Introduction
Behavioral science plays a central role in determining the managerial and decision-making processes in organizations by combining psychology, anthropology, and sociology. Behavioral science theories also seek to explain why employees are motivated by factors such as self-actualization, social needs, conflict, and communication effectiveness. First, behavioral science helps leaders and managers understand, predict, and influence behavior to promote financial health and achieve the overall goal (Maynard et al., 2018). This analytical report examines the effectiveness and growth of teams within Apple Inc., describes how leaders’ emotions and followers’ personalities influence motivation and performance, and explores ways leaders can resolve conflicts.
Apple Inc. Company Analysis
A team comprises people who share a common goal, beliefs, values, and ethics, and work together to accomplish a common objective. The popularity of teams in organizations has grown significantly in recent years as more people realize the immense benefits of working together as opposed to working individually. According to Edmondson & Harvey (2018), teamwork achieves far more than what a solo player could within a short time. In support of this argument, Maynard et al. (2018) consider teams the easiest way to meet the desired goals within an organization in less time.
Although team dynamics come into play and may significantly impact the leadership and management of these groups, there is still much that can be achieved within a team, including information sharing, growth in creativity and innovation, capacity building at the individual level, and, most importantly, financial growth. Apple is one of the organizations that has leveraged significant growth, building financial muscle and social success through its teams. The popularity of teams in this organization, their characteristics, success factors, and challenges are extensively discussed below.
The Popularity of Teams
Apple is an organization that has gained global recognition due to the high quality and class of its products. The company specializes in high-quality, branded technological accessories and is widely recognized for its products associated with the iPhone, MacBook, Apple Watch, and iPad brands. The organization has evolved into a significant force in the IT accessories industry and continues to gain popularity, expanding its market coverage.
Despite the high cost of the organization’s brands, the company continues to generate significantly high profits annually and remains resilient even during challenging economic times (Tasnim, 2018). In addition to effective management and leadership within the organization, most of the success witnessed can be attributed to the strong teams and support for teamwork. According to Pulakos et al. (2019), great things in an organization are never achieved by an individual but by a team. The truth of this statement has been demonstrated in the company’s innovation, creativity, and expansion of financial muscle.
First, the organization has made teamwork one of its values. Organizational values are shared beliefs and principles that guide decisions and give the firm direction and purpose. Schwartz’s values model posits that values can be employed to maintain or challenge the status quo, benefit others, and promote oneself. Unlike other companies whose success is unmatched by Apple’s, teamwork is at the center of the organization’s values, extending from top management to the bottom.
Tasnim (2018) argues that managers who encourage teamwork cannot quickly lose focus on the goals as the team members keep them on track. Additionally, since teamwork and team-based approaches are encouraged throughout the organization, employees have adopted a culture of information sharing, sharpened their skills, and become better equipped for the tasks ahead of them. The adoption of teams has enabled Apple to make significant strides ahead of other similar companies and stay on track with the company’s goals.
Characteristics of Teams in the Organization
One common characteristic of teams at Apple is their shared values. In addition to being a team, the members share values that transcend them, and everyone firmly believes in them. Some of the shared values in Apple teams are integrity, hard work, honesty, and accountability. These act as the driving forces that govern the speed at which the teams operate. All team members must ascribe to these values and constantly operate within their dimensions to remain effective (Park & Hyun, 2021). Members who do not share a common guide often drag the team behind, deterring it from achieving its primary objective.
Another characteristic of teams within Apple is that they work together to achieve a common goal. People working as a team must share a common goal; otherwise, they will lack the purpose and direction for their togetherness (Morrison-Smith & Ruiz, 2020). Apple has clearly defined goals for its team members, and the leaders ensure that these are communicated within the groups. To keep everyone motivated and aligned with the organizational goals and those of their teams, leaders ensure that there is effective communication and that everyone clearly understands their roles.
Teams are also characterized by their dynamics, which change over time. Although team members may change frequently, effective team members share common characteristics, including excellent communication skills, cooperation, coordination, comfort, and conflict resolution (Edmondson & Harvey, 2018). These competencies have enabled different teams within the Apple organization to be more successful in their tasks. For example, the marketing department teams can solve the challenges encountered when marketing Apple products and develop strategies that guide decision-making within the department. Working as a team has enabled the organization’s departments to achieve more than they could if teams were not embraced.
