Type Of Change Management: A Case Study Of Apple Inc

Overview of the company

Discuss about the Type Of Change Management.

The main purpose of this assignment is to analyze the type of change management which has taken place in an organization. The organization which has been taken for this assignment is Apple Inc. The first thing which is to be cleared in order to proceed with the report is the concept of organization change. An organizational change refers to transformation of the business structure in order to improve the business structure, profits or build up the business from the scratch (Hayes 2014). In other words, the term change may be defined as a state of new thing in place of old structure of the business. The term organizational changes itself makes it clear that it refers to the changes in organizational activities of the business. However, it is not as same as operational change but has much wider scope than operational change as the business it covers all changes in personnel, logistics and operational activities of the business (Doppelt 2017). Furthermore, can be said to be a transition of the state of business from the current state to a better future state. In order to further discuss the idea, organizational change can also be related to innovation as in some cases organizational changes means to incorporate new technologies in place of old ones, building up the business from scratch (Ashkenas 2013). The changes which are made by the management may be favorable or unfavorable which will be known in a future date. In order for a change to be successful, the organizational changes need to addresses the following criteria:

• Helps the business to reach its goals and also have favorable changes in the organization which is the basic reason due to which the change was initiated.
• The change should be such that it does not affect the cost and keeps with the estimated budget of the business.
• Business is directed towards a positive and economical change which will improve the efficiency of the company (Hechanova and Cementina-Olpoc 2013).

In order to change to be effective and accepted the above mention criteria must be fulfilled. The changes in business should be such that the business should benefit from the change.

The company which has been selected for this assignment is the famous Apple Inc. The company is known for its innovational changes and the quality of the products which the company has to offer which are Iphones, tablets and Mac book. The crisis which Apple was facing was due the increased amount of competition that the company faced from its rival Microsoft and the company was almost considered to be extinct. In 1997, the leadership of Apple again came into the hands of Steve Jobs who became the interim CEO of the company and thus started the organizational changes which made apple the tech giants as it seen in present times.

Application of the Theory

The changes which were made by the management of Apple Inc resulted in the place where the company is at present. Apple follows innovative approach for its products and has managed to introduce new concepts and technologies for further improvement of the product and has successfully adopted management change. 

As per Burnes, the changes which takes place in the business are of complex nature and the same needs to be effectively managed in order to gain advantage from such a change. Burnes suggest that the changes which takes place in the business needs to be appropriate even if the approach to such changes may be vary from planned to emergent styles of changes (Hornstein 2015). As per Burnes, Change is a constant part of the life of an organization which is present both at its strategic level and operational level (Vora 2013). Therefore, when the management wants to implement changes in the business, it should be kept in mind as to where the management wants to reach in terms of future goals and what kinds of changes are necessary for the company to reach such a goal. Moreover, research shows that the purpose of change management is to ensure that the risks associated with the projects are mitigated which includes costs and also increase the performance of the business. The theory is useful when considering changes in a business which can a public-sector business or private sector business (Contrafatto and Burns 2013). The basic advantage of using the theory is to understand how it leads to effective implementation of the change management which can lead to better performance of the business. it is also to be recognized that changes in a business also have negative impacts on the business (Samuel 2013).

The organizational changes which takes place in the business depends on the three dimensions which are origin, results and process of change. The origin of change refers to ways in which changes appear to the business. This includes both intentional changes and unintentional changes which takes place in an organization (Kuipers et al. 2014). On the other hand, results of changes depend on the origin of changes which takes place in the business. The process of changes refers to the structure and processes which can affect the business. It is also to be understood that the changes can not only be in the management processes but also in the organizational structure which makes up the management of the company. In many cases changes result in change in the personnel of the business and also in the top-level management of the company.

