Apple - Ethical Human Resource Policies - Case Study Example

Human Resource Management University’s Name: Submitted By Names: Tutor: Date: Part A Organization structure is some of the key factors that define success of large companies like Apple. Apple still maintains a traditional hierarchical structure despite the fact that some little changes have been made by various income CEOs (Meyer, 2015). Almost everything that goes on in the company must pass through the CEO and the top management. However, there is some form of collaboration between various departments like software and hardware teams. The upper tier of the company has more of function-based groupings, where every senior manager handles a business function. The lower tier of Apple, on the other hand, has product-based groupings, where the company has many vice presidents who manage different outputs or products. But the VPs must still report to the CEO of the company. In general, Apple has a hierarchical organizational structure. (Dediu, 2013) The organization culture of a company is important in determining in ability in terms of supporting the necessary changes, coming up with effective policies and strategies that can enhance the general performance and productivity of a company. Apple’s organizational culture is geared towards ensuring that employees are properly developed and equipped to facilitate innovation in the company (Meyer, 2015). Some of the key features of organizational culture that define Apple include top-notch excellence, creativity, and innovation. The selection policy of the company ensures that only the best workers are employed in the company while at the same time employees are employed based on their skills and creative abilities. The company also highly embraces innovation, as it encourages all its employees to be innovative in whatever they are doing to enhance the performance of the company. Innovation is at the heart of Apple and it is regarded as one of the most innovative companies in the world. Every senior vice president (SVP) in the company has a certain business that he or she manages. The company has a SVP for industrial design, marketing, production and retail. The company has various vice presidents who work under SVPs and the former handle various outputs or products (Meyer, 2015). For instance, the company has a VP for its iOS apps, iPad, and consumer apps. The relationship between management and leadership in Apple is hierarchical in mature because the SVPs report to the CEO and VPs report to the SVPs. However, the CEO of the company still overseas all the function and operations in the company. Part B Like the hierarchical organizational structure of Apple, its recruitment, selection, induction, training and development process is hierarchical because the top management participates in the process, as the company is geared towards acquiring innovative-minded employees. For instance, Steve Job personally interviewed about 5000 potential employees in the company before he retired. However, there is some collaboration in the recruitment and selection process as each department of group on the company is entitled to have their own hiring process and they collaborate when need be to come up with the best employees (Apple, 2015). The company also has highly integrated and strictly controlled training and development process. Human resource planning generally refers to the process where a company determines the staffing support that is needed to meet its goals and objectives. Apple’s human resource planning process is designed in such a way that it gets the right personnel doing the right job or playing the right role. The company also goes ahead to train the right experts to play the right role, and to retain the right person in the right position. Therefore, the company’s human resource planning process is to have the right people doing the right job to enhance effectiveness and efficiency, as well as creativity and innovation. Apple should adopt human resource management approach and not personnel management approach because the former encourages modern ways of managing employees in a company. Even though the personnel management approach will ensure that Apple retains its organizational culture and key values, human resource management approach is flexible and it will ensure that employees adapt to the inevitable changes in the business environment. Human resource management approach will also ensure that employee satisfaction is driven by performance and it will also ensure creativity of employees. Therefore, the company needs to adopt human resource management approach to adapt to emerging trend in the industry. The recruitment and selection process for Apple should aim at getting the best candidate for each job or role. Therefore, when recruiting and selecting new employees, Apple should first identify and evaluate the need for the vacant position before developing recruitment and selection plan. Then, the company should come up with competent recruitment and selection committee that will effectively implement the plan. The company should also have a well-thought out induction process that ensures that the recruits are comfortable and they are able to effectively accomplish their assigned task (Apple, 2015). The company should first come up with induction plan to identify personal needs of new employees, identify the policies and procedures that they should understand and comfortable working environment before executing induction process. The training and development