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AIB student ID
number:
Student name:

Christopher Oliver Williams

Course name:

Master of Business Generic

Subject name:

Leadership

Subject facilitator:

Abraham Ogowewo

Teaching Centre:

Nations University

No. of pages:

14

Word count:

2651

A001426589

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attached assignment to be submitted, to AIB, I have not plagiarised any other
persons work in this assignment and except where appropriately
acknowledged, this assignment is my own work, has been expressed in my
own words, and has not previously been submitted for assessment.

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Title: Leadership Analysis of a twenty first century business

leader
Assignment Topic
Using relevant theories and models critically evaluate and analyse the
leadership of a 21st century business leader. If you were in the position of
the leader, what could you do to be a better leader and make a stronger
impact on the followers and on situation/s?
For this assignment you can select a leader from a large or a small
organisation. It could be a CEO of an international organisation whom you
have read about in the newspapers/biographies, or a family member who
runs a small business with a few staff members. The choice of leader is
yours.
Executive Summary
This assignment critically evaluates and analyses the leadership of a 21 st
century business leader. The leader chosen for this assignment is Steve
Jobs of Apple Inc. I will be using management tools and further research to
analyse both the positives and negatives of the leadership styles of the
chosen leader. I will describe the business and the leader on which the
assignment is based on. I will provide background on both the leader and
the business. I will also be stating what I would do differently if I was in the
position of the leader. I will also be writing a conclusion of the research.
Tables have been placed in the appendix to add further support to my
findings.

Contents
1. Introduction......................................................................................................................4
2. Background......................................................................................................................5
2.1. The Company...............................................................................................................5
2.2. The leader.....................................................................................................................5
3. Leadership behaviour...................................................................................................6
3.1. Leadership Grid................................................................................................................6
3.2. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator............................................................................................6
4. Transformational Leadership.....................................................................................7
5. Trait Leadership..............................................................................................................8
6. Power..................................................................................................................................9
7. Contingency Theories................................................................................................10
8. Conclusion......................................................................................................................12
9. Recommendations.......................................................................................................12
10. Reference....................................................................................................................13
11.
Appendices.....................................................................................................................14

1. Introduction
A leader is a person who commands and convinces others to follow his/ her
rules and instructions. A person can lead a group, an organisation or even
a country. Leadership is defined as the ability to lead and inspire persons to
perform a particular function.
There are a number of characteristics and qualities we normally expect to
find in a leader. These include honesty, forward-looking, competent,
inspiring, intelligent, fair-minded, broad-minded, supportive,
straightforward, dependable, cooperative, determined, imaginative,

ambitious, courageous, caring, mature, loyal, self-controlled and

independent.
This assignment examines Steve Jobs, co-founder and former CEO and
Chairman of Apple Inc, as a leader, using various leadership theories and
concepts. I will also be stating how I would lead differently, if I was in the
same situation.
2. Background
2.1.
The Company
Apple Inc is an American corporation headquartered in Cupertino,
California. It designs and sells consumer electronics , computer software
and hardware, online services such as itunes, and personal computers. It is
the manufacturer of such stables as the iphone line of smart phones, the
ipad tablets, and the ipod media player.It is the second largest information
technology company in the world by revenue, and in 2014, it was valued at
483.15 billion dollars (Worlds Most Valuable Brands 2014). Apple Inc.s
main competitors are Samsung, Google and Microsoft, all of which are
billion dollar companies. Apple Inc.s generic strategy is that of a broad
differentiator, as it products and services targets a wide spectrum of
customers, but are different enough to stand apart from its competitors
products (Thompson et al, 2014).
2.2.
The leader
Steve Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955 to parents who were both in
university at that time, and were unable to take on such a responsibility. He
was adopted by the Jobs family who raised him in Mountain View,
California. Steve briefly attended Reed College but dropped out supposedly
due to boredom. He worked for a bit at Atari, but soon left for a trip in
search for enlightenment to the sub-continent of India (Kahney 2008).
When he returned to California, he met Steve Wazniak with whom he
created Apple in his parents garage. There was a third person who started

the business with them, by the name of Ronald Wayne, who was the one to
design the first Apple logo, and to write the Apple 1 manual (Desborough
n.d.). Unfortunately, for Ron, he sold his shares to the team for eight
hundred dollars in 1976(those shares are worth 35 billion dollars today
(Desborough n.d.).
In a few short years, Steve turned the company into a multimillion dollar
business. In 1985, he was ironically forced out of the company he founded
by a CEO named John Sculley whom he had brought on-board from Pepsico.
During his forced hiatus, he formed another company called NeXT Inc
which designed and manufactured high end computers (the first NeXT
workstation was priced at $9,999.00). He also went on to purchase the
Graphics Group, later renamed to Pixar, which was used to create
animated films for Disney. In 1997, after Apple bought NeXT Inc, Steve rejoined Apple as the de-facto CEO after the then-CEO was fired. Before
Steve returned to Apple, the company was six months away from going
bankrupt and the financial turnaround the Steve was able to make is seen
as one of the greatest recoveries in history (Kahney 2008).

