Table of Contents

1. Introduction..............................................................................................................................1

2. Background of Steve Jobs........................................................................................................1

3. Critical Application of Major Leadership Theories..................................................................2

4. Conclusion................................................................................................................................7

References........................................................................................................................................8
1. Introduction

In this report the leadership theories are discussed like concepts of leadership application,
approaches as well as Steve Jobs views and leadership style right from the start of the Apple till
his death in 2011. Adding to this the report also gives an valuation of leadership style of Steve
Jobs while he worked for Apple with respect to then global leadership issues as well as driving
changes. A general introduction has been presented in the opening pages of this report and then
in section second some principal theories for leadership are analyzed. Investigations on
individual qualities of leadership with its approach have been done in third section. The fourth
section is all about subjective exam of leadership effects. The final section concluded the report
and summarized all the results.

2. Background of Steve Jobs

Born in San Francisco (1955), Steve Jobs was brought by adoptive parents living in Mountain
and Calif, Cupertino. When he finished his high school for short time he attended college and
then started working for a startup Atari computers. Very soon he left the job for exploring India.
When he returned to California with Steve Wozniak he entered into partnership, with this Apple
Computer was founded in 1976 by both of them in garage of Jobs parents. Then with the
successful release of the Apple II computer it was presented for public in 1980.

Later after four years the Macintosh was launched by the company. With the growth of the Apple
the vision of Job for the computing future conflicted with then CEO John Sculley consequently
Jobs lost his post of Macintosh team head. With this Jobs in September 1985 resigned from
Apple Computer and founded a new company in 1986 called NeXT. Along with that he also
bought the graphics art division of Lucasfilm, Pixar. After a decade in 1996 Apple took over
NeXT and Jobs was taken again as an employee of Apple (co-founder of Apple,2011). During
this period Apple computer was running in great losses and its share of market got down to 3.8%
for the second quarter of the 1997 (Kanellos, 1997). For the following decade revival and
reestablishment of Apple Computer as a market leader was done by Jobs. Eventually the retitled
Apple, Inc. defied ExxonMobile as the valued company in 2011. Under the leadership of Jobs,
Apple founded iMac that debuted in 1998, Apple stores were opened, iPad was introduced in
2001. Lately Jobs helped in launching the iPhone (2007) as well as iPad in 2010. Subsequently

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with this innovations for NeXT and Apple Jobs reformed at least seven industries such as
animated film, personal computers, telephones, music, digital publishing, tablet computing and
retail stores (Apple co-founder, 2011; DeCarlo, 2011; Isaacson, 2011)

Unfortunately in 2004 Jobs was caught by rarely found pancreatic cancer. Although he returned
to Apple in 2010 and helped in launching iPad and kept on working on and off till 2011 August
before he handed officially duty of CEO to Tim Cook. He expired in 2011 October from
respiratory arrest resulting of the cancer (Apple co-founder, 2011; Isaacson, 2011, Metz &
Donald, 2011). Till the time of his demise he was remembered as an iconoclast changing the way
to do everything from listening to music and watching movies and teaching children (Apple co-
founder, 2011).

3. Critical Application of Major Leadership Theories

Initially the efforts were made to define the leadership concentrating on the belief that leaders are
not made they are born (Lussier and Achua, 2007). According to the Trait theory there were
possibilities of some people born with the natural capabilities of a leader (Daft, 2008). In the
earlier studies it has been revealed that mental and physical qualities with an objective to identify
the characteristics possessed by a successful leader (Lussier and Achua, 2007). For example,
genuineness, Self-assurance, decency and drive are some qualities which are considered basic
(Daft, 2008). As stated by Lussier and Achua (2007) the Big Five Model of Personality that
classifies and measures the characteristics for suitability, surgency, conformity, adjustment and
openness to experience.

Steve represented a complex leadership and distinct personality which had a key role in leading
Apple (Toma and Marinescu, 2013). The main qualities he possessed were passion, highly
instinctive, charismatic, perfectionist, open-minded, persuasive and inspiring (Toma and
Marinescu, 2013). Jobs had all the qualities of the Big Five Model of Personality. As Lussier and
Achua (2007) purported that people who are strong in surgency personality traits always desire
to be in charge. Jobs was very persistent with having his ideas being worked out at Apple
(Howell, 2013). He had a flaw in adjusting personality dimension. He was thought of being
emotionally unstable by the way he treated his employees. According to the Howell (2013) there
was a fear in the minds of employees that he would fire them on the spot and could unexpectedly

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lash out even on his close friends and always desired to command loyalty. Frequently he used to
set impossible targets for product development although he had strong power to persuade
(Howell, 2013). Jobs weakness was his agreeableness. With suppliers he was a very tough
negotiator and the employees often got angry by the interpersonal style he used to assign his
desire.

