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Introduction - Evaluating Leadership and Communication in the Modern Workplace
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The present business world is becoming competitive day by day and because of this, it had become important for businesses to have effective leaders and leaders who can lead them towards achieving their aims and objectives. Leadership is being defined as the process of influencing others and motivating them to work in an effective manner and to reach their goals. The present world depends on the success of the company is depended on the effectiveness of the leaders to lead the company (Donkor, & Dongmei, 2018). Businesses need to have better leaders with better skills and knowledge which can help them in leading the providing an appropriate direction and can also motivate the employees to work effectively for the company and can lead the firm towards success. The leadership implemented in the organization plays a major role in the development and success of the organization as it is having a significant impact on productivity and business performance as well.
The effectiveness of the leadership in the company depends on the skills and knowledge of the leaders and the leadership styles which are being applied by the leader in the organization. There are different leadership styles that are being used by the leaders on the basis of the different factors in which they are leading and the employees of the company as well. It is important for the leaders to implement an effective leadership style which can help them in communicating and connecting efficiently with their employees and can help them in being a successful leader as well (Ciulla, 2020). In the present research, the research would explain the different types of leadership styles and concepts related to leadership in businesses. This researcher would consider the case of Apple, Inc which is a multinational company offering a wide range of electronic products to customers across the globe. The researcher would critically evaluate the leadership style of the leader of the case company and then will recommend and different leadership style strategy which can be implemented to the case company for leading the firms in an effective manner.
Leadership Style in Apple Inc.
Apple Inc’s leadership practices: Apple Inc. is a multinational company that needs to have an effective leader who can lead the company in an effective manner and can lead the firm towards success and continuous development. Apple is operating in a higher competitive industry which needs effective leaders who can lead the company continuous towards development and can also develop the leadership of the firm as one of the biggest strength for the company. The major reason behind the great success of the company is the effective leadership that is being applied to the company which can help them in leading the firm towards achieving its objectives in an effective manner. Leading the human resource belonging to different cultural backgrounds and working in different nations is not an easy task as the leader needs to be effective and should apply the most relevant leadership styles which can help them in leading the firm in an appropriate manner (Ceil, 2018). Apply was earlier lead by Steve Jobs and currently, Tim Cook is leading the company. Tim Cook had taken over Apple after Steve Jobs and had led the company in such a way that the company is continuously growing and ranks among the top companies of the world.
While leading the company it is important for the leader to have better knowledge related to the company, its aims and objectives, its organizational culture, and the way the employees are being managed in the company. If the leader is having better knowledge related to the company then it becomes easier for them to apply effective leadership styles which can help them in being a successful leader. One of the important strength which had helped Tim Cook is leading the firm in an effective manner is that before being a CEO of the company he was the chief operating officer of the company and managing sales operations and supply chain of the company (Kim, 2020). Being an employee of Apple Tim Cook was having great knowledge related to the company and on the basis of it only he had applied his skills and knowledge in an effective way to lead the company appropriately.
Autocratic leadership in Apple : When Steve Jobs was leading the company Apple Inc is having autocratic leadership in the organization. Autocratic leadership is being referred to as a leadership style in which the leader does not pay much attention to employees while taking decisions for the company and prefers to do things on his own and does not involves employees in the decision-making process of the company. Using autocratic leadership can create issues in the company related to employee management as an employee might feel less valued and trust issues can also take place (Chukwusa, 2018). When the employees of the company are not involved in the decision-making process then they believe that the company does not consider them as an important resource for the company and this can lead to a negative impact on employee motivation and job satisfaction as well.
In the present business world, the employees of the company are the most important resource for the company and it is important for the businesses to focus on satisfying employees with their jobs. If the company involves the employees of the company in the decision-making process of the company then it can help them in making the employee feel more valuable in the company. Involvement of the employees in the decision-making process of the company can help the company in increasing employee engagement and can also motivate them to work in an effective manner and deliver better work to the company which can lead the company towards effective human resource management and can lead the firm towards success. The leader of Apple Inc focuses on managing things on his own and is quite strict towards his employee and focuses on bringing perfection (Kahney, 2019). The strict focus on Steve Jobs on implementing the autocratic leadership in the company had helped him in leading the firm towards great success. Autocratic leadership style had helped the employees of the company to become more responsible and accountable for their job roles.
Transformational leadership in Apple : Transformational leadership is also an important leadership style that is highly used by leaders for leading the firm in an effective manner. In this leadership style, the researcher focuses on identifying the required changes in the organization, and on the basis of it, the leader develops better strategies and motivates the employee to work effectively with the change identified. When the leader is focusing on implementing this leadership style then there are chances that the leader might come the with the wrong decisions for the company (Kahney, 2019). Along with this sometimes when the leader focuses on bringing change in the company then there are chances that he might overlook the current situation of the company and the ability of employees to adopt the changes within the organization.
