Apple: Organizing function of management - Term Paper Example

Apple: Organizing function of management Apple: Organizing function of management Apple Inc. is the second largest company in the world at present as far as market capitalization is concerned. Moreover, it is the most valuable technology company in America for the time being. Apple pushed Microsoft far behind both in market capitalization and also in technological advancements. The “i” series products such as iMac, iPhone, iPad, iPod etc brought immense success to Apple Company and helped the company to attain top spot in the market. Apple Company has made lot of changes in different areas of management which helped the company to progress rapidly than its competitors. This paper analyses how effectively Apple managed the human resources and technology in order to catch the top spot in the market. HR Management in Apple Through an employee’s perspectives, human resource management in Apple has got many benefits and drawbacks. It is a fact that Apple is one company which offers excellent compensation to the employees. “The compensation and benefits offered to employees of Apple are very competitive and it includes product discounts, vacation time, healthcare, training courses, casual dress codes on jobs etc” (Qumer, 2009, p.3). Moreover Apple provides opportunities to the fresh employees to grow under the wings of the experienced ones during their initial periods of employment in Apple. Once the fresh employees get enough training under the experienced ones, Apple encourages them to work individually. Even though team work is encouraged in most of the modern organizations, Apple seems to be having more faith in individual work rather than team work. Apple’s employees come from various parts of the world and the Company is keen in keeping a diverse workforce in its territories to exploit the knowledge and expertise of the people from different parts of the world. Since cross cultural business or international business is growing day by day, Apple’s strategy to keep a diverse workforce in its labor bank is a well thought out strategy which leads the company in the right direction. Recognition to outstanding workers, excellent infrastructure facilities to the workers etc are some of the other plus points of Apple’s HRM strategies. “Unfairness in promotions and overall treatment is a common complaint in Apple Company” (Qumer, 2009, p.15). Prejudices and biases motivate Apple managers while they decide promotions to the employees. Middle level managers are accused of behaving like dictators in Apple Company. “Because of the absence of well-structured system, and over work load of Steve, the VP’s became more powerful and they work in a totalitarian manner (Qumer, 2009, p.14). Apple’s business strategies are revolving around the abilities of its charismatic leader Steve Jobs. Because of over workload, Steve is unable to concentrate on HRM in Apple Company and the managers exploit such situations to function in an autocratic manner. Many of the Apple employees have the complaint that Apple gives less importance to work- life balancing of the employees. Apple always asks its employees to work in longer shifts and it gives less importance to the personal lives of its employees. Another drawback of Apple’s HRM strategy is the lack of faith Apple shown towards its employees. For example, even the employees of Apple know nothing about the future products of the company. Technology Management in Apple As stated earlier, Apple is the number one company in the world as far as technological excellence is concerned. It should be noted that Apple is the first company which introduced the touchscreen mobile phones in the market. While most of the competitors concentrate on the development of traditional mobile phones, Apple thought differently and introduced its revolutionary product iPhone in the market at the beginning of the twenty first century. Even though Microsoft was the first company which introduced tablet PC’s in the market a decade before, untimely introduction of that product caused failure in the market. At the same time, Apple introduced iPad in recent times and this product is now moving much more rapidly than anticipated. In other words, Apple reads the technological requirements of the market better than anybody else. Apple develops its new products in a secret environment. It never reveals anything about the new products even to its employees. Only the people, who are responsible for developing the new products, know the details of the future products. For example, Apple is currently developing iPad 3 and iPhone 5 and nobody knows much about the features Apple going to incorporate to these products. In other words, Apple keeps high level of secrecy in its technology management. It knows very well that the competitors are waiting for the opportunities to attack Apple from all possible corners and therefore it reveals nothing even to its employees. References 1. Qumer S.M, (2009), Apple Inc’s corporate culture: The good, the bad and the ugly, ICMR Center for Management research, www. Icmrindia.org Read More