An Essay On Steve Jobs' Leadership Style And Its Impact On Apple.

This report seeks to evaluate the leadership style of Jobs. It describes Jobs as a real leader who strived to enhance the success of Apple Company. A further examination of the characteristics that enabled Jobs to drive this company forward and the possible consequences of Steve Jobs’ leadership is also given. The last part of this report provides insight into whether Jobs was the right CEO for Apple Company and whether the entity requires more of a manager than a leader. It also gives an accurate conclusion and recommendation regarding Steve Jobs’ leadership.

Management mainly entails planning, directing, organizing, controlling and staffing. It is a process that ensures the activities of the organization are done in a necessary way, (Bel, 2010, p. 47). On the other hand, a leader is always determined to have people follow them. They not only manage the organization but also define creative ways in which the objectives of a business can be accomplished, (Liu et al., 2010, p. 454). The distinctions between management and leadership are shown below:

 Jobs, a former CEO of Apple was not just a manager. He was a real leader, dedicated to lifting the company above all its rivals, (Isaacson, 2012, p. 93). He had good traits of a leader and combined some aspects of transactional leadership with transformational leadership approach to lead Apple Company.

This approach gives people inspiration to achieve high results in the organization. It aims at ensuring efficiency in operations and giving workers the authority to make decisions in the organization, (McCleskey, 2014, p. 117). Transformational leaders must be visionary, daring, inspiring, risk-taking and thoughtful.

Inspirational motivation: The core foundation of this leadership theory is the promotion of the vision, mission and core values of the organization, (Khasawneh et al., 2012, p. 496). The Transformational leaders encourage their workers by equipping them with a sense of knowledge and challenge, (Khasawneh et al., 2012, p. 496). They work with determination to encourage teamwork and commitment.

Steve Jobs crowned a famous advertising slogan, "Think Different." This acronym was not just an advertising strategy, (Elliot & Simon, 2012). It had a hidden meaning which viewed Apple Company as supreme among other companies. This slogan also motivated the employees to work with determination to uphold its definition, (Elliot & Simon, 2012). As a transformational leader, Steve Jobs involved his subordinates in a discussion to explain the meaning of each word in the acronym.

Steve Jobs' Leadership Style

Intellectual stimulation: Transformational leaders typically encourage their workers to be creative. Through creativity, new ideas are always formed which can be used to improve the performance of the enterprise, (Allio, 2012, p. 10). Whenever Jobs wanted to do something, he would always ask for suggestions from his employees, (Gladwell, 2011). The workers would come up with several ideas, which he would reject. After rejecting many suggestions, he could tell them to come up with more creative ideas. This helped him to incorporate creativity in the firm.

Idealized influence: Leaders must act as role models, and use their powers to control their subordinates to strive towards common objectives of the organization, (Kark & Shamir, 2013, p.82). In his leadership, Steve Jobs always pushed his workers to do tasks that seemed impossible, (Gladwell, 2011). For example, there was a day when he forced Wozniak to come up with a game called Breakout in four days. Although Wozniak knew it was impossible and argued that it could take some months, Steve forced him, and he ended up doing it, (Gardiner, 2016, p. 1). This is an excellent example of transformational leadership. He was able to convince Wozniak to meet the deadlines.

In transformational leadership, the primary role of a leader is to inspire the employees to perform certain tasks.  This was efficiently utilized by Steve Jobs. However, Jobs also practiced some elements of transactional leadership, as explained below, using transactional leadership theory.

This approach to leadership was first developed by Max Weber in 1947. It outlined the roles of a leader as similar to those of traditional management of controlling, directing, staffing, and motivation, (McCleskey, 2014, p. 117). Weber suggested that workers were motivated by punishment and rewards, subordinates respect the orders of their superiors and that employees have to be closely monitored to perform, (Kark, 2013, p. 92). He, therefore, suggested that leadership should be executed through rewards and punishment. Jobs used to shout at his workers whenever they messed up, (Rawlinson, 2016). He did not compromise on quality. However when the workers performed well, he used to congratulate them, (Ghasabeh et al., 2015, p. 462). This is an emotional reward while yelling at the workers was an appropriate punishment for them.

The difference between Transformational and Transactional leadership has been illustrated in the table below:

Transactional leadership is a managerial kind of leadership, where leaders rules using rewards and punishments. On the other hand, Transactional leadership involves inspiring of employees, (Fisher, 2013, p. 89). These two approaches to leadership can be compared to theories X and Y as developed by Douglas McGregor.