should ensure that employees have the necessary skills and knowledge needed to effectively accomplish their roles. Part C Ethical Human Resource Policies i. Recruitment: Apple’s recruitment ethical policy should ensure that job seekers are treated equally and the recruitment process has no single form of discrimination based on gender, race, religion, political affiliation, and sexual orientation. Recruitment process should also be free from any sexual harassment. At the same time, jobseekers should ensure that their resumes are accurate accept the verification of the relevant documents required, including personal verification. ii. Selection: The selection process of Apple should ensure impartiality at all stages and the company should ensure that all individuals and stakeholders involved in selection process are held accountable for their decisions. The selection process should also be open and should also be of high integrity, as the company ensures that the process abides by the required standards, guidelines, values, and rules. iii. Induction: The induction process in the company should ensure that new staff is familiar and comfortable with systems, policies, environment, and procedures within Apple. The induction process should be done in fair manner to all the new recruits without any form of discrimination or biasness. iv. Training and Development: All employees should be included in the training and development process and no one should be excluded based on gender, race, ethnicity or age. Employees should be treated equally during the training and development programs. Apple employees should not be forced to attend training and development programs that might be offensive or defamatory in nature. In addition, the training and development should be based on areas of expertise of employees attending the programs. v. Performance appraisal: The primary objective of conducting performance appraisal in Apple should be to ensure honest assessment of the performance of employees and to come up with plan to improve their performance and effectiveness in their roles. All employees should be involved in the performance appraisal process for them to have confidence in the process. Managers should not use performance appraisal process to victimize their juniors or to force their loyalty. The performance appraisal done by Apple should be to develop employees and not to threaten them. vi. Grievance: Apple should have a clear and effective communication channel to enable all workers to report any form of violation or grievance. There should be a venue where both the management and staff can discuss issues affecting workers. Every worker should be able to access the grievance channels put in place by the company. The grievances procedures that ensure the confidentiality of the workers reporting their grievances. There should be transparency in solving grievances. vii. Stress and counseling: The counseling should be done with professionals who understand counseling code of conduct and rules. The company should effectively balance the need of employer and employees during counseling. The personal problems of employees should be made private and should not be discussed in public. viii. Pay and Reward: The reward should be fair across all employees and there should be no form of discrimination in the pay and reward process. Part D Performance appraisal is one of the most important human resource roles in an organization, but if a company fails to do it in an appropriate manner, it can be harmful. Therefore, large companies like Apple need appropriate performance appraisal to boost performance of employees, which will in turn enhances the productivity of the company. Apple should consider all ethical issues when conducting performance appraisal. In order to introduce ethical performance appraisal, apple should use both performance rating scale and performance appraisal interviews. The appraisal interviews should not be unidirectional for them to be ethical, but should incorporate interaction between the employer and employees (Misiak, 2010). To remain ethical, employer should neither compare nor contrast employees with other workers in the company. In addition, the company should adhere to rules when giving out negative performance appraisal results (Katz, 2001). The number of people engaged in performance appraisal process should not be too small to ensure objectivity and fairness. Finally, Apple can introduce ethical performance appraisal by ensuring that only people with desired qualities are allowed to conduct performance appraisal because such people can easily respect core principles of performance appraisal like appropriateness, uniformity, openness, and universality. Managers involved in performance appraisal should have certain trainings to ensure that the whole process is ethical. First, they should be trained on how to prepare for performance appraisal because this will enable them to come up with clear objectives of the process. Proper preparation will ensure that all the requirements are put in place and all stakeholders, especially employees are involved to avoid unnecessary conflict. The managers should also be trained on how to deliver the appraisal, especially when it comes to the language used in delivering performance appraisal results (Misiak, 2010). Managers should be trained on how to deliver both positive and negative appraisal results to employees. Most importantly, managers should be properly trained on how to review performance appraisal documents. Managers