Essay: Leadership Analysis Of Steve Jobs In Global Business Environment.

1. Apply knowledge of leadership practice in the global environment.
2. Provide evidence of the capability to integrate leadership theory and practice.
3. Develop relevant research principles and methods applicable for researching an organisational environment

The purpose of this project is to apply the concepts and theories in the unit to the analysis of leadership ofa well-known leader. Select any type of leader for whom there is sufficient information to provide a good analysis of leadership processes and outcomes. Examples include political leaders, military leaders, business executives, religious leaders, sports coaches, and leaders of social movements.

Identify specific leadership behaviours and refer to relevant leadership theories to explain why the behaviours were appropriate or inappropriate in the situation faced by the leader. Even better is to identify reasons why the person’s leadership was (un)successful enough to make them (in)famous. Both the strengths and weaknesses of ‘your’ leader should be identified. Issues of ethics in leadership should also be considered. Eventually your analysis should result in a series of  actionable recommendations for the chosen leader

Leadership is an important function of an organisation, which helps the management or managers to achieve their predetermined organisational goals and objectives. Leadership encourages or motivate people to work towards better performance through establishing effective human relations. Therefore, it is vital to any organisation, for necessary growth and future success amongst other competitors. The report brings about the discussion of the appropriate leadership skills, behaviours, and theories to a leader in the business environment. In addition, it also explains about the specific skills or traits, which define the success of a leader in his/her, time. An effective leader or manager establishes strong connections and builds the pathways to achieve the stated goals and objectives. It has found that the implications of the concept of ethics play an important role in the leadership. Thus, the report involves an analysis of the concept and theories of leadership with respect to the leader in a global environment (Fairhurst & Connaughton, 2014).

Today’s business organisations operate in a competitive and a global environment, leading to a number of opportunities, and complexities. Therefore, leaders or effective leaders must be prepared to attain success, by focusing and coordinating the efforts of all the resources. An organisation’s success largely depends upon the human resource, judicious utilisation of other resources, and communication in the organisation, ensured by the leaders in the organisation. Leadership is an art of influencing the behaviour of others, and the activities of a group, through effective communication towards the achievement of goals. These goals may differ with the nature of organisation, and can be short term as well as long-term (Augustine-Shaw, 2015).

For explaining the concepts, theories relevant to leadership, a leader has chosen, i.e. ‘Steve Jobs’. He is an example of great leadership concern in the global business environment, with the practical insights into real world. Steve Jobs had been a business magnate and is the chief executive officer, and the co-founder of Apple Inc. Steve Jobs wasone of the unconventional leaders, and contributed to the huge success of Apple. There are number of things learnt from the leadership of Steve Jobs. He stated that an organisation in order to succeed must follow a vision, and become passionate towards it. Also, the managers must encourage and challenge the limits of the employees in the organisation, so as to enhance their productivity and commitment towards organisation (Heracleous  & Klaering, 2017).

Leadership behaviours and qualities determine the success and effectiveness of any leader. Steve Jobs possessed the quality of communication; he was effective in delivering effective speeches and captivating audience attention. Innovative, genius, confident and determined are some of the features or behaviours associated with the Steve Jobs. To discuss about the personality and the ability traits, stated that Jobs had the ‘power of dominance’, as he dominated everything during the work, which included even the detailed process of production and employees. People obeyed him and respected his decisions regarding every change in the organisation (Jabeen, Behery & Abu Elanain, 2015).

Leadership Behaviours and Relevance to Theories

Leadership describes about some specific traits or behaviours, which forms the base of effective management in an organisation. Some specific qualities or leadership behaviour possessed by Steve Jobs, describes about his unique abilities; as he demonstrated that every organisation should have a vision, to accomplish goals and objectives.  He had effective communication skills, which delivered the meaning of the vision, and represented his charismatic behaviour towards his followers or employees in the organisation. In addition, there were some of the negative features or traits of the leader, as his manipulative behaviour due to which employees considered him as autocratic (Shamir & Howell, 2018).

Transformational leader has some appropriate and unique qualities or behavioural attributes which contributes to the organisational success. In this case, also, Jobs created a healthy atmosphere in the organisation amongst the managers and the workforce, motivating them to work better. Some considered him as autocratic, but on a major point, his transformational characteristics made him famous. Therefore, the relevant theories of leadership in this context, is transformational leadership and related aspects. Moreover, it has evidenced by the Jobs innovation strategy that made innovation accessible for the people and the benefits thereof. This made Apple, committed towards bringing best computing experience to the students, educators, creative professionals, and the consumers worldwide, because of the efficient hardware, software, internet offerings. It motivated employees in the organisation in delivering best performance, leading to the success (Men, 2014).

Steve Jobs as, a transformational leader, is considered as one of the best executive and a famous personality bringing innovation, motivation and success. Earlier, it has found that Steve failed in terms of hiring appropriate and talented employees in the organisation, as he did not follow the standards of formal training. In addition, he was unable to advocate, nurture initiatives, in the organisation, amongst employees. He further created the situations of conflict in the organisation because he was single minded and manic of his personality and qualities. Jobs demonstrated his personal failure, when he left the company, Apple i.e. he was not fired, rather he was asked to step down from the Mackintosh division    (Bradley et al., 2015).

