I.

Cultural challenges of Apple in leading people and teams across culture

1.1 Cultural barriers in communication and interaction

Communication has been considered as one of the biggest cultural challenges when working with team
members coming from different countries and areas, using different languages sometimes cause
misunderstanding (Aichhorn and Puck 2017). Verbal communication seems to be one of the most common
challenges of any international team in a multinational company while the levels of using a same language
are not similar, misunderstanding occurs easily when team members explain the problems or situations to
each other (Randy 2020). Especially in written communication, there are many differences in how written
communications are constructed across cultures, it also happens to Apple. In particular, the effectiveness of
management is evaluated based on how much efficient communication among different sides is, however,
Apple seems to deal with this cultural barrier in communication when the company meets oversea clients and
negotiates contracts in another language. In particular, when working with China team, Apple employees
caused misunderstanding and provided wrong information about warranty policies, as a result, causing
significant loss, the company had to admit that it was lack of communication within the teams across culture
(Shonk 2021).
Especially, currently, with the support of Internet and working online tools, multinational companies have
tendency having meetings online with virtual teams, Apple has also taken advantage of Internet technology,
however, it seems to bring some cultural challenges due to communication and conflict. The geographical
distance, diversity of workers and their technological and language skills have caused difficulties for trading
process and for the company to run the operation smoothly (Morrison-Smith and Ruiz 2020).
Interaction among team members is also limited due to the diversity of cultural backgrounds, cultural
distance and the lack of effective solutions. Each market has different audiences with different demands and
needs, however, Apple was lack of the understanding about different cultures and provided unsuitable
products lines or promotion strategies (JonZent 2019). Some of its products lines are not really suitable with
the needs or interest of local people of host countries, leading to the decreasing of revenue. Apple did not
customize its product offerings to cater to different cultures.

1.2 Different working styles leading to difficulties in doing teamwork and collaboration

As Apple has strong pipelines across the global, it has been recruiting employees coming from many
countries and continents, there are about more than 160.000 employees around the world (The New York
Times 2021), the company often has to deal with the conflict when collaborating in an international team due
to the different working styles.
Cultural differences lead to workplace diversity, which can promote or hinder the development of effective
working teams due to workplace disputes. International team members can cause conflict when discussing
different beliefs, values and different mindsets when handling problems. It is a difficult task for manager to
balance the differences and find the effective solutions to achieve general goals (Bretos and Errasti 2018).
When team members can not understand and respect the differences, conflicts will occur. This work team
dynamics conflicts may resulted in the ineffectiveness of working performances as when the team members
feel that they are not part of the team due to the cultural differences, they are likely to work against his or her
desired goals and outcomes (Bouncken 2021).
In terms of different working styles, there are many differences resulted from variable societies and cultures,
for instance, while in some Western countries, individualism is central, people are likely to be independent
and motivated by own needs, collectivism is preferred by most of Asian countries where the group and
organization goals are top priority (Kulkarni et al 2010), the perspectives about time are also different, which
affects issues such as punctuality and schedules (Arman and Adair 2011). Besides, the high power distance
and low power distance in different countries also have significant influences on working styles and
management system (Zhang and Begley 2011), the differences in long-term and short-term orientation also
influences general goals of the team and working performance. In a multinational team, the diversity
sometimes causes difficulties and conflicts when collecting ideas from team members, the failure to manage
organizational work team diversity has led to a negative impairment the firm performances. When working
with international employees, Apple has had some difficulties dealing with employees coming from Asia and
Western countries as they usually have opposite interactions style, which has resulted from cultural impacts
(Hoek 2014).
Beside teamwork, the cultural differences also cause difficulties for leaders to work and interact globally
with stakeholders in emerging markets. Western leaders have different leadership style as well as behaviors
and mindsets with Eastern ones. Besides, there are multiple levels of leadership with are suitable with
various levels of cultures. Apple has had some problems in negotiation and corporation with Asian countries
including China, Japan due to the differences in leadership styles (Hoek 2014).
However, Apple company has made huge effort to address the challenges, in particular, Apple Company has
endeavored to tackle the immense challenges concerning differences in work team diversity. The dynamics
of work team diversity at the company emanates from the fact that the organization has establishments in
almost every nation across the globe. Hence, to succeed in its work, it has established work teams that have
diverse cultural affiliations (Apple 2021).

1.3 Different ways of behaviors leading to a toxic workplace culture

Another problem of Apple regarding about cultural differences in leading people coming from different
countries is the unhealthy workplace culture when employees have to deal with discrimination, harassment,
bullying and abuse, while human resource department seemed to ignore the problems (Skelton 2021).
Apple employees stated racism has exited for long in Apple workplace, Black, Indigenous and employees
who are from other cultures have received discrimination and unfair behaviour from colleagues. Apple has
evaded public scrutiny about this issue, resulting in a bad culture at the workplace where employees who are
in different cultural backgrounds have to face with isolation, they keep silence and suffer from
discrimination behaviors from others in a hostile work environment as there is no support from the human
resource department nor the company.
The discrimination has become more serious when there has been more racism and micro aggression
occurred among groups and teams, employees have to deal with bias in the workplace due to their identity
and origin. Team leaders are likely to more prioritize and respect some employees’ opinions who come from
similar area or region than the others’ who are from different cultures, even though the latter have better
performances, ideas and aspirations. This also happens when the company recruits new employees because
the recruitment team unconsciously look for candidates who have similar characteristics with them, which
did not align with the developing workplace diversity goals of Apple (Business Insider 2015). Bias among
international employees seems to be a problem when leading team members or working with each other
effectively in Apple company.
Cultural differences has also resulted in harassment and bullying in the workplace due to the unfair treatment
among employees and within a team. Some inappropriate behaviors and attitudes from some people with
their international colleagues or ethnic minority employees has led to some negative consequences such as
bullying, harassment or assault (Skelton 2021).
Employees of Apple expect to be heard and cared by the company, they hope all the issues related to cultural
differences or workplace diversity can be listened to and solved by the HR department and the company, so
that they can have more confidence and be empowered to work at an international working environment
where people can respect the differences.

1.4 Difficulties in creating motivation across cultures. Ethical challenges.

In order to solve the problems and increase the effectiveness of diversity in the workplace, leaders and
managers need to clearly understand about the differences, listen to the concerns and issues of international
team members as well as finding suitable solutions. However, it is difficult to create motivation across
cultures as the motivation bases are not similar in different cultures and societies. According to Maslow’s
Hierarchy of Needs, there might be some differences in needs of people coming from Western and Asian
countries, therefore, reasons for motivation in working are also different. Leaders and managers may have
some difficulties in motivating and encouraging their international employees in team working or
collaborating. (Iguisi 2009).
In addition, since Apple is a global company having thousand of factories around the world, it may face
ethical challenges, in particular, it is difficult to communicate and control the workforce if the host country
as a poor reputation on human rights, equal opportunities or corruption (Lyons et al 2012). In this case, a
regulation, policy or business conduct should be implemented to ensure the potential ethical problems when
collaborating with foreign stakeholders or team members.
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