Introduction
Since the moment of its entrance into the IT market, Apple has established itself as one of the undeniable leaders and pioneers in the IT industry. Its innovations implemented under the late Steve Jobs’ leadership produced a massive impact on the world, changing how people perceived digital technology (Podolny & Hansen, 2020). The company’s organizational structure crafted carefully by Jobs was one of the core contributors to its stunning success. However, impressive changes have taken place since Tim Cook took the leadership of the company, leading to the question of whether Apple should adopt a different organizational structure to continue its streak of success. Though the functional approach has been sufficient for Appel so far, the company needs to evolve and adjust to the requirements of the present-day setting, where the network structure allows for greater flexibility and collaboration.
Main body
Due to its innovation-oriented mission and vision, as well as the fact that it currently holds the leadership position in the IT market, Apple needs to be particularly careful with its organizational structure. Disruptions within the framework of the company’s operations and interactions between its team members are likely to entail a drastic and extensively negative change that will half core processes within the firm (Dagan et al., 2021). As a result, Appel’s position as a global leader will be jeopardized substantially given the massive range of competitors in the global IT market (Dagan et al., 2021). However, the functional approach, which was selected by Jobs at the very beginning of Apple’s development, appears to have become insufficient for the present-day setting. Specifically, due to the need to expand, the company needs to adopt a decentralized approach toward decision-making, which the functional framework limits (Trivedi, 2019). Therefore, a shift in the strategy for building and maintaining the organizational framework is overdue. Currently, it is suggested that Apple should shift toward a people-oriented technique for managing its organizational structure. Specifically, the focus on promoting teamwork, collaboration, and active participation among team members in corporate decision-making must be encouraged (Williams et al., 2022). The proposed alterations will launch a series of changes within the company, introducing greater agency to staff members (Akyazi et al., 2022). Thus, opportunities for gaining critical feedback regarding the management of the company’s performance in a new setting, as well as opinions regarding possible innovations, will increase.
For this reason, the integration of a team-oriented organizational structure must be pursued at Apple. By definition, the team-oriented approach allows for increased collaboration across departments, which will contribute to improved information management and a rise in preparedness (Amine & El Omari, 2021). The specified alterations will provide the basis for two critical changes. Namely, they will help Apple analyze its new settings more effectively, therefore, expanding actively into new markets (Amine & El Omari, 2021). Additionally, the team-oriented approach will cause the staff members to develop a greater insight into the company’s overall performance, which will lead to better decision-making in employees (Amine & El Omari, 2021). Consequently, relevant responsibilities associated with minor decision-making can be delegated to employees (Amine & El Omari, 2021). As a result, staff members will develop a robust sense of understanding of the company’s needs, goals, ethics, mission, and vision, therefore, aligning their decisions with the firm’s core philosophy.
Moreover, the offered framework allows encouraging independent decision-making among team members, thus, promoting greater flexibility in the process of making company-related choices. Neglecting the specified opportunity when Apple was a company of a lesser size made sense, yet continuing the established policy regarding the decision-making process within a new context appears to be restrictive. Specifically, with further expansion and more active integration into the global market, Apple will have to incorporate a more decentralized approach toward decision-making so that it can continue responding promptly to change and deploying timely solutions to emergent issues (Mouta & Meneses, 2021). Sin turn, the integration of a team-based structure that will introduce team members to a greater range of responsibilities and a chance to make company-related decisions will help Apple to expand into new markets more effectively and integrate into them seamlessly (Mouta & Meneses, 2021). Therefore, the offered structural framework is significantly more beneficial to Appel in the current and future economic and business setting than the present one.
Most importantly, the proposed structure does not conflict with Apple’s vision of innovation; on the contrary, it actively supports the concept of both incremental and disruptive innovation types. Specifically, the offered organizational structure, while being primarily collaboration-oriented, does not exclude the idea of innovation as the foundational principle of the firm’s operations and decision-making. Instead, the team-based structure allows shifting the company’s priorities toward collaboration, which allows making innovation the core goal, while making teamwork and cooperation the foundational values. With the described transformation within the company, the emphasis on innovative solutions will remain strong since all team members will be encouraged to provide inputs, which increases the chances of identifying an innovative solution.
Conclusion
Even though the functional organizational structure that Jobs set at Appel has been working for the company so far, it is likely to turn out to be insufficient in the context of the globalized economic environment. Particularly, in the post-COVID-19 setting, where the workplace context will have changed drastically, Apple will need to shift toward a more decentralized and collaboration-oriented approach to structuring its organizational relationships. For this reason, the team-based structure, which actively encourages and supports networking while retaining flexibility and focus on innovation should be deemed as the superior one.
References
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