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Apple Organizational Behavior

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Organizational Leadership and Structure at Apple Inc.

Steve Jobs began Apple Inc. with the notion of “One person- One computer” in hopes of having a personal computer that could be easily used by anyone. As of September 2010 with 46,600 full time employees and 2,800 temporary employees and contractors, this notion holds true today (Apple Inc., 2010). Over the years of Apple Inc. development changes in organizational leadership and structure occurred. Apple’s mission of “changing the world by bringing computers to the masses” brought multiple changes within the company that became a hindrance and a benefit to the company’s growth (Freedman & Vohr, 1989).
Under co-founder Steve Jobs and CEO A.C. Mekkula in 1983, then Apple Computers Inc. was under a centralized organizational structure. The authority to make decisions was restricted to higher level management and these managers would still report to Markkula (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn and Uhi-Bien (2010)). Apple’s structure consisted of five product divisions, four product support divisions and numerous administrative departments. These divisions would report to Jobs and Mekkula and final decisions would rest with them. This division created divisions within the company, and newly hired CEO John Schulley stated
“As a member of the executive staff, I came away with a clear impression that there wasn’t a common understanding of the company we were trying to build. In fact, there were many, competitive fiefdoms. A group called PCDS (Personal Computer Systems Division) was responsible for the development and marketing of the Apple II. Within that division was a smaller splinter group in charge of the Apple III. There was the Lisa computer division, and Steve’s Macintosh team, which hadn’t yet introduced a product” (Freedman & Vohr, 1989).
This observation caused Scully to re-organize and

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