak and Steve

Jobs in the year 1976 while they were in a garage. The vision of the two was to develop

computers that could be used by the average consumer without having to possess technical

skills or knowledge.

The reason as to why the two had the vision was because the computers which were

in the present market were limited to only a specific market niche and some individuals such

as a salesclerk or a homemaker were not part of the niche. The founders of the company saw

that the computers would be an enrichment to the lives of many people. Reason being, the

computers that were being envisioned by Steve and Wozniak were to be more affordable as

well as being diverse enough to be able to stand out among those that were presently being

sold in the market (Calegari et al., 2015). The vision was followed by the formation of a

prevailing guiding coalition. The firm is known for its secrecy, and the internal coalition of

leaders and executives is much hard to establish. Undoubtedly, tight groups of individuals

have shaped around several shared products’ visions. Steve Jobs earlier on structured the

company’s office as a work areas circle around a central lobby. The founders of the company

saw that the computers would be an enrichment to the lives of many people. Reason being,

the computers that were being envisioned by Steve and Wozniak were to be more affordable

as well as being diverse enough to be able to stand out among those that were presently being

sold in the market (Calegari et al., 2015). The next step undertaken by Apple was to

communicate the vision.

Three-phase model by Kurt Lewin

The fundamentals of change management, as well as social psychology, got

pioneered by a German American by the name Kurt Lewin several years ago. In so doing,
Lewin also developed the Lewin three-phase model. The model comprises of a three-phase

repeating cycle. Thaw phase forms the first phase whereby one attempts to overcome

opposition to change. The second phase involves the implementation of the changes via

education and training. The last phase, which is refreezing, encompasses finalizing the

changes then coming up with a policy. Apple Inc. had practically applied the theory in that

during the year 2001, when the company experienced massive loses, and Steve Jobs

attempted to come up with new concepts (Yoffie & Cusumano, 2015). Steve arrived at an

idea that “we chose music, we all love music,” and the concept first seemed crazy, and most

workers at the company did not see any sense in it. Nevertheless, the employees later

embraced the idea with time since Steve had created a culture of results. Later on, the iPod

was established, hitting the best sales but later abandoned as more novel discoveries were

developed to the point of having the iPhone among others.

Change Management Approaches applied by Apple.

Apple has so far integrated various theories, concepts, and models in change

management. Noteworthy is the slow introduction of products and the employment of the

strategy referred to as Gemba Kaizen (Simmons, 2018). Kaizen believes in constant

improvement, and Steve Jobs, on the other hand, appears to have advanced to the

development of iPod which is a music device from the original desktop computer that went

through a lot of incessant development. The evolvement of the iPod gave rise to various other

products as well as digital platforms that have placed the firm at a better competitive edge in

the market. Moreover, the firm appears to have comprehended the policy of presenting their

products to the market at given intermissions which innovations are key to change

management in an organisations or anywhere. Also, the original concept has also been

mastered by the firm as it develops its own software and carries out research on products that
can at the same time be affordable to their users as well as giving them better services. Apple

does not imitate, and as Steve Jobs claims that after replicating Apple and launching Zune,

Microsoft believes in third-hand goods.

Unlike other companies that believe in mistakes, Apple does not believe in

mistakes, and it neither replicates nor issue products to the market if it senses it is not worth

discharging (Gehani, 2016). Apart from that, Steve Jobs also realized the significance of

hiring individuals best fit for the job, upholding better ideas, and employing better workers

from other organizations. Some of the factors that have placed the firm at its current position

include excellent communication, brainstorming, and sharing. Moreover, the company

emphasizes on research and training for better results (Simmons, 2018). Apple had about 25

well-structured marketing outlets in the year 2001. Some of the strategies that the company

employs in gaining markets include; customer focus, market segmentation, acquisition,

customer confidence, and retail outlets. Also, the firm utilized fewer agencies in their product

distribution and returned, resulting in the cost of sales reduction and the consumers gaining

entry to better market deals. Apart from that, this also leads to the reduction of the impacts

caused by consumer bargaining power, thus diminishing the likelihoods of losses.

Theories on Leadership Applied by Apple

Steve Jobs is not only accredited for founding Apple but for also subsequently

developing the company. After he exited from the company, he later came back as CEO and

rebuilt the company that was at the threshold of crumpling. He was responsible for

transforming Apple from a struggling unit into one of the most profitable and successful

companies across the globe. Apple was made a leader in the technology industry by Jobs

vision to come up with products that were ‘insanely great.’ He was deliberated as the

architect of the main shifts in the PC, smartphone, and music industry (Yoffie & Cusumano,
2015). Jobs, apart from his technical vision, heavily focused on innovation and amalgamated

the two with customer anticipations to develop products such as iPhone, iPod, and others that

became the industry’s benchmark. The industry observers attest that Jobs, apart from being a

visionary leader, had the capabilities of perceiving opportunities, thinking differently, and

seeing the invisible. Apple been one of the most profitable and successful companies in the

world and across the globe, is also a leader in technology and has great prospective vison for

the future in innovation changes in the future with a great leader like Steve job.

