Table of Contents

Apple, Inc.

I.1. Reasons for focusing on Apple

I.2. Apple’s Area of Expertise

I.3. Apple’s Customers

I.4. Apple as an Organization

Motivation

II.1a. Motivation Level at Apple

II.1b. Motivation at Apple is Intrinsic and Extrinsic

II.2. Employee Rewards at Apple

II.3. Motivational Problem at Apple

II.4. Causes and Consequences of Apple’s Motivation Problem

II.5. Causes of Apple’s Motivation Problem and its Effects Across the Organization

II.6. Recommendations on Improving Apple’s Motivational Problem

Organizational Change

III.1. Organizational Change at Apple

III.2. The Change Process at Apple According to Kotter’s Stages

III.3. Employee Reactions to Organizational Change

III.4. Management’s Actions to Lead the Change

III.5. The Success of Apple’s Organizational Change

III.6. Problems in the Change Process, and Recommendations

References

I. Apple, Inc.

I.1. Reasons for focusing on Apple

Apple leads the market in innovative technologies but it was not always so successful. Steve Jobs cofounded the company in 1976 and led the team that came out with the successful Macintosh in 1982. Jobs was ousted from the company in a fight for leadership in 1985, and in the next ten years Apple went downhill.

Apple’s success when Jobs returned in 1997 and with new leadership after his death in 2011 are useful meters to understand the level of success of Jobs’ organizational change. Further, Apple has enough information online to analyze its success in organizational change according to Kotter’s 8 steps to incorporate change in an organization successfully.

Additionally, Jobs was known for pairing his motivational vision of innovation with a tyrannical leadership style. Even though his company is successful, it may be insightful to analyze the influencers of motivation level during Jobs’ reign versus afterward with Tim Cook.

I.2. Apple’s Area of Expertise

Apple’s area of expertise is consumer electronics, computer software, and online services. The hardware category lines include the iPhone smartphone, iPad tablet, Mac computers, iPod portable media player, and Apple Watch smartwatch. The software includes macOS and iOS operating systems, iLife and iWork creativity and productivity suites, the Safari browser, and the iTunes media player. The supplied services include the online services and Apple service shops. Online services include iCloud virtual storage, the iTunes Store, the iOS App Store, the Mac App Store, and Apple Music. Apple service shops fix and replace broken electronics (Apple, 2017b).

I.3. Apple’s Customers

Apple’s customers include millions of personal, academic, and professional users of all ages throughout the world. Apple has 478 retail stores in 17 countries (Rossignol, 2016). Apple has an online store available in 39 countries (Apple, 2017a). Apple celebrated its one billionth iPhone in 2016 (Apple, 2017). CNN Money calculated that the U.S. demographic that spent the most in Apple purchases in 2014 are males 65+. The reason for this may be that grandparents are gifting Apple products to grandchildren or that Apple’s products have become so popular that they are recently getting into the hands of late adopters. CNN Money also found that the largest percentage of Apple purchases by income included those around the $35-50,000 level, with those above and below spending more. CNN Money found that most Apple Music customers are 25-34 years old; that users aged 35-44 spent the most on Apple Watches; and that the largest percentage of iPad customers are seniors 65+ and people aged 35-44. CNN Money further found that the highest percentage of iPhone, Macbook Air, Macbook Pro, and Apple TV customers are aged 25-34 (King, 2015).

I.4. Apple as an Organization

Apple was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne. Apple started off selling Apple I, II, and III’s until the successful Macintosh in 1984. In 1985 Jobs was kicked out of Apple because of disagreements in leadership. From 1985 until 1996 Jobs founded NeXT and worked on computer software that Apple would buy in 1997. During the interim when Jobs was at NeXT, Apple did poorly in the marketplace and was attempting to outsource for software. In 1997 Apple signed with NeXT and let Jobs back into the company. Within the same year, Jobs was made CEO, and the success of Apple is legendary until his death in 2011. Earlier in 2011 Jobs made Tim Cook, Apple’s former Chief Operations Officer, the new CEO, and Apple remains successful to this day.

