Inside Apple: Integrating Culture and Diversity in Decision Making - Research Paper Example

However, the company produces many other quality electronic devices and related software that ease operations and the use of related applications. Apple’s distribution channels include the retail, online, and direct sales stores strategically positioned in nations across the globe. The major target markets for Apple products include small and mid-sized enterprises, educational institutions, governments, and individuals. Through its innovativeness and resourcefulness, Apple Inc. is dedicated to providing hardware, software, and other services to ease the problem-solving requirements of their target markets (Lashinsky, 2007).

The culture of Apple Inc. has its foundation on a principle that self-motivated employees will work to the best of their abilities in the absence of a boss micromanaging every activity they undertake. This unique culture of the organization has led to the constant growth of Apple since its inception. Moreover, the organizational structure at Apple facilitates the adoption and implementation of this culture in all aspects of production and distribution (Lashinsky, 2007). Accordingly, Apple possesses the ability to react quickly to the dynamism in the global markets than most of its competitors. The culture and management structure enables the company to enjoy a quick decision-making process and project responsiveness because of minimal bureaucracy in needed approvals. Consequently, decisions are made at their lowest levels, are approved and implemented (Griffin, 2012). The top-down philosophy implemented by the C.E.O, the late Steve Jobs, ensured quick resolutions to issues without engaging the headquarters.

The signs of Apple’s culture are evident from the organizational structure used. The company exhibited a lack of any formal organizational structure but instead concentrated on leaving the decisions to the concerned employees. The company’s ability to respond to the market changes with regard to technology is attributed to its speedy decisions made at its lowest levels possible. In addition, the manufacture of all its products defined by quality and durability portrays the creativity and innovativeness of the employees. The culture helps to bring out such abilities because of the value attached to all creative employees. The culture also provides all the employees with a challenging and creative working environment that boosts a results-driven approach towards all assigned tasks. Similar to Jobs’ leadership, Tim Cook, the current C.E.O has maintained the culture of concentrating on the employees, creating a conducive environment in the workplace, and minimizing bureaucracy in the decision-making process (Lashinsky, 2007).

Several factors caused Apple Inc. to embody this particular culture of self-motivated employees working to the best of their abilities in the absence of a boss micromanaging every activity. The factors include behavior at work, self-esteem and self-efficiency, and personnel policies. Behavior at work is a factor that is determined by an employee’s personality traits. These traits determine the stable pattern of mannerism and consistency in the internal states of an employee’s tendencies. Understanding workers’ personality traits help Apple’s C.E.O to change the behavior at work and enables employees to focus more on creativity and innovativeness. This is evident in Tim Cook’s reign through the provision of freedom at the workplace (Lashinsky, 2007). Self-esteem and self-efficiency are intertwined factors that determine the performances of employees. Apple’s team understands the need to boost the employee's esteem and automatically yields efficiency in assigned tasks. Personnel policies are another factor that caused Apple to embody its current culture. This is because personality policies lead to benefits to the employees enabling them to offer solutions to issues facing office expansion. They also facilitate workers to become more productive by working according to their abilities.

A transformational leader is best suited for Apple Inc. The characteristics of this leader include excellent communication between the leader and the employees, motivating workers, and involving him or herself directly with the productivity of a firm. In addition, the leader helps all workers to target the big picture and accomplish their personal and organizational goals. Apple Inc. requires this type of leader who would maintain the existing organizational culture and structure. This leader would maintain a good relationship with all workers and motivate them to achieve set targets (Hill & Jones, 2010).

A decline in demand for Apple products can be because of the failure in the organizational structure that results from the firm’s culture of decision-making. Lack of accountability in several or all regional branches of Apple could lead to low-quality products. To solve the issue, the culture of leaving all decisions in the hands of employees should be controlled. The management should improvise a method of keeping track of all the decisions made at every level of the production process. In addition, the employees should be kept under a performance checklist that would record the progress of each employee on creativity, innovation, and completion of projects (Hill & Jones, 2010).