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OBHR comparative case study

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Contents
Introduction..................................................................................................................................2
Apple Inc.......................................................................................................................................2
Nokia..............................................................................................................................................3
Employee interaction in Apple Inc..............................................................................................3
Employee interaction in Nokia....................................................................................................5
Apple’s leadership style................................................................................................................5
Nokia’s leadership style................................................................................................................6
Organizational structure for both companies.............................................................................6
Recommendations.........................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................7
References.....................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction

The scientific discussion of how individuals behave inside groups is known as

organizational behavior. People’s choices and sources of power, skills, and competences to

address the challenges of contemporary organizations; diagnostic expertise to identify and assess

organizational issues; the link among both improve operational leadership and organizational

goal achievement; main difficulties in institutional arrangements, diverse situations, and

societies; groundwork for further investigation of Organizational Behavior and Human

Resources concepts. The ideas of organizational behavior research are generally used to improve

the efficiency with which firms run. To understand the fundamental elements that led to Apple's

success and Nokia's downfall, a comparison of both parties is required to learn from Nokia's

strategic mistakes to Apple's inventive success. The comparative research will identify and

assess the organizational structure and culture of both firms, as well as the leadership style and

how their leadership styles and culture influenced Apple's ascent and led to Nokia's decline.

Apple Inc.

This success as a technological business may be attributed largely to Apple's unique

organizational structure. Due to Steve Jobs and Tim Cook's two-term reigns as CEO, the

company's internal structures have been reshaped, resulting in new chances for growth and

product innovation (Apple). An organization's hierarchical structure gives top-level executives

who are in charge of certain tasks and objectives. The extent of the company's operations is

mostly out of the hands of the company's employees.

Since its founding, Apple Inc.'s corporate hierarchies have mostly followed the classic

hierarchical structure, with power flowing from established upper hierarchies to those with less

or less authority. Following the retirement of Steve Jobs, Tim Cook was appointed as Apple's
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new CEO, which led to a rethinking of the company's governance style and infrastructure to

adapt to the ever-changing requirements of the consumers and industry (Tien et al. 2019). To

preserve its position as the dominant player in the IT sector, Apple focuses on honing its talents.

Nokia

In 2002, Nokia released its first Symbian Series 60 smartphones, making the company a

pioneer in the mobile phone industry. During the following several years, Symbian phones have

struggled to retain their position as the market leader in smartphones. Until 2011, they didn't

switch to Windows phones. They're now paying the price for their sluggish reaction. In the

words of Wayne Lam, Apple, on the other hand, debuted the iPhone in 2007 (Pohtola et al.,

2017). The iPhone redefined the term "smartphone" with its widescreen and app-based system

software.

On the other hand, Nokia has failed to keep pace with the iPhone and the resulting shift in

customer expectations. Compared to iOS and later Android, the Symbian operating system has

become old. Smartphone sales are surging as more people abandon their "feature" phones with

clunky WAP browsers favouring mini-PCs.

Employee interaction in Apple Inc

Apple's launching of the iPhone demonstrated the potential of mobile devices to the

industry. Now that we benefit from hindsight, Nokia should have responded faster to the iPhone.

Employee motivation, conflict avoidance, and corporate output may all be improved by

maintaining a healthy working relationship with your staff. Employee relations are about

establishing and maintaining long-term ties with the company's workers (Chen et al., 2021).
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Employee relations strategy may be described as "The organization's objective of what should be

altered in how the company handles its interactions with workers and its unions".

The organization's overall business plan informs the company's personnel management

strategy, but the personnel management strategy may also help the overall marketing strategy in

many situations. Employee engagement may be achieved via employee participation and open

communication between staff and the management (Narayan et al., 2018). The establishment of

reciprocity, or a shared interest in achieving the organization's objectives, is another crucial aim

of an employee engagement strategy. Based on a shared set of principles among the company's

workers and upper management.

Having the correct amount of dedication is just as important as keeping good connections

with your staff to get the best out of them. Employee engagement measures an employee's level

of commitment to their employer, the culture of the workplace, their professional function, and

their interpersonal interactions with coworkers. Having a strong sense of loyalty to the business

you work for may have a beneficial or bad influence on the desire of workers to put in the effort,

utilize their ingenuity, and assist the firm in accomplishing its objectives. In the long run,

personnel committed to the company's objectives (financial and non-financial) are more likely to

succeed. More than three-quarters of a million workers have been let off from their jobs in the

last year alone. As a result of adequate employee engagement, the business's objectives and

values will continue to be achieved. The workers will be encouraged to contribute to the

organization's success, and they will be able to enhance their wellness wisdom (Paam et al.,

2019). Engaged employees participate in role-plays and other forms of physical, cognitive, and

emotional expression to show their devotion to their jobs inside the company.
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Employee interaction in Nokia

Many people think of marketing and public relations when they think about internal

communication in the workplace. These immediate spring to mind include press announcements,

email campaigns, and blogs. Internal communication is very important in big firms. The dynamic

of employee connections and the company's prosperity depends on these internal interactions.

Since the days of basic emails and newsletters for employees, there has been a substantial

increase in internal communication (Luomalahti,2019). The use of online communication,

support forums, and intranets has become commonplace in most businesses, providing a new

means for departments, locations, and firms to communicate with one another. In addition to

creating a platform for people to "talk," social media usage for internal communication leads to a

greater employee retention rate, excited workers, and the development of brand ambassadors.