3. Leadership behaviour
3.1.
Leadership Grid
The Ohio State University and University of Michigan researchers have
done studies to identify leadership behaviour. As an extension to this,
the University of Texas has developed a two-dimensional theory known
as the leadership grid. This grid is made up of a nine by nine cell
structure, as shown in table 2. The vertical axis depicts concern for
people and the horizontal depicts concern for the work. The most
desired cell would be the upper right cell (9,9), but most managers end
up closer to the middle (5,5).
Steve Jobs would have most likely fallen into the (7,3) to (9,3) cell
range, as he was more concerned with production rather than

employees. Efficiency can result from arranging working conditions in

such ways as to reduce human interference to the minimum. This is
further reinforced by the comments that he was seen as a terrifying
task master who was always screaming at workings and randomly firing
them (Kahney 2008).

3.2.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a very popular personality type test
taken by over 2 million persons each year (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy
2015). It is used at formal leadership training programs and college
level leadership courses, among others. It posited that there are four
basic dimensions within which people can differ which can be combined
into sixteen groups (table 1). The four core types are listed below.

Extraversion-introversion this is concerned about how

people get their energy. Some are very out-going while others
are more withdrawn.

Sensing intuition-this is concerned with how people look at

data. Sensing type leaders like facts and details, and tend to
be more practical. Intuitive leaders tend to be more
innovative and look more at the big picture rather than just
the data that is currently before them.

Thinking-feeling-this deals with the considerations used when

making decisions. Thinking leaders analyse and pay more
attention to the bottom line and other operational
considerations. Feeling leaders are more into empathy and
are more humane.

Judging- perceiving- this deals with how much information a

leader requires before a decision would be made. Judging
leaders prefer to make the decisions as early as possible,
sometimes with the minimum of information needed. This can

mean that they sometimes jump the gun and make decisions
without sufficient information. They are more methodical and
organised. Perceiving leaders like to spend time collecting as
much data as possible and are sometimes seen as
procrastinating.
Based on the data in table 1, Steve Jobs can be said to have been in the
category of ENTJ, which is known for being decisive, fearless, adventurous,
arrogant, driven, critical, narcissistic and self-centred (Hughes, Ginnett and
Curphy 2015).

4. Transformational Leadership
McCleskey (2014) suggests that the transformational leader focuses on
convincing the followers to put the organizations wellbeing in front of their
self-interest. This leader is usually charismatic and is sometimes willing to
act as a coach or mentor to assist the followers to accomplish their goals
or targets.
Steve Jobs was a transformational leader and his approach allowed others
to share in his vision. He used his charisma to ensnare his followers to his
sometimes-incredible ideas.
Isaacson (2012) suggests that Steve had the ability to influence and inspire
people into believing in his passion and to believe that the impossible can
be achieved.
Steve fitted the majority of the dimensions as laid out by Simic (1998):

Idealized influence-instilling trust and appreciation from

followers

Inspirational motivation-inspired followers to have correct

behaviour

Intellectual Stimulation-encouraging innovation and creativity

Individualized consideration- positively acknowledging needs

and values of followers

5. Trait Leadership
Hughes,Ginnett and Curphy (2015) state that traits are the basic recurring
trends in a persons behaviour. Traits play an important role in predicting
how someone will react in an unexpected or unfamiliar situation. Familiar
situations does not necessarily bring out personality traits, since there is
already rules or policies created to deal with such situations
(Hughes,Ginnett and Curphy 2015).
5.1. OCEAN Model of Personality
Northhouse ( 2013) suggests that the driving traits for effective leadership
is shown in the OCEAN Model of Personality, namely :

Openness - Though Steve Jobs open to new ideas for products, he

was often criticised for stealing ideas from his competitors and
followers (Evans 2012). It does not seem as though he was really
exhibiting openness as one of his leadership traits.