Challenges of Operating in Teams
While teams contribute significantly to an organization’s success, they also face certain challenges while operating. First, large teams can be challenging to manage due to their diversity. Communicating effectively in large teams can be a tiresome task, as it involves a mix of people with diverse personalities, characters, and even knowledge and skill sets.
Unlike smaller teams, larger teams require more time to coordinate and communicate roles and member involvement (Maynard et al., 2018). As a result, much time is spent planning and organizing tasks instead of performing the roles. This may cause larger teams to take more time to accomplish their goals, as significant time is spent on planning and coordinating activities.
Another challenge facing teams is a lack of commitment, which is more pronounced in larger teams due to the difficulty of closely monitoring individual contributions. Additionally, it is easy to involve team members who lack the basic competencies required, such as coordination, cooperation, and commitment. When working with large teams, some individuals may decide to take a passive approach and fail to contribute to the team effort (Maynard et al., 2018). This makes the work overwhelming for team leaders and causes the team to fail to achieve its goals promptly. Therefore, there is a high chance of failure when working with large teams due to a lack of commitment.
Lastly, work supervision is minimal in teams as compared to when employees work individually. According to Geihs (2020), companies that strongly promote teamwork hire the best employees, i.e., those with all the required skills and knowledge, and allow them to work independently, thereby bringing out the best in their practice. Employees are thus expected to coordinate their work independently. Unfortunately, teams can allow demotivated employees to take advantage of others and fail to deliver on their part.
Consequently, growth, creativity, and innovation are not fostered in an environment where employees rely on intense supervision to meet their work requirements. Managing teams can be challenging due to the diversity in character, personality, and temperament, which can make the process of conflict resolution more complex. People working in teams require a high level of interpersonal skills to help them coexist harmoniously (Geihs, 2020). Nonetheless, teams and teamwork are significant contributors to Apple’s success, which has gained global recognition and continues to enjoy a wide market share.
Leaders’ Emotions and Followers’ Personalities in Shaping Motivation and Team Performance
Leaders are responsible for influencing the motivation of their followers’ characters and team performance. People working in teams often have different personalities and personal values, which must be redirected toward the goals and purpose of a team without interfering with their personal lives. Three key practices influence team performance: job autonomy, high employee competence, and reward-based reviews (Tasnim, 2018).
Different leaders exhibit varying emotions during challenging times, particularly when working under pressure and managing multiple business activities. They are expected to monitor departmental activities and decisions that influence expenditure, performance, and budget allocation. Leaders’ decisions significantly contribute to the organization and the people who follow them closely, and also inspire the team’s performance.
Most leaders can manage their emotions, regardless of whether they are positive or negative. According to Murray et al. (2019), emotions carry a great influence on people and can either motivate or demotivate them. People who can control their emotions and not necessarily hide have a great influence on the behavior of those they lead. The leaders’ ability to control their emotions displays a strong sense of personality and character that influences most employees (Murray et al., 2019).
Leaders understand that their emotions can easily weaken team performance. For instance, too-friendly leaders often allow most of their team members to use their personal space and may end up sharing personal experiences with them. As a result, team members may eventually lose respect for the leader, and this affects their behavior toward them. Therefore, staying connected at all levels with teams, clients, stakeholders, managers, and employees requires a high level of mental strength, as it is a huge responsibility, and openly showing emotions may not be effective in such situations.
Leaders with solid and effective creative and critical thinking, communication, multi-tasking, and problem-solving skills make sound decisions for their teams and organizations at large. These competencies enable them to stand out, and their followers are inspired by such bold qualities, resulting in improved performance in their roles. Other employees/team members look up to such leaders for motivation, and some even wish to take on leadership positions in the future. According to Jamshed & Majeed (2018), leaders are the sole source of inspiration and motivation to their subordinates, and thus, they should be mindful of their behavior and character. These qualities of leaders shape the teams strategically and positively, increasing overall productivity and promoting team performance.
On the other hand, the personalities of followers play a crucial role in shaping motivation and team performance. Teams are made of people from diverse backgrounds with different personal values and beliefs. However, when they come together as a team, some personal differences that may negatively affect team performance must be overlooked. Team members need to coexist professionally to avoid unnecessary conflicts that can arise from diversity. Additionally, conflict avoidance and resolution techniques are key to team performance, although these may be inevitable due to diversity and personality differences (Rezvani et al., 2018).
Employees can have any of the five big personality traits: extroversion, openness, neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness. Leaders, therefore, have a role in promoting harmony within a team and creating an environment where members feel comfortable and can contribute without being misinterpreted. Followers’ personalities can thus promote team performance when positively managed, provided they are willing to set aside personal differences and work together.
