Apple's Organizational Change: A Case Study Essay.

Understanding Lewin’s Force Field Analysis

Organizational change can be described as the process by which the processes, strategies, technologies, culture or the procedures of the organizations are changed and the ways by which these changes affect the operations of the organizations. The theories related to change can be described as the specific methods by which the changes are planned or evaluated so that the short-term and long-term goals can be achieved (Petrou, Demerouti & Schaufeli, 2016).

Lewin’s Force Field Analysis can be used to provide the overview of the problems related to change in an organization that can be tackled by the particular business which thereby split the factors that are for and against the changes. The Lewin’s model is comprised of forces that drive the changes and the forces that restrain the changes as well. The equilibrium between these two types of forces does not allow any change in the organizations. The driving forces need to be more than the restraining forces so that the changes can occur in the organization. The Lewin’s analysis can also be used for various other purposes including, investigating the balance of the power that is involved in the issues (Cullen et al., 2014). Identifying the issues that are related to the key stakeholders related to the issue. The identification of the allies and the opponents related to the changes and the ways by which the target groups are identified.

The internal forces that can act as the drivers for change are,

• The betterment of the business as a result of the change.
• The desire of the organization to increase the profitability and other measures related to performances.
• The requirement related to reorganising the organizational activities to increase the competitiveness and efficiency.
• The decline of the business and ageing of the business as well (Oreg, Michel & By, 2013).
• The conflicts that can arise between the departments of the organization,
• The requirement for greater amount of flexibility in the structures of the organizations.
• The concerns of the organizations related to the ineffectiveness of the communication, poor relationships related to business and de-motivation of the employees (Jacobs, van Witteloostuijn & Christe-Zeyse, 2013).

External forces related to changes in the organization are,

• The demands related to high quality as well as the levels of the customer service.
• The economic conditions of the market that can be uncertain.
• The competition in the market.
• The higher costs related to the inputs.
• The taxes as well as legislations.
• The political interests related to the market where the business operates.
• The technological changes in the business environment.
• The globalisation of the organizational activities.
• The scarcity of the natural resources in the business market.
• The composition and the changing nature of workforce of the organizations (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015).

The pressures related to the changes of the organization are mainly more due to the external forces as compared to the internal forces. The organizations need to be prepared to face the demands of the external environment that is constantly changing.

The restraining forces of change related to the organizations are the major factors that are responsible for making the changes more tough. Changes are resisted by the employees of the organizations even if they are good for the future operations and profitability. The resistance provided towards changes are quite normal for any organization as the changes can be stressful and disruptive as well (Michel, 2014).

The major reasons that are responsible for the resistance towards changes are, self-interest of the employees, the lack of understanding regarding the need for the changes, the low levels of tolerance and the different types of assessment of the situations.

Internal and External Forces that Drive and Resist Organizational Changes

The two ontologies that are related to organizational changes are the forces that drive the changes and the forces that resist the changes. 

The organization that is taken into consideration for the analysis of changes that have occurred is Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is a multinational organization that has its origin in Cupertino, California. The two founders of the organization were Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. The company was founded in the year 1976. The organization operates in the field of technology including hardware and software as well. The hardware products of Apple Inc. include iPad, iPhone, Mac computer, iPod. The software products include, iOS, macOS, iTunes (Rafferty, Jimmieson & Restubog, 2013). The former CEO of Apple was Steve Jobs who had a different style of management and later after the resignation of Steve Jobs, Tim Cook had become the new CEO. The new management style of the new CEO of the organization has brought many changes in the organization as well. Apple is considered as the largest company related to information technology in the world in terms of revenue and it stands third in terms of manufacture of mobile phones. The net worth of the organization has been valued at around 700 billion dollars (Heckmann, Steger & Dowling, 2016).

