Running head: FOUR MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS
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Apple Inc. Four Managerial Functions
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FOUR MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS
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Apple Inc. Four Managerial Functions
The four functions of management are a systematic way of executing procedures in an
organization that emphasizes all managers and supervisors to act in a manner that will enable the
organization to achieve the desired goals. The continuous process of the four functions of
management is planning, organizing, leading, and controlling. According to the principles of the
four functions of management, the managers and supervisors are responsible for coordinating the
resources, leading employees, and ensuring that the resources are sufficient for the plan. Up to
now, Apple is one of the leading technology companies in the world and has been able to sustain
the top market in a series of products, including iMac, iPhone, Ipad, iPod, and other electronics.
Apple Inc. has made a lot of significant changes in its management operations along its years of
service to maintain its competitive advantage and rapid economic progress. When breaking down
the tech giant’s structure, it is evident that Apple Inc. utilizes democratic management, and
strategic future planning to keep ahead of its competition and to sustain their economic growth.
A comprehensive analysis of the tech giant’s managerial functions will reveal the strategies and
techniques used by Apple in its planning, organizing, leading and controlling functions.
Company Background
Apple Inc. is a world-renowned technology and consumer electronics firm that has
dedicated its efforts to designing and manufacturing personal electronic peripherals since 1976
from its foundation by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak (Kassema, 2019). Interestingly, the
mission of the company from its foundation was to bring the best of personal computing and
musical experience to its customers around the world. The founders of the company sought to
focus on leveraging on unique designs, innovative hardware, and a unique operating system that
holds more applications that promote ease of use amongst its customers (Stephens, & Martin,
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2019). The range of products that the company produces includes the Macintosh that is familiar
with their notebook and desktop computers. Other famous products include the iPod digital
music player, Xserve RAID storage, Xserve G5 server, the iTunes music store, and the Mac OS
X operating system. When tracing the growth of Apple’s success, consistent transition emerges
to be a key factor that has nurtured the firm’s transformation to a giant that it is today.
During the 1990s, Apple Inc. experienced serious mismanagement that resulted in the
management of the company to reconsider the corporate strategies that the company was using
(Soh, & Najihah, 2019). The company's management had recognized that it was selling costly
computers, which earned the company relatively low sales and following than its competitors
(Heracleous, & Papachroni, 2016). After the management of the company reviewed its
competitive strategy, the company experienced a slight growth in 1990 as it accounted for 11%
of computers sold in the US, and the figure rose to 19% in the year 1992 due to the introduction
of cheaper and smaller electronics.
Apple Inc. still experienced problems with its corporate strategy because even though the
company increased its sales, there was a smaller profit margin (Yusoff, & Husnina, 2018). The
result of the low-profit margin was that the company laid off 10% of its employees in the 1990s,
moved their operations to areas where it was easier to operate, and consolidated their facilities
(Kassema, 2019). From the 1990s, the company has always sought to position itself as a better
conditioned, leaner, and profitable company in the years ahead by implementing and adjusting
corporate strategies that align with the current and future expectations of their target market and
the company’s ambitions.
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Managerial Function Analysis
I.
Planning
As the first key managerial function, Planning entails the process of determining a firm’s
goals and enacting actions through a detailed plan, that are necessary for the goals to be
achieved. Planning is vital to any organization, for it ensures a firm glance at the future and
predicts possible occurrences and trends that are likely to influence its operations. When
focusing on Apple Inc.'s, the management has consistently invested in trying to uphold the
legacy that the late CEO and founder left behind, which was always about being innovative with
the products and extending the current paradigm (Dolata, 2017). The company already has an
existing market, and their only option for plans is to affiliate themselves with recent innovations
and paradigms. One of the plans of the company is to adopt technologies such as the business
user’s paradigm. For decades, Apple Inc. has ignored the business users’ paradigm since the
1980s, which Microsoft, their main competitor, has been taking advantage of, especially in the
last three decades. In the US, business users are trying to adopt the Mac computers, iPhone, and
iPods into the workplace as a BYOD for interactive workplaces. In their planning, the company
is expected to actively support business users in the future by introducing applications that are
useful in places of work as Google has the office suite, and Microsoft has the Microsoft 360
(Heracleous, & Papachroni, 2016).
Another anticipated future plan for the company is continued investment in artificial
intelligence, which is especially evident with its current program, dubbed Siri (Soh, & Najihah,
2019). Apple is expected to continuously invest in developing a better and more robust artificial
intelligence program so that it can perform more functions without pushing buttons on the
devices (Yusoff, & Husnina, 2018). These types of capabilities will further improve the ease of
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use and innovativeness which the company capitalizes on. Another factor why the company will
be a top priority for customers is that they plan on investing much on biometrics in efforts to
improve device security and overall cyber-security (Dolata, 2017). In the digital era, device
security will be a top concern among customers because most of the critical data is held on
mobile devices and is thus vulnerable to hacking. In the coming years, customers will most likely
invest in mobile devices and software that has high regard for modern security concerns. These
two are the priority management functions related to the company's plans in a bid to secure the
company's competitive advantage and profitability.
