7023MHR Cross-Management Portfolio Assignment Sample

7023MHR Cross-Management Portfolio Assignment Sample

Introduction

Leadership is referred to the accomplishment of the organisational as well as individual goals with the help of proper directions available with the help of the human assistants. The man who has been able to successfully marshal all of the human collaborators for achieving a particular end is often termed as the leader (Prentice, 2022). A great leader is often the one who can complete their works and accomplish the goals day by day as well as years by years in any given circumstances.

The leader may not have enough powers yet, any harm may not even enter into his works. Most leaders might also not be popular or he might not have enough followers, however, he still manages to lead and also overcome any problems within the businesses (Wang, 2023). Further, the following report will be undertaken based on this topic and which will help in highlighting the leadership approaches and styles on the organisational context of Apple.

The organisation is one of the American multinational technology companies which is headquartered in Cupertino, California. This is believed and also considered to be the largest technological organisation by revenue which adds up to US$394.3 billion as per the statistics of 2022. The founders along with the other leaders and managers within the organisation have been able to stay constant in their goals and have been able to provide right direction to the employees.

It has been one of the significant approaches for which they have been able to become the second-largest mobile manufacturer on a worldwide basis. It has also been one of the innovative organisations which manages to bring innovation in their graphic user interface and fulfil all the requirements of their customers (Wright, 2022).

Leadership and organisational effectiveness

Leadership style of Apple and its effectiveness

Figure: Different approaches to leadership Source: (Prentice, 2022)

Tim Cook was appointed to the role of the CEO at Apple in the year 2011. He had been able to manage and also accomplish the tasks within the business through the help of democratic leadership style and that is in contrast to that of the Job’s autocratic style of leadership. After Cook had taken over in Apple, he had been able to show some of the excellent skills that is required within an entrepreneur (vantagecircle, 2022).

Through cooperation within the talents of Apple, it had been able to encourage consensus building within the employees of high level. Though Cook lacks in producing the market-changing products such as iPod or iPhone, yet he has been running the company in a successful manner and that encourages them to conduct the operational activities in this business process.

Democratic leadership style or quite popularly known to be the participative leadership approach that involves all of the people involved in the process. The leaders following this style are often able to readily accept feedbacks from all of the employees. They are able to ensure that the employees can take active part in the decision-making process (indeed, 2023). This is one of the leadership style which is commonly used across all the other organisation ranging from the corporate sectors to the other sectors.

Most of the large organisation today had been including the element of participative leadership. They were able to sustain in the competitive sphere through which one can create the significant attributes and also for engaging individuals towards a proper environmental approaches thus could help in organising all the works within the competitive sphere. They could also generate important attributes within which one can help in managing the properties within the competitiveness. It can help in sustaining the competitive environment.

Democratic leadership style can be considered to be beneficial for both the employees and the employers. The democratic leadership style helps in organising the works and also ensures that they have been able to improve the employee engagement and also tend to increase the job satisfaction along with the experience of the employees all across (Cherry, 2023).

One can also create and sustain within the existing business properties for which it can help in existing in the competitive business space. Furthermore, one shall also become quite effective in organising the tasks and also for enhancing the organisational attributes for this particular kind of approaches. It would require them to manage and help in sustaining in the competitive spaces.

When the employees are given more importance in their work process, it ensures that they can become quite effective in organising the tasks and also enhance the productivity of the organisation. Unlike the autocratic leadership style, in this kind of leadership approach, one can become quite effective in boosting the employee morale by ensuring that all of the works have been accomplished. It ensures that they might be able to manage and create strengthened workplace relationships. They can easily share their ideas and thus which can make them feel more connected regarding the way they are doing.

The employees also often feel empowered which can enhance the work process. It had enabled them to contribute towards an effective business feature thus making collaboration very much fruitful. It builds trust among the employees which can help in strengthening the work culture thus leading to the success of the business process just like that of Apple. Cook was able to organise and also consider accomplishing the activities within the business environment (betterup, 2022).

Critical analysis of this leadership style contributing to the success of Apple

Most of the critics were concerned regarding the lack of bold visionary style of Jobs in Tim Cook, yet he had been able to prove them wrong and had been showcase all of his strengths in most of his works. He has also often described as the charismatic leader and also very much thoughtful as considered by the employees of Apple.

During his tenure, he has been characterised with a greater focus on the existing products and also fosters the business activities and also manages the employee relationship. He had also been able to become quite famous among the employees for whom he had undertaken different reforms within the business activities.

