Organizational Behavior: Apple Inc.

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Contents
1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................1

2. Company background...............................................................................................................1

3. Analysis of Organisational Behaviour.....................................................................................2

3.1. HR Excellence...................................................................................................................2

3.2. Creativity...........................................................................................................................2

3.3. Secrecy..............................................................................................................................3

3.4. Innovation.........................................................................................................................3

3.5. Moderate Combativeness..................................................................................................3

4. Apple’s Organizational Behavior; Advantages, Disadvantages, Recommendations...............4

4.1. Advantages and Benefits...................................................................................................4

4.2. Drawbacks and Weaknesses.............................................................................................4

4.3. Recommendation..............................................................................................................5

5. Conclusion................................................................................................................................5

1. Introduction 
Since the establishment of the industrial revolution in the 1760s, it had been clear that most

business entities find either success or failure through their organizational behavior as part of a

company’s fabric. Nevertheless, since the turn of the century, the significance of organizational

behavior theories has been augmented considering the effects of globalization on the world’s

developed as well as developing economies as presented by Miner’s Theory of Organizational

Culture and Leadership. Companies such as Kodak and Motorola have served as examples of

how organizational behavior has been detrimental an aspect that is direct. However, there is

limited information on how a company can integrate its well-established values, principles, and

policies in a manner that evokes success in today’s volatile global economy an aspect that is at

the center of this manuscript’s discussion which uses Apple Inc. as a case study. 

2. Company background 

Apple Inc. was founded back in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne, as well as Steve Wozniak as

circuit board assembly entity during a time when the computer was considered a tool for major

businesses and not the home. Currently, Apple's ecosystem is made up of various computerized

products such as the iPhone, iPad, Mac, wearable, as well as smart home devices. Under the

leadership of former founder and CEO Steve Jobs, Apple grew to become one of the world’s

leading brands. For instance, as of the second quarter of 2021, Apple was ranked as the sole

market leader, a position that was principally driven by the successful launch as well as the

release of the iPhone 12 (Statista (a), 2021, p.np). Additionally, In the first quarter of 2021,

Apple had an estimated 8.2% share market in the global PC market, 36.7% of the global tablet

shipments, and about 21% of the emerging smart home platform only behind Amazon's Alexa

and Google home products (Statista (b). 2021, p.np; Statista (c)2021, p.np; Statista (d), 2021,
p.np ). This success in large market share in different product categories amounted to an

estimated net sales of 274.52 billion U.S. dollars in their 2020 financial year, an amount that was

a partial rise from the historical sales of about 260.17 billion U.S. dollars in the previous

financial year. Apple’s yearly revenue from 2011 to 2021 has quadrupled a clear sign of higher

efficiency (Statista (d), 2021, p.np). According to Pooja (2020, p.41), the company’s success can

be attributed to the prevailing cooperate culture practices that are part of its organizational

behavior fabric. As of the 2020 financial year, Apple was estimated to have 147 thousand full-

time employed staff operating in over 500 stores across the world. 

3. Analysis of Apple’s Organizational Behavior 

Apples Inc. is guided by its quest to being the leader in creative invocation while challenging

traditional corporate conventions as well as standards. As indicated by Sharma and Grant (2017,

p.26) Apple’s organizational behaviors depend on cultural support as well as coherence led by

HR excellence, Creativity, Innovation, Secrecy, and Moderate combativeness.

3.1. HR Excellence

One of the basic ways of making sure that the individuals in an organization work towards its

goals and adhere to its beliefs and values is by hiring highly qualified personnel. Since its

establishment as a corporate entity, Apple Inc. has endeavored to hire employees who not only

meet surpass HR expectations considering that such characters are driven by the company’s

success which they view as their triumph (Trivedi, 2019, p.19). Over the years the company has

adapted the HR strategy of outsourcing to get the best personnel across the world to integrate its

global objectives with the company’s policy of delivering the best product in various product

catalogs. In essence, the recruitment of top employees is used as a strategy to maintain a higher

competitive advantage over its rivals.    

