In today’s time, leadership is playing a prominent role in the organization. It has become essential for the companies to adopt the democratic leadership style so that employees also work in an effective way and give their best for the organization. However, Apple Inc. is facing leadership issue in its organization by not adopting the leadership style. The discussion starts with explain the leadership problem that Apple Inc. is facing recently. Afterwards, a literature review is present on the theories and perspective of leadership, followership, and management. Moving to the next discussion, it is carried on the self-reflection about the learning. At the end, a conclusion is given by understanding all the concepts.
Introduction about the company
Apple Inc. is a multinational company of America that has headquarter in California. It was founded in the year 1976 by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne. It develops, designs as well as sells the computer software, consumer electronic and provide some online services. It also has some of the hardware products that include the iPhone smartphone, Mac personal computer, iPad computer, Apple smartwatch, HomePod smart speaker. It usually sells the product to premium customers by serving high quality products and services (Brotannica, 2018).
Leadership issues that are faced by Apple Inc.
Leadership in Apple Company was known for adopting the autocratic leadership style. In this way, when Steve Jobs was on the leadership post, everybody were followed the rules as per Jobs. After Steve, the charge of Leadership in organization was shifted to Tim Cook. Tim Cook was known for the best inspiration leadership. However, in recent time, the industry watchers and analyst for lacking vigour and ambition criticize Cook. Now days, various challenges are faced by Cook for its leadership.
Firstly, it is criticized for setting the financial targets too high that can become the hindrance in future. It is stated by various people that setting of too financial performance will become problem for the company. In addition to this, the leadership team in Apple is also criticized for the lack of diversity (McGregor, 2012). It is stated that the Apple senior officials is comprised of 81% men and rest of them comprised of white. Among all the 107 leaders in its Silicon Valley Company, four are Asian women, ten are Asian men, one is black woman, two black men, and two comprise of Hispanic men.
Literature review on Leadership- followership and management theories
Leader is a person who leads the person by having some unique characteristics in itself for leading. The first theory of leadership is Great man theory. This theory states that leaders are born not made. By making use of those born qualities, leader guide other persons. As per this theory, these inherent qualities are boldness, confidence, attitude, and communication. Similar to great man theory, trait theory also states that people are born with some inherent quality that helps a person in becoming leader.
These qualities are self-confidence, extroversion, courage. However, Antonakis & Day (2017) believes that there is no particular leadership style that suited in all the situations. In this regard, situational theory states that all the good leaders identify the needs of its followers and then according to that guide the followers. Same as situational theory of leadership, contingency theory also states the same. In this regard Huarng & Ribeiro-Soriano (2014) highlighted that management in organization totally depend upon the situation. Therefore, managerial actions totally depend upon the circumstances. Author also presented the importance of adopting this management style. It helps the organization in operating under varied environmental situations.
This helps the organization in adopting different solutions to the problem. In this way, it assists with such framework where solution depends on the condition of environment. On the negative side of this management practice, Maylor, Meredith, JSöderlund & Browning (2018) said that this theory does not allow the universal principle that are needed in various management situations. Sometimes, by taking this approach in mind, a manager tries to find the easy way for the solution that leads to increase in cost as well as time consuming.
By criticising this statement, Tourish (2014) explained that that this approach is best way in the organization to manage the situation. For assuring the essective working in the organization, organizations are required to do effective planning, organizing, leading as well as controlling the situations for each circumstance.
By taking all the leadership styles in mind, Fairhurst & Connaughton (2014) discussed that good leaders choose the appropriate course of action according to the appropriate situation. Great leaders choose the democratic leader style by including its followers in the decision-making. Another leadership theory, behavioural theory states that great leaders are made not born. In this regard Armstrong & Taylor (2014) discussed that the actions of leaders depends on the actions rather than internal or mental state of person.
It has also discussed the participative leadership theory that motivates the followers to take active participation in the organization. The followership theory can be best linked with the participation theory because participation of followers is important in order to get the best input from the followers. In comparison to this theory, management theory focuses on the role of organization, group performance, as well as supervision. Northouse (2017) believes that leadership depends on the system of punishment and reward in the organization. There are various management theories that is used by various businesses. Companies reward the employees when they achieve the target or become successful. On the other hand, when they fail, there should be punishment for that. It will lead the employees to work hard in order to increase their productivity.
