Being Apple's Steve Jobs - Essay Example

? Case study analysis: Apple’s Steve Jobs BY YOU YOUR ORGANISATION HERE HERE Case study analysis: Apple’s Steve Jobs Leadership style Steve Jobspromotes an entrepreneurial spirit as part of his cultural development at Apple. From casual dress in the organisation to his style as a leader that inspires others to offer their unique, autonomous innovations, his leadership is highly transformational. Jobs believes in social learning theory, in which individuals will model behaviours of their leaders if they witness reward for their activities. By setting high standards for himself, he inspires others to achieve the same results and his staff model these behaviours when they witness the applause and other benefits Jobs receives when he presents his new innovative products to the global audience. Though Jobs did not express command-and-control leadership style, though he is known to have been quite abrasive, he does take accountability for Apple’s success by modelling his behaviours against very high standards and then visibly trying to live up to them. Charismatic attitude and inspiration for the rest of the organisational culture is where Jobs maintains transformational leadership style. This style is about building a harmonious, dedicated organisation through ethical behaviours and social charisma. By establishing Apple’s vision to be revolutionary and innovative, he uses his personality as a means to gain support and dedication to achieving greatness for the company. His rock star-modelled speeches at Apple conventions is another aspect of his transformational leadership style that defies the norms of business and puts the company as a leader in change management. Jobs’ leadership style can be analysed using many different leadership templates, such as change management, innovation management, and many other qualitative tools associated with management theory. Jobs is a people-centred individual when it comes to their autonomous roles at Apple, thus empowering individuals through transformational interactions. Jobs also utilises the public relations word-of-mouth about Apple values, vision and principles as a means to measure his leadership style as a benchmark against other companies that follow these same leadership standards. His transformational leadership style is evident in nearly all of his values and beliefs and how he goes about representing them in all of his interactions with subordinate employees and peers. He even looks to the external markets for opinion and better labour to ensure that the company is equipped to handle ongoing change, another factor that drives transformational style. Jobs should be considered a benchmark for transformational style by other company leaders. Jobs and culture His style can be compared to other companies that have more rigid, centralized hierarchies of control where information is disseminated from the top layers without much employee feedback or innovation involvement. Steve Jobs’ leadership style transcends the normal business structure which builds a better organisational culture. Even though he provides an informal and innovative-minded environment to empower his managers and employees, he still maintains strict standards by which employees must live up to. They are either rewarded for their successes or punished (a transactional approach) if they fail to meet his performance standards. This is somewhat duplicitous, a blend of transformational and transactional leadership that is contingent on success. The freedoms he provides, such as casual dress and environments where free movement is tolerated, build more dedication and loyalty to meeting performance and innovation goals. Jobs is able to build a positive organisational culture by taking personal accountability for actions and then applying these same standards to everyone else. Jobs, himself, recognises that his standards include firing individuals who do not meet up to Apple performance obligations, however humanely. This shows that even though individuals experience these considerable job-related freedoms and unorthodox working conditions that satisfy and motivate, the business still maintains a strong performance management system in which reprimand is an outcome for failure. Jobs establishes a culture where creativity is applauded and rewarded, more elements of a transformational leadership style. This style focuses on conducting good works throughout the organisation and therefore he is able to get others to model his behaviours since he lives up to these transformational beliefs. His publicized concern, as one example, over succession after his impending death again reinforced his values related to company success as a means to inspire others to keep the same dedication to meeting performance targets and strategic goals. He clearly did not want to lose Apple’s current reputation as an innovative and cultural-building leader, thus creating a culture of devotion and commitment through modelled behaviours. Cultural development is not an easy task and involves many characteristics of providing a quality organisational structure and also empowering others, with an advanced focus on teamwork and recognition for a job well-done. Jobs seems to understand this and has received many different tributes and honours from the external environment for his dedication to cultural development and cultural unity at Apple. Motivation Motivation in employees usually comes from the quality of their jobs and the emotional satisfaction they achieve through job roles. By creating a culture of unity, defying the norms of formal business, and also building a team-focused organisation, Jobs was able to motivate others to achieve performance targets. Employees are motivated by rewards, however they are also motivated by the psychological needs fulfilments that must come from management and employee interactions. Positive communications of the company vision, general positive interventions, respect, trust and job flexibility are some elements that Jobs provided which are necessary to avoid change resistance or increase turnover rates from unsatisfied employees. The psychology of motivation is what is most important for Jobs’ role in creating incentives with his employees and managers. Jobs, in the case study, reinforced his value for quality employees and keeping their spirits high so that quality standards could be met. By recognising employees who are dedicated and meeting satisfactory job role standards, he motivates through encouragement and support. By showing employees that they are important and valuable assets to the company, he builds better human capital and enthusiasm for attaining Apple’s high standards of innovation and creativity. In order to successfully motivate employees, the leader or manager must understand the emotional needs of employees, such as those promoted by Abraham Maslow in his Hierarchy of Needs. Some of these are affiliation (such as teamwork and support from peers), job security, and self-confidence in order to be fully productive. Jobs seems to recognise this and meets these psychological needs regarding group membership, by promoting successful employees for security reasons, and also building their self-esteem effectively. Self-esteem is developed by giving them a more visible role in the organisation and allowing them to express their own, unique ideas and concepts about how to better Apple products and differentiate from competition. By giving them a voice in the company it helps employees to feel as though they are having a quality impact on their environment, something necessary to build a satisfied and dedicated culture that is diverse and enthusiastic. Jobs ensures that the best IT people in the business remain with the company by weaning out those who do not meet Apple’s standards. Jobs actually recruits with this purpose in mind to ensure that he is drafting the right individuals. Rather than allowing them to come to Apple, Jobs seeks out top talent and therefore ensures that the company gets the right employee who will fit the culture and performance standards required to keep the company a market leader. Dismissing ill-performing employees is Jobs’ method to ensure that Apple does not meet with internal failures for non-performing or non-motivated workers. Read More