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Table of Contents

Part 1 3

Introduction 3

Leadership Evolution and Strategic Leadership 3

Leadership styles 4

Leadership behaviours and qualities 5

Leadership theories 5

Leadership components 6

Conclusion 6

Part 2 7

Introduction 7

Organisational Changes 7

Organisational change for Apple and the role of Tim Cook 8

Organisational culture and dynamics influencing organisational change 12

Conclusion 13

References 14

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Part 1

Introduction

Organisational leadership is important to lead the employees in the organisations towards

successful achievement of organisational goals and missions (Bratton, 2020). Part one of this

report discusses the various leadership styles and theories that can be adopted by

organisational leaders and the qualities possessed by these leaders to bring change.

Leadership Evolution and Strategic Leadership

Leadership can be defined as the ability of a person or leader to motivate and influence other

people in the organisation to act in a desired manner to achieve the shared goals (Daniëls et al.,

2019). The prominent leadership theories and styles used in business organisations change

with time and external environment factors. The leadership theories are generally modified and

new theories came into existence to cover the generational gaps in human society. The

perspectives, mindset, behaviours and beliefs of younger generations like millennials and Gen Z

are different from baby boomers and Gen X. This is the main reason that new leadership

theories are developed to address the changing needs of the younger employees in the

organisation. Leadership represents a continuously evolving process depending on the

changing expectations and perceptions of all the members involved in the process including

leaders and followers (Pietraszewski, 2020). The current dynamics of the industrial revolution

4.0 represents a volatile market segment with quickly changing environment and consumer

demands and it requires organisations to adopt and implement strategic leadership to manage

the organisational processes disrupted with advanced innovation and technology. Strategic

leadership brings three dynamic change management capabilities within an organisation

including the ability to sense change, grasp change opportunities and transform organisational

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processes. Strategic leaders should have strong knowledge about the macro-environmental

factors and should have the ability to aptly analyse the future market trends to create various

growth opportunities for the company by bringing necessary changes in the organisational

structure and processes (Samimi et al., 2020). This leadership style promotes innovation and

risk-taking ability to achieve higher goals. There are various other leadership styles that can be

differentiated mainly on the basis of how leaders influence their followers to act in a certain

manner.

Leadership styles

Leadership styles can be broadly classified into two types based on the way leaders influence

and motivate their followers to give their best efforts towards achieving organisational goals.

Transactional leadership has higher emphasis on a person's task performance while

transformational leadership emphasises on a person's contextual performance (Ahmad, M. and

Ejaz, 2019). Transactional leadership uses various kinds of rewards policy and incentives to

motivate employees to perform better while transformational leadership uses idealised influence

and intellectual stimulation to motivate the employees. Transformational leaders act as the role

model for their followers and have a clear vision which is articulated to the followers. They also

provide employees with several challenges to encourage them to come up with creative and

innovative ideas. One of the transformational leaders who led by example is Tim Cook, CEO of

Apple and responsible for bringing innovative changes in the organisation’s business model.

Leadership behaviours and qualities

There are certain qualities that leaders within an organisation should possess to successfully

manage the workforce. Jabbar and Hussin (2018) identified certain common leadership qualities

like taking responsibility for their actions, problem-solving, focus, self-confidence, empathy,

influencing and motivational behaviour and accepting the consequences, both good and bad, of

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their decisions. Leaders should also be quick in responding to any challenges faced by the

organisation by initiating relevant response strategies.

The transformational leaders are responsible for creating idealised influence among their

followers which requires them to have additional influencing qualities and motivational

behavioural characteristics. Transformational leaders should have high emotional intelligence

and empathetic attitude to personally connect with individual subordinates and support their

growth (Bonsu and Twum-Danso, 2018). Transformational leaders should also have a vision

and effective communication skills to communicate the vision to their subordinates. They should

also have a charismatic personality so that their followers are influenced by their actions and

consider them as a role model.

Every leader should select a leadership style based on their capabilities and qualities to bring

best results for their organisations. Tim Cook is considered as a transformational leader as he

showcased the instances of individual consideration, idealised influence and intellectual

stimulation during his leadership.

Leadership theories

Leadership theories describe the aspects of leadership that are used for understanding and

controlling leadership activities in an organisation. Leadership theories can be classified into

four main categories including behavioural, trait, integrative and contingency. Behavioural

theory suggests that leadership behaviours are influenced by their interactions within societal

groups while the trait theory suggests that individuals are inherited with certain leadership

qualities as a part of their personality (Salihu, 2019). Integrative theory focuses on the

integrated benefits for all the departments within an organisation like business, nonprofit, legal,

media and community. Lastly, contingency theory focuses on the selection of an appropriate

leadership style based on the given situation and states that the selected leadership style

influences the leader's effectiveness in leading the organisation (Vidal et al., 2017).