It can, therefore, be argued that Steve Jobs was one of Apple’s leaders that fully

comprehended the corporate culture theory and cultural performance (Yoffie & Cusumano,

2015). Jobs instinctively comprehended the power of cultural impact far much better than

other leaders in supporting the premeditated competences implicit in his long-lasting vision.

His vision was to create an enduring organization where individuals got inspired to come up

with great products, a firm that a generation or two from then would stand for something.

Time will tell whether Apple will make Steve Job’s vision come true as it is hard to argue

from that aspiration. The industry observers attest that Jobs, apart from being a visionary

leader, had the capabilities of perceiving opportunities, thinking differently, and seeing the

invisible.

Steve Jobs introduced servant leadership at Apple. Often, Jobs was an antithesis of

the model of servant leader propagated in the 1990s (Yoffie & Cusumano, 2015). When

committed, Jobs was intensely focussed, assertive enough to take huge risks and charismatic

enough to enlist worker and customer legions in his aspiration’s persistent pursuit. The Great

Man theory of the mid- 19th century was also illustrated by him with its gallant leaders who

sheer force of will and decisions determined the global course. Steve was definitely a driven

and wilful leader and the services as well as products he directed his firm to create and
commercialize changed the way of life of various people. He also brought change to a varied

set of industries, including movies, computing, mobile telephony, music, and publishing.

It can be said that Apple has had a transformational leadership (Lesch et al., 2016).

Steve believed in something that can bring music to people, and he based his beliefs on

something new, something that can bring betterment to the lives of his clients. Steve

presented new ideas and sold them to his workers, who later transformed the ideas into

products that attracted high sales from their consumers. Jobs is recognized for developing as

well as leading others, mentoring and coaching his staff and showcasing genuine concern for

the well-being of others.

Recommendations

Considering that Apple is currently not exercising utmost diversity at the

organization, some recommendation should be; It should ensure that all jobs within the

organization are distributed on merit and not based on other characteristics such as race and

religion. Reason being, a heterogeneous workforce results in alternative perspectives and

diverse problem-solving skills for a company. Since the firm’s senior management level is

men dominated, the company should recruit more women into the management level through

various ways such as reverse mentoring, whereby potential employees and leaders can learn

from each other. The third recommendation is integrating a task culture in the organization.

During Steve Job’s era, the company was run under a power culture, but times have changed,

and the company needs to be run under a task culture. the company should try as much as

possible to equalize the number of workers in their senior management levels and other

sectors.

A task culture will ensure that the firm retains its culture of innovativeness and

creativity. Another recommendation is that the company should come back with policies and
practices that encourage diversity in their corporate culture. Through this, the firm can do

away with the diversity challenges that it currently faces.

Conclusion

In conclusion, just like any other company in any dynamic industrial sector, Apple

incorporates diversity and change management in its organization. However, diversity at

Apple has its share of limitations in that, Most of Apple employees are white while the other

groups make up the remaining percentage. At the senior management level, it is also men

predominated with most of them being white. It is evident that the company has failed in

terms of diversity, and there are actions it can take to promote the same. Some of these

actions include; starting from the hiring process, creating policies and practices that promote

diversity and promoting more women and other groups into the senior management level. On

change management, Apple has made a lot of strides in the right direction. Some of the things

the company has done is to slowly introduce their new features, prioritizing user experience,

and design, among others. Concerning the change management framework, Apple needs to

adapt to a task culture from the power culture integrated by Steve Jobs.

Moreover, the company has employed various theories such as the 7s model, eight-

step model by Kotter, and the Lewin’s model in change management. The company has

utilized the 7s model in various ways which include effectively integrating and developing

their workers into a corporate culture that aids in swift innovation. The firm has also been

fine-tuning its corporate culture with the aim of meeting the dynamics of its business

environment appropriately. Apart from that, the eight-step model has given the firm a sense

of urgency. Steve Jobs established numerous changes because of competitive opportunities

during the 30 years of the company’s existence. The Lewin theory has been of help such that

in the year 2001, after the massive loses encountered by the company, Jobs attempted to
come up with new concepts. Among some of the approaches adopted by the firm is the

Gemba Kaizen strategy. Moreover, theories such as the 1990s servant-leader model and the

great man theory have been utilized to arrive at a transformational leadership at the

organization. Considering the benefits that come along with diversity such as facilitating a

broader market, increased productivity and adaptability, innovation as well as easier retention

and recruitment, The company has been able to introduce new technologies and ideas, has

gained almost complete adoption of changes as well as building a following of users.

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