Conscientiousness- this was another which applied to him as he

followed through with his vision and was true to himself and his
beliefs, in spite of criticisms from others. He ignored what he
deemed as mundane issues while focused on seemingly important
matters. He was more into getting ideas and products out than in
making money.

Extraversion - We can definitely say that the trait of extraversion

was one of them since he was very proactive in meeting face to
face with people and working directly with them.

Agreeableness it can be argued that Steve Jobs can be most

disagreeable. He practiced holding meetings until after 12
midnight, he insulted workers in front of others, and other
unpleasant acts like that.

Neuroticism this deals with how people react to stress, failure or

personal criticism. Steve Jobs was not low in the neuroticism
measurement. He was known to be neurotic due to his worry and
obsession with the smallest of details. The author Joshua Kendall
suggested that Steve might have had Obsessive Compulsive
Personality Disorder (OCPD) (Lallanilla 2013).

6. Power
Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy (2015) defines power as the capacity to
product effects on others or the potential to influence others. They also
presented the following five bases of power by which a person can
influence others, as listed below:

Expert power-this is the power of knowledge. Some leaders are able

to influence others by their vast expertise in particular area. Steve
Jobs was very knowledgeable in his area. He would hold weekly
meetings to check on the progress of the various products, and
sometimes make seemingly radical suggestions for changes that in
the long run proved to be brilliant (Kahney 2008);

Referent power- This involves building strong interpersonal

relationships with the followers. Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy (2015)
state that when a leader is seen as a role model and is admired by
his followers, the leader is said to have referent power.

Steve Jobs was admired by many and was trusted and appreciated.
He was seen in the light of someone who built a company from
scratch into one of the largest tech companies in the world. It would
be hard to find a better role model.

Legitimate power- This power depends on the leaders formal or

official position in the organisation. Some leaders depend on this to
influence their followers, but Steve Jobs would have taken for
granted that his orders would be obeyed, without needing to pull
rank. This is so because it is one of the traits of a narcissist who feels
he is always right, and does not realise that he is arrogant. He
demonstrated this when he restructure the entire company, after
replacing most of the board of directors (Kahney 2008).

Coercive power- this type of power depends on the leader having the
ability to create punitive actions towards his followers. He has the
ability to influence the followers through fear of punishment and is
the opposite of Reward power.

Steve Jobs wielded this power without conscious thought, as he was

known to insult workers and even dismiss them if they displeased him.
Kahney (2008) mentioned that Steve would sometimes quiz an
employee, and if not satisfied, fire the employee on the spot.

Reward power This involves being able to influence followers due to

being in control of desired resources. This can include to power to
promote, to increase salary, to assign attractive and desirable
assignments etc. Steve Jobs was known to use reward power by
providing stock options, pay increases and promotions.

7. Contingency Theories
Fiedlers Contingency Theory

This theory posits that that there is no one best style of leadership, that
a leaders effectiveness is based on the situation. This theory is seen as
the earliest and most famous of the contingency theories and seen as
the opposite of the Situational Leadership Theory (Hughes, Ginnett and
Curphy 2015).
It is based on assessing a leaders tendency by using the least preferred
co-worker scale. The leader s asked to pick the person he has the most
difficulty working with, then describe that person in groups of opposing
terms such as friendly-unfriendly, and fun-boring. These rating are then
converted to a numeric value. This score, strange enough, is used to
represent something about the leader himself, not the follower (Hughes,
Ginnett and Curphy 2015). If the score is high, the leader is said to be
relationship oriented. If it is low, the leader is said to be task-oriented.
Steve Jobs would be classified as a task-oriented leader. He focused on
a small number or products, keeping operations streamlined, allowing
for tasks and goals to be completed more efficiently (Kahney 2008).
Steve certainly was not relationship-oriented, focusing on increased
performance about human relationships. Kahney (2008) claims there
were reports of Steve quizzing employees, and if not satisfied, the
employee would be fired on the spot.
Leader-member Exchange (LMX) Theory
This theory is mostly about building of relationships between the leader
and the follower. LMX is based on the premise that leaders do not treat
all followers equally. There would be the in-group and the out-group.
Those in the in-group are seen as those who are dependable and are
willing to go the extra mile for the leader, as well as those who would
benefit from additional mentoring and other or benefits, tangible and
intangible.
The out-group members are mostly tolerated because of necessity, with
nothing extra being asked of them (Hughes, Ginnett and Curphy 2015).

Steve clearly participated in the LMX theory, as can be seen where he

had his in-group of those whom he considered could rival his vision and
intellect. Those followers were fiercely loyal to him, seemly not noticing
the abusive personality of Steve (Isaacson 2012).