According to Granlund & Lukka (2017) relationship theory of leadership is totally linked with the followership theory. His theory is also known as transformational theory that focuses on the relationship between followers and its leader. In this behalf, author stated that transformational leaders inspires and motivates the person by helping its members in identifying the significance as well as positive side of the task. These type of leaders put emphasis on the performance of its group members. Besides this, it also helps its followers in fulfilling their own potential. On behalf of this theory Ehrhart (2015) said that leaders with such quality have high moral as well as ethical standards.
Attraction of followers to leaders can be analysed from three perspectives. The first perspective is psychodynamic perspective. This states that it is in the yearning for the father that is common in all humans from childhood. From this, it is clear that their parents give the features that a person attributes. In this way, willpower, energetic action, and decisive thinking all are the part of this. After that, Frued stated that it is essentially a occurrence that originated in the early childhood stage when the authority figures were perceived as strong, big, and omnipotent. In almost cases, these figures give sense of security. Hence, the leadership from the psychodynamic perspective is something that is originated from the ancient longing for the purpose of protection that is deep-rooted in the followers. It is similar stated in the attachment theory that is one of the most influencing theories.
This theory states that all the premises that are based on evolution, psychological, and biological processes related to human infant, survival and unlike many animals who are totally helpless for very long time and they depends on their caregiver for the food. Besides this, they also depend for the protection from pain, cold, dirt and danger. The second perspective is Psycho-Cognitive perspective. This perspective believes that leadership is just a kind of inference. It states that the leader is not responsible for the unexplained distress and anxiety. Rather than this, it interprets the complex reality. From the theoretical point of view, leadership is some part of bias. According to this, when any individual explains the certain situation, it focuses more on the people rather than to circumstance.
There is other argument for the principles of psychological cognitive theories. This states that the information moves further based on clues that are received and interpreted by the individual accordingly. These clues are rounded in such a way that will form a general picture of the leader according to the leadership schemata that progress in process of socialization and help the individuals to interpret the reality. The models as well as theories based on these type of approaches do not deal with such contents that concerns the followers. The third perspective is social psychological approach. It states that the building of leader as a narrator in the eyes of follower is mainly rooted in the theory of identity.
The basic argument in this theory is that each individual has psychological need that can be express beyond the biological needs. Therefore, the most of interpretive model of leader is based on the Durkheim arguments that states that the leader is ultimate example of social group. Various scholars also believe that more the leader is attractive; the grater will be its power as a substance of social identity process. On the other hand, other scholars claimed by elaborating this argument that the individual possess hierarchy of identities in some form.
As result, the attraction that is received by the leader is a process of psychology of articulating any one of the identity in hierarchy. Thus, this perspective states that the leader simply identify with a narrative or idea that leader creates and presents. When the leader is personification of any social category, it helps in creating something meaningful for the group of followers. In this way, all the three perspective displays the general outline of leadership from the point of view of followers.
As compare to the leadership and followership theories, there are various management theories also. Different authors have different perspective about each theory. System theory of management put emphasis on system and the worker. Therefore, it finds out how a worker can affect the system in the organization and how systems can affect the worker. In organization, system is made up of different parts that work in-group to achieve the objectives. Therefore, through this approach manager can examine the events that are going on in the workplace. It also assists the manager to coordinate the different programs in order to achieve the goal of the whole organization rather than for the department. The article shared by Hawthorne (2018), highlighted the six components in a system.
The first component is sub system. In every organization, various systems make the whole organization. In regards of this Scott, Jiang, Wildman & Griffith (2018) stated the example of department that is sub system of the industry. The second component it has given is synergy. It defines the relationships that exist among different parts of the organization. For example- if marketing and production department have independent department for providing g the labour and finance, it will not more efficient as compare to the system. The third component is open and closed system. This states that the system in the organization can be close as well as open.
