Reflection of High-Performance Organizations - Family Express - Essay Example

Reflection of High Performance Organizations Introduction An organization’s performance is highly dependent on the leadership stylebeing applied by its founder or management. In business environment there are four types of leaders: transformational, inspirational, courageous and servant. Apple incorporation is among the leading companies in the world due to its cofounder’s management style. Steve Jobs was a transformational leader due to his unique innovations which enabled changed in the technological environment. Analysis Apple Incorporation is a high worth company both in its brand as well as its products. Apple brand is currently the leading brand worldwide with a brand value of $128 billion as of May 2015. Thanks to Steve Jobs who was a visionary leader through his inventions and quality of work. His leadership characteristic can be evident in 1996 when he returned to Apple incorporation due to its weakening performance. At the time, the company was six months away from bankruptcy which was later termed as one of the greatest comebacks companies in history due to Steve jobs visionary skills (Ihlenfeldt, 2011). Family Express can implement Steve Jobs independent thinking so as to implement changes in its operations. As the CEO, Steve Jobs replaced most of the company’s board members, remanaged Apple’s suppliers and streamlined the company’s product line from 50 to 10. Ihlenfeldt (2011) explains the drastic restructuring of the company led to its survival form bankruptcy and freedom to eternal success. Steve Jobs was a task oriented leader which family Express management should emulate. The revolutionary leader was able to focus on a small range of specific products and ensured that the organizational chart remained streamlined and straightforward. His task oriented skill was able necessitate effective and efficient goals and tasks to be met. For example, he reduced Apple’s computer systems to a maximum of only four; where iMac went ahead to become one of the leading computer systems of all times (Ihlenfeldt, 2011). According to Ihlenfeldtn (2011) the leader had the ability to strike deals at unbelievable rates for the realization of the organizational goals. His deal making power assisted him to become a heroic leader in the business world. Before his comeback at the company, the then CEO was looking for a fresh operating system which was later left to Jobs to initiate. The than CEO then purchased Jobs successful software company, Next. He also made partnerships which promoted remarkable steps for the company’s success. He met the renowned Bill gates and resolved his damaging Microsoft lawsuit. Through his business partnership, the company was able to realize increase in sales by a 30% margin. Steve Jobs was a non-relationship oriented leader. He never focused on increasing the employees’ performance by building human relationships. Family Express should demand top end performance among his employees without compromise. According to reports the term “Steved” was coined by his employees during his time which meant the instant disciplinary measures he took among his underperforming employees (Ihlenfeldt, 2011). The cofounder would randomly question his employees and if the answers were below average, the employees would be sacked instantly. The leader had little employee interactions which necessitated seriousness within the company. Steve Jobs used Authority compliance management style. The leader was more concerned with output rather than his employees. Steve Jobs was more focused on operations efficiency which resulted from the arrangement of work, which necessitated little interference from employees. Based on Ihlenfeldt (2011) this was reflected in Jobs through forceful inspiring, random firing and little interactions with employees. Jobs was autocratic in the delegation of work. There was a time he would perform the job by himself while there was a time he would delegate the task. His style outlined his participative leadership degree which influenced accountability and quality of decisions. The leader’s delegation degree was based on his weaknesses and strengths. When he made autonomous decisions he was relying on his strengths which necessitated development of new products, their presentation and the making of deals. Contrarily, he delegated when he was dealing with operations and the Wall Street. On this basis, it portrayed that he was competent on some tasks and incompetent on others. Thereby, acting on his strengths and weaknesses. His ability to evaluate his strengths and weaknesses, led to the success of the company as well as his leadership personality (Joiner & Josephs, 2007). His autocratic management style ensured complete control and employee specialization. He neglected the overall performance of the employees. He demanded perfection and results. For example the team that build Mac worked 90 hours per work with a big amount of pressure (Joiner & Josephs, 2007). However, the team gradually accepted Steve Jobs vision and later on began to perform and achieved greater results which they even never thought of. Joiner & Josephs (2007) confirms his autocratic form of governance demanded results out of his difficult goals which later on became a passion among his