Change Management Analysis

Most of the organizational changes which takes place in a business are mostly planned and intentional changes which are brought by the management to improve the business process of the company (Sharif and Scandura 2014). Then there is a case where organizational changes are easily noticeable as they take place in a systematic manner and significantly smaller space than social changes. In addition to this, changes which take place at this level are smaller and are of short span (Benn, Edwards and Williams 2014). In case of an organizational changes the role of leading such a change is very crucial as it frames the impact which such change will bring upon the organization (Cameron and Green 2015). In times many theories have been framed which is related to organization changes.

In the case of Apple Inc, the company has effectively managed change in order to improve the business structure of the company (Apple 2018). It is also noticed that the business has always taken steps to incorporate technological changes in its products and the change has been slow but efficient. When Steve Jobs gained control of Apple Inc he made changes in the organizational structure of the company and ensured that the company’s focused on innovative approach and creative thinking and he was wanted excellence to be delivered from the staff of the company (Apple 2018). In the case of Apple Inc, large number of organizational changes were notice as Steve Jobs came to power as the CEO of the company. The new management of the company ensured that the focus of the company was on innovative and creative approach in order to improve the products of the company. The new Iphone model was introduce during this period and Mac computers were introduced which lead to the overall development of the company and gave the business a new life force. In order to achieve such results Steve Jobs had to make certain organizational structure changes such sacking of the old directors of the business for gaining control over the business, encouraging innovative approach among the new technical workers and setting up research and development departments for the innovation process to initiate (Apple 2018).  As per an article which was released in LA times, the market valuation of the Apple Inc has grown from $ 5 Billion to about $ 351 billion as per present times (Apple 2018). This can be regarded as one of the greatest turnarounds in the business due to change management which was brought about by Steve Jobs (Apple 2018).

As per Burnes model different types of change management are to be identified and analyzed. As per the change management model which was suggested by Burnes are explained below:

1. Emergent Changes: Theses types of changes are not as per the agenda of the management of the company and due to the social system’s influence over the business. This type of changes takes place when underlying components have achieved new order that can give way to new behaviors for the business. In addition to this, such types of changes are based on the assumption that the change which is taking place is continuous, open ended and unpredictable. The emergent approach to change management puts more emphasis on the unpredictable and developing nature of the change (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). The implementation of the change management under emergent approach considers a large number of variables of the business which can affect the change. The rational of the change under the emergent approach of change management comes from the fact that change should not and cannot be solidified or predicted in an effective manner rather the basic features of a change is that it is unpredictive and can occur due to any unforeseen events. For example, disruptions in business, breakdown of equipment and technology or even natural disasters can bring about change in the management (Burns 2014). As per Burnes Framework, such types of changes are mainly focused to improve the structure and processes of the business and these types of changes are for the stable environment. Such changes are also slow in nature. Theses types of changes are random in nature and it is entirely opposite to planned changes
2. Planned Changes: These types of changes are formal in nature and are planned by the management of the company in order to implement changes in the organizational structure of the company. Such types of changes are imposed within the organization. Planned changes is described as a proactive change which is initiated by the members of the organization and are also implemented independently with a view of bring about change in the organizational structure or in order to purse new opportunities (Becker, Kugeler and Rosemann 2013). The goal of bring about planned change is to anticipate the events which will be occurring in future and formulating a strategy which can help the business to benefit from such a change. The difference between a planned change and an emerging change is that the former is mostly imposed within the organization and the latter has its origin from outside of the organization and planned changes are formal in nature while emerging changes are informal in nature. The main elements which are required in order to make a planned change successful for a business are effectiveness of leadership, strategic planning and implementation and similar activities. In order to bring about a change in the system of management, the leaders should be effectively involved in the planning process and thus making the process centralized. The main process in such a change is the planning process and implementation of strategies. In this kind of change, the management is able to plan effectively the position which the business is trying to reach and the means which are available to the business to reach its goals can be clearly estimated. Such types of changes as per Burnes framework takes place in a stable environment ands it is also a slow change as the change is determined by the planning and implementation process.
3. Bold Stroke: This refers to a situation where the management of the company brings about serious changes in the company’s structure so that the business can be improved from the scratch. In such cases, it is a common practice to sack employee of the business even the manager level employee to bring about rapid changes in the work force of the business (Lovins 2013). This can be referred to as an aggressive move by the management of the company to bring about radical changes in the operations as well as other activities of the business. The management change which follows bold stroke type of change are expecting results which will happen rapidly. In such a case the market is turbulent and rapid changes are required in order to cope with the changes which are occurring in the market. The focus of the management under this change plan is to improve the overall operational process of the business as well as the organizational structure of the business. this type pf changes suggest large scale increments in the business. However, there is a risk which is associated with this change if such changes are not properly handled than it will affect the business negatively as well.
4. Kaizen: The word Kaizen is obtained from Japanese word which literally means improvements. It is also form of Change Management which focuses on continuous improvement of the business process of the entire workplace (Mano et al. 2014). It involves continuous improvements which are to be made to entire workplace which includes improvement of all functions and is related to employees, CEO, line workers. In addition to this, the change applies to all processes of the business which are logistics, purchasing, sales system and other activities which are involved in supply chain management. The kaizen system of change ensures that every employee in the organization is continuously working for improving the entire process and system of the organization. The kaizen model of change promotes changes of such makes the process standardize, ensure efficiency and makes the organizational structure more effective (Glover, Farris and Van Aken 2014). The overall goal of kaizen is to make small changes to business process over time to create wide range improvements in the business over long period of time. For example, an demonstration of the kaizen form of change which has taken place in a business is of Toyota productions in which improvements are undertaken as when required.