Steve Jobs had been considered as charismatic leader and a genius as well and he had served as the chairman as well as CEO of the organization for around 14 years. The demise of Steve Jobs in the year 2011 due to cancer had led to a major in the leadership of the organization. Tim Cook was appointed as the new CEO of Apple and the culture of the organization had gone through major changes. The corporate culture of Apple was innovative in nature under the leadership of Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs was considered as an unconventional leader who had the power of associating with many stakeholders and he also demanded the highest level of excellence from his staff (Kanaane et al., 2015). The power related to decision making in the organization was totally in the hands of Steve Jobs and the employees of the organization had a challenging job of meeting the high expectations of Steve Jobs. The culture that was developed in the organization was mainly related to Power culture and this had contributed a lot in giving Apple the position which it enjoys at this moment.

The change had occurred in Apple in the year 2011 when Tim Cook was appointed as the new CEO of the organization due to the declining health of Steve Jobs. The culture of Apple had to face many issues following the demise of Steve Jobs and the appointment of Tim Cook. The power culture of the organization had changed due to the new style of leadership followed by Tim Cook. Steve Jobs was a master of this culture and thereby he was able to make the organization successful in terms of revenue and net worth as well (Agote, Aramburu & Lines, 2016). The style of leadership that was followed by Tim Cook was quite different from that of Steve Jobs. The transformational style of leadership had also changed the culture of the organization. However, this change was well received by the employees of the organization. After five years of the leadership of Apple, it has been observed that the company has been able to deliver any product that has been able to reach the heights which had been reached at the time of Steve Jobs (Sune & Gibb, 2015). The organization has however grown in size in the last five years and it has also become the largest public enterprise of the world.

Case Study of Organizational Change in Apple

The change in the organization was resisted by the employees, however, after the acceptance of the change by the employees, Apple was able to reach new heights in the market. The culture of the organization had also changed due to the change in the leadership of Apple and this had affected the sales and profitability of the organization as well.

SWOT analysis is not used as a tool for the purpose of planning in a strategic manner, opportunity analysis as well as competitive analysis. This analysis can be however used as a tool to formulate a brainstorming session. The SWOT analysis of the organizational change of Apple states that the change was necessary in the organization due to the major weakness that affected the operations of the organization as a result of bad health condition of Steve Jobs. The change in leadership of the organization has therefore helped Apple to improved their operations and increase profitability as well.

The advantages of SWOT analysis are as discussed further. The process of SWOT analysis can be applied to an organization as well as an individual. Many of the objectives of a project can be supported with the help of SWOT analysis. The internal as well as external factors of a business can be analysed with the help of SWOT analysis. All types of relevant information including qualitative and quantitative data are combined and analysed. The simplicity of SWOT analysis is another major advantage as it does not require any types of special skills or training (Kuipers et al., 2014). The costs of the organization in order to perform a SWOT analysis is also quite low and the internal staff are used to conduct this analysis instead of hiring any external staff.

The disadvantages of SWOT analysis lies in the fact that the significance of the factors cannot be marked or rated. The importance of factors with respect to each other cannot be analysed. SWOT analysis is a one-dimensional model and the different aspects related to a single factor cannot be analysed properly. The data that is analysed for the purpose of SWOT may not be relevant for a market after a particular time period (Chen & Wang, 2014).

The organizational change that has taken place in Apple has been analysed with the help of SWOT analysis. The different aspects related to the changes in the organization has been analysed. However, detailed analysis is not possible with the help of the SWOT framework as the factors affecting the business cannot be rated properly. The social constructionism aspect is however fulfilled by the SWOT analysis as the language that is used for this analysis is quite simple in nature (Packard, 2013). The simplicity of the SWOT framework helps in the better understanding of the various aspects of the business and ways by which the factors affect the profitability of the organization. The change that has occurred in Apple due to change in the leadership is analysed with the help of SWOT analysis.

