Glen Cooper�s comments, found in the video clip assigned to this week�s resources, offer
a view of the future that is at the same time challenging and optimistic. He paints a picture of a future
for business that is much more interpersonal in its character and much more strongly focused on the
performance of individuals working in organisational teams. In fact, Cooper goes on to suggest that
this may be the most saleable commodity in a future environment where many of our traditional
products and services are available to consumers for free. That is an interesting proposition, and one
that represents a fairly major shift in strategy for many organisations.
In this essay, reflect on your own employing firm�s or other firms that you know well, the current
ability to meet the types of challenges that Cooper talks about.
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Glen Cooper envisions a future for business organizations that is interpersonal in
character and focuses very much on the performance of employees working in teams within
the company. This essay provides a detailed reflection and discussion on a certain company’s
capacity to meet the kinds of challenges which have been talked about by Glen Cooper. The
selected company is Apple.
Apple Inc is widely recognized across the globe and the world’s most innovative firm.
Apple Inc has the ability to meet the challenges discussed by Glen Cooper since this firm
strongly encourages effective team working and collaboration not just amongst employees,
but also among the company’s top leaders (Chu 2014). This teamwork has partly contributed
to Apple being a creative and innovative company. At this firm, it is all about collaboration,
open-mindedness and communication, in which employees are encouraged to express their
ideas. The co-founder of this tech company, Steve Jobs, once pointed out that often, ad hoc
meetings of about 6 individuals are arranged by a person who believes that she has
discovered the latest coolest thing ever and who would like to find out what others at Apple
think of her idea (Alsever, Hempel & Roberts 2014). Products at Apple are developed in a
more integrated and collaborative fashion. In essence, this company pays remarkable
attention to effective teamwork and group effort and is in fact proud of its internal
communications, get-togethers, as well as the many interdisciplinary design reviews
(Tkaczyk 2015).
Within the team works and group efforts at Apple, significant attention is also paid to
the performance of individual team members. Teamwork at Apple, as Steve Jobs once stated,
depends upon trusting the other people to come through with their part without those people
being watched always. The firm is good at understanding how to divide things up into several
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effective teams and all work on a similar thing, share ideas and then bring it all together into
a great Apple product (Tkaczyk 2015). This is consistent with Glen Cooper’s vision of a
company that is interpersonal in character and significantly focuses on the performance of
workers working in teams. At Apple, the performance of individual workers in teams is at all
times high. The teams at Apple comprise goal-focused individuals who possess
complementary skills and specialized expertise who work together, innovate and consistently
produce high results (Bennet 2015).
Each team persistently pursues performance excellence through open communication,
shared leadership, clear group operating rules and role expectations, shared goals, strong
sense of trust and accountability amongst team members, as well as early conflict resolution.
Every individual at Apple works with others in order to attain something that is beyond
his/her individual self-interests, resulting in high employee performance. Moreover, there is
joint accountability as well as a proper understanding of team members’ roles not just to the
team, but also to individual duties (Haas & Mortensen 2016). Each team member has an
extensive skill set which complements other members of the team. There is also trust as well
as interdependence amongst team members. Team members at Apple therefore tend to
exhibit high performance. As such, Apple Inc is one great company with the capacity to
effectively meet the kinds of challenges which have been talked about by Glen Cooper.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Glen Cooper imagines a future for business organizations that is
interpersonal in character and focuses a lot on workers’ performance working in teams within
the company. One company that has the ability to meet the sorts of challenges described by
Glen Cooper is the tech company Apple Inc. This is because Apple is an organization that
highly encourages teamwork and the performance of individual team members is at all times
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thanks to open communication, shared leadership, clear group operating rules and role
expectations, as well as shared goals.
References
Alsever, J, Hempel, J, & Roberts, D 2014, ‘The New Teamwork’, Fortune, 169, 6, pp. 78-82,
Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 11 August 2016.
Bennett, A 2015, ‘Teamwork isn’t torture’, Children’s Technology & Engineering, 20, 1, pp.
10-13, Professional Development Collection, EBSCOhost, viewed 11 August 2016.
Chu, J 2014, ‘A new season at APPLE. (cover story)’, Fast Company, 182, pp. 52-101,
Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 11 August 2016.
Haas, M, & Mortensen, M 2016, ‘The Secrets of Great Teamwork’, Harvard Business Review,
94, 6, pp. 70-76, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 11 August 2016.
Tkaczyk, C 2015, ‘The world’s most admired companies’, Fortune, 171, 3, pp. 97-104,
Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 11 August 2016.
