Qualities Of Leadership And Management And The Leadership style used at Apple Inc.

Companies across the world face stiff competition making it extremely necessary to fine-tune consistent qualities of leadership and management. In virtually all occasions, these companies are driven by goals, nature of the market and competitors approach in gaining market dominance. In practice, gaining a competitive advantage is a comprehensive undertaking, especially in a modern society where technological advances have made business operations robust and accessible from every corner of the earth. There are a number of parameters involved in the process of sustaining a competitive edge such as adoption of cost-effective leadership, development of customer-focused culture and introducing the concept of lower prices. Much as these characteristics attributes are important in business operations, studies indicate that leadership and management are extremely critical and as such companies must devote to establish coherent structures of management and leadership.

In the United States of America alone, the competition is so high that companies have been forced to adopt leadership and management approach that is based on evolution and innovations. This implies that the companies have empowered this component of their organizational structures to have the capacity to anticipate and effect precise mechanisms that can mitigate any challenges brought by the changes forthwith. In the US, there is no better company that has established its leadership and management as pragmatic as Apple Inc., the primary focus of this paper.

APPLE INC.

If there is anything that has revolutionized humanity in the recent past, then it is technology, and not just technology but the use of mobile phones and computers. Apple Inc. is a multinational American company that was founded in 1976 for the purpose of enhancing technological innovations. Currently, Apple Inc. is widely known for designing, developing and selling of consumer electronics, computer software, and online services.

Mission

Unlike a majority of companies, Apple`s Inc. mission statement takes rather a traditional approach by simply listing the products and services it provides. However, its mission is based on the statement made by one of the core-founders Steve Jobs; man is the creator of change in this world. As such, he should be above systems and structures, and not subordinate to them. However, the general consensus admits that the mission of Apple Inc. is based on the commitment to bring the best personal computing experiences to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world through its innovative hardware, software and internet offerings (Ortiz, 2017).

Vision

The vision of Apple Inc. incorporates the idea of change through innovations. Ideally, the company prides in making great products and in its vision statement, it actualizes the aspects of continuous change and improvement innovations while focusing on simplicity rather than complexity. In that case, it primarily focuses on the control of primary technology behind the products it makes.

Culture and values

The success of a company is often influenced by its culture and values; implying that if a company has a culture and values that promote growth, then success is imminent. Apple`s Inc. culture is built on pillars which include top-notch excellence, creativity, innovation secrecy, and moderate combativeness. Similarly, the company values are connected to its culture which means that each aspect of the company`s culture must be able to foster its values (Ortiz, 2017). However, the value of self-honesty to admit mistakes and subsequent change is what really drives the company.

Leadership styles and ethical leadership

Apple has had a fair share of controversies when it comes to leadership styles and ethics. Ideally, under the leadership of Steve Jobs, the company was idolized for tremendous growth and ambition to develop innovations. However, observers of the leadership style used at Apple Inc. criticized the approach due to a number of factors. Essentially, leadership at the time in the company was synonymous with autocracy, self-contained and a pressure-driven environment that disregarded morals and ethics as long as the company had registered progress. As a matter of fact, Steve Jobs approach overlooked the law on most occasions. However, Tim Crook entry into the scene of leadership in the company has seen changes that drive towards a more ethical outlook of style and ethics. In fact, he regarded as one of the most successful managers of the current generations (Cairns, 2017).

Conceptually, leadership styles can either create harmony or bring distrust to followers. Apple Inc. understands this more and the current crop of leadership is determined to conduct its mandate within the law. In essence, most leadership styles may ignore the realm of ethics, which is not an option in Apple Inc. The company has established structures that ensure that issues of morals and ethics do not demotivate or act as a hindrance to its growth. Tim Cook acknowledges that companies may struggle in the corporate world when considering aspects of ethics and leadership, especially due to increased competition.

However, for Apple Inc., he considers such a norm in the business world. For him, leadership style should incorporate sacrificing personal agendas to align with genuine corporate strategies, installation of high performance and high ethical standards in an organization. Considerably, the Apple`s Inc. agenda recognizes the role of ethical leadership and how it influences followers or lower ranked employees and for that matter. Some of the values that leadership in the company follow are; honesty, transparency, and trustworthy culture, which it identifies as key in promoting innovations and bolstering morale and protection of increased shareholding value (Warrick, 2017).