The open system of the organization does interaction with the environment. It receives the input in the form of labour, raw material, and capital. On the other hand, it gives the output to the society. The close system in the organization does very less interaction with the environment. However, in recent time, it holds a special position. Theory X and theory Y is also one such theory of management. Theory X states that most of the employee does not like work and they always try to escape from their work. It also states that if employees do not like their work, they must be warned with some sort of punishment in order to achieve the goals of organization (Offermann & Coats, 2018).
It also assumed that employees generally do not like the responsibilities and therefore, they usually resist the change in organization. As compare to this, theory Y assumes that employee perceive their job as relaxing and they enjoy the work. In order to work effectively, they only require self-control and self-direction if they are dedicated toward the goals of the organization. It also believes that if the job has some sort of rewards, it will result in commitment of employees toward the organization. However, in today’s time, theory Y is properly applicable as employees do not want any control.
Learning from the case study and weekly discussions
From the case studies and leadership theories, I have learned that there are various types of leaders. Some leaders have already traits in them in order to become a leader. These traits are honesty, self-confidence, integrity, knowledge about business and some of the cognitive ability. It is not true that all the leaders are born. The leadership skills can also be acquire by education, observation, and training. I have also learned that democratic leadership style plays an important role in the organization. By following this leadership style, leader can get the various innovative ideas on the part of employees too.
This helps the organization in getting various solutions and initiatives regarding the problem. Besides this, the case study also stated that there are two leaders that are being perceived as the charismatic leader. The one leader is close leader with whom everyone has direct contact. Another leader is distant leader with whom we do not have any direct contact. As per my understanding, I have understood that the distant leaders have sense of mission, vision as well as some of the theoretical skills. As compare to this, close are described in terms of openness, proficiency.
Conclusion
In the limelight of above discussion, it can be concluded that a leader is someone who have the special skills to guide to his team members. Leaders are important in the organization in order to guide its team members in positive manner. Various leadership theories and styles have stated the different types of leaders. However, in today’s time, a leader is someone who involves its team members in decision-making. Therefore, participative leaders can assist the organization in a better way in achieving the goals of organization.
References
Antonakis, J., & Day, D. V. (Eds.). (2017). The nature of leadership. United Kingdom: Routledge.
Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Brotannica. (2018). Apple Inc. Retrieved from: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Apple-Inc
Ehrhart, M. G. (2015). Self-concept, implicit leadership theories, and follower preferences for leadership. Zeitschrift für Psychologie.
Fairhurst, G. T., & Connaughton, S. L. (2014). Leadership: A communicative perspective. Leadership, 10(1), 7-35.
Granlund, M., & Lukka, K. (2017). Investigating highly established research paradigms: Reviving contextuality in contingency theory based management accounting research. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 45, 63-80.
Hawthorne, M. (2018). Management Theories & Concepts at the Workplace.
Huarng, K. H., & Ribeiro-Soriano, D. E. (2014). Developmental management: Theories, methods, and applications in entrepreneurship, innovation, and sensemaking. Journal of Business Research, 67(5), 657-662.
Maylor, H., Meredith, J. R., Söderlund, J., & Browning, T. (2018). Old theories, new contexts: extending operations management theories to projects. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 38(6), 1274-1288.
McGregor, J. (2012). Apple’s Tim Cook faces leadership challenge on labor issues. Retrieved from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-leadership/post/apple-ceo-tim-cooks-leadership-challenge-with-foxconn-suppliers-in-china-and-the-new-labor-report/2011/04/01/gIQAiLM9kS_blog.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.580ea6116f6a
Northouse, P. G. (2017). Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice. Sage Publications.
Offermann, L. R., & Coats, M. R. (2018). Implicit theories of leadership: Stability and change over two decades. The Leadership Quarterly, 29(4), 513-522.
Scott, C. P., Jiang, H., Wildman, J. L., & Griffith, R. (2018). The impact of implicit collective leadership theories on the emergence and effectiveness of leadership networks in teams. Human Resource Management Review, 28(4), 464-481.
Tourish, D. (2014). Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on the role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), 79-98.
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