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Leadership components

Leadership is the process of motivating and influencing others to bring change which consists of

five key components- leaders, organisational goals, influence, people and change (Darabigi et

al., 2019). These five components are interrelated to each other. An effective leadership

approach brings together all the employees in the organisation to work as a single team to

achieve the common organisational goals through organisational transformation and change.

The role of leadership is essential in guiding people to address the changing business

requirements and be flexible to quickly adapt the changing environment to achieve long-term

goals.

Conclusion

The critical analysis of leadership helped in understanding the various leadership styles and

associated qualities that a leader should possess. This part also concludes that the selection of

an appropriate leadership style is crucial for a successful organisation.

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Part 2

Introduction

The increasing market competition and changing business environment requires organisations

to quickly adapt to the market changes by implementing successful organisational change

strategies (Tidd and Bessant, 2020). A successful organisational change is supported by

effective leadership capabilities in the organisation. Part two of this report will review and

analyse the case of Apple's organisational change and transformation and the role of Tim Cook

as a leader in bringing the required change.

Organisational Changes

The increasing need for continuous organisational change is driven by various external factors

like globalisation, increasing diversity in human workforce, technological advancements and

increasing market competition. Continuous innovation and organisational changes help

organisations to maintain their competitive position in the market. These regular changes or

improvements benefit the organisation in several ways including improving organisational

performance and efficiency and developing sustainable development capacity (Hanelt et al.,

2021). Therefore, it is essential for organisations to create successful and meaningful changes

but the leaders face several challenges to successfully implement organisational changes as

the change process deals with altering major components of organisations and existing

business processes. The entire process of initiating and managing organisational change in a

company is quite complex and requires consideration of various essential factors. One of the

crucial components of organisational change is human resource management as the human

workforce is most affected by these changes and hence leaders are required to effectively deal

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with the changing employee emotions during the entire process (Rodríguez-Sánchez et al.,

2020).

Organisational change processes can be classified into two types- episodic and disruptive,

based on the size of the change. Episodic change represents discontinuous, infrequent and

intentional changes in the organisation. However, these episodic changes can create several

opportunities or threats for the organisation which can be disruptive in nature and can lead to

major irreversible changes in the organisation, affecting all its operations (Mastrogiuseppe et al.,

2019). Change management leadership is a crucial aspect during the change process as

leaders can conduct a planned process to manage the change. Appropriate leadership is

essential to manage the various components of change management including human

resource, organisational structure, communication channels and employee job satisfaction

(Mansaray, 2019). The organisation change can be successfully completed when leaders are

flexible to adapt to changing business requirements and implement varied leadership styles

required as per the given situation.

Organisational change for Apple and the role of Tim Cook

Changes and challenges for Apple

Apple is an American-based technology company specialising in computer software and

consumer electronics. The company was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and

Ronald Wayne. Currently, Apple is the leading technology company in terms of its sales and it

has also become world's most valuable company in January 2021 (Kangyi, 2021).

Tim Cook became the CEO of Apple in 2011 after Steve Jobs resigned following his health

concerns. During the time Cook was handed over Apple's responsibilities, the company was

going through various challenges like decreasing stock price and internal issues among

employees due to the resignation of Steve Jobs as people both inside and outside the

organisation trusted and believed in Job's leadership (Kao, 2018). In the past decade, Cook's

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leadership led Apple to outperform all its previous accomplishments and made Apple world's

first private sector company worth $1 trillion in 2019.

After being appointed as Apple's CEO, Cook started focusing on new age problems and issues

in Apple products like the privacy concerns and data security issues. Cook initiated several

changes in the product development process in the company and modified its internal

communication approaches (Kahney, 2019). The organisational transformation of Apple

followed a planned approach which can be best described using existing theories concerning

change management.

Lewin's 3-step change model

This change model includes three stages for defining and executing the change management

process in an organisation. Lewin's 3-step change model is useful in evaluating the change

effectiveness in the organisation using its three stages- unfreezing change and refreezing

(Tracy, 2020). This model also includes the force field analysis which helps in identifying the

various driving and restraining forces during the implementation of the change. Lewin's model is

used for evaluating the change process in Apple:

Unfreezing: This stage is concerned with the identification of any forces that disturbs the

existing organisational equilibrium and conveys the need to change certain practices to bring

back the equilibrium (Tracy, 2020). The change process in Apple was initiated when Cook took

over as he believed in developing a collaborative work environment which changes the existing

hierarchical organisational structure. This episodic change developed a new work culture in

Apple with the creation of easy and transparent two-way communication channels for idea and

knowledge sharing in the company. Later, Cook initiated certain changes in the product

development process to address the privacy and security issues in Apple's products. Cook

emphasised on redesigning Apple's privacy policies with changing consumer requirements in

the long run (Zimmeck et al., 2021). In 2011, privacy and security issues were not much popular

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and hence, employees felt the need to change was unnecessary. However, Cook influenced the

employees with his long-term vision and initiated the change.

