Introduction
Not only are administrators obligated to supervise, but it has become a must for them to be productive and competitive in their areas of competence and specialty when paired with abilities, experience, and disposition. When supervisors and managers who control and direct businesses interpret change correctly, it benefits them irrespective of their rank or position. All enterprises are impacted by technological development. There will be a requirement for new forms of management, diplomatic, and social intelligence and a requirement for a novel breed of decision-making mechanism that conventional organizational structures cannot handle. This report discusses the technological forces in the external environment of Apple Inc. that affect its operations and how its current organizational structure copes with the technological changes. Additionally, the paper identifies possible factors that could substitute Jack Ma’s need, founder and manager of Alibaba.
How Technological Forces in the General Environment Affect Apple Inc
Apple’s distant or macro-technology environment’s external forces typically provide prospects for the firm. Therefore, modern innovations and technical developments are analyzed in this part of the PESTEL/PESTLE conceptual approach regarding their impact on business circumstances. The following technical external elements are the most crucial in Apple’s environmental analysis: Rising demand for cloud computing, increasing technological integration inside enterprises, the expanding mobile market, and other expansion of other firms’ technical skills.
Rising Demand for Cloud Computing
Organizations can scale effectively using cloud computing. As their operations increase, they can extend their resources and facilities without estimating server needs or purchasing more hard drive space. Additionally, cloud technology allows firms to scale down to maximize the efficiency of current resources. For example, Apple Inc. uses Google Cloud services to deliver an exceptional backup and synchronization solution (Greg, 2020). The cloud allows Apple products to do automated backups and restorations. As a result, all material and apps on the customer’s devices stay synchronized, thus providing a technological opportunity for Apple Inc. to expand its services.
Growing Technological Capabilities of other Firms
Samsung has had a significant technological hardware advantage over Apple. It is the dominant player in high-end screens, and its smartphones include more sophisticated screen innovation than the iPhone (Greg, 2020). In addition, Samsung and other handset manufacturers collaborate with Google to transform smartphones into virtual and interactive 3d gadgets. Apple’s dominance is eroding due to its vulnerabilities to device transformation in both software and hardware. Apple has slipped behind because its R&D expenditure has trailed behind its competitors for years (Greg, 2020). A dearth of innovation is a depressing sight to witness as a technology leader.
Growing Mobile Market
While technology has always been a determinant of economic growth worldwide, it is only lately that digital technology, like smartphones, has become a key economic force. The expansion of the phone industry as a source of income for Apple Inc. includes revenue from the App Store and other digital streaming channels. Likewise, the evolution of the mobile market as a source of income for Apple Inc. includes revenue from the App Store and other content providers’ channels.
How Apple Inc.’s Current Organizational Structure Copes with Technological Forces
Apple Inc.’s management chart is hierarchical, with distinct divisional features and a weak functional grid. In conventional commercial enterprises, the pyramid is a structural characteristic. The divisional qualities correspond to Apple’s product classifications, such as iOS and macOS (Newton et al., 2019). The following qualities characterize Apple’s corporate structure. First, the spoke-and-wheel hierarchy is a top-down representation of Apple’s leadership context, revealing a significant hierarchy (Newton et al., 2019). The corporation has increased communication across various organizational units, including hardware and software departments. Apple’s vice presidents now have a greater degree of independence, previously restricted and minimum.
Second, product-based segments: both the top and lower levels of Apple’s company structure have product-based distinctions, a feature developed from the divisional business structure typology. Finally, Apple Inc.’s weak functional matrix alludes to the cooperative relationships between different business divisions (Newton et al., 2019). Senior management provides the tone of projects in a dysfunctional functional matrix, while project leaders have minimal power and control. For instance, the company structure enables collaboration between hardware and software teams. Thus, the firm supports the spread of information required for innovative processes.
Apple’s corporate structure is hierarchical, enabling the company to maintain a high level of managerial control. In theory, hierarchy enables top executives like Tim Cook to control the firm. In addition, the hierarchy efficiently controls company operations and product-based groupings via the CEO’s and other senior managers’ actions. This benefit of Apple Inc.’s organizational structure enables speedy and efficient strategic planning execution and contributes to the firm’s overall coherence.
Factors that could substitute the need for Jack Ma are traits that undermine the manager’s authority while assisting team members in increasing their productivity. Additionally, Eva et al. (2021) enumerated that leadership replacement is a trait of a junior, a scenario or setting that functions in lieu of an administrator’s impact and obviates the need for management. Theoretical administration approaches do not account for instances in which authority is not required. The following, as discussed, are some of the substitute factors of Alibaba’s Jack Ma.
Competent and experienced personnel
Competent personnel has received the education necessary to do their duties safely. Knowledgeable workers have received the necessary training to do their duties effectively. Competence demands the acquisition of information and skills and the development of certain other characteristics. Education offers the theoretical foundation necessary for a better-informed individual to perform safely daily. For instance, Alibaba has employed and recruited highly specialized staff to promote the efficiency and success of the company (Lin et al., 2020). Over the past few years, its chief executive officer, Daniel Zhang, has steered the firm to success by realizing higher revenues, thus acting as a substitute factor for Jack Ma.
Cohesive workgroup
Team cohesiveness occurs when a team stays cohesive while pursuing a shared purpose. Being a solid group entails that collective objectives are reached and that everyone believes they have participated to the institution’s ultimate effectiveness. Participants that operate in a consistent unit are more inclined to work toward the action coalition because they are focused on the group as a whole rather than on their selfhood. According to Jack Ma, a strong team with a defined mission and functioning as a unified family can overcome an opponent ten times its magnitude (Lin et al., 2020). Ma inspired the team by instilling an attitude of being a gritty little business prepared to take on heavyweights.
Conclusion
Change is necessary and commensurate with the never-ending transformation inside organizations, across countries, and even internationally. Apple Inc. may use its present competitive strength to increase its reach worldwide in information technology products and services. Apple must, however, create appropriate ways to manage the highlighted concerns successfully, particularly those relating to the regulatory component of its distant or macro-environment. Substitutes are characteristics that undercut the dominance of the management while supporting group members in enhancing their effectiveness. For example, some of the criteria identified in the research that may obviate the necessity of Jack Ma’s management skills include professional and knowledgeable individuals and a coherent workforce inside the Alibaba Organization.
References
Eva, N., Sendjaya, S., Prajogo, D., & Madison, K. (2021). Does organizational structure render leadership unnecessary? Configurations of formalization and centralization as a substitute and neutralizer of servant leadership. Journal of Business Research, 129, 43-56. Web.
Greg, R. (2020). Strategic review of Apple Inc. marketing in the United States of America. Journal of Marketing and Communication, 3(2), 47-61. Web.
Lin, R., Chen, J. J., & Xie, L. (2020). Alibaba Group: The Evolution of Transnational Governance. In Corporate Governance of Chinese Multinational Corporations (pp. 5-44). Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore.
Newton, J., Wait, A., & Angus, S. D. (2019). Watercooler chat, organizational structure and corporate culture. Games and Economic Behavior, 118, 354-365. Web.
Tasnim, M. (2018). An Organizational Analysis on Apple. European Journal of Business and Management, 10(11), 1-6. Web.