GROUP ASSIGNMENT organizational behavior JOB SATISFACTION IN APPLE

This research looks into the job satisfaction issue of Apple through 3 main ideas:  Job satisfaction in Apple: the state; problems and reasons.. Vision, Mission and Value Statement of A

NATIONAL ECONOMIC UNIVERSITY BACHELOR BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION IN ENGLISH

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-GROUP ASSIGNMENT Organizational Behavior JOB SATISFACTION IN APPLE

Members: Phan Thi Minh Cham

-11180696

Le Nguyen Han Anh -11186034

Duong Hoang Long - 11183032

Do Le Duy Long - 11183022 Tran Binh Minh - 11183380

Vu Hoang Mai - 11183273 Nguyen Thi Thu - 11184748

Le Duc Thanh - 11184478

August, 2020 Table of Contents

I Introduction 2

1 Research introduction 2

2 Overview about Apple 2

3 Vision, Mission and Value Statement of Apple 2

II Job satisfaction in Apple 2

1 Overview of job satisfaction 2

2 Job satisfaction issue in Apple 4

III Recommendation and suggestion 5

1 Recommendation 5

2 Research limitation 6

3 Suggestion for further research 7

IV References 7

I Introduction

1 Research introduction

Organizational behavior problems always have a great impact on the overall performance

of the organization This research looks into the job satisfaction issue of Apple through 3

main ideas:

 Job satisfaction in Apple: the state; problems and reasons

 Recommendations for job satisfaction problems

 Limitations of the study and suggestion for further research

2 Overview about Apple

Apple Inc is an American multinational corporation that designs and manufactures

consumer electronics and computer software products Apple Computer Company was

founded on April 1, 1976, by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak At the end of August 2020,

Apple’s stock market was nearly 2145 billion USD The company's best - known

hardware products include Macintosh computers, the iPod and the iPhone Apple

software includes the Mac OS X operating system, the iTunes media browser, the iLife

suite of multimedia and creativity software, the iWork suite of productivity software,

3 Vision, Mission and Value Statement of Apple

 The vision statement of Apple:

"Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to

students, educators, creative professionals, and consumers around the world

through its innovative hardware, software, and internet offerings."

 The mission statement of Apple:

According to The Economist, Steve Jobs mission statement for Apple is: "To

contribute to the world by making tools for the mind that advance humankind."

 Value statement:

The value statement of Apple is " Think Different."

4 Apple’s core value

Some of the company’s core value that direct their strategies and products are:

 We believe in simple, not complex

 We believe that we need to own and control the primary technologies

behind the products we make

 We don’t settle for anything less than excellence in every group in the

company, and we have the self-honesty to admit when we’re wrong and the courage to change

 We participate only in markets where we can make a significant

contribution

5 Apple organizational structure

Apple Inc.’s organizational structure contributes to effective and rapid innovation,

which is a critical success factor of the business in the information technology,

online services, and consumer electronics industries The company’s structural

characteristics maintain a traditional hierarchy, with some key elements from other

types of organizational structure Initially, Apple success is linked with Steve Jobs

innovative thinking and leadership Now, under Tim Cook’s leadership, Apple has

made some small changes in its organizational structure to suit current global

market and industry demands

Apple Inc has a hierarchical organizational structure In the past, everything went

through Steve Jobs Jobs made all the major strategic management decisions

However, under Tim Cook’s leadership, this hierarchy in Apple’s corporate

structure has slightly changed The company now has more collaboration among

different parts of the organization, such as software teams and hardware teams

The structure now is less rigid

II Job satisfaction in Apple

1 Overview of job satisfaction

1.1 Theory about job satisfaction

These are a limited number of attitudes that form positive or negative evaluations

employees hold about their work environments These attitudes are closely connected,

and they work collectively to dictate the level of workplace contentment Much of the

research has looked at three main attitudes:

 Job satisfaction: A positive feeling about one’s job resulting from an evaluation

of its characteristics

 Job involvement: The degree to which a person identifies with a job, actively

participates in it, and considers performance important to self-worth

 Organizational commitment: The degree to which an employee identifies with a

particular organization and its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the

organization

Nevertheless, other important attitudes that also have influence over job satisfaction

include:

 Psychological empowerment: Employees’ belief in the degree to which they

affect their work environment, their competence, the meaningfulness of their job,

and their perceived autonomy in their work

 Perceived organizational support (POS): The degree to which employees

believe an organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being

 Power distance: The degree to which people in a country accept that power in

institutions and organizations is distributed unequally

 Employee engagement: An individual’s involvement with, satisfaction with, and

enthusiasm for the work he or she does

1.2 How to measure job satisfaction

There are two main ways to measure job satisfaction

 The single global rating: it is a response to one question such as “All things

considered, how satisfied are you with your job?” Respondents circle a number

between 1 and 5 on a scale from “highly satisfied” to “highly dissatisfied.”