Transactional leadership in Apple Other than this transactional leadership is also implemented in Apple which is helping the leaders of the company to lead the businesses in an effective manner. This type of leadership style focuses on the roles and responsibilities of the individuals within the organization on the basis of their position. When the leader of the company implements this leadership then he focuses on perfect supervision, group performance, and overall business performance as well. In this leadership style, the leaders focus more on tasks and performance of the employee and focus less on developing relationships within the organization with the employees and other executives. When the employees of the company are not having better relations with the leaders when it is having a negative impact on the overall human resource management. Interpersonal relationships play a major role in creating a positive workplace environment and also develop effective teamwork skills among the employees (Snouffer, 2018). It is important for the leaders to focus on developing better relationships with the employees which can help them in managing the business performance in an effective manner.
Democratic leadership in Apple: The organizational culture of Apple Inc is highly focusing on tasks as the founder of the company had implementing autocratic leadership in an effective manner but things have changed to a greater extent after Tim Cook as he had implemented democratic leadership. He is also one of the most effective leaders of the world which are doing excellent work to lead the firm towards success and development. Tim focuses on the implementation of democratic leadership as he believes that this is the most effective leadership style which can help the employees to feel motivates and can inspire them to work in an effective manner. Making use of autocratic leadership style had helped the cited company in the number of the way when the employees of the company are being involved in the decision making then it turns to make better decisions for the company (Peker, et. al. 2018). The entire senior management of the company had started making more effective strategic decisions for the company which is an important success factor for the case company. Along with this, the implementation of the leadership style had helped the case company in developing better employee relationships which are having a positive impact on the overall management of the company and had also increase job satisfaction and employee engagement.
New Leadership Style Strategy Plan
New leadership style for Apple : The present business world had changed to a greater extent and it had become important for businesses to focus on developing better strategies and plans which can help them in being a successful organization in the 21st century also. With the technological advancement and increased globalization, things have changed to a greater extent for the businesses and it had become more complex for the managers and the leaders of the company to manage and lead the firm effectively as the complexities had also increased. Leadership needs to be updated or the leaders need to focus on implementing better and effective leadership styles which can help them in leading the firm and employees effectively in the highly competitive and complex business world (Fiaz, et. al. 2017).
In the present business world, the employees want to get freedom while working in the organization and if they are being led by the autocratic leadership then it would lead to dissatisfaction and will affect the performance of the employee within the business organization. Apple is having a higher number of employees who belong to different socio-economic cultures and this makes it more difficult for the businesses to lead the employees in an effective manner. The case company should focus on developing better trust towards their employees and in the present scenario, it can be said that it is important for the company to implement Laissez-Faire leadership in the organization (Fahlevi, et. al. 2019). As apple focuses on bringing better innovation in the company for which they focus on better idea generation and when the Laissez-Faire leadership would be implemented in the organization then it would motivate the employees to feel free and focus on being creative while working and generating new ideas.
The individuals in the 21st century want to feel free while working and want to be less by the leader who can trust them and this makes them feel comfortable in the workplace. If the employees of the company feel free to work in the workplace then it is having a significant impact on employee satisfaction which is having a positive impact on the performance of the employees in the organization and in the overall business performance as well. When the leader of the company implements the Laissez-Faire leadership style then it would also help them in developing better relations with the employees which would create a positive organizational culture. Better relationship in the organization helps the businesses in developing positive attitude among the employee towards the organization and it also enhancement the employee engagement in the organization (Chen, et. al. 2019). Along with this better involvement of the employees in the organization makes them feel more valuable in the organization which is important for enhancing job satisfaction and motivating them to deliver high-quality work in the company.
Laissez-Faire leadership style is an effective leadership style that can be accepted by the case company and along with this, the case company can also use situational leadership which can also help them in leading the company towards success. If the leader focuses on using the situational leadership style then it would help them in managing all the different situations in an effective manner and this will help them in enhancing the overall productivity of the company. The leader of the company should focus on understanding the employees of the company in an effective manner which would help them in applying different leadership styles on the basis of different situations (Gandolfi, & Stone, 2018). Effective use of the leadership styles with situations can help the leaders in dealing with all the situations in an effective manner and managing the organization more appropriate manner. The existing organizational environment is highly attractive and having better employees who can accept the different leadership styles in an appropriate manner. As found in the research that the company is having both autocratic and democratic leadership style and if the leader of the company implement to these leadership styles on the basis of the different situations than it would be great.
Proposed leadership style and culture of the organization : Businesses need to understand that the leadership style which is being implemented in the organization is having a significant impact on the culture of the organization. Or it can be said that the leader should focus on implementing the leadership style which suits well with the organizational culture of the firm because if both of these align well with each other then it would help the businesses in leading the firm towards success and development (Jardon, & Martínez-Cobas, 2019). The organizational culture of Apple focuses on bringing innovation in the company but for bringing innovation it is important for the company to have employees with better creativity skills so that they can use their skills and knowledge in an effective manner and can bring better innovation in the organization.