Steve Jobs was robust in the conscientiousness personality dimension. Jobs always had goals set
for his company making sure that he can achieve them. Toma and Marinescu (2013) stated that
he was a stickler and never gave up and consistently chased his dreams. At last we can say that
Jobs was very strong in his openness for experiencing personality dimension. He always wanted
an innovation in his products with open mindedness. His supreme vision was that to make killer
products which could change the world so he always welcomed the ideas that meet his vision
(Howell, 2013). However with a ethical view some of his actions are questionable but his
intelligence, determination, and self-confidence reflected clearly the Trait Theory of leadership
(Howell, 2013). At the University of Lowa studies were conducted centered on the leadership
style of the manager (Lussier and Achua, 2007). The outcome recognized the two fundamental
leadership styles the autocratic leadership style and the democratic leadership style (Lussier and
Achua, 2007).

Daft (2008) purported that, despotic leader are those who tend to consolidate authority deriving
power from position, control of rewards, and coercion. Daft (2008), also added to it an
independent leader gives authority to others, encouraging participation, relying on subordinates
having knowledge for completion of tasks, and depending on subordinate respect for influence.

At Ohio State University researchers conducted surveys for recognizing the specific dimensions
of a leaders behavior (Daft, 2008). The result was two wide ranging categories of leader
behavior kinds, consideration and initiating structure (Daft, 2008). As stated by Yukl (2010), the
consideration category involves leader concern for people and interpersonal relationships. Yukl
(2010) then clarifies the initiating structure category of behavior that includes leader concern for
the accomplishment of the task.

For ensuring that his employees deliver products wanted by customers Steve Jobs applied the
autocratic leadership style. He was determined to use his power and very steady to have his ideas

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to be implemented at Apple (Howell, 2013). As stated by (Howell, 2013) he disturbed ongoing
work and gave interest in each detail. Jobs attempted of getting rid of CEO, John Sculley,
however after failing in doing so he was devoid of every management role at Apple (Howell,
2013). As he has strong desire for power and control so he started a new company called NeXT
Computer. His behavior as a leader and character considers that he was an autocratic type of
leader and he was placed in the category of initiating structure of leader behavior. Jobs was more
concerned about accomplishment of task instead of concerning about people and interpersonal
relationships. Jobs forced his employees to work for long hours, days and months just to achieve
his targets. Though, employees always believed in his idea and they accepted his timetables
which were quite ridiculous (Howell, 2013).

Consistent with Howell (2013) Jobs was unpredictable, violent, and demanding and he radiated
zeal for killer products while instilling fear in his employees. As soon as Apple started the
business of cell phones, Jobs continuously reminded his employees to produce functional and
stylish products from time to time (Howell, 2013). The main priority of Steve Jobs was
accomplishing the task. For that sometimes he was strict with employees but to achieve his
vision he made it sure to finish the required task.

Blake and Mouton of the University of Texas (Daft, 2008) proposed a two dimension leadership
theory known as The Leadership Grid. As stated by Brolly (1967), Blake uses the grid to
identify five broad types of managerial style. The horizontal and vertical axes have values from
1 to 9 while 1 is low and 9 are high. The concerns for results are measured by horizontal axis and
vertical axis measures concerns for people. As Brolly (1967) clarifies that the 9.1 man agerial
style represents extreme concerns for production. This confers with better way of doing a job
(Brolly, 1967). According to this style subordinates carry out instructions while the boss makes
plans and decides (Brolly, 1967).

High concern has been shown by the effective managers for production and people both (Yukl,
2010). The Economist (2011) described Steve Jobs as at times, dictatorial. According to The
Economist (2011) His success was the result of his unusual combination of technical smarts,
strategic vision, flair for design and sheer force of character. The Leadership Grid would plot
Jobs between 5.5 and 9.1. The main emphasis of Jobs was on the production with that he also

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motivated his employees for making the products which could change the world. Jobs was
unpredictable and demanding and that was a negative for his employees (Howell, 2013). But at
the same time he had an ability to inspire his employee (Howell, 2013).

