Nova Southeastern University
Wayne Huizenga Graduate School of Business & Entrepreneurship

Assignment for Course: MGT 5020 – Managing Organizational Behavior

Submitted to: Dr. Eleanor Lawrence

Submitted by:

Date of Submission: January 16, 2012

Title of Assignment: Current Event 2

CERTIFICATION OF AUTHORSHIP: I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I received in its preparation is fully acknowledge and disclosed in the paper. I have also cited any sources from which I used data, ideas of words, whether quoted directly or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course.

Student Signature: _
Juan Miguel Andonie
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Instructor’s Grade on Assignment:
Instructor’s Comments: Criterion | Does not meet basic criterion | Meets basic criterion | Proficient | Outstanding | Meets criterion of “current event,” i.e., something happening in the news right now which is an actual event and OB related | Article chosen is neither current nor an event related to OB. (13) | Article is either current OR an “event” related to OB. (16) | Article is both current and an “event” related to OB. (17) | Article is clearly a significant current event related to OB. (20) | Synthesizes and reports key points of the story | Does not discuss key points of the story (21) | Provides broad overview only of the story. (25) | Gives some details of story; reader may still have questions (27) | Describes the essence of the story answering who, what, when, why, and where (30) | Explains the relevance of the story to appropriate OB concept or theory | No explanation given of the relevancy of this story. (21) | Relates story to OB in general terms (25) | Specifically relates story to OB concept/theory. (27) | Fully explains importance of the story to OB theory and/or practice (30) | Communicates in clear, logical, grammatically correct terms and provides source in APA style | Poorly written, incoherent sentences, poor spelling, unacceptable grammar and/or total lack of references, no citation (14) | Numerous writing errors but sufficient, appropriate and correct references or vice versa, citation present but may be incomplete (17) | Very few errors in writing and referencing (18) | Virtually no errors in writing and referencing. (20) | Total | 69 | 83 | 89 | 100 |

Apple 2011 Earnings: Final Quarter
On January 2012, after the closing of the holiday season (last quarter of 2011) and the death of their CEO, founder, and mastermind Steve Jobs; Apple’s financial analysts reported that their net income rose 118 percent and its profit for the holiday quarter more than doubled (largely thanks to sales of the iPhone 4S). On February 14, 2012 The New York Times published an article titled “2011 Earnings: Final Quarter”, which I found on the Apple files reading their web page, and immediately I spotted it as an interesting paper topic for my Organizational Behavior class. The article is basically another success story from Apple and states how profitable the last quarter of 2011 was for Apple, exceeding all financial analysts’ expectations and forecasts. However I did not choose the article for a financial analysis, but rather to link Apple’s success to their unique and “fascinating” organizational culture. This paper, besides reporting the information on the article seeks to highlight distinctive aspects of Apple’s Organizational Culture, which I believe are directly related to Apple’s widespread success in the marketplace.

Key Points from the Article
In this article, The New York Times reports after a financial analysis by specialists, how successful the last quarter of 2011 was for Apple (February, 2012). Apple’s profit for the quarter more than doubled compared to expectations and forecasts by their specialists. According to The New York Times this huge business success for Apple is due mainly to