 The summation of job facets: It identifies key elements in a job such as the type

of work, skills needed, supervision, present pay, promotion opportunities, culture,

and relationships with coworkers Respondents rate these on a standardized scale,

and researchers add the ratings to create an overall job satisfaction score

1.3 Factor that have influence over job satisfaction

 Job conditions: it refers to the working environment and all existing

circumstances affecting labor in the workplace, including job hours, physical

aspects, legal rights and responsibilities among which the intrinsic nature of the

work itself, social interactions, and supervision—are important predictors of job

satisfaction

 Personality: As important as job conditions are to job satisfaction, personality

also plays an important role People who have positive core self-evaluations

(CSEs)—who believe in their inner worth and basic competence—are more

satisfied with their jobs than people with negative CSEs

 Payment: Salary is a fixed amount of money or compensation paid to an

employee by an employer in return for work performed It correlates with job

satisfaction and overall happiness for many people, but the effect can be smaller

once an individual reaches a standard level of comfortable living

 Corporate social responsibility: An organization’s self-regulated actions to

benefit society or the environment beyond what is required by law According to

research, people who view their work as part of a higher purpose often realize

higher job satisfaction It means that employees would feel more content if their

company can bring about positive influence for the community

2 Job satisfaction issue in Apple

Job satisfaction is undeniably an important factor for the sustainable development of

human resources as well as organizational performance To be specific, job satisfaction is

related to several issues in the workplace, including job performance, organizational

citizenship behavior, customer satisfaction, absenteeism, turnover, and workplace

deviance Firstly, employee satisfaction is closely related to productivity as it creates a

pleasant atmosphere within the organization for staff to perform in a better and efficient

manner Secondly, satisfied workers tend to talk positively about the organization, help

others, and contribute actively to the better of it Thirdly, in the service industry where

employees have to deal with customers most of their working time, satisfaction is

positively related to customer outcomes Fourthly, a negative relationship exists between

satisfaction and absenteeism as dissatisfied employees are likely to miss work Fifthly,

the turnover rate does have a negative relation with satisfaction; however, it also depends

on the alternative employment opportunities perceived by workers Lastly, dissatisfaction

in employees can lead to deviant behavior in the workplace which includes such

behaviors as unionization attempts, substance abuse, stealing at work, undue socializing,

and tardiness

In Apple’s case, Apple Company is quite good for giving the employee’s job satisfaction

(Mollah et al., 2015) According to Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts, Apple Stores

employees stick with their jobs and had a retention rate of 81% in 2015 In terms of

customer satisfaction, according to a Statista survey in 2017, half of U.S consumers were

very satisfied with Apple’s customer service, with a further 38 percent saying that they

were rather satisfied Only three percent of U.S consumers who used Apple with their

own accounts reported dissatisfaction with Apple’s customer service

However, the company employee absenteeism increases and higher turnover effects in the

company (Mollah et al., 2015) The aforementioned research reveals some employee

satisfaction areas found in Apple stores through the interview conducted in the research.

Such problems relate to the balance wages according to the working load, sufficient

salary, flexible working place, flexible working hours, flexible shifts, improvement of

personal requirement, balance with life and work, improve the working environments,

teamwork, respect, and good behavior get from the managements, give freedom to

express the opinion, etc Additionally, employee satisfaction is related to financial support

like getting a bonus and intensive pension after retirement, getting safety from the

company, etc Environmental issues are also the factors of employee job satisfaction in

Apple For getting job satisfaction in the job place every organization needs to arrange

comfortable and secure working environments Age differences and gender differences in

job satisfaction vary in the company

Generally, problems related to job satisfaction in Apple are mainly resulted from the 4

below factors:

 Underpayment:

Salary is very important for an employee It’s among the primary causes that dictate the

contentment of workers toward their jobs And for such a demanding workload of Apple

Company, a number of employees are reported to feel that their salary does not match

their contribution They believe that they are underpaid as other companies offer higher

wages for the same position

 Inappropriate working schedule for sales employee:

Apple sales employees have different working schedules reassigned weekly for them by

the company Some report that they find it hard to adjust accordingly to this unpredictable

timetable And they said that it is difficult for them to arrange time for their family

 Cultural differences:

In the Apple company, there are workers coming from different cultures, ages, religions

