THE RISING INFLUENCE OF STATE LEADERSHIP ON BUSINESS LEADERSHIP

(A Case Study of Tim Cook through the Lens of Apple’s Factory Workers)

Michael Ogah

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Executive Summary

One of the unintended consequences of globalization is the multi-polarization of views

pertaining to the interdependency between state politics and business. Because business

internalization requires compliance with state policies, some business leaders make

concessions contradictory to the values and beliefs of their company. With expanding global

concerns in relation to forced labour, environmental pollution, and gender inequality,

circumventing human rights challenges poses a huge problem for business leaders looking to

maintain cohesive government relations. The dilemma becomes: should business leaders

dismiss ethics in favour of company profitability? Using Apple CEO Tim Cook as a case

study, this paper seeks to address this question elaborating on the disastrous effect of Cook’s

produce or perish leadership style in certain cultures.

Introduction

In 1976, when school dropouts Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak coined the famous Apple

insignia, they likely had not envisaged that their “user-friendly” vision would rely heavily on

a capitalist framework that exploits its workers in certain parts of the globe. They after all had

created the Apple masterpiece in a garage, with limited resources (Congress, 2022).

Apple’s steep decline in its market share value by the 90’s, however, precipitated its sojourn

into strategic thinking about global market expansion. Around this time was when Steve Jobs,

who at the time had been ousted, was brought back to salvage what was left of the company.

While it is difficult to say when Apple’s leadership style became one that prioritizes profit

over the wellbeing of its employees, one can infer that Jobs alliance with Microsoft to invent

the Apple office software was a defining moment that marred its’ image from an ethical

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standpoint as its partner, Microsoft, had been accused of being one of the leading perpetrators

of child labour abuse (Anthony, 2016).

Jobs’ death in 2011 meant his successor, Tim Cook, was to be appointed CEO (Tripp Mickle,

2022). Although the nature of change under Cook’s leadership was vastly different from that

of his predecessor—Jobs was intuitive whereas Cook is pragmatic—it is easy to understand

why Jobs elected him. Cook’s problem-solving approach hinges on cost-cutting, logistics

fixing, and inventory control (Tripp Mickle, 2022). Achieving these objectives means Cook,

over the years, has had to resort to forging strong political ties. Cook’s dogged desire to

minimise cost and maximise profit at any cost has raised some serious concerns; like

contravening Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct rule, which states that dignity and respect

must be accorded to its workers (Apple, Apple Supplier Code of Conduct, 2022).

Cook’s Coercive Change Strategy a Reflection of His Political Affiliation

Although Cook claims that Apple pays zero dollars to fund political candidates (Stangel,

2019), his ties with Donald Trump and Xi Jiping could be interpreted as an endorsement of

their political stance and could also be having an adverse effect on his leadership style.

Former President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, experienced a political

tenure muddled in scandals and human rights violations. According to Jaia Clingham-David,

“Trump banned citizens of Muslim countries from seeking asylum in the United States,

violating Article 14 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that a person

may seek asylum in any country” (Clingham-David, 2020). Amidst a myriad of other

violations like separating 4,300 children from their migrant families, stifling funds for

hospitals that support abortion, and refusing to take on the Obama-era housing project set up

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to help struggling black families seeking to find homes, Trump also stamped his seal of

approval for foreign leaders with oppressive regimes, like Prime Minister of India, Narendra

Modi, who has had allegations levelled against him for discrimination against Muslims, and

North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, who has been accused of running a police state (Maya Salam,

2018). China’s Xi Jiping has a regime no different from his American counterpart; with

random detentions and restrictions on freedom of speech (International, 2022). Although it is

easy to assume that Cook’s socio-political affiliations with Trump and Jiping are more

rudimentary than advanced, Cook calling Trump to wish him congratulations after his

electoral win in 2016 despite supporting Hilary Clinton, attending Trump’s family dinners,

and joining the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board and The White House Office of

Innovation chaired by Trumps daughter, Ivanka, leads one to assume that his elite affiliation

with Trump borders on mentorship (CNBC, 2019). In China, Cook limiting the Airdrop

feature in its mobile devices in the midst of a Chinese protest (possibly to reduce information

sharing), suggests that Cook’s ties with Jiping have gravely influenced his business (Steven

Jiang, 2022). It is also possible to infer, based on the beneficial trade relations Cook has with

China, that the reason Apple breached its privacy policy by handing over its Chinese iCloud

to the Chinese government (Lakshmanan, 2021), is because Jiping has built an Iphone city

with billions of incentives for Apple (Barboza, 2016).