Currently, Apple has an online store available in 39 countries (Apple, 2017a) and 478 retail stores in 17 countries (Rossignol, 2016). Apple headquarters is in Cupertino, California (Lashinsky, 2015). All senior executives have specialized knowledge and cover the range of Apple’s products and functions. The executives live in Cupertino and work closely with each other, leading Apple’s decision making in a flat structure and power culture (Broughton, 2011). Before Tim Cook’s takeover, Jobs made all decisions for the company, in a spoke-and-wheel organizational structure (Dudovskiy, 2013; Meyer, 2017). Lower down in the hierarchy are Apple’s full time employees, mostly working in marketing and sales. Outsourced across Asia are contract manufacturing employees (Broughton, 2011). The leadership style of the top executives is Telling and Supporting so that they are informed of all decisions going on in the company (Broughton, 2011; Greenberg, 2011, p 497). Managers of full time employees lower down in the rungs tend to use more of the Involving leadership style, giving employees more freedom to make decisions and develop their potential (Greenberg, 2011, p 497; Glassdoor, 2017).

II. Motivation

II.1a. Motivation Level at Apple

The motivation level in the organization is moderate. According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, people must have physiological, safety, belonging, and esteem needs met before achieving the need for self actualization (Greenberg, 2011).

Employees achieve physiological needs of a livable salary and good environment (Glassdoor, 2017). However, Jobs' constant push toward greatness may have broken into employees' work-life balance and stilted total physiological support. The push into employees’ home lives has not gone away under new CEO Tim Cook. Employees must work long hours and take shift times that fluctuate daily so that they do not have a routine (Glassdoor, 2017). This may lend a drop to motivation.

Jobs was fickle in who he fell in and out of love with, both personally and professionally (Katzenback, 2012). Treading on ice throughout one's workday may have taken away employees' need for safety, and may have led to a drop in motivation. Tim Cook is less fickle, and current employees may feel more safe at their positions, leading to a rise in motivation. Even though today’s marketplace runs quickly, Apple makes sure to hire talented people for the long term (Glassdoor, 2017).

Apple employees feel belonging because they share a common culture of innovation and because they speak a common language of Apple technology. Apple hires top talent that convert complex technologies into products that are simple, efficient, and stylish. Apple also has few product lines for each product category so that its products are easy to keep track of. Further, Apple creates a bubble of nativism by fitting their own hardware and software together so that their products only work with other Apple products. This shared language and culture may increase feelings of belonging and lead to high motivation.

Regarding the need for esteem, Jobs was poor at acknowledging any but the top performing employees, and instead of appreciating their efforts he challenged their inventions (Dudovskiy, 2013). While some employees may thrive on this leadership style, it induces turnover from B players (Katzenbach, 2012). Apple's current CEO, Tim Cook, is said to show greater appreciation for Apple's human capital (Lashinsky, 2015), which may increase motivation today.

A debate about Maslow includes three camps. The first believe that a person cannot reach self-actualization if all previous needs are not met. The second camp believes that self-actualization may be reached by those who are willing to risk their other needs for its attainment. The third camp believe that some people never attempt self-actualization because it does not call to them (Dayan, 2016c). Jobs demanded such a high level of performance and creativity that certain Apple employees under Jobs may have achieved self-actualization from being utilized to the full extent of their talents, strengths, and goals despite Maslow’s other needs not being met (the second camp). While A players’ motivation may have been high, B players’ motivation may have suffered. Many B players had clearly defined jobs that required less creative input, and the majority of employees at Apple may not have achieved self-actualization.

Today, Tim Cook is interested in developing employees (Lashinsky, 2015), helping many to achieve self-actualization: “There are limitless advancement opportunities. You work with some very cool people and the leadership cares about your development. You may get coaching but you never get battered or belittled” (Glassdoor, 2017). This may lead to higher motivation from a greater amount of employees.

Overall, employees tend to feel a sense of belonging at Apple. However, poor work-life balance under Jobs and Cook lessen employee motivation because their physiological needs are not being met. While most employees’ needs for safety, esteem, and self-actualization were formerly unmet under Jobs, these needs are now being met under the Cook leadership. Today, only employees’ physiological needs are lacking, and so their level of motivation would likely be moderate.

II.1b. Motivation at Apple is Intrinsic and Extrinsic

Employee motivation is both intrinsic and extrinsic. Intrinsic motivation is concerned with meeting people’s needs, and includes Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and the Job Characteristics Model (Dayan, 2016c). Extrinsic motivation is concerned with performing work in order to affect a change. The main extrinsic goals of employees in workplaces are to promote societal value; to make money in something they like; or to make money in something they want to be good at (Dayan, 2016b).

Apple hires highly talented people in order to improve performance through a culture of innovation (Glassdoor, 2017). Employees at Apple meet their goals, and if they are under time pressure, they remain at work to meet their deadline (Glassdoor, 2017). While it is a high-stress environment, employees remain because the work they do gives them personal satisfaction. “It's a lot of pressure to get things right and drives one to do the best work of their lives. 2+ years later I’m still blown away by the talent and creativity of people I work with” (Glassdoor, 2017).

