It is commonly recognised in numerous human resources research that the most important asset that an organisation possesses are

human assets. More importantly for an organisation to be more effective, people must feel that they are part of the organisation and involved in how it runs and the decisions that are made. The Human Resource Management Strategy within Apple is a prominent factor that is constantly under scrutiny both internally and externally as a result of the continuing presence of global competition.

There are many fields of thought on how human resources management can impact on organisational culture and in turn how organisational culture can impact on performance. A risk to Apple is that its culture is so ingrained into the heart of the organisation that it is too difficult to change. At the moment, the organisation is working well with the organisation riding the wave of the I-phone success. Therefore promotion of innovation and creating greatness has paid off!

In the questionnaire carried out and presented in the case study, many employees within Apple welcomed the informal approach with the vast majority working well under the leadership guise of individuality and sole responsibility. This approach has been seen as a success and has lead to Apple being seen as an innovator. Many including Steven Jobs believe that this approach has been the driver of delivering greatness. It is accepted that creative thinking is a social activity that requires less constraints however as identified in the case study, this approach does not meet everyones needs. It is human nature to desire order, and vast amounts of people do need to have order and structure with common procedures and shared outcomes. Rightly or wrongly the organisation has created a culture that ignores formality and process in its search for greatness. This message is no clearer than Steven Jobs walking around the office barefoot or by the culture of no note taking during meetings. In

these actions the culture is saying to all staff members that you are equal and that the knowledge and skill you have is the underlying power.

The organisation itself has never truly defined what its objective is other than tasking individuals to create something great or to be better than IBM! From inception Apple has kept these as key objectives when hiring people into the company in order to ensure they employed and retained staff that had the same vision as they did.

The challenge within the organisation is that over the years the definition of innovation has been diluted by individual interpretation. The impact on the organisation is that highly skilled motivated employees are all working hard, potentially heading in differing directions. This is no more visible than some of the disastrous product decisions made by Apple during the 80s and 90s. In regards to being better than IBM, the risk that turned real was that while the organisation focused on beating IBM, Microsoft crept up behind both organisations and took the top spot! Asking someone to create something great, is as detailed as saying you could find a needle if you search in those haystacks! Handy emphasizes this point; For survival, for continual growth and development in organisations as with individuals, it helps to know what you would like to be before you become it (Handy, 1993, p248) Engaging and motivation has been a key HRM success factor for Apple, although in order to have a fully balanced organisation, it is critical that that Apple now focuses more strongly on developing communication and leadership in order to embed trust.

There is no doubt that Apple has with Steven Jobs a true inspirational leader, this can be clearly seen through the achievements of the organisation to date. On initial analysis the organisational culture under the helm of Jobs has identified the importance of individuals as social beings with the leadership approach of informality, individuality and innovation creating an organisational culture viewed by many as a utopia. This approach has resulted in Apple Inc topping the fortune Magazines Most Admired companies list for the last 2 years. Harnessing the full potential of workers in order to gain a competitive advantage requires a strong focus on human resources management underpinned by a clear and effective organisational culture. This is evident within Apple. It is often said that organisations profitability is based on a strong culture where all employees share the same views and objectives Deal and Kennedy (1982). There is a mixture of opinions on what a good organisational culture is and weather or not Jobs has been successful in creating this within Apple. The organisational culture of Apple is as widespread and as varied as the individuals employed within it with the founders of the organisation, Stephen Wozniak, Ronald Wayne and Steven Jobs responsible for imprinting their leadership style on the organisation. How important has this been in developing the culture of Apple, some might say negligible, however others see Steven Jobs as Mr Apple. This could be further evidenced by Apples decision not to go public when Steven Jobs fell ill. Many believed that this decision was to protect Steven Jobs, however it could be questioned as to weather this decision was made in order to protect the organisation and its culture.

To conclude, Edgar Schein (1993) identifies the value of dealing with aspects of organisations that seem irrational, frustrating, and intractable. He writes, "The bottom line for leaders is that if they do not become conscious of the cultures in which they are embedded, those cultures will manage them." (Schein 375). This could be said of Apple. Identified within the case study are a number of areas within the organisations culture that are having both a positive and

detrimental effect on the organisation. Although challenging, these detrimental cultures are not impossible to change. What is required from the organisation is the time to allow these changes to take place and the willingness by all parties to accept that change needs to happen!