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CASE: APPLE After five years under Apple CEO Tim Cook’s leadership, Apple’s revenue has tripled, it has doubled the number employees working for the company to over 115,000, and its cash reserves have grown to a record $246 billion. Cook says, “Our reason for being is the same as it’s always been. To make the world’s best products that really enrich people’s lives.” Apple’s functional structure has helped that product development to be wildly successful through collaboration, beating out a number of competitors like Sony whose multi-divisional structures keep them from sharing information, expertise, and technology in the most effective way. However, it causes problems for them as well. Apple desktop users are frustrated with a lack of updates (over three years running) and iPhone/iPad users get frustrated that Apple waits to provide major updates to its software systems until it has a new product on the market. Apple shareholders are upset that Apple isn’t making more money off of their services (iTunes and other apps). These kinds of issues arise partly because nobody is “in charge” of those products or services. One of the reasons companies eschew functional (expertise) structures is that it makes it more difficult to hold managers accountable for things when they go wrong. In a multi- divisional structure, if a product fails or a region or unit doesn’t make a certain amount of profit—there is someone to point to. When an issue arises with Windows or Office or Microsoft Cloud, Microsoft knows where to go and whom to hold responsible because someone is in charge of those products. Apple’s philosophy is different. Apple CEO Tim Cook said, “They’re not things where we run separate [profits and losses] on, because we don’t do that—we don’t believe in that. We manage the company at the top and just have one [profit and loss] and don’t worry about the iCloud team making money and the Siri team making money. We want to have a great customer experience, and we think measuring all these things at that level would never achieve such a thing.” As Apple becomes even larger though, their structure is going to be harder to maintain. The fact is that they could be making updates much more frequently to a wide range of products, upgrading software, and providing services that could allow them to be much more profitable if they were to adopt a different structure. They have also been blessed with great leadership given their very centralized approach to decision making. The question is where do they go from here? College of Administrative and Financial Sciences Assignment 3 Deadline: 15/04/2021 @ 23:59 Course Name: Organizational Behavior Student’s Name: Course Code: MGT301 Student’s ID Number: Semester: 2nd CRN: Academic Year: 2020/2021 G For Instructor’s Use only Instructor’s Name: Dr xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Students’ Grade: 00 / 05 Level of Marks: High/Middle/Low Instructions – PLEASE READ THEM CAREFULLY • The Assignment must be submitted on Blackboard (WORD format only) via allocated folder. • Assignments submitted through email will not be accepted. • Students are advised to make their work clear and well presented; marks may be reduced for poor presentation. This includes filling your information on the cover page. • Students must mention question number clearly in their answer. • Late submission will NOT be accepted. • Avoid plagiarism, the work should be in your own words, copying from students or other resources without proper referencing will result in ZERO marks. No exceptions. • All answered must be typed using Times New Roman (size 12, double-spaced) font. No pictures containing text will be accepted and will be considered plagiarism). • Submissions without this cover page will NOT be accepted. Course Learning Outcomes-Covered 1 Define the impact of company’s culture, structure and design can have on its organizational behaviour. (CLO3)(PLO-1.3) Assignment 3 Reference Source: Textbook:Colquitt, J. A., LePine, J. A., & Wesson, M. J. (2019). Organizational behaviour: Improving performance and commitment in the workplace (6th ed). Burr Ridge, IL: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Case Study: – Case: Apple Please read the case “Apple” from Chapter 15 “Organizational Structure” Page: – 503 given in your textbook – Organizational behaviour: Improving performance and commitment in the workplace (6th ed). by Colquitt, J. A., LePine, J. A., & Wesson, M. J. (2019) and Answer the following Questions: Assignment Question(s): 1. Why do you think Apple’s functional structure has been so important for their products? (1.25 Marks ) (Min words 150-200) 2. What are the outside forces that might make Apple change their organizational structure in the future? (1.25 Marks ) (Min words 150-200) 3. How might Apple change their structure in a way that allows them to have the best of both worlds? (1.25 Marks ) (Min words 200) Part:-2 Discussion question: Page: – Please read Chapter 15 “Organizational Structure” carefully and then give your answers on the basis of your understanding. 4. Which of the organizational forms described in this chapter do you think leads to the highest levels of motivation among workers? Why?(1.25 Marks ) (Min words 150-200) Important Note: – Support your submission with course material concepts, principles, and theories from the textbook and at least two scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles. Due date for the submission of Assignment:- 3 • Assignment-3 should posted in the Black Board by end of Week-11. • The due date for the submission of Assignment-3 is end of Week-13. Answer: 1. 2. 3. 4.
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