should first review the existing document to have enough information regarding the performance of employees before engaging employees in reviewing their performance. Involving employees in the review process makes them feel that the process is fair and just. Part E In order for Apple to survive and have s sustainable growth and development, it must listen to all its stakeholders, especially employees who directly contribute to its success. Therefore, it must have ethical grievance mechanism to help it in conflict resolution. In the case where workers in the company feels that they are unfairly treated and the issue is not resolved amicably, then the company is likely to suffer (Daud et al., 2013). To avoid conflict with employees, Apple should conduct an ethical grievance procedure that is in line with UK employment legislation, which states that companies can choose to solve their grievances formally or informally. Apple should ensure that any worker who delivers grievance concern does not suffer any prejudice or discrimination. It should also ensure that any individual representing employees during the resolution of the grievance is protected against any possible harm or discrimination that may jeopardize the process (Daud et al., 2013). In addition, the grievance should not be used to enforce collective claim that may alter the terms and conditions of employment. To ensure that employees follow the right channel when there is a grievance, Apple should include grievance procedures in the company’s handbook, it should be contained in the human resources manual, and it should also be included in the employment contract. To ensure that the process is ethical, the procedure should include writing of a formal letter to explain the nature of the grievance, a formal meeting between the company and the aggrieved employee to resolve the issues, and the ability to appeal the decision made by the employer, Apple. When Apple has found that an employee has violated the rules and regulation, it should strictly follow the disciplinary rules, which should be in writing. The disciplinary rules should equally apply to all employees. The matter should end after the grievance has been resolved and it should not be used to judge the future activities or performance of affected employees. It is also important for Apple to create awareness of the action and behaviors that can lead to disciplinary action, and the possible actions. Ethical and amicable resolution of conflict will ensure that Apple maintain a conducive working relationship between managers and staff. Part F There are number of benefits that Apple can get by embracing continuum counseling. First, it will be able to increase its productivity because counseling reduces the impact of personal problems on the productivity of a company. In addition, the counseling will significantly reduce the sickness absence of employees, which can negatively affect their performance (Hughes and Kinder, 2007). Continuum counseling also reduces work-related problems and can help employees to develop positive attitude towards work, due to improved relationship with workers and managers. However, the main drawback of continuum counseling is increased operation cost to the company. It can also be time wasting as employees will be leaving their work to attend counseling sessions. Either a manager or a supervisor has a role to play to ensure ethical counseling situation at Apple. First, managers should ensure the confidentiality of employees engaging in the workplace counseling because revealing information to the third party violates counseling code of confidentiality (Hughes and Kinder, 2007). They should not share the information given to them by counselors with other people within or outside the company. Managers also have a role to play in monitoring counselor’s work with employees to ensure that counselors maintain good practices throughout counseling session. Having an ethical counseling scheme within Apple is important for both the company and employees. First, the scheme will ensure that it offers confidential facility that can be accessed by employees who need counseling services and it also employs or hire qualified counseling professionals that are able to solve social and psychological needs of its workers. Having an ethical counseling scheme will also boosts trust among employees about counseling process, which can promote many workers having problems to attend counseling session (Hughes and Kinder, 2007). There is need to tackle employee counseling with a lot of care and the scheme will be an effective way of achieving the objectives of workplace counseling set by Apple. In addition, ethical counseling scheme at Apple will help the company to understand the issues affecting employees and come up with new perspectives of solving the issues to boost performance of employees. Therefore, Apple needs such schemes to boost the performance and productivity of workers. Part G In order to improve the performance of employees through pay and reward system, Apple should use team-based rewards, competitive, and non-competitive rewards. Apple should use team-based reward system to boost the individual and team performance, as individuals in the team will be striving to ensure that the team is successful for them to get reward and be recognized by the company (Furtado, Aquino and Meira, 2012). Team-based reward system will also help the company in improving the performance of its employees because it is easy to achieve the objective of a