Instead of simply continuing and following the leadership style that was once implemented by Steve Job’s autocratic rule, Cook had managed to play on his strengths and also emphasised on advancing cooperation within Apple’s arsenal of talent (huffpost, 2022).

With the help of democratic leadership style had been able to manage and accomplish all the works for which one can demonstrate the ideas about all the works. It had helped the business activities to consider working in the competitive sphere. This leadership style was successful in organising the tasks and also enhance the business effectiveness (KHARTIT, 2023).

The iWatch has become one of the greatest examples for the shift in the structure as Cook had selected to be lesser involved in the detailing of product engineering. Instead of doing this, he had been able to delegate the duties to all the members who are a part of their executive cabinet. His subtle style of leadership has been able to enhance their position in the industry and also maintain the goodwill of their employees.

However, most of the critics do not believe on this view who had been able to point that there has been a clear loss of the innovation within their business approaches. This is probably considered to be very unfair by most of the critics since it has been very much unfair from the position where Jobs had lead the company. Innovation can be claimed to be one of the success factor for which most people praises Steve Jobs and hence that had been quite a factor of criticism for Cook.

The application of different computer technology to that of the customer products resulted in some of the low hanging fruit. These fruits have now been very well-picked and whoever is delegated with the responsible to run the show will definitely brawl to deliver the meaningful newer products annually (Satell, 2022).

Most of the decisions made by Cook had been quite ineffective and that were criticised. The hiring of John Browett for becoming the head stores was considered to be a mis-step. It has been very hard for understanding that how one with such background had been selected. Browett had been one of the most terrible fits for the cultural aspects of Apple. It becomes quite hard to know as well as accomplish all of the goals.

Leadership and Organisational change

Current Leadership Style being practiced now and that is used to bring change in Apple

From the above analysis, it can be stated that the leaders of Apple commonly Tim Cook uses the democratic leadership style for their activities. It had been able to manage and also organise the works within the activities for which one can enhance and also aim to demonstrate all of their activities. This is one of the approaches which best suits Apple since they are able to ensure that the employees can work freely and through which one can conduct the organisational activities.

One can also be able to generate and also tend to manage and suggest ways for which one might be able to demonstrate the overall process and through which it can organise all of the works. Thus, it can help the business activities of Apple to organise the activities and for which one can suggest different ways to construct the business environment (acqnotes, 2022).

At times of bringing changes within the business organisation, Cook always try to acquire the transformational leadership style which manages to help him to enhance the effectiveness of the change process. This kind of leadership style ensure that the leaders are capable of transforming themselves based on the requirements of the situation.

The life of a leader is not ready and being the leader to such a large organisation can most often require them to take risks. The transformational leadership style helps Cook to ensure that he is able to understand the importance of such risks for bringing in changes within the business organisation. It also assures that one can create and seek to maintain the positioning within the business organisation (strategicleaders, 2022).

Change model which is being used by Apple and the effectiveness of such a model and theory

Apple has been known for bringing in massive changes in their organisational activities and for which they can seek to maintain their positioning within the competitive process. It had been quite effective in acknowledging the fact that Apple can most commonly utilise and use of all the activities for which they can manage to sustain the existing competition. Apple manages to enhance the customer experience with the help of improvised customer relationship management. It ensures that they can conduct the operational features and also maintain the business positioning for which one can seek to maintain the position.

Change has become an inevitable part of the business that requires individuals to enhance all of their activities and also consider the changes which are happening in the broader environment. This change is often required to be implemented effectively for which they can sustain and also manage to enhance their operational features.

Apple being one of the innovative business organisation and they also manage to use the Management Model of Lewin. This model is a 3 step idea using which individuals could manage to exist and also ensure that they can secure their position. Furthermore, some of the important attributes for which they can manage to exist in the business organisation are demonstrated below:

Figure: Outline of Lewin Change Management Model Source: (bmc, 2022)