Though his primary aim was to make products and launch them into the market. The Fiedlers
Contingency Theory (Northouse, 2001) is the most widely excepted theory according to which it
is a leader match theory that means it focus on matching leaders to suitable situations. As stated
by (Lussier and Achua, 2007) different situations demands different leadership styles. They
explained that each thing depends on other thing and for an effective leadership there should be a
suitable resolution between the style and behavior of leader as well as his followers and situation.
Two behaviors were labeled by the Fiedlers theory that is task based and relationship based
(Howell, 2013). The task oriented leader is particularly motivated by achieving tasks on the other
hand the relationship oriented leader is related with people (Howell, 2013). But at the same
time a leader cannot have both the traits the relationship and task orientation (Howell, 2013).

It is very clear that Jobs was a task oriented leader. As stated by Howell (2013), The leadership
style of Jobs can be explained through Fiedlers Contingency Theory because of his clear-cut
directive leadership with respect to specifications of product and its appearance as well as
absence of support and concern for coworkers.

Steve Jobs was known for his moody, impatient and tough behavior with people around him. But
his rude and rough behavior towards people was supplemented by an inspirational skill
(Isaacson, 2012). Steve was leaner towards achieving tasks compared to people. Jobs was very
eager to launch his products in the market as early as possible and to bring change in world
through his innovations.

Steve Jobs leadership style during regarding Contemporary Leadership Issues and Challenges:

People lacking the initiative, ideas and vision the old leadership approach is based on these
assumptions. This kind of leadership is not appropriate if people want different type of
employees for corporation that is talented people. In this contemporary atmosphere every
organization is learning to survive but it is an orthodox approach that would not provide a
competitive advantage to companies. However Senge described the features for learning

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organization that what would be the triumph in this modern era of continuous transformation and
contest for new ideas when there is requirement of talented people.

So, according to Smith (2007), these five disciplines are:

1. Systems thinking

2. Personal mastery

3. Mental models

4. Building shared vision

5. Team learning

It leads to some problems to manage them as extraordinary talented employees have different
requirements and they are reluctant to traditional management approach. There are some special
needs for them such as self-development and skills growth, chance to bring ideas and to pave to
new opportunities. It would be highly useful for success of a company when efforts of talented
people for achieving their goals and wishes are directed towards the entire corporation stream.

Thus, requirements for talented people are concurred with features of learning organization.

That kind of approach was seen in the leadership style of Steve for he brought intellectual
challenges and stimulus to the employees of Apple. He had an ability of creating small teams of
topmost talents and expressing ideas to them for realizing them. Despite being rough to people
he was always enclosed by an extremely loyal team of coworkers inspired by him for a long
period.

There is variation in leadership styles according to situation. It is tough to define the leadership
style of the Job by definite behavior or trait. But it can be conferred that he was more task
oriented concerning more about job get done than concerning for people. Here it is also
significant to assess other qualities of leader like motivation, conflict resolution and charisma.

Another significant trait of modern leaders is Motivation. Everything which influences the
behavior for pursuing a output is motivation (Lussier and Achua, 2007). The leaders should be

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aware of their followers and should try to know their basic requirements. The vision of Jobs
inspired people and inspired people wanted to achieve it. He offered a basic reward that was self-
fulfillment.

His ideas related to products as well his employees helped him in putting them into play. As soon
as the products were finished they attained the self-fulfillment for they made a product which can
change the world (Howell, 2013). The ability of Jobs was that he could bring out the most
creative available talent and inspire the employees to change the world (Howell, 2013). At last
the conflict resolution in a significant quality of a leader. It is an important skill of a leader to
handle the confict constructively (Lussier and Achua, 2007). As stated by (Lussier and Achua,
2007) it is suggested by research that managers dedicate approximately one-fifth of their time for
handling conflict. Steve never feared conflict he only cared for making Apple the best
(Michelson, 2011). Michelson (2011) said Steve Jobs challenged his own, his companys and
his countrys assumptions every day, and he deliberately debated his new ideas with smart people
who would push back. For Jobs creating conflict was a way to get ideas from different people.
Jobs always resolved the conflicts by rotating them into a positive manner like innovation.

4. Conclusion

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References