3.2. Creativity

The digital device industry is also known as the tech industry is significantly volatile as it has

numerous market entrants and established competitors who are constantly driven by new

technology in delivering the best as well as affordable products in the market. For instance, while

the major players in the smartphones industry such as Samsung and Apple continue to vie for

higher sales, companies such as Realme, Huawei, and Xiaomi have grown to make this venture

significantly difficult as they offer highly valuable middle as well as market entry-level products

that are highly competitive. According to Statista (a) (2021, p.np) in the second quarter of 2021,

Xiaomi claiming the second position in global unit sales with the launch of the iPhone 12 being

the main reason it did not take first place. With such a threat looming there is increased

importance in favor of the creative abilities among the employees involved in product design and

development processes as well as the knowledge as well as skills of the sales and marketing

teams across the world. According to Chen (2021, p.np), is observable in the company’s

marketing mix strategy that led to the development of the new products; for instance the iPhone

13s, the powerful new iPad mini, and the ninth-generation iPad which were launched on Friday,

September 17, 2021. In this regard, the organizational behavior aids maintain the corporation’s

ability to fulfill clients’ expectations as well as preferences.

3.3. Secrecy

Since its establishment, Apple Inc. has been developed to have an organizational principle of

secrecy considering the technology involved in developing new high-tech computerized devices

that are meant to be differentiated from other rival products. Nevertheless, with the development

of the internet, there have been considerable attempts by technical mechanisms intended to

illegally gain and share new technology to the highest bidder or as a publication to other industry
stakeholders. On March 18th, 2010, the iPhone 4, a smartphone with a completely new design,

combining and improving all technologies from previous iPhone models, ended up on the

internet disassembled and exposed to the company’s rivals as well as customers to judge

(Coccia, M., 2018, p.437). According to Bigliardi, Ferraro, Filippelli, and Galati (2021, p.32),

the iPhone 4 saga is one of the numerous other incidences of the violation of intellectual property

in the tech industry. Currently, Secrecy is used as a policy to reduce the chances of intellectual

property theft an approach that guarantees Apple Inc. to maximize its technological advantage

over competitors. 

3.4. Innovation

Over the last two decades, the digital devices industry has seen the most significant changes in

terms of innovation particularly in the smart devices department. A study by Vecchiato (2017.

P.168) about the downfall of tech giants such as Motorola, Nokia, and Kodak highlighted the

significance of developing and adapting to new technologies particularly in the digital age; for

Apple Inc., this phenomenon is one of the principles that describe the organization’s behavior.

As explained by Shah (2020, p,73), innovation allows Apple Inc. to train as well as motivate its

staff member's work performance as well as contribute to the product development procedures.

The organizational characteristics the establishment to helps swiftly adapt to challenging

industrial demands, a strategy that is not only appealing to the consumers as they can experience

the best the tech world has to offer but also maintain high profitability in a volatile environment. 

3.5. Moderate Combativeness

Apple’s former CEO and founder Steve Jobs was known as a combative leader who constantly

wanted to challenge the company’s employees particularly when it came to actualizing the

company projects from the drawing board to actuality. According to a study by Luca (2017,
p.27) the second stint of Steve Jobs management at Apple Inc. in 1997, he made it clear that the

company was performing poorly because of the company's products at the time. His explanation

of his premise made most employees buy into his idea and challenged them to develop exciting

products a challenge that led to the development of the iPod in 2001, iPhone in 2007, and iPad in

2010 (Luca, 2017, p.28). Although this was seen in the recent past, Steve Jobs's ideology in

having a PC in every house back in the early 1980s is what seen throughout his leadership of the

company. Today the company operates in a nearly similar behavior although as explained less

combative as it were under Steve Jobs; however, all employees are driven to develop a new or

improved version of the company’s product catalog as it keeps the company competitive in a

highly volatile market. 

Every year the iPhone and iPad are innovated thus becoming better than any version in the

market; nevertheless, this is done uniquely. For instance, the iPhone is currently made in four

variants basic model, the mini model which is an entry-level product, pro model which is a

middle-market level product and pro-max which is high end. Each product has a different team

working on them to develop the best product in the market an aspect that can be traced in the

company’s traditions since initiation (Chen, 2021, p.np). 

4. Apple’s Organizational Behavior; Advantages, Disadvantages, Recommendations

The information provided shows how Apple Inc.'s organizational values, philosophy, beliefs, as

well as related behaviors among employees from top management to subordinates have led to the

company’s success over the years despite various globalization challenges. Nevertheless, it

should be noted the adaptation of these organizational behaviors have different connotations that

are beneficial and detrimental 

4.1. Advantages and Benefits 

Apple’s guiding philosophies of hiring the best staff members, creativity, as well as innovation

are credited with the company’s rise to an industry leadership position. According to Statista (a),

2021, p.np) the launch and release of the iPhone 12 and iPad mini in 2021 was the primary

reason the company remained at the top of the rankings when it came to global unit shipments.

