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Apple Organizational Behavior

Satisfactory Essays

Organizational Leadership and Structure at Apple Inc.

Steve Jobs began Apple Inc. with the notion of “One person- One computer” in hopes of having a personal computer that could be easily used by anyone. As of September 2010 with 46,600 full time employees and 2,800 temporary employees and contractors, this notion holds true today (Apple Inc., 2010). Over the years of Apple Inc. development changes in organizational leadership and structure occurred. Apple’s mission of “changing the world by bringing computers to the masses” brought multiple changes within the company that became a hindrance and a benefit to the company’s growth (Freedman & Vohr, 1989).
Under co-founder Steve Jobs and CEO A.C. Mekkula in 1983, then Apple …show more content…

Schulley designed this new structure in such a way that he could have as many people as possible report to him. A hierarchy was formed within the organization and two competing companies arouse. This re-design also caused internal problems for Apple. Jobs was still head manager over the Macintosh division and was accused of favoritism towards that department which had a demoralizing effect on the other Apple divisions (Freedman & Vohr, 1989). Schulley had to re-organize the structure again, because he noticed things were not working. As a leader under that structure and the division that was occurring, he was losing control of the company. Steve Jobs was overseeing the Macintosh division and communication about this major division was not given to Schulley, yet handled by Jobs. Schulley was not involved in key decisions of the day to day operations.

Schulley re-organized Apples organizational structure in 1985 and brought in a new general manager to replace Jobs. Schulley converted the three product divisions into one called Product Operations (Freedman & Vohr, 1989). He re-organized Apples structure three more times and in 1988 the organization became decentralized. Since Schulley left Apple as CEO, several other CEO’s have changed the structure several times until Steve Jobs returned. New divisions were formed such as international and upon Jobs return

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