Tim Cook’s leadership analysis at Apple

Tim Cook’s leadership analysis at Apple

Introduction

Apple Inc. (AAPL) is an American high-tech company. It was founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Gary Wozniak and Ronald Gerald Wayne on April 1, 1976, and named Apple Computer Inc., headquartered in Cupertino, California. The current CEO of Apple is Tim Cook taking over as CEO after the death of Steve Jobs. The aim of this study is to examine Tim Cook’s leadership style and discuss his role in the achievement of organizational objectives and dealing with challenges such as cross-culture, sustainability, CSR, gender pay gap and the impact of this leader within Apple. In order to supplement the gaps in the literature, this paper uses the transformational theory to discuss how Cook’s leadership style optimizes the talent of employees and how to pull into the relationship with employees. This research is more conducive to a comprehensive understanding of leadership style, the impact of leadership on organizations and leadership practices in organizations.

Part 1

1.1 Leadership Styles

Tim Cook’s leadership for Apple since 2011 has contributed positively towards its success. Cook is more methodical in his focus on finance. He is also regarded as socially capable compared to Jobs’s focused approach in design. Apple under Cook has a more relaxed work environment, but is equally demanding and detail-oriented. Huberty (2020) quotes financial data as proof of Cook’s success in his time as CEO, citing Apple’s market value having increased by nearly $140 billion. Of the different products sold over the years since Cook took over, Cook’s leadership oversaw the sale of more than 87 percent in sales (Huberty, 2020).

Cook believes diversity in leadership is important. Diversity is not just a consideration for HR departments. In fact, people with diverse backgrounds working together can generate innovative thinking, significantly increase a company’s bottom line, and transparency is the key to all doors (Cetin & Kinik, 2015). In the face of questions about apple’s working conditions and standards for its employees, Cook gave the world a look at how Apple people work, which not only raised Apple’s profile but also set an example for other manufacturers. Cook is also good at getting to know customers, spending time visiting Apple stores and reading emails from customers. This is an element of charismatic leadership that was not seen before at Apple. In the store, Cook creates emotional connections with his employees and customers, thereby boosting Apple’s image (Business school, 2013). His transformational style of leadership has led to better employee morale at Apple and considerable positive change in public image of the company.1.2 A Focus on Employees and Diversity

When it comes to the future of Apple, Cook has made it clear that he believes in the importance of diversity. Three women were appointed to the company’s management team, and the company declared a pledge to actively recruit people from underrepresented minorities. He started issuing an annual report on diversity and inclusion, which he continues to do today. Additionally, Apple has established Diversity Network Associations and collaborated with groups that support the advancement of women in the technology industry. There has been an increase in the amount of female-oriented Apple product releases (Cetin & Kinik, 2015). For the first time ever, commercials for Apple products included a greater diversity of individuals to promote their products. In Cook’s leadership style, openness and transparency are characteristics that distinguish it from the others. Leaders of successful and strong companies that practice democratic leadership are better equipped to comprehend the demands of their employees and customers (Ghasabeh et al. 2015). Employees at Cook’s company feel appreciated as a result of his democratic leadership style, which places a strong emphasis on creating a positive work environment. Cook takes employee concerns into seriously, and the company has policies and procedures in place to ensure that their well-being is taken care of. As a consequence of this element, Apple’s employees are more inclined to be concerned about resolving the problems of others. As a result, Cook has guided Apple in the development of products that are more affordable for those with middle- and low-incomes. A product such as the iPod is an example of this kind of product.1.3 Social sustainability and challenges

The change in management style and focus of Apple through Cook has also allowed the company to achieve social sustainability by adapting diversity concerning gender; race, religion, culture and other aspects. As a result, the steps taken through management policy changes have helped the company to deal with the challenges of the gender pay gap and cross-culture (Kim, 2020). Cook sees the future as diverse and believes the most diverse workforce will produce the best products. Apple has undertaken several policy changes including corporate social sustainability efforts that focus on diversity. For example, programs like apple’s WWDC scholarship will help attract more diverse people to developer conferences and begin to improve the tech industry’s staggering gender and racial imbalance (Yang Ting, 2016). On the other hand, Apple narrowed the gap in employee racial and gender treatment by analyzing salary, bonus, stock allowance and other data.

The issue of social sustainability is important for multinational leaders and managers like Cook to understand since it is a problem that affects the whole planet. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, is well aware that the global economy has expanded well beyond its natural borders in recent years. For regions and countries, Tasnim (2018) found that sustainable development is represented by the creation of creative environments, which represents a massive competitive challenge for managers to meet. Leaders of political and think tank organizations should devote more time and effort to ensure that working conditions and game rules are adhered to, rather than concentrating only on particular processes.1.4 Internal management

The impact of Cook’s leadership style internally on the organisation is the optimisation of employees’ talents and skills (Kim, 2020). Cook can aim higher by maximizing the potential of his existing employees. The logic behind Cook is that most people on the team are underutilized. Secondly, he is aware that abilities can be brought to the table with the right kind of leadership. Third, intelligence and ability can be multiplied without the need for greater investment. When Apple needed a division to grow quickly with constant resources, Cook didn’t expand the sales force. Instead, he spread key talent across different jobs, spent a week studying the problem and working with other departments to come up with a solution. He changed the sales model to a competence-centric approach that made better use of the best salespeople and deep industry experts in the sales cycle. Because of Cook’s multiplication logic, it has led to the exceptional organizational success of Apple as it became the first company to reach 3 trillion USD worth (Leswing, 2022). In the end, the department achieved double-digit annual growth without adding a single new employee.Part 2