Leaders and Conflict Resolution
Leaders can bring unspoken conflicts into the open without exacerbating them. Although people try as much as possible to avoid them, conflicts often arise when people are working together, especially in teams, due to team diversity and dynamics. Nevertheless, conflicts should not lead to poor team performance as they can be resolved peacefully and effectively by the team leaders (Rafferty, 2017).
Some structural causes of conflicts include failed communication, scarce resources, differentiation, ambiguous rules, incompatible goals, and task interdependence. Leaders can utilize five key approaches to conflict resolution, including forcing, compromising, problem-solving, avoiding, and yielding. There are several ways in which leaders can use these approaches to resolve the conflict causes identified, as discussed below.
First, leaders must possess emotional intelligence when handling either relationships or constructive conflicts. Emotional intelligence enables leaders to distinguish between issues or problems and individuals (Kopp & Jekauc, 2018). For instance, in the case of a constructive conflict, the leader addresses the problem and not the people. Through this approach, the involved parties do not feel victimized or bullied during the conflict resolution process.
Similarly, emotional intelligence enables the leader to handle the parties involved respectfully despite the extent of the damage the conflict may have caused (Potthoff et al., 2020, p. 221). Lastly, it enables the leader to remain emotionally detached during the conflict resolution process. Being emotional in a conflict can lead to making irrational or biased decisions, which may cause further damage.
Another approach through which unspoken conflicts can be brought into the open is through improving understanding and communication. Employees and followers appreciate and understand each other’s perspectives through communication. Often, conflicts arise due to poor communication, which is a common issue in teams (Blair & Desplaces, 2018).
Emphasizing communication allows the conflicting parties to voice their views and reasons for their specific behavior, and through negotiation, a solution may be arrived at. According to Potthoff et al. (2020), most organizational problems can be resolved through the establishment of effective communication strategies. Therefore, leaders can resolve conflicts effectively by promoting and encouraging understanding among employees.
Additionally, through the clarification of rules and procedures, leaders prevent and resolve unspoken conflicts without exacerbating them. One of the main causes of conflicts among employees and team members is concerns about the organization’s operations. Breaking rules and procedures can contribute to both relationship and constructive conflicts within a team (Rafferty, 2017).
For instance, the distribution of resources and task interdependence are the common causes of conflicts, whereby individuals may act guided by personal interests. However, a leader can clarify the procedures for resource distribution and task interdependence and remind the employees or followers of what is expected of them. Changing the interdependence between teams and/or team members can also prevent and resolve these conflicts without exacerbating the situation.
Limited resources within an organization can lead to unspoken conflicts, which can either affect relationships within a team or cause constructive conflict in which people are not directly involved. Although almost all organizations suffer some degree of resource deficiency, this should not lead to conflict, as people can learn to adapt to the available resources and still make them productive (Proctor, 2018). Similarly, a leader can devise a strategy to leverage these resources, enabling every team member to benefit from them. Such an approach, however, may not need to be discussed openly with the entire team; rather, action should be taken and discussed only among the leaders of the affected department.
Lastly, leaders, through the use of emotional intelligence, should not resolve every conflict openly in the presence of other team members. According to Proctor (2018), every conflict is unique and requires a unique way to resolve it. For instance, there are some conflicts where compromising may be the best approach compared to arbitration, while in others, problem-solving, forcing, or yielding is more effective.
Understanding the uniqueness of every conflict is essential to effectively solving it and preventing it from worsening. In conflicts that involve relationships, a leader should handle them among the involved parties and involve a third party only when necessary (Rezvani et al., 2019). Solving conflicts promptly and among the involved parties helps to prevent any further misunderstandings. Leaders should thus be quick to act whenever an unspoken conflict arises and be rational and mindful in devising an effective solution to prevent the conflict from escalating.
Conclusion
This report discusses the characteristics, challenges, and success factors of Apple Inc. teams. The company relies on excellent team performance to build a strong financial muscle, cultivate growth, and achieve social success. Teams are quite popular at Apple, supporting idea sharing, continuous improvement, and accountability among leaders. A key feature of Apple Teams is the shared values of integrity, hard work, and honesty. Nevertheless, the Apple teams face challenges in management, communication, commitment, and supervision. Emotional intelligence and knowledge of personality types, such as the five-factor model, help leaders enhance motivation and performance within their teams.
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