Managers can also find themselves constrained by their relationships with employees, as the saga of Apple Computer vividly illustrates.
Apple’s vision of technically elegant computers and its freewheeling corporate culture attracted some of the most creative engineers in the world, who went on the develop a string of smash products including the Apple 11, the Macintosh, and the PowerBook.
As computers became commodities, Apple knew that its continued health depended on its ability to cut costs and speed up time to market.
Imposing the necessary discipline, however, ran counter to the Apple culture, and top management found itself frustrated whenever it tried to exert more control.
The engineers simply refused to change their ways.
The relationships with creative employees that enabled Apple’s early growth ultimately hindered it from responding to environmental changes.