However, employees request shorter working hours and non-fluctuating shift times from their managers. Their managers say that they are going to fix work-life balance but nothing is being done (Glassdoor, 2017). While most of employees’ intrinsic needs are met, their physiological needs (Maslow) and need for autonomy (JCM) are unmet, and intrinsic motivation remains moderate.

Employees also work at Apple because they believe in the product and because they want to affect change, an extrinsic motivator (Dayan, 2016b). Employees believe in the vision of making education and knowledge affordable through technology: “Working at Apple means that the things you work on get into the hands of hundreds of millions of people” (Glassdoor, 2017). Another employee reports promoting societal value: “We work with geniuses - in every department, We create innovative products that thrill our customers and create new product categories - who else can say that?” (Glassdoor, 2017). Employees also enjoy making money doing something they like: “Easy because the product is great” (Glassdoor, 2017). In addition, employees enjoy making money doing something they are good at: “There are limitless advancement opportunities. You work with some very cool people and the leadership cares about your development” (Glassdoor, 2017).

Motivation is both intrinsic and extrinsic at Apple. This is important because people are often both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated (Dayan, 2016b).

II.2. Employee Rewards at Apple

Apple rewards employees through pay and development. “The pay is decent and the benefits include, 401(k) match, stock purchase options, product discounts and discounts on services across many different areas, education assistance, child care assistance, paid vacation, sick time and other time off options, health club Reimbursment or bike cost set off. You get 1.5 time for OT and it’s pretty much unlimited as long as you don’t exceed 12 hours in a day or 59 total in a week” (Glassdoor, 2017).

Apple also invests in employees’ development: “There are limitless advancement opportunities. You work with some very cool people and the leadership cares about your development. You may get coaching but you never get battered or belittled … They are supportive of individual development and help you to reach your goal.” (Glassdoor, 2017).

II.3. Motivational Problem at Apple

The most frequently reported motivational problem at Apple is work-life balance (Glassdoor, 2017). One software engineer reports long hours: “It's a lot of work, teams are usually strapped for resources and under pressure to deliver on strict timelines leading to high stress and long hours at certain times during the year” (Glassdoor, 2017). An Apple advisor reports fluctuating shift times and weekend work: “The schedule changes every 90 days and you have to bid for your shifts so you never know what you are going to get. This makes it extremely hard to plan your life to far in advance. You are also pretty much assured to work a Saturday or Sunday.” (Glassdoor, 2017). Another employee reports: “You will work 12pm-9pm, then the next day 8am-5pm. then the following 11am-8pm … Expect to work every weekend unless you consistently kiss the toes of management.” (Glassdoor, 2017). A former employee also reported long hours: “The hours each day can be long” (Glassdoor, 2017). According to Bolman’s Human Resources frame, if leadership does not invest in its people they will leave (Bolman & Deal, 2013; Dayan, 2016a).

Poor work-life balance relates to imperfect intrinsic motivation variables. Maslow’s physiological needs and JCM’s need for autonomy are unmet (Dayan, 2016b; Dayan, 2016c; Greenberg, 2011, pp 268-270).

II.4. Causes and Consequences of Apple’s Motivation Problem

Even though employees have intrinsic motivation to work at Apple because their main goals align to its vision (Glassdoor, 2017), their most basic physiological needs (Maslow) and need for autonomy (JCM) are not being met because of poor work-life balance (Glassdoor, 2017).

The Job Characteristics Model (JCM) refers to employees' intrinsic motivation in the workplace and requires that needs of meaningfulness, responsibility, and knowledge of results be met. These needs can be measured through five variables: task variety, task significance, task identity, autonomy, and feedback (Greenberg, 2011, pp 268-270). Jobs was a visionary and communicated the company’s core values often and well to his employees (Katzenbach, 2012; Bariso, 2015). His employees did not lack for task significance and task identity. They understood the impact their work had to others and how they fit into the big picture, even if they were not put on the most creative assignments. Even now under Tim Cook, the culture of innovation is still strong, and employees have high intrinsic motivation from task significance and task identity (Lashinsky, 2015; Glassdoor, 2017).