• Proper and clear vision is essential in nature that has to be adopted by Apple as this will help in communicating the different vision in a clear manner. Proper and clear vision is not the strengths but the different strengths of the individuals in the leadership management as this will help in looking forward to the common purpose
• The leadership management is essential in nature in Apple company as this will help the company in analyzing the demands of the customers in an effective manner and this will help in making the entire process work concurrently as well
• The change management will help in creating proper opportunities for different best practices that can be properly controlled through the entire process
• A proper and well managed change management will help in improvising new changes in the company and this will help in implementing such changes in the company as well.
• The change management will deal with different individuals issues and this will help in creating new changes that are required in order to make the different changes take place in the organization
• Proper creation of ownership is essential in nature as this will help the employees in the organization to accept such kind of responsibility. This will help in creating different solutions for the different issues that can be faced by the company in following the same kind of leadership style. The leadership teams in the respective organization requires to properly involve themselves in engaging themselves in different kind of tasks that are performed by them

Conclusion

Proper communication is essential in nature in the respective organization Apple Company as this will help in creating proper connection between the different issues that is faced by the individuals in the organization as well as engaging the different staffs in analyzing the success rate of the entire organization. The entire concept of change management is top down as this will help in embracing the new approaches properly. Proper organizational development is essential in nature as this will help in making the entire process innovative, productive as well as profitable in nature.

The leadership change management has been properly implemented by Apple Company as this will help in understanding the behavior of the individuals and this will make more effective organizational changes as well. This change management in Apple will help in receiving high return on investment and this will make the implementation of the change management in a faster phase as well. The leadership change that has been adopted by Apple has to such that this will help in gaining proper quality of the outcome and this will clarify the different roles of the change management in the entire organization as well (Zhang, 2016).

Proper change management is essential to be implemented by Apple Company as there are different advantages of such adoption of change management in the entire organization. The leadership management that is adopted by Apple will help in increasing the efficiency of the resources that will help in clarifying the different roles as well as responsibilities of those who are properly involved in the change effort with relevant skills as this will provide the most experienced individuals the job to bring in some changes in the organization.

The proper implementation of the change management in the organization will bring in some changes that will help in reduction of the activity level as this will reduce the duplication effort and this will enhance the morale of the employees and this will reduce the cost of recruitment as well as retention. The leadership change management that has been adopted by Apple Company is relating to the improvement of the quality of the outcome that will ensure the different processes, people as well as systems that will include proper as well as appropriate responsibilities that can help in generating proper change management (Hankir, Cowley & Fenske, 2016).

Therefore, it can be concluded proper change management is essential in nature for Apple Company as this will help in increasing the overall efficiency of the company and this will create positive impact on the workloads and this will have huge impact on different departments as well. The quality of the outcome will be changes as this will help in improvement of the change management that can help in greater realization of different benefits (Nie & Ghamami, 2013). The change management will help in reducing the issues and this will help in generating proper and appropriate level of the change in the entire organization as well.

The dialogic approach helps as well as allows proper result oriented as well as structured planning of the stakeholder dialogic. The dialogic approaches helps in analyzing the reality as well as relationships are socially constructed in nature. The different principles of dialogic approach are as follows:

• The different organizations are properly meaning making systems
• The different kind of languages broadly matters in different organizations (Fard et al. 2013)
• Proper transformational change is emergent as well as planned in nature
• The different consultants are part of the entire process (Thomas, 2016)
• This helps in increasing the differentiation in the inquiry that is participative in nature and there is no engagement before seeking any kind of coherence (Jessop, 2016)

On the other hand, problem centric approach sees a particular change that is rationally controlled that is an orderly process (Huang, Xing & Wu, 2013). This problem centric approach is systematic approach of proper gathering of different data with the help of interpretation that is rational in nature. There are three different principles of problem centric approach that are as follows:

The diagnosis helps in properly focusing on the analysis of the environment with proper alignment of design of the organizational system with the assumptions that there are different systems that can properly respond to the different outcomes of the different analysis in an adequate as well as in timely manner (Pavel & Trossen, 2014)

The entire system will be aligned as well as synchronized as this will help in change one part of the entire system that will properly influence the other functions of different parts as well (Ming, Xu & Wang, 204)

The diagnosis can help in finding out different system capability that can be properly optimized as well

There are different drawbacks of the dialogic as well as problem centric approach that includes different factors such as human factors that is not considered in nature and this will impact the entire communication process as well. The qualitative nature of tools will make the entire concept subjective in nature. The dialogic approach takes longer time in order to decide as well as take action properly (Singhal et al. 2013). The change methodologies are not predicted easily by the different group of stakeholders and this can increase the uncertainty as well.