Discussing about the success story of Steve Jobs, he was to be on the Forbes list as one of the richest man in the country. He identified that personal computers could change the world, and being a part of that transformation, led him to the success. His thought of establishing and democratizing the technology into computers with Apple, was one of the reason. In addition, some of his other unique traits or qualities made him successful throughout his life, such as the way he motivated and inspired people drive him to the success of his life. He always followed his path, by moving forward with confidence and wisdom. He followed excellence and perfection throughout his life in his work, which also led him to the greater success (Yahaya & Ebrahim, 2016).

Transformational Leadership

Steve Jobs, being a transformational and successful business entrepreneur was efficient throughout his whole life. He will always be known and praised for his incredible success in guiding Apple, and in wholly transforming the computer and phone industry among the users. However, like other entrepreneurs and leaders, Jobs has some of the strengths and weakness, which motivated him or led to his success or failure in the industry (Strand, 2014).

Steve Jobs qualities led to innovation, and coordination of the thought and ideas of the people in the organisation. In addition, he had unique traits of marketing and advertising about the products launched in the market. The quality of adaptability and anticipating was one of his major strength identified during his success. Steve Jobs easily anticipated the changing needs and expectations of the consumers and which advertising/marketing strategy would work (Sosik & Jung, 2018). 

 He was as a creative entrepreneur, with passion to achieve perfection in his work. Steve Jobs had great positive impact on the world in terms of technological advancements. He had the qualities or traits of charismatic leader, as a result he revolutionized six industries, which are personal computers, music, phone, tablet computing, and digital publishing (Niebuhr, Voße & Brem, 2016).

As a leader, and his leadership styles Steve Jobs was a perfectionist because of his extra-ordinary skills, such as choosing the right direction and setting priorities for the betterment and success of the company in the future. Steve Jobs also known for his charismatic leadership and his showmanship, as strength helped him gaining huge success and his popularity (Bolman & Deal, 2017). 

Steve Jobs, although being a great visionary, and cited to be a bully. He had an uncanny capacity to make people in the organisation feel small. He sometimes, reportedly took credits for the thoughts or ideas of others, claiming his own. There are some of the other negatives of the Steve Jobs such as, his attitude towards gaining control over the executives and employees of the organisation, was one of his weakness. He was not a good leader, in fostering and promoting the teamwork, with the employees in the organisation. One of the major points highlighted in the case is that as a leader he demanded for perfection, instead of motivating and promoting people towards gaining perfection in their work. He became authoritative in the management of the operations and activities in the organisation, in an approach to control each aspects of the organisation, i.e. from the top to the lower-level management of the company (Yoffie & Cusumano, 2015). 

Success or Failure of Steve Jobs

Discussing the meaning of ethical leadership, stated as the leadership directed by the ethical beliefs and values serves the purpose of dignity and rights of others. Ethics in any organisation is related and concerned with the virtuousness and motives of the individuals. As the organisations in the global business environment are becoming more profit and growth-oriented, therefore they avoid the ethical standards. Ethical leaders set the code of conduct for their company, which includes maintain trust, respect, value, integrity, and the dignity of the people. Therefore, some characteristics of the ethical leadership include justice, honesty, and value –driven decision-making, and encouraging or fostering initiatives in the organisation (Shapiro & Stefkovich, 2016). However, there are issues of ethical leadership in contemporary organisations such as Apple, led by Steve Jobs. These issues are consistency, which describes about the consistency in compliance with the ethical standards. For an instance if the organisation has to adhere to the national or state laws, employees will react negatively if the laws violated. Thus, every organisation must follow consistently to the ethics and rules, and regulations formulated for the effective functioning (Northouse, 2017). 

Some other issues or complexities of ethics in leadership include policies and the nature of atmosphere in the organisation. Ethics may be complex, and to communicate their importance an organisation may need to define them in written form. Mission statements and policies drawn to clarify their purpose, which gives sense of meaning to the organisation.  On the other hand, workplace culture and the environment are the other factors challenging the ethical leadership. In cases of the oppressive work environment, employees may find difficult to work with harmony. Therefore, an effective leader is one who successfully implements ethics in business organisations. It is similarly applicable to the case of Steve Jobs and his leadership (Rosenbach, 2018).

From the above analysis of the success of leadership of Steve Jobs, a leader must communicate effectively his ideas, thoughts, and policies in the organisation to achieve success in the future. There must be a two-way communication in the organisation between the management and the employees. A leader must be a good listener first, and must remain committed towards the needs and expectations of the group. Manager or leader in an organisational context must be able to manage and handle human conflict. A leader must adhere to the organisational policies, and able to take risks and motivate their followers in the organisation.

Strengths and Weakness of Steve Jobs

With context to the case, Steve Jobs if could have used patience and tried to use effective methods to apply policies considering the needs and various aspects of employees, then it would have added to his effectiveness.

Conclusion

To conclude the above discussion, it has been analysed that effective leadership and leaders play a key role in the organisational success. Leadership is the key element in establishing and developing pathway for the future growth of any organisation. The success of a leader depends largely upon their leadership skills and traits, which sets the path to achieve organisational goals. They must adhere to the organisational policies, considering employees, consumers, and the organisational as a whole. Leadership behaviours relate to the theories of leadership, which are applicable as per the nature of organisation. These theories include autocratic, democratic, charismatic, transformational, and transactional leadership.  With context to the case, Steve Jobs has represented transformational style of leadership throughout his time in the company Apple Inc. Hence, an effective leader must take into consideration the changing needs of their internal and external environment and practice his leadership skills.

References

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