While the other variables of intrinsic motivation in JCM were infrequently or never met by most employees at Apple under Jobs, most of them are met under Tim Cook. Jobs' power centers may have had more autonomy than lower employees, but because all decisions had to go through Jobs, most people at Apple had little autonomy no matter their structural placement (Dudovskiy, 2013). Even though nowadays most decisions do not have to go through Tim Cook (Broughton, 2011), employees continue to complain about autonomy issues as they do not have good work-life balance because of long hours and fluctuating shift times (Glassdoor, 2017).

The causes of poor work-life balance are a lack of autonomy according to JCM. Autonomy includes the freedom to plan, schedule, and perform the way one wishes (Greenberg, 2011, p 268). But employees have trouble planning in advance when their schedule is recreated every 90 days (Glassdoor, 2017). Employees also have trouble scheduling their week with stable hours (Glassdoor, 2017).

Consequences of poor work-life balance include decreased intrinsic motivation and increased turnover (Greenberg, 2011, p268; Dayan, 2016c; Glassdoor, 2017). Other consequences that may occur from reduced intrinsic motivation are decreased satisfaction of work, decreased quality of work performed, and absenteeism (Greenberg, 2011, p 268).

II.5. Causes of Apple’s Motivation Problem and its Effects Across the Organization

The problem may originate from the company’s strong vision of innovation. Employees are assumed to be so motivated because of the overarching vision of the company. An employee explains that management does little to address the problem: “ZERO ZERO ZERO work/life balance. Execs have been saying for YEARS that they understand and will make it better. But in actuality, it gets worse every year! It is obviously top management LIP SERVICE because if they meant it, they could fix it tomorrow. They have hundreds of BILLIONS in the bank. If they REALLY cared about employee work/life balance, they could bring aboard the right number of folks to make that issue dissolve. Sick of hearing the lies. Just don’t lie about wanting to fix it, when they clearly DON’T care” (Glassdoor, 2017).

The employee is right. Apple has the cash flow to be able to fix this issue. CNBC reported Apple’s cash flow as $246.09 billion this year (Wang, 2017). Perhaps Apple’s culture of innovation creates a high guilt atmosphere for addressing time concerns because the office should be the most important goal of employees’ lives. Not only this, but Tim Cook is known for optimizing the supply chain so much that Apple has full control over supply without ownership (Broughton, 2011). Perhaps his frugality transfers to other areas such as downsizing.

Poor work-life balance affects the company by decreased intrinsic motivation, constructive Glassdoor reviews, and increased turnover (Glassdoor, 2017).

II.6. Recommendations on Improving Apple’s Motivational Problem

Apple leadership can improve work-life balance in a few ways. To improve Maslow’s physiological needs, management can let employees go home sooner.

Further, Apple leadership should consider hiring more employees. Leadership may change hiring practices to hire more people who can help cover the less popular shifts, giving the flexibility for long-term shift assignments.

To improve employees’ ability to balance work and time with their children, Greenberg (2011, p 192) suggests offering company on-site child-care centers so that picking up children is one less worry.

Moreover, management should consider the autonomy variable from JCM and give employees more of a voice in selecting their hours/shift, and offer work from home options.

III. Organizational Change

III.1. Organizational Change at Apple

An organizational change of innovation at the Apple Inc. workplace began in 1997 when Steve Jobs was brought back to the company, and the change continues until today after Jobs’ passing. After Apple ousted Steve Jobs from the company in 1985 it went into a decline from 1989 to 1996 while looking outside the company for new software. During that time the company’s stock price floated under $1 a share (NASDAQ, 2017). Also during that time, Steve Jobs had founded NeXT, the software that Apple would eventually buy in 1997. Since Steve Jobs returned to the company in 1997 until his death in 2011 Apple’s stock price increased to $54 a share (Lashinsky, 2015). Now in 2017, under new leadership that follows much of Jobs’ innovative culture, Apple’s stock price is at $140 a share (NASDAQ, 2017). It seems like Jobs set the change successfully.

III.2. The Change Process at Apple According to Kotter’s Stages

According to Kotter’s 8 steps to incorporate change in an organization successfully (Kotter, 2012), Steve Jobs did all stages.

First, a sense of urgency was already established from 1989 to 1996 by the incumbent leadership at Apple during which time their company was in a decline and they were looking outside the company for new software. Steve Jobs had also established a sense of urgency with his new company NeXT to have a release date by the summer of 1987 because of their window of opportunity to bring something to market that no other company was offering (Bariso, 2015). When Apple eventually bought Steve Jobs’ NeXT software and hired him back to the company in 1997, Steve Jobs brought the same urgency. He identified the most innovative employees and Apple came out with Microsoft Office for Mac and the Apple Online Store in the same year, and the iMac one year later. Each new innovation thereafter came back-to-back because Jobs infuses his employees with a similar sense of urgency.