Change: This stage represents the execution of planned changes. Transformational leadership

by Cook influenced employees to initiate the change in Apple's privacy policies and make their

products more secure. The improved security settings of Apple products has helped the

company in creating a higher value brand image in the market in coming years with increased

demand as no other company provided the data security and privacy policies as that of Apple

(Sharon, 2020). The early changes in Apple's product development strategy provided Apple with

the opportunity to work on the integration of latest technologies like AI and machine learning in

its products to improve its services. These continuous changes and improvements in its

products is helping Apple to maintain its leading market position.

Refreezing: This stage evaluates the effectiveness of the new changes implemented in the

organisation. The constant motivation and influence by Cook has made innovation an integral

part of Apple's business processes and strengthened its market position (Liu, 2021).

PDCA change model

PDCA change model manages organisational change in four steps- plan, do, check and act.

Plan: This stage identifies the existing problem in the organisation and develops a clear

problem definition statement which needs to be addressed (von Leipzig et al., 2017). Cook

analysed the existing organisational structure in Apple and suggested ineffective communication

and a lack of proper medium for idea sharing as the key problems for the company.

Do: In this stage, the potential solutions are identified to address the problem in a definite period

of time. Cook used the collaborative approach to solve the communication issues. He initiated a

direct interaction with employees by asking them about their ideas, opinions and issues at the

workplace and also took some time from his busy schedule to be personally available to interact

with the employees to make them feel a part of the same team (Kahney, 2019).

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Check: This stage checks the implementation of the proposed changes in the organisation and

evaluates its efficiency. Cook’s strategy of direct communication yielded a positive response as

many employees responded to its emails and felt an individual connection with Cook which

increased their commitment and loyalty towards the organisation.

Act: In this stage, the identified changes are permanently executed in the organisation with the

help of required resources and assistance. Cook’s idea of building a collaborative work

environment with increased interpersonal bonds among team members has led to positive

changes in the work culture of Apple with the benefits of transparent communication (Podolny

and Hansen, 2020).

Kotter’s transformation model

Establish urgency- The first stage in this model is to establish the need of urgency to initiate

change in the organisation. Cook had used idealised influence through his clear vision and long-

term plans which made employees believe in his vision to initiate the change for better future

returns.

Create coalition- A change can be successfully implemented with the support of right team

members who work collaboratively to bring that change. Cook had identified the potential of his

employees and provided them with the platform to open up with their ideas and creativity which

helped Apple to build a more powerful coalition of employees.

Developing the vision- Cook has rightfully evaluated the future customer requirements and

clearly communicated his vision with his subordinates (Gardere et al., 2018), which served as

the crucial element towards the organisational transformation.

Communicating the vision- Cook’s strategy to develop a two way communication channel has

helped him in effectively communicating his vision and addresses the issues of employees

concerning the vision to make sure that they are confident about the vision.

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Empowering action- When the employees felt confident about the change vision, it became

easier for Cook to motivate them to indulge in value-based action in the required direction.

Generating short-term wins- Apple redesigned its privacy policies and implemented the new

policies during the product development process. The marketing of these newly developed

products on the basis of new privacy policies has generated positive response among

consumers and increased product sales.

Consolidating benefits and building change- These small wins has helped the company to

analyse the future potential through this change and now maintaining user privacy and data

protection is considered as one of the unique selling propositions for Apple which motivates

customers to purchase Apple products at premium prices also (Zimmeck et al., 2021).

Anchor the change in organisational culture- Cook has embraced the change in Apple’s

work culture and even influenced employees to continuously work on innovation and adopting

latest technologies in its product design to deliver highest quality products and services to

customers (Liu, 2021).

Organisational culture and dynamics influencing organisational change

Organisational culture plays a crucial role in influencing the change management process as it

represents the values on which an organisation is built up and operating. Organisational culture

is the foundation of the organisational goals and mission and it has a huge impact on the

change undertaken in the organisation. Organisational culture influences employee behaviour

and response towards change, which can be both positive and negative (Warrick, 2017). Under

Cook’s leadership, Apple adopted a collaborative and innovative work culture which supported

change and hence, the organisational culture at Apple positively influenced the employee

behaviours. Cook used his transformational leadership style to implement intellectual stimulation

which challenged the capabilities of his subordinates and motivated them to take risks and

support innovative changes in the organisation (Baqutayan et al., 2018). The collaborative work

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environment and individual consideration by Cook has helped in developing a positive

organisational dynamics where transparent communication and strong interpersonal bonds

were encouraged to easily manage conflicts among team members. This factor has helped in

creating high morale and competence during change.

Conclusion

Organisational transformation and change is an important aspect that helps the organisation in

maintaining their position in the fiercely competitive market. The analysis of the change

management process in Apple under the leadership of Apple suggests that the leaders of an

organisation have a crucial role in deciding the future and results of the change management

process.

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