This paper seeks to analyze and evaluate public relations practices in the Apple Corporation. It also seeks to assess and address the aspects that are related to factors that empower employees and provide the communication of vision by the leaders. The paper also seeks to discuss issues related to controlling agents and the factors that lead to controlling agents in addition to the influence public relations has on shaping the public opinion about the company.
Thesis Statement
The Apple Company is one of the most popular companies in the United States of America as well as in the whole world. The company is so popular because of its hardware products like ipad, iphone, and ipod. However, the company has not always been that popular. It has experienced numerous rises and falls, which have contributed to the company’s popularity and recognition all over the world.
Public Relations Practices in the Apple Corporation
Steve Jobs who was one of the visionaries and leaders in the Apple Corporation provided the best leadership and market genius in the organization. The founder’s business performance focused on product publicity mastery and product promotion strategies. The Apple Company has been known for attracting consumer attention by introducing new, unique, cutting-edge products into the market. By doing so, the organization has received many pre-introduction favors from the media and reporters, which is an exclusive marketing strategy for the products publicity (Johansson, 2011). Apple’s innovative world leadership is also attributed to the public relations practices that are used in the company. The crucial question here is whether the Apple leadership empowers the company’s employees. Well, with the help of public relations strategies used in the company, Apple’s employees are not only empowered, but they are also helped and motivated to achieve the goals of the company. Another important question here is whether the leadership strategy was transformational or transactional or both? The transformational leadership process contributes to the appearance of agents of collective goal achievement; this is possible through overcoming personal concerns of the staff and employees. Transactional leadership is based on the way employees are motivated; their motivation usually happens through the adaptation of the system of reward and punishment. In view of the information mentioned above, the leadership adaptation style in The Apple Company is transactional and transformational in relation to the achievement of the desired goals. The leadership ladder is essential because it helps to distribute responsibilities and duties among the staff and employees from higher management levels to lower levels of employees. In this way, the leadership in the Apple company uses a “best to best” method to facilitate the communication of the company’s vision to the staff and employees. In this way, the Apple leadership is able to communicate the essential goals to the staff in order to ensure that all employees understand and are aware of the company’s goals (Borris & Steuerle, 1999).
The control over a company lies on its leadership and stakeholders. Controlling involves checking the goals against the results. If the results do not reflect the goals of the company, then resolutions are made in order to achieve these results. The ways of controlling a company include: a structure and organization design; looking into the financial output; identifying the behavioral organization and cultural reward systems. These ways will not only help to control the company, but they will also help to come up with resolutions if the results do not reflect the goals set by the company.
Apple’s Media, the Media Sites and Other Venues in the 21st Century
It is necessary to note that Apple products such as iphones in collaboration with media sites have a significant impact on the process of international students’ adaptation. In the 21st century, many organizations are being integrated into various social media through marketing and communication methods in regards to marketing and networking. Social sites have helped The Apple Company to build a relationship with their customers, investors, and other businesses through social networking. This simply means that the use of social media is a marketing strategy that has helped The Apple Company to market its products.
Apple uses social networking to adopt a unique style in leadership, which includes organizing and planning; organization structure and design; staffing functions human resource management; encouraging and understanding team work; rewarding and motivating employees; interpersonal and communication skills; controlling functional links; and ensuring quality productivity and management. Most of these leadership functions have been adopted and put into practice while planning and managing changes, functions, and control in the organization. A planning function is an extra ordinary function that allows drawing up an elaborate map that helps the company to achieve the desired and specific goal. The organizing function in The Apple Company has been made possible because a plan was worked out and adopted initially. This function has helped the management of the company easily organize the staff and employees, so that they will be able to achieve the desired goals of the company (Young & Simon, 2005).
The staffing function has helped to define all relevant aspects that are connected with employees or staff in the organization. This function entails staff training, staff recruitment, development of the staff’s educational skills, and improvement of the skill levels. The leading function involves more than just a plan. It involves communicating, motivating, encouraging, and guiding. In this way, the leader is in charge of the company and all aspects that are related to the employees. Controlling prospects of the company involves continuous checking the company’s systems. The leadership of The Apple Company always checks the results of the management systems and find out whether the results coincide with the company’s goals. If the company falls short of the goals, then the leader should look for a solution to this problem.
Crisis Faced by the Apple Organization
The Apple organization has faced many different crises. One of the crises that the company has faced was an error in the reduction of the iphone price by nearly $200. However, Steve Jobs apologized to all customers through an open letter. In the letter, the CEO admitted the error. Additionally, in order to handle the crisis, Jobs announced that the company would give a $100 discount to anyone who would buy an iphone. This ‘ipology’ attracted many reviews and was hailed all over the world. In this way, the company got a positive publicity that caused The Apple Company to glow all over the world. This was a unique way of making lemonade from lemons.
Another crisis that The Apple Company faced was the disclosure of information to the public and investors. The disclosure of information about Jobs’ poor health almost caused a downfall in the company. This was because Jobs did not respond to the rumors; he did not provide updates on his health or inform the public on the issue. As a result, the investors and customers panicked. This happened because both the investors and customers doubted if there was anyone who would be able to replace Jobs. Jobs’ health status became material information (Cruikshank, 2009). This means that most shareholders and investors were careful while making decisions about holding, buying or selling the Apple stocks. However, Jobs had to leave the company because of his health conditions. As a brilliant public relations leader, this move helped to assure the company’s investors that The Apple Company would remain on top of the charts even in his absence.