8. Conclusion
Although Steve Jobs was a very respected and successful leader, there are
still several areas of leadership that required improvements. While his
personality traits appeared to have helped him to achieve great things, he
was sadly lacking in the human aspect of leadership. He was narcissistic
and an obsessive worrier. Being very creative, he was impatient with
anyone up to his standard, sometimes to the point of insulting or even
firing them without notice. He was not an open-minded person unless it
supported something that he was looking for, and he was far from
agreeable to work with. In spite of the way he treated his followers, those
who stuck with him was very passionate and dedicated to him. If he had
taken the time to nurture, support and guide the others, maybe Apple
might have products wonders against which the iphone and ipad might
have paled might in comparison.
9. Recommendations
If I was in the position in place of Steve Jobs, what would I have done differently? Several
things come to mind. Listed below, in no particular order, are some of them:
Employee relations: I would strive to improve employees mental and physical well-being.
Employees need to work in an environment where they feel safe and secure, not fearing
that they might lose their jobs at any given moment. They should not feel the need to walk
on eggs whenever the leader is around.

 OCEAN model of personality: Agreeableness- I would work very hard to be an agreeable

leader, while not being a push over. Steve Jobs was said to be difficult to work for and
often blew his stack when things werent done the right way (his way) (Lallanilla 2013).
This agreeableness trait can lead to better team building.
Leadership grid: focus less on task/results and more on my followers. I would strike a
balance between results and wellbeing of my followers, striving to be in the (8,8) to (9,9)
cell range on the leadership grid.
Dedicate time to training a cadre of young leaders to ensure the continued and sustained
financial and productive future of the company.
Reduced conflict with followers and other managers. Steve ignored established rules,
breaking as he wish and creating new ones. Employees were said to be worried that any
day could be their last at Apple. I would lend consistency instead, mediate and, if needed,
explain when any rule has to be circumvented.

10.

Reference

Desborough, J n.d.,The unluckiest man alive:meet the forgotten Apple

founder who missed out on 35 Billion dollars after selling his shares for
$800 in 1976, viewed 18 January 2015,
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2388674/The-unluckiest-manworld-Meet-Ron-Wayne-Apple-Incs-forgotten-founder.html
Doyle,M & Smith,M 2001,Classical Leader, the encyclopedia of informal education, viewed
17 January 2015, http://www.infed.org/leadership/traditional_leadership.htm
Hughes,R, Ginnett,R & Curphy,G 2015, Leadership, enhancing the lessons of experience,
Mc Graw-Hill Education ,New York
Isaacson,W 2012,The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs (Cover Story),Harvard
Business Review, Vol 90, Iss 4
Kahney,L 2008,Inside Steves Brain, Penguin Group,New York

Lillanilla,M 2013,Obsession: the dark side of Steve Jobs

Triumph,Livescience, viewed 19 January 2015,
http://www.livescience.com/38933-steve-jobs-obsessive-compulsiveocpd.html
McCleskey,J.A(2014),Situational,Transformational, and Transactional
Leadership and Leadership Development Journal of Business Studies
Quarterly 2014, Vol 5, no 4
Northhouse, P, 2013, The Trait Approach Manohar,viewed 18 January 2015,
http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/30933_Northouse_Chapter_2.pdf
Simic, I. 1998, Transformational leadership - the key to successful management of
transformational organizational changes, The Scientific Journal Facta Universitas, Vol. 1
no.6, pp. 51-52.
Thompson,A,Peteraf,M, Gamble,J,Strickland,& A,Jain 2014, Crafting And Executing Strategy
the quest for Competitive Advantage Concepts and Cases ,McGraw Hill,New York USA
Worlds Most Valuable Brands, Forbes.com, viewed 18 January 2015,
http://www.forbes.com/companies/apple
11.

Appendices

Table 1. The 16 Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Personality Types

ISTJ
ISFJ
ISTP
ESTP
ESFP
ESTJ
INFJ
INTJ
INFP
ENFP
ENTP
ENFJ

Table 2: The Leadership Grid

High
1,9
2,9
3,9
1,8
Concern 1,7
for
1,6
people
1,5
1,4
1,3
1,2

4,9

5,9

5,5

6,9

ISFP
ESFJ
INTP
ENTJ

7,9

8,9

9,9
9,8
9,7
9,6
9,5
9,4
9,3
9,2

Low

1,1

2,1
Low

3,1
4,1
5,1
Concern for Results

6,1

7,1

8,1

9,1
High