Apple Organizational Behavior, Structure, & Culture

Company Report

Company Culture

Company culture frequently determines the company performance as it influences such individual mechanisms as job satisfaction, stress, motivation, peculiarities of learning and decision making (Colquitt et al., 2015). Schein (2010) divides organizational culture into three levels such as artifacts, espoused beliefs and values, and basic underlying assumptions.

When analyzing organizational culture, it should be kept in mind that culture and leadership are considered “to be the two sides of the same coin” (Reisyan, 2016, p. 33). At Apple, these two aspects are also interconnected because company leaders have much faith in the organizational culture and its role. Apple’s CEO states that company’s culture starts with hiring since it is necessary to select an individual who suits the company and maintains its culture (Brand value, 2017). The organization of work within groups and teams or application of conflict and negotiation policies greatly depend on the company’s organizational culture.

Work Groups and Teams

Work groups and teams are integral components of a big company. They are expected to be more dynamic and effective than individual employees (Wagner and Hollenback, 2015). Groups in a company can be formal or informal (Luthans et al., 2015). Still, they both constitute a significant component of organizational behavior. One of the leading world companies that demonstrates examples of excellent team work is Procter & Gamble. Its cross-functional research teams brought P&G products to a qualitatively new level (Wagner and Hollenback, 2015). Apple wants its products to appeal to a big group of people and believe that it can be achieved in case these products are created by a diverse team (Inclusion and diversity, 2018). One of the new trends at Apple at present is the collaboration of hardware and software teams (Yarow, 2013).

The major features of organizational culture accepted at Apple related to the culture of organization include top-notch excellence, creativity, innovation, secrecy, and moderate combativeness (Meyer, 2017b). Dudovsky (2017a) speaks about creativity and innovativeness and a high level of secrecy of Apple. He mentions that ability to work under pressure is important for Apple employees due to strict attitude to project deadlines and necessity to work extra hours for teams and groups involved in different projects. These features are also reflected in the company’s values. Hattersley (2016) also mentions the phenomenon of Apple’s secrecy that must be difficult to preserve with more than 120,000 employees. Still, high level of secrecy as a component of corporate culture is typical of work groups and teams employed by Apple.

Conflict and Negotiation

The place of conflict and negotiation is reviewed in the majority of works on organizational behavior (Scandura, 2018; Champoux, 2016; Philips and Gully, 2013). Philips and Gully (2013) define conflict as a disagreement “through which two or more parties perceive a threat to their interests, needs, or concerns (p. 359). Still, constructive conflict can bring desired results. Negotiation is a process in which “two or more parties make offers, counteroffers, and concessions in order to reach an agreement (Philips and Gully, 2013, p. 372). Both of these concepts are critical for a company.

Apple Inc. has been involved in several negotiations and conflicts that became topics for case studies in business. For example, Staff (2017) describes the conflict between Apple and Samsung in which “Apple argued that it had lost significant profits in the smartphone market to its most significant competitor, Samsung, due to blatantly copied features” (para. 3). This case provides an example of negotiations that help to resolve business disputes. Another case that should be mentioned is Apple’s apology for warranty policies in China (Shonk, 2017). It is an excellent example of overcoming cultural barriers in business and communication. It can be concluded that the ability to acknowledge mistakes and be flexible is a component of Apple’s corporate culture which is closely related to conflict and negotiation policies of the company.

Applying Schein’s model of organizational culture to Apple that includes three inter-related levels of culture, the following parallels can be drawn. Anonymous employee speaks of the Apple campus with an amazing cafeteria and nice territory (Edwards, 2013). These aspects can be treated as related to artifacts. For values level, the value of employees can be mentioned. Former employees assure that Apple is a company that really cares of its workers (Love, 2013). Moreover, the values level is related to the aspect