Apple Inc. Management Problem: Poor Working Environment

Apple Inc.
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Apple Inc. Management Problem
Introduction
Apple Inc. is one the largest companies in the telecommunication industry which have constantly faced management issues. The company is multinational based and offers online services, computer software, and consumer electronics (Apple Inc., 2021). Apple is the largest globally due to its $ 274.5 billion revenue, a record that has been set since 2020 (Apple Inc., 2021). The company was established in 1976 by Wayne Ronald, Wozniak Steve, and Steve Jobs (Apple Inc., 2021). The digital transformation, especially among the millennials, spearheaded Apple’s expansion and increased market share. Apple is known for its consistent research and development team, which considers the consumer’s preferences making it gain a competitive advantage over its competitors such as Samsung. The main operation contents of Apple Company are based on specific products, including HomePod, Apple Watch, iPad, iPhone, iPod, and Macintosh.
Regardless of the significant expansion of Apple and its ability to meet consumer expectations and preferences, management is a crucial problem. According to the business press, Apple faced employee unrest as a critical problem with different causative agents such as harassment and the inability to meet stakeholders' expectations (Nicas & Browning, 2021). The poor working environment stimulated unrest among the employees. Nicas & Browning (2021) identified that issues such as discrimination, retaliation, sexual harassment, and verbal abuse as the source of employee unrest. Apple’s problem is related to the lack of a powerful purpose statement. According to Blount & Leinwand (2019), an organization should have a valid purpose statement that achieves two significant objectives, workforce motivation, and articulated strategic goals. The management misses the two ideologies leading to employee unrest (Quinn & Thakor, 2018). It also misses ethical leadership. According to Bazerman (2020), ethical leadership and stakeholder involvement give an organization a clear purpose and direction. Whenever employee embraces the organizational purpose, they do not engage in any management malpractices. Therefore, stakeholder analysis is essential since employees are internal stakeholders. The paper strategically correlates Apple’s problem to management problems and offers strategic recommendations for the company.
Analysis
The management problem facing Apple Inc. relates to instrumental stakeholder theory. The theory focuses on the strategic and ethical relationship with diverse stakeholders (Weitzner & Deutsch, 2019). Most stakeholder theorists argue that every manager's critical role is to apply the economic lens in making constructive and valid decisions to resolve moral myopia, as seen in Apple’s case. The crucial problem at Apple involving employee unrest originated from the poor relationship between the employees as stakeholders and the management team. According to Weitzner & Deutsch (2019), healthy relationships are essential in any organization and should be upheld through instrumental motivation. Relationship building can also be explained as an ingredient of competitive advantage among firms (Weitzner & Deutsch, 2019). Organizations with high competitive advantage are prone to higher growth and sustainability. Based on Apple’s case, relationships with its stakeholders were viewed using an economic and not relational lens. According to stakeholder theory, whenever the organization focuses on a relational lens while dealing with the stakeholders, it limits the problem of ethics and firm failure (Weitzner & Deutsch, 2019). Therefore, Apple’s problem is linked to poor management.
Additionally, the problem relates to ethical leadership theory. According to Bazerman (2020), leadership plays a significant role in a company’s stability and growth by influencing its rational decisions. An excellent leadership style is vital since it makes the stakeholders, including the employees, more competent (Bazerman (2020). On the other hand, a poor leadership style leads to inferiors decisions which adversely impact the decision-making process. The problem at Apple Inc. emerged due to poor leadership style and the management’s ignorance of employee ethical standards. The ethical leadership model requires an organization to establish a unique leadership style from personality (Peterson et al., 2020). It is identified by what one does, how they do it, and the time of the activity. Apple Inc. would have considered the ethical leadership approach to avoid some of the issues such as discrimination.
Furthermore, ethical leadership reduces management problems by embracing a spectrum of attractiveness, lean attractiveness, blended and lean power. Blended leadership is fundamental among the identified categories since it promotes stakeholder engagement and employee competence, leading to trust (Frei & Morriss, 2020). Lack of leadership competency encouraged employee-management disagreement at Apple, leading to unrest. Therefore, failure to implement an ethical leadership model is a significant root cause of Apple’s management problem.
Additionally, the management issue at Apple Inc. relates to Porter’s five forces. Regardless of the role of the tool in analyzing competitiveness, it also determines the effectiveness of the employees. Competition in any firm relies on competency among employees since they directly engage customers and suppliers. The main element of porter’s five forces theory is rivalry among the competitors (Porter, 2008). It is an element that determines customer loyalty and employee satisfaction. According to Porter (2008), increased competitive rivalry is critical since it determines the profitability rate. However, the rate of competition depends on the management and leadership capacity (Porter, 2008). There is high competition whenever the competitors are large, and the company management is poor. Apple faces a lot of competition due to its growth in the telecommunication industry. Therefore, the increased management problem such as employee unrest gives opportunity to its competitors to take advantage of the situation by making the company feel irresponsible of its employee’s welfare. Competitive advantage is not only limited to products; it can also be shaped by workforce stability (Brandenburger & Nalebuff, 2021). The management problem at Apple jeopardizes its competitive status and customer loyalty. Whenever the customer notes constant management-employee issues, they start questioning its authenticity. Therefore, the management of Apple should strategically address the problem of high competitive status.
Apple’s employee unrest was caused by the inadequate implementation of managerial power theory. The theory holds that high-level executive power stabilizes the workplace and manages the market inefficiencies leading to high performance (Lingo & McGinn, 2020). However, the problem at Apple was caused by misuse of management power due to evidence of discrimination in promotion and harassment (Nicas, 2021). According to Lingo & McGinn (2020), power is situational and should be aligned with organizational goals and objectives. As noted in Apple’s case, Diverging executive power results in management issues that affect the company’s image and competitive level. Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer observed that misuse of power among the managers reduces its formal authority and adversely impacts the followers (Lingo & McGinn, 2020). Apple’s abuse of power among the employees and unregulated changes led to its crisis (Nicas, 2021). Therefore, power management is a critical issue for Apple’s success, and the company should address it to avoid future impacts.
Lastly, the theory of capitalism adequately explains the management problem noted in Apple Inc. It is a private company and effectively aligns with the elements of capitalism. The capitalism element stresses that personal property and employee rights should be upheld (Weitzner, 2021). Apple Inc. lacks the focus on managerial capitalism since it does not use its central power to align the strategic goals and the workforce expectation. The organization is more lenient on the management side, an issue that j...