Second, Jobs formed a powerful guiding coalition. Even before he returned to Apple, several employees from Apple joined him when he got kicked out in 1985 and helped him found NeXT (Bariso, 2015). By following him it showed that they trusted Jobs. Stephen Covey explains how a leader gains trust through four principles: integrity, intentions, capabilities, and results (Covey, 2009). First, Jobs had integrity because not only did he speak about his vision but he lived it every day. When he was kicked out of Apple he founded a startup to continue his vision. Second, while being brusk and throwing out people’s ideas all the time, Jobs had good intentions at heart. He wanted to innovate for students and universities who needed affordable ways to bring a high level of study. Third, Jobs had the capabilities, knowledge, and experience of founding Apple from its beginnings and making it successful. Last, Apple employees followed Jobs when he was ousted because the believed that he would continue to produce results. This was clear when Apple bought the NeXT software years later in 1997, and throughout Apple’s consequent history.

Although Jobs was hired back as an advisor to Apple, he convinced the board of directors to name him CEO (Arlidge, 2014). Jobs found the most innovative employees and put them on top projects and into top positions (Katzenbach, 2012). This made him popular with the leading talent who carried Jobs’ vision to their own teams (Dudovskiy, 2013). Jony Ives, an Apple industrial designer who Jobs promoted to Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, described Jobs as brusque in a way essential to the strength of the company: “Yes, he had a surgically precise opinion. Yes, it could sting. Yes, he constantly questioned. ‘Is this good enough? Is this right?’ but he was so clever. His ideas were bold and magnificent. They could suck the air from the room” (Arlidge, 2014).

Not only were the top performing employees that Jobs singled out highly praiseworthy of him, but Jobs’ innovative spirit infected the rest of the employees who he may have been verbally abusive to but who viewed him as a visionary leader anyway (Broughton, 2011; Katzenbach, 2012). However, Jobs’ lack of acknowledgment of B players may have undermined their emotional commitment and caused some of them to leave (Katzenbach, 2012).

Third, Jobs came built-in with a vision. With NeXT he wanted to bring computing to an affordable level so that universities and students could benefit from simulated lab environments, as the advanced lab hardware were unaffordable (Bariso, 2015). He brought this vision to Apple and he worked with each department to develop successful strategies for achieving his vision.

Fourth, Jobs communicated his vision continually so that his employees remained on track. He explained, “There needs to be someone who is the keeper and reiterator of the vision … it really helps if there’s someone there saying ‘Well we’re one step closer…. The goal definitely exists; it’s not just a mirage out there’” (Bariso, 2015). Also, Jobs encouraged risk taking and nontraditional ideas that were far beyond the current market offerings (Katzenbach, 2012). This is necessary for organizational change because processes must be taken out of the routine in order to form new ones.

Fifth, Jobs removed obstacles to a new vision. Jobs identified high performers and out-of-the-box thinkers and placed them at top positions. Jobs bought high-end lab equipment for his designers (Waugh, 2011). Jobs’ behavior of innovation permeated the company (Dudovskiy, 2013). Throughout this time, Apple products stayed at the top of market trends and Apple’s stock price and cash reserve increased (Lashinsky, 2015).

Sixth, Jobs systematically planned for and created short-term wins. He began a culture of starting improvements to Apple models as soon as the last was released. He rewarded employees by working with the most talented; the majority of employees felt satisfaction in working at a company whose innovations continually swept the marketplace (Broughton, 2011).

Seventh, Jobs did not declare victory too soon. He consolidated improvements and produced still more change throughout the 14 years he worked at Apple after his return and up until his death.

Eighth, Jobs institutionalized Apple’s culture of innovation by anchoring changes into the corporation’s culture. Jobs promoted the most creative and competent. However, while Jobs’ spoke-and-wheel power structure may have been beneficial for Apple during his tenure as he was so innovative, Apple’s future leadership may not be set up for the same role; they would most likely be facilitators of innovation but not innovators themselves (Dudovskiy, 2013; Meyer, 2017). Still, Jobs knew that Tim Cook valued Apple’s culture of innovation and would direct the company’s efforts toward long-term growth with maintaining the culture of innovation as a top priority.