The suggested leadership style promotes a high level of creativity in the organization and if the employee of the case company would focus on creativity then it would help them in working effectively in bringing innovation in the product range of Apple which is the most important thing for Apple. It can be said that the suggested leadership style would align well with the organizational culture of the company and it would help the leader in leading the firm towards its aims and objectives in an effective manner. With better freedom of idea sharing and better communication, the relationship among the employees would also increase and this will help the company in creating a positive organizational culture in the company. If the employees of the company are happy with the culture of the firm then they will reflect a positive attitude in the organization and this will have a positive impact on the overall business performance and productivity.=
New leadership strategy and departmental communication in the company : Apple is not an easy company to manage or to lead as it involves a lot of complexities due to a higher level of complexities in the organization. The business is operating at an international level and is also having a large number of stores in different nations due to which the leaders or the managers of the company need to manage all the different departments and sub-departments in an effective manner. The business needs to have an effective leader who can develop better strategies and policies for developing effective communication among all the different departments within the organizations (Al-Awlaqi, et. al. 2021). Departmental communication is very important for proper business management because if the departments are not having better communication among themselves then it would lead to great complexities and issues among the departments which would affect the overall business performance. If the organization focuses on implementing the suggested leadership style then the leader of the company should also focus on developing better communication among the employees and the executives belonging to different departments. Apple is having highly skilled employees belonging to different cultural backgrounds and having different knowledge but if the company would have better communication at the department level and among all the different departments as well then it would help them in better idea-sharing.
21st century technologies for communication in Apple : Being a technologically advanced company, the Apple should also focus on using the latest technologies which can help them in developing better communication among all the different departments and among all the employees of the organization (Kao, 2018). Apple should use the technologies such as social intranet software which is one of the latest technologies which can be used by businesses for developing effective internal communication in the organization (Stich, et. al. 2018). This is an effective tool that can be used by businesses for creating better interconnectivity, communication, and collaboration among all the different departments which can lead the firm towards better idea-sharing and helps in better human resource management as well. Using this technology would help the businesses in creating a more convenient network for communication in the organization.
Along with this, Apple can also use the unified communication system which is an integration of the real-time and near real-time communication systems. If the company is unifying the different communication systems within the organization then it would help the company in reducing the extra cost of infrastructure and it would make the entire system more convenient to use and make communication more effective. As the company is offering the Apple devices to all the employees of the company so the case company can also create a communication system that can be easily assessed through mobile phones only which would help them in better communication (Yin, et. al. 2018). Or the company can also make use of cloud-based applications for developing better interactions among the different departments of the company.
With making changes in the leadership style and the technologies used for the communication the company should also focus on developing an effective leadership strategy that would help them in making the leadership style more effective to the company. The leaders can also make changes in the existing reward system of the company as the company is already offering rewards to the employees on the basis of the creativity and independent thinking skills and their ability to generate new ideas for the company. Organizations should develop better strategies for rewards that can help them in making their leadership more effective (Briken, et. al. 2017). It can be said that the organization should focus on implementing the leadership styles in an effective manner and developing strategies so that the plan which is recommended for the company can be more effective and can help the company in leading the company towards success and development (Al Khajeh, 2018).
Conclusion
Leadership is one of the most important success factors for the organization as it is important for the company to have an effective leader in the company for leading the firm towards success and development. The above-mentioned research report had evaluated the leadership practices of the case company Apple Inc. and had critically evaluated the leadership styles of Apple. In this study, it is being found that Apple Inc is focusing on making use of the Autocratic, democratic, and also transformational, and transactional leadership styles that are also applied in the organization for motivating the employees and leading them in an effective manner. Both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook had implemented these leadership styles effectively while leading the firm and Tim cook is still leading the company towards better success and growth. On the basis of the evaluation, it can be said that the company is having better leadership styles and strategies which is helping them in better management. But with the changing business world and shifting mindsets of the employees, it had become important for the businesses to focus on redefining the leadership strategy of the company.
In this research, the researcher had suggested the leadership style which can help the company in leading the firm in an effective manner. The report had proposed Laissez-Faire leadership which can help the company in managing and leading the employees of the 21st century in an effective manner. This leadership would provide better space to the employees of the company to work with full freedom and also help them in generating better and effective ideas which can lead the firm towards success and development. Along with this, the report had also emphasized that it is important for businesses to develop effective departmental communication in the company which is important for making leadership much effective and creating better integration, cooperation, and collaboration among all the different departments. The report had also suggested some of the latest technologies which can be incorporated with the present networks of the company. These technologies can help the company in developing effective communication among all the different departments of the company.
From the above-mentioned report, it can be concluded that it is important for businesses to focus on having an effective leadership strategy and they should focus on implementing the leadership style which aligns well with the organizational culture. The selected leadership style should help the businesses in leading the employees effectively and the companies should make changes in their leadership strategy with the changing market trends and employees mindsets as well.
References
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