company through team work. Team-based reward has been found to be one of the effective ways of improving the performance of employees in an organization. Also, in order to boost the performance of individual employees, Apple should use a competitive reward systems where employees are awarded based on their performance. This reward system will be helpful in boosting the performance of employees who work at individual level and it will also make employees to be innovative and creative (Furtado, Aquino and Meira, 2012). However, the company should ensure that the competitive reward system is purely based on merit and is enforced without any discrimination to motivate all employees to work hard towards achieving the goals and objectives of the company. In addition, non-competitive reward systems is also important make all employees to feel that they are valued in the company. Non-competitive is important in improving the performance among employees who are not performing well, as the move will encourage them to put more efforts. According to the UK payment regulation, there is a minimum wage that any organization should pay its workers. According to minimum wage reviewed in 2014, worker above 21 years should be paid a minimum of £6.50 and £5.13 foe employees between 18 and 20 years. The minimum wage should be calculated according to the National Minimum Wage Regulation of 1999. Therefore, if Apple wants to should ensure that it pays its workers according to their work and according to the market rates. It should recognize and reward any good work done by employees to motivate them and to improve their performance (Furtado, Aquino and Meira, 2012). Part H Job promotion is likely to motivate employees employed by Apple because employees also feel highly motivated when they see the opportunity to growing to higher levels in an organization. However, employees working in an organization are less motivated and are likely to abandon the organization as they look for greener pasture. Many people are motivated when they see the opportunity of assuming greater responsibilities in an organization and they can work extra hard to be promoted to higher levels. Employees always like promotion to increased independence and recognition of their work, which are always accompanied with increased employee motivation (Miller, 2014). In addition, job promotions will motivate Apple’s employees because they appeal to their sense of ambition in life. Employees in the company who are striving towards job promotion will like the management or top management to see and recognize their leadership and supervisory abilities. Therefore, job promotion is likely to promote Apple’s employees who aspire for greater ranks and responsibility in the company. Motivation is the best tool of improving the effectiveness of a business because it helps in changing the negative attitude of employees. A significant number of employees have negative attitude towards work because they feel that working hard towards achieving the objectives of a business is not necessary and may not lead to any credit (Pujari, 2012). However, when an employee is motivated to work hard through financial and non-financial rewards, they are more likely to change their attitude towards work and the organization. Motivation can also help in improving the effectiveness of a business by enhancing employee turnover and reducing absenteeism. In many cases, motivated employees work for longer and extra hours while at the same time they are encourage workers to go to work almost on a daily basis even when faced with some problems. Because any company needs motivated workers, motivation of employees will lead Apple towards success. Employees are only able to be creative and innovatively when highly motivated because innovation requires extra work and efforts to realize. Therefore, Apple should take motivation of its employees serious in order for it to maintain its competitive advantage in the market. Reference List Apple 2015. Supplier Responsibility. Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/supplier- responsibility/ Daud, Z., Isa, M.F.M., Nor, W.S.W.M. and Zainol, Z., 2013. Do We Need To Train Our Managers in Handling Grievances?. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4(3). Dediu, H., 2013. Understanding Apple's Organizational Structure. Retrieved from http://www.asymco.com/2013/07/03/understanding-apples-organizational-structure/ Furtado, F., Aquino, G. and Meira, S., 2012. Improving Organizational Performance Through Reward Systems. BUSINESS DYNAMICS IN THE 21st CENTURY, 1. Hughes, R. and Kinder, A., 2007. Guidelines for Counselling in the Workplace. Lutterworth: British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Katz, R., 2001. Six Steps to Successful Performance Appraisals. Retrieved from http://www.workforce.com/articles/six-steps-to-successful-performance-appraisals Meyer, P., 2015. Apple Inc. Organizational Structure: Features, Pros & Cons. Retrieved from http://panmore.com/apple-inc-organizational-structure-features-pros-cons Miller, A. 2014. How Do Employees Get Motivated by Promotions? Retrieved from http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/employees-motivated-promotions-12704.html Misiak, S., 2010. Ethical System for Employee Performance Appraisal in Practice. Economics & Sociology, 3(2), p.101. Pujari, S. 2012. 5 Importance of Motivation in Business. Retrieved from http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/motivation/5-importance-of-motivation-in- business/992/ Read More