Transformational Leadership Theory

Theory X can be compared to Transactional leadership. This is because, in this theory, workers are viewed as unwilling to work, and must, therefore, be carefully supervised, (Dihn et al., 2014, p. 48). Jobs used to monitor his workers carefully and made them perform tasks repeatedly until he was satisfied. This was an element of theory X.

On the other Hand, theory Y views workers as self-motivated and willing to work. This can be compared to transformational leadership, where leaders only need to inspire their subordinates to work, (Bolden, 2011, p. 258). Steve, therefore, used some elements of both Theory X and Theory Y in managing Apple Company.

For a leader to be efficient, he/she must possess some traits. This can be explained using the trait theory of leadership.

As stated by Parris & Peachey (2013, p. 380), this postulate explains that leaders are born, not made. A perfect leader must be born with some traits. Some of these traits are as discussed below:

Determination: This is the desire to make significant achievements, (Dinh et al., 2014, p. 50). Jobs was dedicated to making Apple great. He developed unique products such as iPod and iPhone which were respected in the market, (Sharma & Grant, 2011, p. 16). He was also able to start a high technology company from scratch. This was a sign of dedication and desire to achieve.

Emotional control: This is the ability to study one emotion and the emotions of others. A good leader must possess exemplary emotional intelligence so as to avoid bad tempers and to mistreat of workers, (Fisher, 2009, p. 349). Although Steve Jobs used to yell at his employees to force them to do things, which is not a good trait, it enabled him to make significant achievements as the employees could do what seemed to be impossible, (Schlender & Tetzeli, 2015, p. 78). This was a show of emotional intelligence.

Self-confidence:  This trait enables a leader to be bold enough to take the risk, (Bolden, 2011, p. 251). Jobs was a very bold leader who believed that customers did not know what they wanted until they are shown, (Elliot & Simon, 2012). Therefore he was ready to take a risk and develop unique products such as iPhone, iPod and iTunes music player where customers could purchase music at 0.9 dollars. He was also brave enough to protect his products.

 Intelligence:  This is the ability to acquire and apply skills and knowledge efficiently. It is measured by real imagination and communication skills, (Fisher, 2009, p. 351). Jobs could be described as a genius. He used to study existing goods and then use the idea to make a more superior product, (Beahm, 2011). This was a sign of creativity.

Inspirational motivation

Although this approach can be used to identify the characteristics of a good leader, it has been subjected to several criticisms. There is no particular trait describing a leader as either right or wrong, (Bolden, 2011, p. 260). The theory also provides an endless list of qualities that should be possessed by a leader. This list is variable depending on different researchers. The trait theory is also not accurate on which characteristic is supreme, (Parris & Peachey, 2013, p. 380). A leader may have some traits and lack others. This does not mean that he/she is not a good leader. For example, Jobs was dedicated, determined and inspiring, (Gladwell, 2011). On the other hand, he used to yell at his employees and force them to do certain tasks, which is a replica of lack of emotional intelligence.

The style of leadership adopted by any leader can exert different consequences depending on the effectiveness of execution of the particular style. In this case, the consequences of Steve Jobs' leadership style can be discussed using the leadership grid, developed by Blake Mouton, (Fisher, 2009, p. 348). It has two axes. One for concern for production and the other axis for concern for people, (Fisher, 2009, p. 348). It is as shown:

Concern for people: This is where a leader puts into consideration the interests of the employees, (Bolden, 2011, p. 260). It is the level at which a leader considers the workers’ interests, needs, and areas of individual development.

Concern for Production: This is the level at which a leader concentrates on organizational efficiency and objectives, (Dinh et al., 2014, p. 40). The leader majors on productivity when making initial decisions in the firm.

Steve jobs majorly concentrated on production. He ensured that major decisions made in the business were aligned towards ensuring increased productivity, (Allio, 2012, p. 12). He did not take into consideration the interests of the employees, (Tetzeli, 2015, p. 75). This approach had both positive and adverse consequences to the firm.