Furthermore, in problem centric approach, it does not draw different kind of skills as this will appreciative enquiry and this will engage proper change in the entire process as well. Proper leadership approach is essential in nature as this will help in analyzing the different values of inclusivity as well as this will help in engaging the broader team as well. Change management is essential in nature as this will help in understanding the different benefits as well as drawbacks and this will help the organization in analyzing such issues as well.

Lewin’s Force Field Analysis is one of the theoretical ontology as this will help in analyzing the organizational change in the organization. Proper defining of the different changes is essential in nature as this will help in understanding the present status and this will help in mapping the different changes that is required in the organization as well. Proper reviewing of the different forces is essential in nature as this will bring proper flexibility in the organization and properly strategizes the different operations as this will help in strengthening the different forces (Taeihagh, Givoni & Bañares-Alcántara, 2013).

1. This approach is holistic in nature and this considers the entire impact for all is involved in nature
2. This is inclusive as well as consultative model wherein all the stakeholders are actively involved as well as engaged in nature
3. Communication is inclusive as well as constant in nature

1. Qualitative nature of the tools helps in making it subjective as well as interpretive in nature
2. It takes a longer time to properly decide and take proper action as well
3. The methodologies related to change cannot be easily predicted by the different group of stakeholders and there can be increased uncertainty as well

1. The data is qualitative in nature as well as objective and this leaves only a little room for corruption as well as interpretation
2. The decisions can be made in a very quick manner and there are very less key players in the entire process (Emoto et al. 2016)
3. The process of change is predictable in nature as well as stable in nature. This is stable in increasing the entire comfort as well as certainty in the group of stakeholders as well.

It does not consider and this cannot measure different factors such as the human impact on the organizational culture

It does not draw on the skills as well as experience along with value within broad group of stakeholders wherein there is no engagement or appreciative enquiry as well

The change is communication often during or after the entire fact that is not a planning process

The problem centric approach can be utilized in Apple Company as this will help in understanding the different issues that are faced by the company in following such strategies in resolving such issues (Clark, 2016). The entire data will be qualitative in nature and this will help in understanding the skills as well as experience in the process of planning as well. In the problem centric approach, the process of change is predictable and this helps in stabilizing as well as increasing the comfort along with certainty in the entire group of stakeholders. In problem centric approach, the decisions are made quickly and this will help in analysing the qualitative data approach in the organization as well. However, there are different issues as well in the problem centric approach wherein the methodologies of change are not accepted and this will incorporate different changes in the entire organization. The problem centric approach does not properly consider different factors and this will impact the entire organizational culture as well and this will impact the organization as well.

References

Agote, L., Aramburu, N., & Lines, R. (2016). Authentic leadership perception, trust in the leader, and followers’ emotions in organizational change processes. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 52(1), 35-63.

Al-Haddad, S., & Kotnour, T. (2015). Integrating the organizational change literature: a model for successful change. Journal of organizational change management, 28(2), 234-262.

Apple.com. (2017). Apple Leadership. Apple. Retrieved 26 December 2017, from https://www.apple.com/leadership/

Chen, D., & Wang, Z. (2014). The effects of human resource attributions on employee outcomes during organizational change. Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 42(9), 1431-1443.

Clark, R. M. (2016). Intelligence analysis: A target-centric approach. CQ press.

Cullen, K. L., Edwards, B. D., Casper, W. C., & Gue, K. R. (2014). Employees’ adaptability and perceptions of change-related uncertainty: Implications for perceived organizational support, job satisfaction, and performance. Journal of Business and Psychology, 29(2), 269-280.

Emoto, K., Matsuzaki, K., Hu, Z., Morihata, A., & Iwasaki, H. (2016, September). Think like a vertex, behave like a function! a functional DSL for vertex-centric big graph processing. In Proceedings of the 21st ACM SIGPLAN International Conference on Functional Programming (pp. 200-213). ACM.