Since Jobs promoted Tim Cook to Chief Operating Officer in 2005, Apple’s stock price had gone into a continual increase (Lashinsky, 2015). Now as CEO, Cook continues to update less popular products like the Apple Watch because it drives sales of the iPhone; similar to how iTunes drove sales of the iPod and ultimately the Mac (Lashinsky, 2015). Tim Cook also continues Apple’s investments in driving the next generation of technology, and Apple continues to acquire technology companies and hire experts in augmented realities in order to lead the future with its products. Cook also promoted Jony Ive - who created the MacBook Pro, iMac, MacBook Air, Mac Mini, iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, iPad Mini, Apple Watch, and iOS - to lead Human Interface (HI) in addition to leading industrial design.

III.3. Employee Reactions to Organizational Change

Employee reactions to the change were mixed but overall positive. Jobs was a tyrannical leader who was less than politic when dealing with people’s feelings (Katzenbach, 2012). Many of his employees began going to therapists because of Jobs’ interpersonal abuse. However, his culture of innovation pushed employees to their creative limits, and the verbally abused employees took pride in the company (Broughton, 2011).

III.4. Management’s Actions to Lead the Change

Steve Jobs created a culture of innovation through a power structure that rotated around him as the sole decision maker (Dudovskiy, 2013). This power structure under Jobs let Apple focus on every detail of their products. Steve Jobs was a brilliant innovator and his ideology of thinking outside-the-box created a culture of innovation in the company (Dudovskiy, 2013). The core features of Apple’s products under Jobs started the company’s legacy of success.

III.5. The Success of Apple’s Organizational Change

The change was ultimately successful because it shows long-term results. Apple rose as a market leader with Steve Jobs at the head and a $54 stock price (Lashinsky, 2015). With subsequent leadership, the company continues successful product innovations in new market technologies that align to their legacy of creating functional, appealing, and simple technology. The current stock price has been rising exponentially and currently stands at $140 (NASDAQ, 2017).

III.6. Problems in the Change Process, and Recommendations

One problem in the change process may have to do with Kotter’s eighth step to incorporating change in organizations successfully: not anchoring changes into the corporation’s culture. This involves two things: putting the right people into the right positions and restructuring the organization for long-term change (Kotter, 2009). Jobs did the former but it is hard to defend him for doing the latter. Apple's organizational structure was of a power culture during Jobs' tenure which let him find highly innovative workers but they all had to be found and make decisions through him. Jobs put the right people in place for long-term organizational change, but the organizational structure itself was beneficial only for him and would need to be changed by subsequent leadership.

It may not be sufficient for the long term to solidify company culture by putting the right people in place. The structural foundation of the company itself must be solidified in a way that enables it to perform when key people suddenly leave the organization. The power structure may work for a highly effective innovator like Steve Jobs, but the next leaders may revert the company culture back to its less successful years if the wrong people take the job: new leaders may be better at facilitating innovation rather than innovating themselves.

At the same time, it is difficult to point fingers at the organizational structure under Jobs not only because of Apple’s success during his tenure, but also beyond. Apple remains a top competitor in the marketplace, and it is apparent that Jobs did things right for long-term change. Since Tim Cook has taken over, Apple has come out with important innovations that customers delight in, buy, and recommend to others. Apple’s stock price continues to increase and went from $54 at the time of Jobs’ death (Lashinsky, 2015) to $139 under Tim Cook (NASDAQ, 2017).

One recommendation to predictably ensure long-term organizational change is that Jobs should had moved the organizational structure from a power culture revolving around himself to a task-oriented culture revolving around teams. Tim Cook had to nudge Jobs' power culture so that all decisions did not have to go through Cook before they could move forward (Imran, 2011; Lashinsky, 2015). But since Jobs put many of the right people into relevant positions before his death, including Tim Cook at the head of the company and Jony Ive at the head of design, Jobs let these people influence a structural change for Apple's long-term growth under leadership change.

Another problem in the change process may have to do with Kotter’s fourth step to incorporating change in organizations successfully: under-communicating the vision. Jobs led through the Telling and Supporting leadership styles, where he either gave detailed instruction or else had to oversee all performance and make every decision. Jobs incorporated less the Involving and Delegating leadership styles. Employees were less empowered to make decisions, and B players, who were the majority of employees, felt less acknowledged for their contributions (Katzenbach, 2012). This may lead to a drop in motivation that continues after leadership change. According to Greenberg (2011, p 497), a leader should use all empowerment and delegation styles at the appropriate times, Supporting and Involving styles being used most often. To further entrench his culture of innovation into the company for the long-term, Jobs should have used the Involving and Delegating styles more often so that employees felt empowered innovate without Jobs around, and more motivated.

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