Even though Cook has denied any form of child labour in his supply chain, a report showed

that the Uyghur villagers, an ethnic minority in China, are captured and forced to work in

Apple manufacturing plants under inhumane conditions (Ma, 2021); this is in light of

increasing demand for Apple products (Curry, 2022). It is therefore possible to assume that

Tim Cook’s coercive change strategy adopted to meet up with increase in demand for Apple

products, in the eyes of his factory workers, is dictatorial transformation, as the situation

requires radical adjustments due to time constraints (Ishitani, 2015). Evidence suggesting

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dictatorial transformation at play can be linked to an article published by Newsweekly, where

Apple’s manufacturer was found to breach major labour laws by falsifying the length of time

its factory workers worked, having underage workers within the age of 14 and 15, and

harassing employees. The events have led many of its factory employees to commit suicide

(Murdock, 2018) while Apple’s market share value has continued to topple previous

milestones, with a 5-year cumulative return on investments standing at about 266.5%

(Finbox, 2022).

It is easy to dismiss the assertion that Tim Cook’s leadership style borders on dictatorial

transformation, especially because a myriad of online articles speak to his transformative

leadership qualities, but even Apple Together, a group of Apple Employees, while addressing

Cook via a letter, spoke about how they were being forced to return to a hybrid system of

working despite being employed under the guise of smart people who are allowed the

flexibility to do what is in the best interest of the company. It was reported in that letter they

were told they could be allowed to work remotely if they had genuine reasons, and yet, across

all the departments of Apple, their requests were denied (Coulter, 2022).

Unmasking Cook’s Virtue Signalling and Violent Innocence

Virtue Signalling, according to Karen Stollznow, is an expression used to hold individuals or

organizations accountable for espousing moral views for the sake of appearing righteous in

public (Stollznow, 2020), while Violent Innocence is the act of projecting one’s violent

behaviour onto others for the purpose of harming them (Russ Vince, 2014).Three years after

it was reported that Suyin Electronics, an Apple Supplier in China, had been engaging in

child labour, Apple continued to do business with them, even though Cook had assured the

public the revelation marked the end of their business relations (Sonnemaker, 2020).

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During a meeting with Congress in 2020, Cook, after being confronted with allegations

relating to his suspension of parental control app OurPact and Kids Lock from the App Store,

said, “Due to privacy concerns for children, we had to remove those apps from the app

store, especially because those apps utilized a harmful technology called MDM, which

enables third party access to screens.” Congress, however, went further to refute Tim’s claim

that those apps were removed due to privacy concerns, citing a parent who had complained

about the removal of those apps only to be marketed Apple’s Screen Time, and stating that

the rival PC apps were only reinstated six months after Screen Time had gained competitive

marketing advantage (Highlights, 2020). There is no denying that Cook’s eloquence and

poise makes it easy to gloss over his virtue signalling (“privacy concerns for children”) and

violent innocence (“those apps utilized a harmful technology, MDM”). Further investigation

by OurPact, however, shows that the Apple Screen Time actually makes use of MDM, and in

fact Apple is responsible for dispersing all MDM commands to the devices of its users

(Apple, 2022).

One can make the case that Apple’s multidivisional structure means Cook cannot be held

responsible for the failings of his supply chain, but according to Joel M. Podolny and Morten

T. Hansen of Apple University, “CEO Tim Cook holds the only seat in the company with

access to information on all departments” (Joel M. Podolny, 2020).

Apple’s Cultural Dilemma within National Cultures

Hofstede’s six dimensions of culture suggests that in order for leaders to adequately

circumvent the intricacies of local cultures, fine-tuning company products and services in line

with the unique qualities of feminine and masculine cultures, high power distance and low

power distance cultures, individualistic and collective cultures, high certainty avoidant and

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low certainty avoidant cultures, long and short-term cultures, and indulgent and restrained

cultures is the right course of action (Harvey, 2020). Tasked with the responsibility to

develop strategies that would aid Apple’s market expansion, Cook has managed to develop a

global cultural framework that borders on three distinct qualities managers and employees

must possess: deep expertise, immersion in the details, and willingness to collaboratively

debate (Joel M. Podolny, 2020). How and in what context these core values apply in the

internalization process will now be analysed using Hofstede’s six dimensions of culture.

1. Power Distance (High or Low): This refers to the extent to which some cultures

regard hierarchy and other cultures do not. For countries high on power distance, the

hierarchical gap between superiors and subordinates is wide. Evidence of high power

distance can be seen in Apple’s Chinese suppliers, Foxconn, where subordinates work

insane hours, without sick or holiday pay (Condliff, 2018); for such countries

leadership is executed by ensuring subordinates stick to standardization practices and

supervision is high. For countries low on power distance, like America, supervision is

less and subordinates and superiors have collaborative debates (Joel M. Podolny, How

Apple Is Organized for Innovation, 2020).