employees. The perception changed especially due to achievement of their objectives. It was reported that the employees’ passion grew tremendously due to the perception that they were making a magical change in the universe. Upon his return to the company, the leader employed team work to accomplish the company’s tasks. The team groups assisted in meeting tasks productively and efficiently. During formation of the groups he had unique ways of operating their existence (Joiner & Josephs, 2007). During his meetings, he refuted note taking since believed important points should be remembered rather than being written down. He resolved team conflicts so as to necessitate team performance and unification. He emphasized on performance and gave the mode of achieving them. Through the development of the Mac OS X, he continuously insisted that without it, the company would never reach its destined place. The leader periodically went through every detail of the new product so as to perfect every aspect it. The brush metal look was designed by Apple through this method. At some point the leader adjourned from vigorous tasks so as to imply closure. Its purpose was to maintain effective goals so as to realize clear vision. Before shipment of the Mac OS X operating system, the design team (Apple Team) had adjourned so as to wrap all the details before takeoff. Steve Jobs was busy in preparation of the presentation at the Macworld (Joiner & Josephs, 2007). Another character that distinguished Steve Jobs was energy and intelligence. The two traits separated the leaders form the non leaders which eventually led to success. Majority of people believe that Steve jobs personality led to his to success story (Joiner & Josephs, 2007). It was noted that Jobs accommodated his positive and negative personality and interests for example perfectionism and narcissism which he later turned them into his career hallmark. Family Express can employ independent thinking which allows assumption and interpretation events and data. The clear goals are far better off than the pre established objectives or rules portrayed by others. Joiner & Josephs (2007) Steve Jobs developed his own values and ideas which he ended up making his distinct rules. The rules frequently developed conflicts even among the employees, especially the managers. Another character portrayed by jobs as courage. When Steve Jobs assumed the top management’s position, he knew about the bankruptcy state of the company but still went ahead to take up the potion. He had his successful company Pixar; but still wanted to pursue Apple in its management. Jobs was a courageous leader since he ignored the negativity aspect of the company and embraced his vision, and thereby began to restructure it from its foundation. Apart from courage Family Express can employ Steve Jobs motivator character. Steve Jobs had on several occasions engaged with the employees which influenced their motivation. The motivation included intrinsic rewards which they got from the company. The employees commended that the company had a strong momentum which increased their attitudes and performance. The employees commented that they loved working with the company due to its trusted and loved products which was as a result of their derived passion (Joiner & Josephs, 2007). Family Express can also use extrinsic rewards in boosting their employees’ motivation. Steve Jobs gave the employees stock options which they got upon joining the company at a discount price. The move was beneficial to both the employees and the company. The employees felt more valued by the company while the company also increased its stock (Joiner & Josephs, 2007). The employee stocks had a huge financial return which improved their financial status. The extrinsic and intrinsic rewards enabled Steve Jobs to influence the employees’ productivity. Joiner & Josephs (2007) adds the benefits were only realized through Steve Jobs pro-activity. Apart from initiating the goals, he blamed others for non-materializing, even if the tasks were difficult to accomplish. The leader used to have weekly meetings so as he can assess on their progress. He initiated product development and commented on several changes, which even though were difficult to achieve, they eventually turned out brilliant. Conclusion Family Express can adapt several Steve Jobs traits in order to be successful. The company can begin by formulating visionary ideas so as to transform them into actual actions. Family Express can also make vigorous changes starting from the top in order for the change to be fair and effective. The company can further minimize its products and services so as to concentrate on some key competences. The company should also minimize close management employee relationships in order to promote professionalism. The use of team groups should be encouraged in order to achieve better ideas and decisions. Lastly, Family Express should adapt effective reward systems to motivate its employees. References Ihlenfeldt, W. A. (2011). Visionary leadership: A proven pathway to visionary change. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse. Joiner, B., & Josephs, S. (2007). Leadership agility: Five levels of mastery for anticipating and initiating change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Read More