Responsible decision making and problem-solving

Part of leadership entails making decisions and owning their consequences, something that leadership at Apple Inc. has demonstrated over the years. One such incidence that attracted significant criticism was in the production of iPhone 4 where the antenna and the material used to cover it gave consumers a lot of problems, a subject that had been raised by the company`s employees before but ignored by the CEO, Steve Jobs. In fact, the company went ahead and produced videos that sort to show that the problem with the antenna was universal with all brands of mobile phones attracting significant backlash and criticism from the public. However, the company`s leadership demonstrated responsibility for decisions made on iPhone 4 premature production. It went ahead to pull down the videos and settled the class-action lawsuit by accepting the problem.

The leadership through its core values of self-honesty and having the capacity to accept changes offered a temporary solution in the form of a bumper case. Thus, it is apparent that Apple Inc. leadership is focused on problem-solving. Under the leadership Cook, thus stakes have even soared higher with the company growing its market share and revenue outcomes exponentially since 2010. The idea behind Apple Inc. leadership is to change through innovations and that has been demonstrated by its leadership by providing solutions as well to problems. Among the key areas that Cook leadership focuses on proving solutions include; promotion of diverse human rights, immigration reforms and access to education.

Employee motivation and performance methods

Primarily leadership in a company is meant to steer development and growth and that cannot be achieved without structures for employee motivation and performance evaluation methods. Leaders are expected to create an all-inclusive working environment that would allow proper implementation of goals and designing of innovative ideas. Primarily employee motivation is important as it enables a company to attract and retain the best talents in the market. Assessing at how Apple`s Inc. management and leadership approach this subject, a clear elaboration of Maslow hierarchy manifests itself. It basically identifies with all the parameters of hierarchy; physiological needs, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization.

Apple`s Inc. employees receive one of the highest salaries in the US, which is meant to meet their needs and keep them motivated. The management has also established a framework that offers employees refreshment breaks during the course of duty and facilities are good for a working environment. There additional rewards in the company`s portfolio for those employees whose work is exceptional based on performance evaluation. Additionally, the company has structures in place that facilitate safety, offers job security, health and life insurance. Practically, working for Apple Inc. provides employees with a lot of advantages perhaps that is the reason the company is scaling the height of technology manifested by improving revenues and growth.

Organization change, communication and conflict management

Communication is an important recipe in conflict resolutions and management in organizations. Apple Inc. has adopted a communication framework through its ranks that ensure all members of the team are given a sense of belonging. Ideally, the concept behind this approach is foster development of the sound relationship between managers and employees. In some instances, managers are encouraged to use `buzz` words in their communications to bridge the gap of seniority (Arocha, 2017). Despite allegedly having a strong mutual relationship with its employees, there are a number of reported incidences conflicts emerging from employees in China, where the majority of Apple products are produced. Allegations are privy that employees are overworked something that has sparked a colossal of suicides among employees. However, in response, the leadership of Apple Inc. has established structures that are the pivots in solving the conflict. The CEO has in numerous occasions’ demonstrated commitment in solving this conflict by the introduction of a proper working environment, improvement of salaries for employees and improving safe working conditions (Fotohabadi & Kelly, 2018). Managing organizational change is one factor that Apple Inc. has incorporated in terms of leadership and management. After the death of Steve Jobs, the company transitioned smoothly through the leadership of Cook, who introduced significant changes in the leadership of the company.

Influencing organizational culture including values, mission, and vision

As stated above, leaders and management play an extremely important role in influencing how organizations values, mission, and vision are implemented. Employees simply follow the lead and thus in cases where leadership ignores then the realm of morals and ethical standards in the implementation of these key company pillars, the entire system is corrupted. Under the leadership of Cook, personal interests are sacrificed, thus Apple Inc. mission, vision, and values are consistent with corporate strategic plan that ensures ethical standards are not compromised.