Thus, from the above discussions it is clear that the businesses are affected by changes even though such changes might be meet with restrictions as general employee consider such changes as threats. In the case of Apple Inc, it can be said that the business has witnessed large changes in the business structure since the return of the founder of the company Steve Jobs in 1997 (Apple 2018). The company moved from the computers which were offered by the business into thinking radically and reinventing the brand of apple. As per the discussion above of Burnes model, it can be said Apple company followed the bold stroke which involved the company to develop rapidly in the face of competition which was provided by Microsoft business. The company put their faith in creative approach and innovation which resulted in the company entering the smart phone market and revolutionize the entire market with its IOS software and range of Iphones. And the company also started to acquire market in the computer business with the introduction of Mac book. Steve Jobs also made changes in the board of directors of the company as he was appointed interim CEO of the company and removed certain members from the board permanently. He recruited new employee and inventors who could share his vision and take the company to the position in which the company is in present times (Apple 2018). By the end of the five years period since Steve Jobs became CEO, the company was revived and was earning good amount of profits and also developing new tech and software. It was soon the company which was on its way6 to be winded up became software and tech giants in US (Apple 2018).

In addition to this, after the initial success of the management change, the management began engaged in planned changes to be brought to the products and business of the company. Therefore, it is the mixture of the two types of changes which has brought Apple Inc strongly in the market. Thus, from the above analysis it is clear that in order to control and make use of the management change an appropriate form of leadership is required and right vision is also required (Clarke 2013). The case analysis of Apple Inc proves the fact that changes in a business can be good for the business if proper strategies and policy implementation is followed by the business.

Conclusion

Thus, from the above analysis of Burnes theory which is change management conducted on Apple Inc makes it clear that the major changes which was brought about in the management and structure of the company was a mixture of the type Bold Stroke and Planned Changes. The company survived due to making such changes in the management structure and shifting the focus from competitors to creative and innovative approach for effective results. The company was rewarded with high turnover and market valuation as the necessary changes proved to be effective. The credit can also be given to the exceptional leadership style of Steve Jobs and this also shows the importance of effective leadership in the company’s overall development. In addition to this, from the analysis of the theory of Burnes, it also becomes clear that there are four major types of management changes which are emerging changes, planned changes, bold stroke and kaizen. Thus, from the above analysis it is clear that some changes if effectively managed are able to provide the business with the opportunity to develop. Change is a constant part of the life of an organization which is present both at its strategic level and operational level and therefore the business needs to accept such changes and manage properly the same.

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