Fard, A., Nisar, M. U., Ramaswamy, L., Miller, J. A., & Saltz, M. (2013, October). A distributed vertex-centric approach for pattern matching in massive graphs. In Big Data, 2013 IEEE International Conference on (pp. 403-411). IEEE.

Hankir, M. K., Cowley, M. A., & Fenske, W. K. (2016). A BAT-centric approach to the treatment of diabetes: turn on the brain. Cell metabolism, 24(1), 31-40.

Heckmann, N., Steger, T., & Dowling, M. (2016). Organizational capacity for change, change experience, and change project performance. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), 777-784.

Huang, D., Xing, T., & Wu, H. (2013). Mobile cloud computing service models: a user-centric approach. Ieee network, 27(5), 6-11.

 Jacobs, G., van Witteloostuijn, A., & Christe-Zeyse, J. (2013). A theoretical framework of organizational change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 26(5), 772-792.

Jessop, B. (2016). 5. State theory. Handbook on Theories of Governance, 71.

Kanaane, R., Akabane, G., Peterossi, H., & Endler, D. C. N. (2015). Organizational Change Management in a Strategic Perspective. American Journal of Management, 15(2), 88.

Kuipers, B. S., Higgs, M., Kickert, W., Tummers, L., Grandia, J., & Van der Voet, J. (2014). The management of change in public organizations: A literature review. Public Administration, 92(1), 1-20.

Michel, A. (2014). The mutual constitution of persons and organizations: An ontological perspective on organizational change. Organization Science, 25(4), 1082-1110.

Ming, Z., Xu, M., & Wang, D. (2014, August). Age-based cooperative caching in information-centric networking. In Computer Communication and Networks (ICCCN), 2014 23rd International Conference on (pp. 1-8). IEEE.

Nie, Y. M., & Ghamami, M. (2013). A corridor-centric approach to planning electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, 57, 172-190.

Oreg, S., Michel, A., & By, R. T. (Eds.). (2013). The psychology of organizational change: Viewing change from the employee’s perspective. Cambridge University Press.

Packard, T. (2013). Organizational change: A conceptual framework to advance the evidence base. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 23(1), 75-90.

Pavel, D., & Trossen, D. (2014, October). A User-Centric Approach to Building Experience Platforms for Capturing Lifestyle and Wellbeing Information. In International Conference on Sensor Systems and Software (pp. 93-105). Springer, Cham.

Petrou, P., Demerouti, E., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2016). Crafting the change: The role of employee job crafting behaviors for successful organizational change. Journal of Management, 0149206315624961.

Rafferty, A. E., Jimmieson, N. L., & Restubog, S. L. D. (2013). When leadership meets organizational change: The influence of the top management team and supervisory leaders on change appraisals, change attitudes, and adjustment to change. In Psychology of Organizational Change: Viewing Change from the Employee's Perspective (pp. 145-172). Cambridge University Press.

Robb, J. (2014). Modern Militaries and a Network Centric Warfare Approach. (Robb, 2014)

Singhal, M., Chandrasekhar, S., Ge, T., Sandhu, R., Krishnan, R., Ahn, G. J., & Bertino, E. (2013). Collaboration in multicloud computing environments: Framework and security issues. Computer, 46(2), 76-84.

Sune, A., & Gibb, J. (2015). Dynamic capabilities as patterns of organizational change: An empirical study on transforming a firm’s resource base. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 28(2), 213-231.

Taeihagh, A., Givoni, M., & Bañares-Alcántara, R. (2013). Which policy first? A network-centric approach for the analysis and ranking of policy measures. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 40(4), 595-616.

Thomas, E. (2016). The Privacy Case for Body Cameras: The Need for a Privacy-Centric Approach to Body Camera Policymaking. Colum. JL & Soc. Probs., 50, 191.

Zhang, Y. (2016). GroRec: a group-centric intelligent recommender system integrating social, mobile and big data technologies. IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, 9(5), 786-795.