Concern for production is essential in ensuring increased productivity. It provides that workers are fully committed to executing the objectives of the firm, (Fisher, 2009, p. 360). In Steve Jobs’ case, His concern for results enabled him to make Apple successful, (Isaacson, 2012, p. 101). He formulated major decisions and forced the workers to do them even if they seemed impossible. His leadership generated the following results:

Development of more innovative products: Jobs believed in unique products. He would use an existing product in the market to develop a more preferred brand, (Gladwell, 2011). The developments of iPod, iPhone, and iPad enabled Apple to outshine both Microsoft and IBM as the products were superior, (Cornelissen, 2013). Since Jobs died, Samsung Company has been developing unique products with high features in the market.

Intellectual stimulation

More innovations: Transformational leadership is all about innovation. Jobs used this leadership style to come up with new products in Apple, (Sharma & Grant, 2011, p. 24). He believed that innovation was not about coming up with something new, but modifying the existing products to become stronger, (Gladwell, 2011). He, therefore, changed existing products.

 Improved performance: Through the inspiration of workers, Jobs regularly made his employees perform tasks that seemed impossible, (Isaacson, 2012, p. 1). This enabled the company to advance both in technology and employee performance.

Although this approach led to increased productivity, it also had adverse consequences to the firm. Jobs kept yelling at employees and forcing them to work to their maximum limits, (Buenstorf et al., 2017, p. 180). This led to high employee turnover in Apple, (Brown, 2008, p. 156). The employees who were dissatisfied with Jobs leadership left the firm. The employee morale also diminished as Jobs never appreciated them whenever they made attempts. His comments were either good or worst.

Steve Jobs was the best person for this Company. He was a real modern transformational leader who emphasized on putting Apple ahead of other businesses, (Watson, 2015, p. 2). Jobs was an inspiring leader with excellent qualities. He was flexible, passionate, impulsive, egoist, open-minded and charismatic, (Finkle & Mallin, 2010, p. 54). All these are attributes of a perfect leader that made him the right leader that Apple needed. Steve Jobs was a visionary, genius and sophisticated leader.

His suitability to Apple can also be examined by using trait theory of leadership. Jobs had unique characteristics, such as determination, ability to command, courage and intelligence which enabled him to lead Apple Company, successfully, (Rawlinson, 2016).

However, it cannot be ruled out that Jobs had some weaknesses. He did not fully meet all the requirements of the trait theory. He kept on Yelling at employees and sometimes was unable to control his tempers. This is a contradiction to the demands of the trait theory which needs a leader to have emotional intelligence.

Leadership is considered as a multidimensional concept that is vital in all the aspects of current businesses. Steve Jobs as a role model, illustrates how transformational leadership may be a key consideration in successfully improving the performance of a firm, (Schendler & Tetzeli, 2015, p. 79). With the development of several enterprises in the computer industry and several technological improvements in the global market, organizations are striving to embrace creativity and innovation, (Schendler & Tetzeli, 2015, p. 79). They do not just need a manager who would ensure its processes are running in a necessary way, but require leaders who are visionary, inspiring, thoughtful, passionate and able to take the risk. Apple Company is not an exemption to this development. It, therefore, requires a real modern transformational leader like Steve Jobs.

Idealized influence

With diversification and globalization in the modern business, Apple Company is faced with several environmental factors, (Liu et al., 2010, P. 454). These factors require the help of a leader to formulate better ways of adjusting to them. Contingency leadership theory states that there is no standardized method of managing organizations, (Bolden, 2011, p. 257). This theory was shortlisted as the best model in executing leadership, by researchers in 1950s at Ohio State University, (Bolden, 2011, p. 257). An organization is an open system which is influenced by several environmental factors, (Parris & Peachey, 2013, p. 382). Therefore, Apple Company requires a leader due to the following reasons:

Increased need for creativity and innovation: Apple requires an innovative leader like Jobs who would devise creative operational tactics, to enhance customer satisfaction and profitability.

Increased need for motivation: Motivation is a primary determinant of the success of every company, (Allio, 2012, p. 5). Apple requires a leader like Jobs who would inspire its employees to work tirelessly to improve the performance of the firm.

Increased need for focused leaders: A targeted leader is one who knows what to do and what not to do at a particular point, (Bel, 2010, p. 48). Apple needs this leader to enhance its operations and make it supreme among other companies.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Steve Jobs was a real leader. He was well-equipped with the leadership traits such as determination and intelligence. He also used transformational leadership approach, combined with some aspects of transactional leadership to drive Apple to success. Steve Jobs was, therefore, the most appropriate leader for Apple. Therefore, Apple Company still requires a visionary and passionate leader like Jobs to conduct its operations. 

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Transactional Leadership Theory

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