Each of the products boasted technological marvels such as the A15 Bionic chip which remains

the most powerful and efficient in the smartphone industry as it is made up of 15 billion

transistors that deliver new graphics as well as AI abilities second to none when analyzing rival

products (Chen, 2021, p.np). These cultural or organizational characteristics have driven Apple

as well as its human resources to the top of industry ahead of all competitors. It enables success

in addition to developing a competitive edge that continues to strengthen the company’s brand,

which is an outstanding strength, is shown in the company’s SWOT analysis (Shah, 2020, p.75).

In summary, employee creativity and superiority are significant in the firm’s swift innovation

policies for constant competitiveness as well as business development.

4.2. Drawbacks and Weaknesses

On the other hand, Apple’s guiding principles of secrecy, as well as moderate levels of

combativeness, are known to pit team members against each other in a quest to outdo each other

an aspect that has been identified as detrimental at times. As explained by Coccia (2018, p.439),

secrecy traditionally has a negative influence among employees; additionally, combativeness has

the potential to reduce employee morale. In the case of Apple Inc., the success of the iPhone 12

pro-max was not shared with the team that developed the iPhone 12 mini considering that each

product is established separately and at times pitted against each other in terms of unit turnovers.

This is proved by the fact that although each of the iPhone products is marketed to be powered
by the A15 Bionic chip the iPhone mini has a configuration that is less powerful thus limiting the

team on the features they can design as compared to the ones in the iPhone 12 pro-max which

has the premium chip (Chen, 2021, p.np).   

4.3. Recommendation 

Over the years, various business studies researchers have developed theories that can be used to

influence organizational behavior to affect higher productivity. In the case of Apple Inc.,

Lewin’s three style leadership models and The Human Relations Behavioral Theory can be used

to reduce but not necessarily remove combativeness as it instigates competitiveness as well as

improve relations when it comes to secrecy.  

Lewin’s three style leadership models premise dictates that there are three types of leadership

styles namely Autocratic, Participative, and Delegative. Steve Jobs was described as an

autocratic leader who was somewhat authoritarian particularly after 1997 during his second

tenure as the company CEO (Luca, 2017, p. 28). As presented by Derecskei (2016, p.105), such

a leader is known to make a majority if not all the essential decisions in the company from the

managers to the subordinates. In the case of Apple Inc., Steve Jobs led by setting the goals as

well as targets with limited participation through creativity and innovation by using this

leadership style. However, in adopting an autocratic leadership role he brought about a

combative culture that if not well managed does bring disharmony within the company. On the

other hand, moving forward it would be advisable for Tim Cook to adapt to a participative style

which as described as (Crosby, G., 2021, p.401), is a more diplomatic approach leading to the

inclusion of staff members in setting organizational objectives and targets leading to higher

autonomy thus higher productivity. According to the Human Relations Behavioral Premise when

employees feel that they are empowered as well as valued by their entity, they tend to adapt to
higher efficiencies. When secrecy is reduced within the company; however, maintained at a level

that does protect the company from IP leaks. A study by Raja and Johns (2010, p.981) that

focused on observing employee productivity in a variety of circumstances showed that when

organizations are well informed about the company’s activities they highlight a higher level of

satisfaction thus higher productivity.      

5. Conclusion 

The concept of organizational behavior has been discussed for antiquity; however, since the turn

of the century, this concept has been at the center of success or failure. Apple Inc. is a market

leader in the digital industry and over time the company has been improving despite the

challenges of globalization because of the company’s organizational behavior that includes

concepts such as HR excellence, creativity, innovation, secrecy, and moderate combativeness.

These concepts have been present since the company was established over four decades ago;

however, the principles continue to allow the company to develop new products as well as

establish a competitive edge over its rivals. However, the secrecy and combative concepts have

been questioned as they may reduce employee satisfaction. In summation, the company has been

on a positive trajectory for over two decades, and to maintain this projection there is a need to

adopt a diplomatic leadership style and not the traditional authoritarian. Additionally, the staff

ought to be given some autonomy in developing organizational goals and objectives leading to

higher productivity.    
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