Non-profit Organizations
Non-profit organizations are formed in order to benefit the public through mutual benefits in pursuit of profits for the investors. This generally means that non-profit organizations are entities and organizations that are opposed to governmental organizations. This sector is referred to as an independent or third sector. Also, this sector can be called charitable, tax exempt, philanthropic, and social one.
Non-profit Organizations vs. Profit Organizations
Non-profit organizations focus on political, historical, and economic theories. The market failure theory suggests that it is not enough for people to desire a program or a service in order to attract attention of non-profit organizations. This happens due to the fact that non-profit organizations are not profit-oriented, but they are focused on instilling trust in society and community. The Government failure theory suggests that the government is not able to provide high cost services. In this way, the services provided by the government to the public are extremely limited. As a result, in order to respond to the demands of the community and people from particular communities, non-profit organizations provide the most required services and support the majority of efforts and initiatives of citizen. This simply means that non-profit organizations chip in where the government is not able to reach.
Non-profit organizations also focus on the historical theory (Cruikshank, 2009). This theory suggests that communities in different countries had existed long before the government existed. In this way, issues should be addressed within the community, and people in the community should work together to come up with a solution. In this case, the communities do not have to ask for solutions from the government, but they can solve their problems at the community level. Non-profit organizations provide a strong foundation for community-based solutions. The political science theory suggests that non-profit organizations are responsible for providing avenues and solutions for civic participation. In this way, people from the community are able to work and assemble in order to achieve a common goal. Therefore, the goal of the third theory is to provide a solidarity and pluralism outlet in the community.
A non-profit organization performs critical functions in the life of society. These functions include: service provision; value guardian; social capital; advocacy, and problem solving. Non-profit organizations carry out the service provision functions by providing services and programs to the community. In this way, they are able to react to the community’s needs that are not met by other organizations. As a result, non-profit organizations are able to respond and react to an issue fast enough and come up with a suitable solution. A non-profit organization carries out value guardian functions in order to promote and provide individual initiatives and mechanisms for the good of the public (Salomon, 1999). This simply means that a non-profit organization attempts to bring about positive changes in the community. A non-profit organization is also committed to advocacy and problem identification. In this way, non-profit organizations provide a number of means by which public attention can be drawn. This helps non-profit organizations to identify significant political and social concerns. They also help to represent underprivileged people in the community. This assists in integrating the activities of non-profit organizations into political and social life of the community.
Non-profit organizations also provide solid capital functions. In this way, they are able to bridge the gap between democracy and capitalism. This gives the community a sense of belonging and an opportunity to engage in social welfare of the community. It is also necessary to note that these organizations receive almost 10% of their incomes from donations. These donations earn interest from investments and are generated from the sale of products and government grants and contracts. The key component in non-profit organizations is volunteerism. This happens because non-profit organizations consist of fundraisers who are volunteers, board of directors who are volunteers, and volunteers in staff management and service delivery.
On the other hand, profit organizations such as the Apple Corporation are not able to respond or react to people’s special needs at all. This happens because they are focused on making profits from selling their products and innovations to people. This is the most outstanding and fundamental difference between The Apple Company, which is a profitable organization, and a non-profit organization, and this is the main reason why these organizations exist (Timothy, 2011). This simply means that profit companies such as The Apple Company are founded generally to bring and generate profit for their stakeholders. On the other hand, nonprofit organizations are founded in order to serve environmental and humanitarian needs. In this case, the income of non-profit organizations is channeled into services and programs which are meant to meet the needs of the community. The Apple Corporation introduces their services and products into the market in order to get value for the innovations and the production. In this way, the company distributes its profits between its shareholders, employees, and the owners of the company.
The Apple Company and other profit organizations depend on the cash that is generated from their sales. On the other hand, non-profit organizations rely on grants and donations from government entities, individuals, organizations, and donors. The Apple Company and other profit-making companies are taxed in many different ways. However, the taxation method depends on the form or type of business. Non-profit organizations, on the other hand, are exempted from tax. The human resources aspect in profit companies such as Apple is stable, which is not the case in non-profit organizations. This simply means that these two types of organizations differ in the hiring and firing procedures, communication and motivation of employees, and salaries of employees. Non-profit organizations have no leaders. This is because they are not owned by any founders. Also, the paperwork load in such organization is overwhelming.
Similarities between Profit and Non-Profit Organizations
These two types of organizations are similar in the context that they are both created in order to fulfill some specific needs in the marketplace. Both types of organizations also focus on making a positive difference in society and respond to people’s demand. Employees in both types of organizations are also paid salaries for their work done. In conclusion, both types of organizations are driven towards making change in the areas in which change is mostly needed (Horn, 2009).
Conclusion
The Apple Company has been taught many painful lessons from its mistakes and gains. The way the company has dealt with its mistakes was due to the proper management and human resources strategies applied by the company, which has led to its popularity and recognition all over the world. In this way, rises and falls the company has experienced have not been disastrous. On the contrary, they have helped to increase and generate profits. The company’s inventions and reinventions have also significantly contributed to positive public relations practices in the organization. This paper has analyzed the leadership styles and the way a leader should fulfill functions of management. It has looked into the methods and functions of management that have been used by The Apple Company in order to achieve its goals.