Organizational Leadership and Performance - Case Study Example

Running Head: Organizational Leadership and Performance Organizational Leadership and Performance Name Course Lecturer Date Organizational Leadership and Performance Introduction Excellent leadership is a key in the current competitive global economy. It is obvious that the difference between failure and success of an organization relies on leadership. Bennet (2009) asserts that the importance of good leadership in the current global changes cannot be overstated. Indeed, leadership is the primary force that determines the competitiveness of an organization in the global economy. According to George, (2003), leadership capacity provides the driving force for structure, strategies and methods of managing resources. The attributes that dominate in leadership are vision, goal orientation, influence and character. Leaders’ role is to work with people and influence them. This requires them to use data, projects, mix concepts, and behavioral exercises in developing team and leadership skills. There are different leadership dimensions such as charismatic, human-oriented, task-oriented, transformational and transactional leadership that determines their outcomes. Charismatic leadership who are value based, and team-oriented leadership are among the most supported and universally endorsed. Other leadership dimensions also on global profile are participative and humane, autonomous and self-protective leadership are also accepted. Cultural differences influence the way people think about leaders, and the norms for granting status, privileges and influence to leaders. There is leadership dimensions associated with organizational and societal culture. Hitt, Keats, & Yucel (2003) argue that the need to adapt systems, structure and processes is increasing globally. Since organizations are different in relation to their mission, strategy and structure is defined by this mission. Globalization refers to a concept whereby different economies in the world are seen to unify or amalgamate with each other through reduction of barriers such as tariffs of international trade, quotas on imports and fee that is related to exports. Oddo (2008) asserts that indeed, globalization mainly focuses on maximizing economies of those countries that are related to products, services and wealth by fostering and developing international relations, competition and understanding. It specifies operations and processes that may be utilized by the cultures, businesses and economies with the assistance of various modes such as distribution networks, supply chain activities and communications. Globalization is recognized as being driven by technological, biological, economical and political factors. With this as the setting it is instructive to analyze successful leader in and determine the leadership style in the organization in the current global economy. Apple Inc. Steve Jobs may be described as a great leader in the current globalization as he steered major changes across the organizations scenario. One cannot rule out the fact that his leadership style has made him be admired by many. As much as he was someone to be feared, he was a great leader in the Apple Inc. Apple Inc. was formally known as Apple Computer, Inc. it provides personal computer and consumer electronics. The company also operates retail stores in numerous countries. Other products include portable media players, computer software and hardware. It is well known for Mac line of personal computers and the iPod, a portable media player. It prides itself as the second brand in the computer industry. Steve Jobs, Ronald Wayne and Steve Wozinak founded the company in 1979. Apple Inc. is seen to do pretty well in the current global markets as a result of operative capabilities and integrated resources that are the outcomes of globalization. Leadership Styles According to Javidan (2006) the current thought has grouped leadership into three camps: charismatic, transformational and transactional leadership. However, there are other styles that have continued to develop with increase of effective leaders in the global market. Transactional leadership does involve working an existing culture and ensuring that the employees are working accordingly. Indeed, the rewards are based on performance. In addition, performance is monitored and deviation from the expectations or proactive actions may lead to loss of job. However, loyalty and trust can build in such an environment and may lead to job satisfaction (Javidan, 2006). Transformational leadership mainly involves inspiration of greater performance than usual, establishing a vision and aligning the employees of the organization around the vision. A transformational leader is intuitive and charismatic. It is obvious that such leaders will increase productivity and create satisfaction among the employees in the organization. This type of leadership is in line with the Theory Y of MacGregor and Theory Z of Ouchi leadership style. A combination of these styles may be referred to as composite leaders (Leadership Council, 2009). Charismatic leadership is described as one of the greatest type of leaderships that has excellent impact in the current global economy. They gather people to follow them, through dint of charm and personality but not authority and external power (George, 2003). A charismatic leader is guided by self-confidence and charm. They pay great attention to the audience and environment, that is, scanning and reading the surrounding. Later, their words and action is then directed to the situations. It is obvious that such personality attract admirers and attention. Such leaders use people’s admiration to influence other to follow them and do what they want to be done (DiStefano, 2003). Indeed, charismatic leaders with good intentions and ethics have power to transform and inspire the people that they lead. It is important to note that a transformation and charismatic leader may have some similarities. In such, a transformational leader may be charismatic. The difference between these two types of leadership is evident in the basic focus. A transformational leader is seen to have basic focus of transforming a company or an organization while a charismatic leader may not see the need to change anything in the organization (Cohen, 2007). Steve Jobs was fit to be a composite leader. This is because he could display the extreme tendencies in all direction on a regular basis. There are several activities that he undertook to be described as a transactional leader. His proactive role in leading the company ensured that the Apple Inc. achieved the set objectives. He established the strategy for Apple Inc.’s main objective, that is, he pre-established the company. Jobs worked on motivating and guiding employees by assigning tasks and roles to ensure that the objectives are achieved. Indeed, he assisted the company take determined steps in the music industry. Reprisal and fear tactics that he was used created pressure in the company. According to him, there was no need of making people feel good about their work, making them better than before was his job. As such, he had to trust his beliefs and values and completely disregarded the conventional views of running company in CEO’s traditional way (Moisescot, 2012). Such leaders have responded to the need for a multiple organizational structures as a way of accommodating different needs. Dynamic organizations