2. Individualism/Collectivism: This refers to the extent to which some cultures promote

individual achievements and other cultures promote collective achievement. Because

Czech Republic, for example, is high on individualism according to Hofstede (Jiri

Cenek, 2020), Apple’s factory workers there are likely to be more competitive while

striving towards individual recognition. Apple in collectivist cultures like China

ensures employees work together to achieve a common goal; its leaders work with

subordinates to ensure the objectives are attained.

3. Masculinity and Femininity: This refers to the extent to which some countries regard

masculine traits like competitiveness and assertiveness and other countries regard

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 feminine traits like the act of nurturing. According to The Daily Mail, although Apple

has seen a rise in its female workforce over the years, in 2022 65.2% of its workforce

is male and 34.8% is female (Coulter, 2022). It is safe to assume that an Apple office

in feministic cultures like Sweden is likely to have more male to female balance as

compared to a masculine culture like America. How subordinates respond to

leadership on both spectrums depends heavily on the gender of the leader.

4. Uncertainty Avoidance: This refers to the level of a culture’s response to

unpredictability. Some cultures are averse to uncertainty and others aren’t. China, for

example, ensured that Apple limit its Airdop functions in order to curb protests weeks

before protests began (Weatherbed, 2022). Malaysia, on the other hand, is low on

uncertainty avoidance; deviating from the norm is more easily tolerated (Insight,

2020). It is safe to assume that Apple’s leaders in Malaysia are afforded the laxity to

make errors compared to China.

5. Long Term Cultures vs. Short Term Cultures: Long-term cultures are pragmatic and

weigh the impact of present decisions on future outcomes, whereas short-term

cultures live in the here and now. Apple practices long-term culture strategy across all

of its localities, with a special regard for highly educated individuals who innovate

with the intention to solve future problems. According to Harvard Business Review,

Apple’s VP of Applications practises a discretionary leadership style that inculcates

learning parts of news, voice memos and weather; teaching keynotes, pages and

numbers; delegating iMovie, Final Cut Pro, and GarageBand, and owning UI design,

software architecture, and parts of news (Joel M. Podolny, How Apple is Organized

for Innovation, 2020).

6. Indulgence vs. Restraint: Indulgent cultures embrace the pursuit of success for self-

gratification, whereas restrained cultures, governed by laws and customs, encourage

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 delayed gratification. America is a typical example of an indulgent culture, and as a

result Apple employees in America are encouraged to innovate for the price of

recognition and reward. On the other hand, restrained cultures like China are

encouraged to delay gratification in pursuit of collective reward and meaning.

The Negative Impact of Cook’s Outsourcing Strategy

The resultant effect of Cook’s cost-cutting model is the outsourcing of labour to countries

that provide a fraction of the cost it would have taken to produce locally. While the model

works to increase profit, the unintended consequence can be debilitating.

a. Inadequate Local Jobs: According to Adam Hayes, the outsourcing model has led to

the mummification of most American towns, with a lot of companies resorting to

India and China for cheap labour (Hayes, 2021).

b. Insecurity among Employees: Displeased Apple Staff writing to Tim Cook hinted at

fear of the possibility of being replaced in a letter addressing the need to work

remotely and not in a hybrid fashion (Coulter, 2022).

c. Environmental Pollution: The clustering of production in cheap labour-producing

countries has raised Co2 emission concerns. China, an outsource destination for

Apple, is finding ways to diffuse manufacturing by outsourcing some of its delegated

responsibilities to other countries (Hayes, 2021).

d. Underdevelopment: The influx of outsourced manufacturing into a country can mean

the abandonment of state-grown jobs, which could have bad consequences for

national economic development (Hayes, 2021).

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Cook’s Futuristic Façade

According to Cook there is vibrant competition within Apple’s App Store (Perez, 2020), but

the growing number of apps censored by Apple for disseminating information against corrupt

governments makes Cook’s claim on free market and healthy competition questionable. For

example, during the pandemic file-sharing network Lbry claimed Apple had issued a warning

that they filter anything related to COVID-19 otherwise risk being banned from its App Store

(Katte, 2022), and in a recent claim by Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, Apple also threatened to ban

Twitter from its App Store without a reason (Milmo, 2022). Cook’s online policing is a

fundamental flaw in his leadership style. It is therefore difficult to subscribe to his idea of a

utopian market.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Depending on whom you ask Tim Cook’s leadership style varies. To the factory worker in

Foxconn Cook could be regarded as a produce-or-perish leader, and to the white-collar Apple

employee he could be regarded as a transformational leader. However, leadership is hardly

ever seen through the lens of the under dogs; perhaps it is about time that it is. The next

generation of leaders should be able to thread the needle of global politics in a way that not

only benefits the elites but the masses as well. In order to do that, an acute understanding of

cultural differences and world politics is essential. That is the only way leaders can ever stay

true to the ethics they preach.

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