• Unfreeze: Lewin identifies that human behaviour with respect to the changes accompanied as to be in the quasi-stationary equilibrium state. It is one of the mind-set, the physical as well as the mental capacity that can be reached but is also initially situated with that of the business prospects. It can very well define the changes which are required to be made. Apple is very well able to conduct the analysis required for change using the survey of the company and getting a clear understand about why the change is necessary. They also manage to maintain transparency with all of its stakeholders and then frame issues which can make a positive impact within the business organisation. The need for bringing change is also analysed by Apple and its leaders using this particular stage (whatfix, 2022).
• Change: Once Apple has been able to unfroze the overall status quo, it can particularly begin with the implementation of change which is necessary for the organisation. The organisational change is often considered to be quite complex and hence a well-balanced plan is required for bringing in such changes within the business organisation (MSG, 2022). In this stage, Apple begins with following the strategy of information flow that refers to sharing of information across different levels within the business organisation. Thus, it helps in maintaining the hierarchy of information. The leaders and the managers of Apple are also able to communicate well with the employees and other stakeholders which can reduce the chances of different issues within the business organisation. They aim to generate and empower all its employees so that most of the employee can proactively take part in the change process and that could also provide direction to the lower level employees (Hicks, 2022).
• Refreeze: The main aim of this change is to sustain in the existing business process and thus manage to sustain within the competitive process. As a part of the refreeze phase, Apple begins with tying the new changes into their culture by specifically identifying the change and also the change barriers which are quite common in this process. Further, the development and the promotion of ways for sustaining the change for long term is also considered to be quite important in such areas. They also aim at offering proper training to the employees to cope up with the change. Both formal as well as informal methods are often implemented to ensure that they can manage to sustain in the existing business environment. It can help in relating towards a competitive business process thus ensuring that one could implement the change effectively (bmc, 2022).

Critical analysis of the change management in the organisational situation of Apple

The process for the simultaneous designing of new products have been quite beneficial for the businesses since they allocate all of the resources in a very planned manner (Hansen, 2022). The financial resources of Apple are directed towards the development of better as well as the superior designs. It tends to reduce the production costs most commonly by outsourcing the production to China.

During any of its changes that are required to be implemented in Apple, they try to maintain positive relationship with the employees and also maintain the communicating relationship with them which can further assist them to conduct the smooth operational activities. They also manage to provide bonuses for the employees which helps in exhibiting excellent performance to enhance their organisational features (studycorgi, 2022).

Furthermore, it also helps in assisting them towards a constant business property. The scientific management model allows the business activities of Apple to conduct and also to ensure that they can sustain and also create different levels of management. These levels of management could ease up the workload and also enhance the organisational situation thus providing proper guidance to Cook for enhancing the innovative techniques within the business organisation (studysmarter, 2022).

Leadership styles and theories

About Tim Cook and his leadership style

Timothy Donald Cook or Tim Cook is one of the American business executive who has become the CEO of Apple Inc since the year 2011. Cook had been previously able to serve as Apple’s COO under the supervision of the co-founder Steve Jobs. Cook had been joining Apple in March 1998 as the senior vice president for different global operational activities. He had been made the CEO on August 24, 2011, prior to the death of Jobs in the month of October at that same year.

During his tenure as the CEO, he has been able to advocate for the political reformation of the international as well as the domestic surveillance, American manufacturing as well as environmental preservation. Since 2011, when Cook had taken over Apple, the business was able to double up its profit percentage and that had been able to manage the organisational growth. In the year 2014, Cook had become the very first CEO to have managed to increase the organisational revenue from $348 billion to that of $1.9 trillion (Alade, 2022).

Tim Cook has been able to follow and implement the democratic leadership style using which the proper utilisation of the talents in the business activities of Apple could be conducted. He has also ensured that the active participation of the employees in different organisational decision-making process had been able to create a concrete business environment. It had ensured in satisfying the employees and also ensuring that the employees are encouraged for expressing their thoughts without any kind of fear (MSG, 2022).

Creative insights are also effectively rewarded under his supervision. He has also been able to create the board of executives who can manage to sustain in the business process thus ensuring that the business can seek to gain proper support to the employees. This had helped the business to grow and to ensure that they can easily conduct all of the organisational activities in such business areas thus managing to exist in the business process.

Effectiveness of the leadership style in the growth of the company

The democratic approaches which are implemented by Tim Cook had been able to create a new way or approach regarding how Apple operates in the competitive environment. Tim Cook might not be the most visionary leader, yet he has become the most effective leader which had brought success in the business activities of Apple thus managing to help the individuals conduct the overall works.

It has almost been 12 years since Cook had been appointed as the CEO of Apple. The Apple which Cook had undertaken is much smaller than what he has made it now, facing some of the challenges regarding what can be the next big product (Pounder, 2022).

In the third fiscal quarter of 2011, Apple had reported to earn a revenue of about $28.57 billion. In this year it had been observed that $81.4 billion in the sales process which was almost nearly three times as much. Investors were also happy to point out the difference and that had been able to grow the individuals of about 32% of the annual rare. It had been one of the significant return on investments and that had managed to significantly enhance and increase their contributions towards the business process.