II.
Organizing
Organizing as the second managerial function is focused on ensuring that the established
plans under the planning function are moved closer to realization. Basically, this segment
denotes the distribution of resources including labor, as per the action plan. In terms of
coordination, Apple Inc. intends to hire advanced skills and to improve its human resources
department (Heracleous, & Papachroni, 2016). For many years, Apple Inc. has been accused of
forsaking the working conditions of its employees either in the company or in countries such as
China, where the company has been outsourcing (Soh, & Najihah, 2019). One of the top
priorities of the company in the coming years is to organize their human resource department in a
way it produces quality that favors their customer. One of the top priorities of top organizations
in the twenty-first century is to maintain the working condition of their employees. It is believed
that employees who have better working conditions are more innovative, more productive, and
the company gains the advantage of retaining experienced employees for long periods (Dolata,
2017). In a bid to grow talent, and retain qualified employees, Apple Inc. will have to reconsider
its human resource strategy to consider the rights and necessities of their employees.
FOUR MANAGERIAL FUNCTIONS
III.
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Leading
As the third managerial function, Leading is a key step that involves managing, directing and
motivating the workforce with the intention of attaining a particular purpose of reason.
Remarkably, leading is considered to be the most challenging component of all managerial
activities; because it is a skill-intensive activity that necessitates the investment of time as an
approach to connect with the workforce on an interpersonal level. While focusing on the tech
giant, one strategy that Apple Inc. is mostly bound to adopt is the realignment of its management
structure now that its founder and longtime CEO is gone (Kassema, 2019). Another reason the
company will realign its management strategy is that most of its future employees will be
generation X and millennials who have a different perspective on employment and work culture
(Heracleous, & Papachroni, 2016). Millennials are expected to be the next generation of
managers and supervisors, while generation X, are the new entrants in the workplace. The
entrant of these two generations means that the company needs to organize training programs to
pass on crucial skills that will ensure the sustainability of the company under the control of these
generations. It is important to note that currently, Apple Inc. utilizes the autocratic leadership
style that was previously used by Steve Jobs (Dolata, 2017). However, the later generations are
expected to use a more democratic leadership style, which will make the organization to be more
interconnected with each employee contributing their ideas to help grow the company.
IV.
Controlling
Being the final managerial function, Controlling fundamentally entails monitoring an
organization’s progress towards the fulfillment of its goals. Interestingly, the level of control at
Apple Inc. contributes to the high level of success, innovation, and rapid growth in sales for the
organization (Heracleous, & Papachroni, 2016). The organization is known for excellent
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benchmarks that saturate various territories of the business, including item plan and
advancement, retail, promoting, online deals, mechanical structure, and human asset the
executives. Being successful in promoting and selling these products means that the choice zones
of activities the board underlines quality measures and controls (Soh, & Najihah, 2019). Apple
Inc.'s Senior VP for Operations facilitates with eight other Senior VPs to guarantee consistency
with the organization's quality measures. In this way, Apple has a comprehensive methodology
in ensuring quality to address this choice region of activities the board (Dolata, 2017). The
company has a hierarchical structure and a functional matrix, and it is the inter-divisional
collaboration between leaders and employees that enables the company to be innovative and
profitable.
Conclusion
Apple Inc. is an information technology company that deals with a wide range of
products, including wearable devices, tablets, computers, cellphones, computers, and music
peripherals. Although Steve Jobs advocated for the autocratic management style, the company
has declined to a more democratic management style nowadays. The democratic management
style means that managers and supervisors input major decisions after consulting with
employees. The company is seeking to adopt what is often referred to as a consultative,
collaborative, and participative leadership style. Apple Inc. competes in a market that has
become highly volatile because of the high buying bargaining power and the high demand for
high-end tech in the future.
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References
Dolata, U. (2017). Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, Microsoft: Market concentrationcompetition-innovation strategies (No. 2017-01). Stuttgarter Beiträge zur Organisationsund Innovationsforschung, SOI Discussion Paper.
Heracleous, L., & Papachroni, A. (2016). Strategic Leadership and Innovation at Apple Inc.
SAGE Publications Ltd, 3-23.
Kassema, J. J. (2019). Products and Services Improvement Through Innovation and Creativity:
Case of IT Business Sector. Available at SSRN 3485811. 2-15.
Soh, N., & Najihah, N. (2019). An Analysis Of An Explanation Of Apple Inc. an Analysis on
Qualcomm’s Case. Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, 19(4), 1-10.
Stephens, E., & Martin, B. (2019). Business Policy and Strategic Management. Scientific eResources.
Yusoff, M., & Husnina, N. (2018). Determinants of Risks and Performance in Apple
Inc. Available at SSRN 3181705, 21-33.
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