2.1 The Importance of Leadership

Leadership has core importance in the success of organizations (Bratton, 2020). As a matter of fact, leadership affects the direction of strategy. If an organization does not have a leadership team with appropriate capabilities and their respective functions, that is, without strong leadership, no matter how good the strategy is, it will fail. For example, to make a merger, a company needs leaders across its business units and functions to integrate best practices and generate synergies while trying to maintain normal operations. In addition, leaders at all levels of both sides of the merger should not regard the merger as merely a technical level of work, but should encourage staff morale and move towards higher goals. Leadership will also form unique values within an organization (Ciulla,1999). Employees are the shadow of leaders, and the leadership of leaders is the fundamental reason for the formation of organizational culture. With outstanding leadership rather than coerciveness, leaders can make employees see their values and beliefs verified effectively in practice, which can pave a sound and complete organizational culture for their success.

2.2 Transformational Leader Styles

The transformational leader encourages followers by acting as a role model, motivating through inspiration, stimulating intellectually, and giving individualized consideration for needs and goals (Bass & Avolio, 1994). The leadership style of Tim Cook is transformational as he trusts others and empowers employees, which are the elements of transformational leadership (Cetin & Kinik, 2015).Tim Cook has given Apple employees the right to discuss working conditions, working conditions, and compensation in public, and has encouraged any employee who has concerns to raise them in a way that is most comfortable for them internally or externally, including through their managers, any Apple managers, support staff, business partners, or business practices. His goal was to make sure that every employee was paid fairly in order to close the wage gap between men and women and between different races. Under cook, apple has introduced some employees to a new program called “BlueSky”, in which a small number of employees can work on their favorite projects for a few weeks to help solve the flexibility problem (Leswing, 2022). At Apple’s press conference, a humbler Cook went out of his way to praise his employees, much more warmly than Mr. Jobs did. Cook has always given personal care to his employees and helped them grow as they cope with challenges. A combination of his charismatic style, democratic approach, and transformative methodology have led Apple to become one of the best firms of the current century.A transformational leader builds the capabilities of employees to lead (Ghasabeh et al., 2015). As Tim Cook has done for its employees by empowering them for projects and leading the teams. After taking over leadership, Cook began making changes to Apple’s organizational structure as the new CEO. Apple is led by the CEO and executive team, and at the first level, power is distributed among the functional groups made up of various heads such as CFO, COO, retail, legal, software engineering, and so on. The executive team consists of all senior vice presidents reporting directly to the CEO. At the second level, functions are further divided into subdivisions, and the SVP further distributes authority to the VP at the third management level. All important decisions and actions are made with the intervention of the CEO (Tasnim, 2018). Organizational business is divided into several sub-units. At Apple, organizational responsibility is led by Cook, and the business is divided into several divisions: control, global outsourcing, Apple’s online store, Apple Care, education, Internet services, marketing, and communications. All of these businesses report to the CEO. Working in this organizational environment, all employees know their job responsibilities and management expectations, and they are professional in their work. In addition, Cook set up an organic structure in the design department, where employees’ decisions and ideas are respected, they have the freedom to use their own ideas in projects and are encouraged to write long letters and create (eWeek, 2010), which is why Cook, the underdog after Jobs’ death, still has a large following. Largely, Cook has been very successful using a transformative leadership methodology that also combines democratic and charismatic styles in dealing with the employees.Conclusion

From the discussion provided, Cook believes in diversity and believes in putting the needs of employees first as a company policy. The recognition of the input that employees have on putting Apple ahead is a large competitive edge that has only been realized after Cook took over. His transformation style of leadership combines democratic and charismatic approaches to enable full impact and utilization of top talent where employee ideas and opinions are considered in the management and product development. As a result, employee satisfaction is higher. In order to narrow the pay gap caused by different races, genders and cultures of Apple employees, Apple provides stock allowances and bonuses to employees to narrow the compensation package. The exploitation of the theory of change and specifically for Apple reveals that the organization’s choice in Cook was the right one for Apple. This leadership style allows Cook to empower employees and optimize their talents, which is critical to the success of the organization. Apple lost its intense perfectionism and is more focused on performance, profits and earnings growth. As a recommendation, Apple needs to improve the structure of the marketing model, add innovation, and bring more surprises to Apple customers.

References

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Bratton, J. ed., 2020. Organizational leadership. Sage.

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Cetin, M. O., & Kinik, F. S. F. (2015). An analysis of academic leadership behaviour from the perspective of transformational leadership. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 207, 519-527.

Ciulla, J. B. . (1999). The importance of leadership in shaping business values. Long Range Planning, 32(2), p.166-172.

Ghasabeh, M. S., Soosay, C., & Reaiche, C. (2015). The emerging role of transformational leadership. The Journal of Developing Areas, 49(6), 459-467.

Kim, H., 2020. Comparison of Strategic Leadership: Steve Jobs and Tim Cook. Business and Management Studies, 6(3), pp.17-25.

Leswing, K. 2022. Apple becomes the first U.S. company to reach $3 trillion market cap. NBC News. Available at: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/apple/apple-becomes-first-us-company-reach-3-trillion-market-cap-rcna10767

Tasnim, M. (2018). An Organizational Analysis on Apple.

Ma Qiao. (2011). Cook began to infuse Apple with his own style: managing the executive side. Tencent technology. https://tech.qq.com/a/20111102/000253.htm

Yang Ting. (2016). Apple’s latest diversity report: It has narrowed the racial and gender pay Gap. The web. https://tech.huanqiu.com/article/9CaKrnJWSmV