Similarly, in the year 2020, it was stated that Apple has shipped almost 33.9 million watches and that had managed to secure significant opportunities in the competitive state. Apple has also been releasing wireless headphones which had been one of the significant attributes thus ensuring that they can manage to exist in the competitive process. It had also been quite effective in organising tasks and that had also accounted for almost 47% of the total company sales along with that of iPhones (Lobo, 2022).

Effectiveness of the leadership style in driving employee performance

A democratic leader is the one who is able to manage and also encourage open conversation with all of its members and that empowers the group members within the decision-making process. In a technological and innovative organisation, it is very much important that a leader is able to take the opinions of the others to analyse the decision making process and that can help in enhancing the individual knowledge and other aspects. It can help in organising the tasks for which one can seek to have shared their own ideas.

This kind of leadership approach is also known to be quite effective in encouraging the group members to share their ideas and also consider the input for the businesses and such organisational aspect could help in balancing the overall situation (Warman et al., 2022). It had ensured that one can sustain and exist within the competitive business process thus helping them to foster the confidence level of the employees.

It insists the employees to take complete accountability of their own activities which can thus allow the organisation to sustain within the existing business process and that could help in fostering the change aspects. It shall ensure that they can maintain the confidence level which could help in gaining rewards for their creativity as well. It encourages them to conduct the business prospects and enhance the organisational situation.

Critical analysis of the leadership style

To sum up, it can be stated that the use of democratic leadership style has not only enhanced the positioning of Apple in the competitive business environment, but also ensured that they can manage their business prospects. It had become a source of motivation for the employees to become responsible enough to conduct the operations and also to organise all the tasks within the business process.

Furthermore, it had also ensured that the businesses could be able to manage and also organise all the tasks throughout which one can enhance and also manage to sustain in the competitive environment (Tedla and Gaikr Vilas, 2022). Apple has been able to become the second largest mobile manufacturer and maintain innovation in all of its creation.

This has been possible only through the leadership approaches associated with the democratic style. It has helped the employees to get proper encouragement to take the accountability of their jobs and which could help in organising different works. Furthermore, one can also engage to get proper accountability towards the individuals and that could generate more revenues for Apple. One could be able to easily generate different opportunities for which they can conduct the operational activities and also organise all the tasks within the business environment.

It can also help in creating different advantages for the businesses and that can generate more revenues for the business environment. It shall organise different tasks for the overall business environment and that can help in arranging all the works for the individuals within the competitive sphere. Thus, one can generate different opportunities for which individuals could be residing on the business environment further organising different works for the businesses (Oussible and Tinaztepe, 2022).

Recommendations

The leaders of Apple have done a fantastic job in articulating the responses towards enhanced business process. They have been able to manage and also monitor the extensive attributes for which one might have been able to secure some of the advantages. However, in order to enhance and keep up pace with the changing environment, the leaders of Apple can implement different changes and these are explained below:

• Being assertive: At times when question arises about bringing innovation in Apple, the leaders including Tim Cook should be more confident in taking their decisions. They should not hesitate to lead the team according to their own terms. This would make the leaders become more positive and would also ensure that they can effectively change according to the environment in which they are operating (Hicks, 2022).
• Proper motivation to the employees: The main role of the leaders of Apple should be to constantly motivate its employees to ensure that the employees can enhance their productivity. It should be ensured that they can manage to exist and also manage to create balance in the work force. It will help in enhancing the employee relationship and also lead to bringing important changes within the businesses.
• Flexibility: The pandemic has proved that nothing is constant and that nothing can remain the same over time. It is recommended for Apple that they should hire flexible employees who can upgrade themselves without any problems in the competitive sphere. This would generate and create more balance and also enhance the effectiveness (MSG, 2022).

Conclusion

From the above analysis, it can be stated that the leadership approaches can become most effective in organising all the tasks and which could help in managing the organisational tasks. In case of Apple, Tim Cook has been able to prove to be one of the most successful leaders through which one can generate different opportunities in the competitive sphere. It has helped in involving the employees towards the decision-making process.

It shall embrace the organisational change within the business prospects and that could help the employees to cope up with the changes which are accompanied with this process. One might be able to generate different opportunities for the business environment which could help in managing the organisational changes in the business prospects and thus could help in maintaining the position within the competitive sphere.

It should also be able to manage and organising tasks within the competition. It would also generalise its operational activities and enhance the hierarchical division of works through which one can conduct the business features and ensure that they can overcome any difficulties which comes in their way. Thus, it shall provide different opportunities who can provide important chances for Apple to conduct the operational activities.