Apple’s leadership style

When Steve Jobs was CEO of Apple, the company's leadership style was Autocratic.

However, when Tim Cook became CEO, it radically altered. This characterizes his leadership

style: For example, under the Democracy Effective leadership, the CEO is not directly involved

in the introduction of a new product, but rather, the top management and other members of the

team are involved (Clarke, Tet al. 2018). The correct leadership style is known as "silent

leadership," and Tim Cook is well-known for this. He had a major impact on the industry when

Steve Jobs was still alive, but Tim Cook has continued to focus on only three product categories.

Nokia’s leadership style

Their leadership style is based on the following five factors: They are transparent and

upfront, direct, and operate transparently. They place a high value on being a part of this
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discussion and are open to new ideas. People have a higher sense of purpose for them. They have

a healthy regard for each other's will to win (Lindén, 2021). It's a worldwide phenomenon, too.

Organizational structure for both companies

We must remember that leadership and management are unique in the real world, but

they are the same in the abstract, and this is what we mean when we say that management and

leadership are distinct. Because the boss believes so strongly in these structures, these two

criteria are particularly important at these two shops (Routa, 2020).

Every time I look at Apple's HR strategy, I see a varied and competent employee who

doesn't require a lot of supervision. According to Apple's different practices, the company plays

a vital role in 95% of the quality functions vital for business success. Apple recognizes the value

of full-time employment and has created a complete set of self-awareness programs for its

corporate employees that exemplify the firm's commitment to becoming the finest technological

company globally by facilitating innovative ideas (Ornston,2018). The training was provided to

most Apple workers upon their arrival at the business. There is no spending strategy in place that

motivates your personnel to do better than their peers. Self-employment and consciousness skills

developed by Apple workers are often valuable assets to the firm. When it comes to recruiting

top talent, task assistants say that agility is among the key things that matter. Prepare yourself not

just physically but intellectually as well, since you'll be hopping from one huge assignment to the

next very quickly. Every team member competes to come up with a new and useful invention

that will allow them to be more self-sufficient.

A thorough examination of Nokia reveals that the corporation has a poor organizational

culture, which has an impact on its operations. Due to the present flat organizational structure,
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the said organizational culture reveals itself in the poor inclusivity of employees in decision-

making processes. As a result, people feel undesired and unwelcome in the workplace,

discouraging them and contributing to their poor performance. Nokia's defined culture is

exemplified by the low inclusion of women and people of color among their workforce. In 2019,

Nokia had 27 percent and 22 percent persons of color and female employees, respectively,

compared to 73 percent and 78 percent white and male employees, according to the company's

2002 People and Planet Report. Nokia's non-compliance with labor standards is another factor

that reveals the company's terrible organizational culture. As a result, there are large pay

discrepancies in the organization, which disproportionately affects the vulnerable.

Recommendations

One of the most critical parts of any business seeking to enhance itself and its employees

is effective human resource management (HRM). The use of high-quality human resources has

become more important for businesses in today's highly competitive market. To be successful,

firms must have well-defined human resource plans based on their internal strengths and

limitations to reap the benefits of resources and capabilities and prevent dangers. Planning for

future staff needs is the most crucial duty of a company's personnel office. Nokia reorganized its

human resources and strategic planning functions entirely. In the context of overall corporate

strategy, successful strategic management refers to making staffing plans and relationships with

coworkers and the firm and resource strategy. Lastly, there is the Human Resources strategy.

Conclusion

To be competitive and profitable, according to the OBHR study, it is required and crucial

to be an effective manager for your firm, which suggests that you must learn a bunch about
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management and everybody linked to that like apple and strive not to compromise your position

in the marketplace like Nokia.

References

Chen, B., Lu, W., & Wang, S. (2021). The Valuation and Analysis of Apple Inc. BCP Business

& Management, 13, 72-75.

Clarke, T., & Boersma, M. (2018). Apple, the $1 trillion company searching for its soul. The

Conversation.

Lindén, C. G. (2021). Kingdom of Nokia: How a Nation Served the Needs of One Company.

Luomalahti, L. (2019). LEADING MULTICULTURAL TEAM IN A FINNISH COMPANY–

NOKIA (Doctoral dissertation, University of Oulu).

Narayan, S., & Ramu, D. (2018). A STUDY ON THE ORGANIZATION CULTURE OF

APPLE COMPANY. International Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, 120(5),

3797-3808.

Ornston, D. (2018). When Flagships Falter: Comparing BlackBerry and Nokia. Presentation at

the CDO Annual Meeting. Vancouver.

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Paam, P., Berretta, R., Heydar, M., & García-Flores, R. (2019). The impact of inventory

management on economic and environmental sustainability in the apple

industry. Computers and Electronics in Agriculture, 163, 104848.

Pohtola, H., Silvonen, E., & Bottoms, I. (2017). Cradle to Cradle Nokia. COOLEST STUDENT

PAPERS AT FINLAND FUTURES RESEARCH CENTRE 2016–2017, 66.

Routa, A. (2020). Experiencing Nokia: exploring the narratives of the former employees.

Tien, N. H., Van Dat, N., & Chi, D. T. P. (2019). Product policy in international marketing

comparative analysis between Samsung and Apple. International Journal of Research in

Marketing Management and Sales, 1(2), 129-133.