Keller Graduate School of Management

HR587 Managing Organization Change

Course Project Draft -

Prepared By:

Preferred Organization:
Apple Inc. - Organization Culture and Change

Introduction/Organization:
In this draft, we would like to discuss about Apple Inc.’s organization culture and major organization change happened in the organization and analysis of a successful organization change. Every organization has a culture of its own. And every organization undergoes organization change depending on the situation, change process is implemented by the organization for the benefits of employees, or change process may be implemented to satisfy customers or for the organization growth. The Apple Inc. story starts in 1976 with the birth of a company called Apple Computer around the creation of a system called the ‘Apple 1’ by Steven Wozniak and Steven Jobs. Apple Inc. went through a variety of dramatic changes to the company’s structure along with its performance and losses remained a continuing consistency. This project, we will discuss about organization change in Apple Inc., i.e. Restructuring of Apple Inc., implementing new technologies and shifting strategy. We believe this organization is a perfect example of undergoing major organizational change and it was a company where it started from nothing to become one of the top companies in computer and technological world. In near future we can only see rapid reaction of Apple Inc.’s growing tremendously.
Approach:
In this section we will discuss organizational culture and performance of Apple Inc. From the sleek design of it’s personal computers to the clever intuitiveness of its software to the ubiquity of the iPod to the genius of the iPhone. Apple has built its management system so that it's optimized to create distinctive products. Although technology can be duplicated, structure and culture develop over time, making them hard to imitate. Organizational effectiveness should be measured according to a manager’s methods of control, innovation, and efficiency. An organization must select the best way to achieve goals. Organizations are affected by the environment, technology, and processes. The technological environment entails innovations in production processes and new products. Apple's method for innovation can be understood as a specific set of management practices and organizational structures.
Good organizational design offers a competitive advantage. Competitive advantage emerges from core competencies, value creating skills, and abilities. Apple maintains an introspective, self-contained operating style that is capable of confounding competitors and shaking up entire industries. Apple’s culture has codified a habit that is good for any company to have but is especially valuable for firms that make physical things: Stop, step back from your product, and take a closer look. Over time, Apple has built a seasoned management team that’s optimized to support bold new product initiatives. Apple has leveraged their culture of innovation toward product as well as internal processes; they have been able to survive despite incredible competition. Culture is a complex issue that essentially includes all of a group’s shared values, attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, artifacts, and behaviors. The key to using culture to improving performance lies in matching culture or attributes to organizational goals.

Research Plan/Change Strategy:
Apple allows business and leadership restructuring by gaining access to extra distribution channels and sales outlets in the global market. Recognizing and applying processes for direct investments, exploiting research and development for innovation, creating good heights of organization responsibility and through effective change adaptation, Apple audits provision of Supplier Code of Conduct. Here, question creates that- do Apple Inc. readily and successfully change? Influential theories have assumed that organization is relatively malleable, able to adapt when circumstances change and depicted inflexible organizations in which change is difficult and hazardous, distinguishing among changes as adaptive or disruptive for Apple and distinguishing conditions that facilitate or impede change. Apple’s change process can be disruptive and adaptive, and Apple based inertia can increase likelihood of organizational change.
The literature on organizational change has focused on the content of changes: switch to more advantageous configuration is defined as adaptive, while switch to less advantageous configuration is defined as deleterious, Apple may strongly resist change, theories focus on linkages between the organization and the environment: Resistance to change occurs because organization is embedded in institutional and technical structure of Apple environment. Thus, Apple focus on factors internal to the organization, how change is opposed by management team, even when change is advocated by some Apple members, established roles and formal rules are difficult to alter quickly and structural theory offers model of process of organizational change that include internal and external constraints on organizational change, probability of organizational change as organizations exist because they perform with reliability and accountability for certain actions. Reliability and accountability are high when Apple goals are institutionalized and patterns of organizational activity are routinized, but institutionalization and routinization generate strong pressures against organizational change.
In addition, the attempt to broaden and expand structural inertia model in network of Apple interactions to incorporate theories of organizational learning and innovation, result is broader model of change and momentum at Apple. Research themes or issues common to Apple change efforts will be discussed in lieu to content issues focus on substance of contemporary Apple changes, contextual issues, focus on forces or conditions existing in Apple’s external and internal environments, the process issues, which address actions undertaken during the enactment of Apple’s intended change, criterion issues, which deal with outcomes commonly assessed in Apple change efforts. Research dealing with monitoring affective and behavioral reactions to change will be reviewed with literature base.
General observations and suggestions for future research will be offered, Apple’s organizational change literature continues to be responsive to the dynamics of contemporary strategic demands. The level of analysis refers to entities which Apple change poses concepts and society, knowing roles of Apple’s information technology in change, structures can be seen in current theorizing increased awareness of strategic options, open discussion of Apple advantages and disadvantages, characterization of theoretical statements. Presence of improved interconnection and accessible databases are often the basis for deriving strategic advantage at Apple upon finding potential change model applications. The need to realize and discover Apple’s current business changes implying such strategy bases, how Apple Inc. is handling business environment and its management, learn about Apple’s organization assumptions and issues affecting change in the organization. People related change, work based change models for example, Apple eexecutives feed deliberate information into one part so that leak can be traced back to its source, workers on sensitive projects have to pass through layers of security once at their desks or benches, they are monitored by cameras and they must cover up devices with black cloaks and turn on red warning lights when they are uncovered.
References:
http://ivythesis.typepad.com/term_paper_topics/2009/11/organisational-changes-in-apple-inc.html#ixzz1eHtUwKQs http://www.scribd.com/doc/31119712/Organizational-Culture-at-Apple Schermerhorn, J. R., Hunt, J. G., Osborn, R.N., & Uhi-Bien, M. (2010). Organizational Behavior (11th ed.). : John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/Apple-Computer-Inc-Company-History.html