References

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Tedla, B.A. and Gaikr Vilas, B., (2022). An essence of leadership, its styles: A review and personal account commentary. International Journal of Health Sciences, 6, pp.175-183.

Warman, W., Poernomo, S.A., Januar, S. and Amon, L., (2022). Leadership Style and Principal Supervision in Improving Teacher Performance at State High Schools in Kutai Kartanegara Regency, East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. EduLine: Journal of Education and Learning Innovation, 2(1), pp.17-24.

Lobo, J., (2022). The Relationship of Leadership Style to Commitment: Choreographers and Student Dancers’ Perspective. IJELM–International Journal of Educational Leadership and Management, 11(2).

Pounder, P., (2022). Leadership and information dissemination: challenges and opportunities in COVID-19. International Journal of Public Leadership.

Alade, A.O., (2022). The effects of leadership styles on organizational behavior and performance in some selected organizations in Nigeria. Journal of Public Affairs, 22(3), p.e2544.

acqnotes, (2022).  Democratic Leadership Style. [Online] Available at: https://acqnotes.com/acqnote/careerfields/democratic-leadership-style

betterup, (2022). Democratic leadership style: How to make it work as a team. [Online] Available at: https://www.betterup.com/blog/democratic-leadership-style-pros-cons-examples-and-how-to-make-it-work#:~:text=be%20used%20effectively.-,What%20is%20the%20democratic%20leadership%20style%3F,in%20the%20decision%2Dmaking%20process.

bmc, (2022). What is the 3 Stage Model of Change?. [Online] Available at: https://www.bmc.com/blogs/lewin-three-stage-model-change/

Cherry, K., (2023). Is Democratic Leadership the Best Style of Leadership?. [Online] Available at: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-democratic-leadership-2795315

Hansen, M. T., (2022).  How Apple Is Organized for Innovation. [Online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2020/11/how-apple-is-organized-for-innovation

Hicks, K., (2022). Top 8 change management models: A comparison guide. [Online] Available at: https://www.zendesk.com/in/blog/change-management-models/

huffpost, (2022). Balancing the Pros and Cons of Tim Cook’s Tenure as CEO of Apple. [Online] Available at: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/balancing-the-pros-and-cons-of-tim-cooks-tenure-as_b_59b0cb2ae4b0d0c16bb52a18

indeed, (2023). Democratic Leadership Style in the Workplace: Pros and Cons. [Online] Available at: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/democratic-leadership

KHARTIT, K., (2023). Tim Cook: Apple CEO’s Strengths, Reputation, and FAQs. [Online] Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/032515/what-tim-cooks-managerial-style.asp#:~:text=Apple’s%20management%20style%20is%20very,democratic%20style%20focused%20on%20cooperation.

MSG, (2022).  Kurt Lewin’s Change Management Model: The Planned Approach to Organizational Change. [Online] Available at: https://www.managementstudyguide.com/kurt-lewins-change-management-model.htm

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Satell, G., (2022). Why Tim Cook’s ‘Level 5 Leadership’ Might Not Be Enough To Secure Apple’s Future. [Online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/gregsatell/2013/06/04/why-tim-cooks-level-5-leadership-might-not-be-enough-to-secure-apples-future/

strategicleaders, (2022). 11 Leadership Lessons We Can Learn From Tim Cook. [Online] Available at: https://strategicleaders.com/11-leadership-lessons-from-tim-cook/

studycorgi, (2022). Leadership and Change Management in Apple Company. [Online] Available at: https://studycorgi.com/leadership-and-change-management-in-apple-company/

studysmarter, (2022). Apple Change Management. [Online] Available at: https://www.studysmarter.us/explanations/business-studies/business-case-studies/apple-change-management/

vantagecircle, (2022). Democratic Leadership Style Is The Way To Company Success. [Online] Available at: https://blog.vantagecircle.com/democratic-leadership/

Wang, M., (2023). Leadership: What Are the Characteristics of a Great Leader?. [Online] Available at: https://haiilo.com/blog/leadership-what-are-the-qualities-and-characteristics-of-a-great-leader/

whatfix, (2022). Lewin’s 3-Stage Model of Change Theory: Overview. [Online] Available at: https://whatfix.com/blog/lewins-change-model/

Wright, G., (2022).  Apple. [Online] Available at: https://www.techtarget.com/whatis/definition/Apple

Appendix: Personal Development Plan

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