Despite being an international cooperation with a good cross-culture management system

which facilitates people to work smoothly together, misunderstandings and conflicts due

to culture differences still happen in the workplace

 Work stress

As a leading phone manufacturer, jobs at Apple are always demanding and stressful

They require employees to work around the clock to meet deadlines Being forced to

work restlessly, they are more likely to experience exhaustion

III Recommendation and suggestion

1 Recommendation

 Salary consideration based on employee’s contribution:

As aforementioned, underpayment is still a persistent problem with Apple

According to some research, they have pointed out that inappropriate salary can

lead to many problems such as: reduced productivity, job dissatisfaction, and even

employee resigns, therefore, Apple needs to reconsider their pay grade They

should consider a steady pay raise plan and suitable bonuses in order to meet

employees’ needs and heighten their satisfaction However, incentives through

money should be done carefully to avoid backlash Furthermore, the effect of

incentives in cash is less significant once an individual reaches a standard level of

comfortable living

Along with salary, benefits are also an important factor Unlike incentives by

money, Apple can consider giving out benefits/gifts that bear sentimental value to

employees For example: thank you letter from executives, certificate of best staff

of the month, This will make employees feel more appreciated and motivated

 Implement a fixed work schedule for sales employee:

The working schedule of sales employees is mentioned above as a thorny problem

Specifically, sales employees feel that their personal lives are affected by the

unpredictable timetable assigned to them by the company According to some

research, the work-life imbalance is the major factor that leads to the decline of

productivity as well as resentment and lower motivation So, it is crucial to let

employees be able to invest their time for personal needs along with work

Therefore, Apple needs to come up with a better timetable assigning practice for

employees Furthermore, they can consider increasing employees’ paid leave,

holiday entitlement as a way to help them recharge their batteries

 Promote the function of the worker union:

Promoting a work union within Apple corporation can be a good way to increase

job satisfaction The union acts as the voice of the whole employees to convey

their demand to the employers In most cases, the voice of an individual can be

insignificant, and sometimes he/she might bear the risk of being discriminated

against when making complaints individually But the union as a whole could

communicate effectively the desire of workers to employers Also, by involving in

a worker's union, the employees will feel that they have a say in how Apple

operates This eventually increases their job engagement, bringing about higher

productivity

 Show recognition and support:

Workers at Apple can be sometimes mentally fatigued as their jobs are very

demanding So, it’s a good idea to raise their mood by establishing a good practice

of showing appreciation and recognition for employees Workers at Apple would

be very motivated to have a boss who praises them for their good work

Furthermore, it's also encouraging to give timely support to those in need is a good

way to motivate employees

 Promote cross-culture understanding:

In the Apple company, there is a diverse workforce coming from different cultures,

ages, religions These people work collectively to create one of the most powerful

brands in the world And as a well-established international cooperation, it has a

good cross-culture management system that facilitates people to work smoothly

together Specifically, they have a clear policy that all employees must be trained

about different cultures, and the people of Apple must respect each other's

differences Generally, Apple workers collaborate with each other well, but it's

reported that sometimes misunderstanding and conflict still occur in the

workplace So, for that reason, we believe that cross-culture training activities

should be further fortified, strengthen to tackle this problem Moreover, Apple can

consider establishing events where one can freely express their own culture to the

rest of the company This will help to boost mutual understanding while

strengthening the bond among employees

2 Research limitation

This research contains certain limitations that need improving in the future They are:

 The research couldn’t reach the people of Apple We couldn't conduct a direct

survey with employees at Apple company, leading to a lack of sufficient, realistic,

and up-to-date information

 Information found online can be limited, incorrect, and misleading compared to

authentic sources of information collected on respondent surveys, limiting the

scope for analysis

 The research only addresses job satisfaction at Apple corporation as a whole, there

might be a difference among various sectors (for example: manufacturing, product

development sectors) of the corporation

 Since the time available for investigation is limited, the findings were conducted

only for a short period of time, the results and conclusion may not fully address

the problem

 Writers on the internet can have different perceptions about job satisfaction and

motivation due to their cultural differences and personalities, therefore, their work

may contain possible biases which can lead to this research’s inaccurate results as

we use these papers to back up ours

3 Suggestion for further research

 Surveys can be included in future research to gain a deeper knowledge of the

problem

 The next research can extend the scope of study by looking into the satisfaction of

employees different in responsibilities, authority in various sectors of Apple, for

example, manufacturing and product development sectors,

 Future research can develop comprehensive research models and hypotheses to

draw a more reliable conclusion about employees’ behavior

 In future research, in-depth interviews can be used to address the problem at a

profound level of the problem