with shifting needs need to accommodate these if a leader is vigilant and recognizing these needs. Another transactional attribute of Steve Jobs is his tendency to micromanage and organize every aspect of the company. Jobs could not stand and see the company heading in the wrong direction. Indeed, he replaced the entire Apple board in order to create an effective and efficient board that would run the company in the right direction. This brings out another attribute of Jobs, mistrust. It is evident that in most of the company’s activities such as the launch, Jobs is said to have taken personal interest in the activities. He was obsessed with details in the company dealings. For instance, during the launch of the company’s product; Next and Macintosh, Jobs controlled the serving of food and decoration of the room (Javidan, 2006). Still, Jobs had a vision for the company and he did make sure that every employee in that company absorbed the vision. This was a proactive action and created higher purpose of working than before among the employees. These traits, insensitivity, micromanagement and lack of trust in his employees’ abilities characterize Job as a transactional leader. It is important to understand that the employees viewed this behavior in the context of underlying qualities. Indeed, his behavior did entirely depend on the circumstance and the employees saw through his behavior that his attitude was driven by personal gain but for the good of the company. It is obvious that his attribute as a transactional leader helped the company to change according to the global economy and create a healthy competition in the field of technology (Bonnstetter, 2000). Despite Steve Jobs, limits into the transactional field, he is evenly extreme in transformational space. Jobs is well known for his power of persuasion and rhetorical skills, the qualities that do define a transformational leader. One cannot deny the fact that he is one of the most inspirational motivator in the computer industry. He was able to inspire the employees of the company together with his followers to push harder and further than they otherwise by transcending their self interest for the sake of the company and directing their efforts to the highest level of actualization (Cohen, 2007). One characteristic of transformational leader is that they must have a vision and believe in the vision. Genuine enthusiasm is indeed, tangible and should be transferred easily to other people. The people influenced should also become enthusiastic and perform excellently in whatever they may be pursuing. His vision extended beyond his workers to his consumer where he could market his products. The employees and clients did identify him as charismatic person. According to George (2003) the ability of a charismatic leader to align himself with his employees in the organization and at the same time be able to differentiate him, does justify his ability to be a leader. Job did this with his dressing and also differentiates and aligns himself with his oratory. For instance he aligned himself with the Macintosh team where he described them with various attributes that did appeal to him. He described them as the best computer scientist that the world had. He used impression management as a way to project his work as exemplary and morally, therefore, differentiating himself adequate to merit his leadership (Hitt et al., 2003). It is obvious that Steve Job was keen in producing software and an excellent customer experience. He was clearly prepared to take a personal risk in achieving the company’s vision. For instance, his approach to Bill Gates, a former foe, and partnering with Microsoft was a great risk. It is evident that he had a high level of sensitivity to his employees and did attribute the success of the company to them. He did credit them for their ability to maintain the focus on customers and innovation. His ordinary behavior exhibited his ability to turn the Apple around from a failing company to an excellent performing company that is competing well in the global market (Bennett, 2009). Essentially, charismatic leadership, creativity in decision making and ability to adapt to changes in the current globalization marked the Apple Inc success under the leadership of Steve Jobs. In the start up of the company, Apple was seen to be on the verge of bankruptcy. He assumed leadership positions that assisted the company to grow to become a respectable company in software and hardware. This was as a result of realizing the main path to the success of the company was through the clients. His advertising strategies made the company a household name and this, jumpstarted the computer industry. As the company became more and more successful in the global market, Steve Jobs continued investing in advertising and marketing in order to fuel the growth of Apple Inc (Javidan, 2006). Indeed, Apple contributed largely to the digital age in a significant way by introducing the first successful graphical user interface. His creativity skills played a significant role in the major decisions that saw Apple emerge as an excellent innovation leader. Steve Jobs leadership style did inspire Apple Inc to returns to the innovative roots. Basically, the leadership in the company had to change in order to be effective in within the globalized environment (Bennett, 2009). Indeed, globalization has had a profound effect on the current leadership in organization. This has called for change in leadership in various organizations. According to Cohen, (2007), global leadership is on increasing demand of multicultural, multinational, multilingual and multi-media world. There is a new way of defining leader’s relationship with the subordinates, colleagues, suppliers, customers, affiliates, parent organizations and competitors. Participative and humane leadership promote trans-cultural effectiveness. Diversity need competency in leadership. Globally effective leaders are sensitive to different cultures, races, nationalities, disabilities and sexes. This is an aspect required of global leadership in this century. The leaders have to learn to transcend the childhood acculturation and also respect different cultures. These leaders are building cross-cultural partnerships of respect, mutual trust and obligation. They are also engaging in cross-cultural creativity in problem solving and conflict resolution. Our example, Steve Jobs took much of his time creating products and recruiting (Moisescot, 2012). Efficient leaders have constructed third cultures in a varieties scenes and operations. These are goals that can only be accomplished by transformed leaders in trans-cultural creativity. According to De Vries et al., (2010) efficient global leaders understand leadership process and identify various opportunities. They have to get things started in the right way and avoid conventional pitfalls, to maximize success. Most effective leaders use their spirit, heart and mind in their work by a continuous practical application of their skills, education, and training. Though global leaders work is a tough one, it is rewarding and such leaders feel good when they do their job right. Half of Steve Jobs time was spent in creating products, marketing, recruiting and representing the company as the public face. He had a reputation of putting decision into effect out of rationale and this made Apple most breakthroughs in a decade (Moisescot, 2012). Moisescot (2012) asserts that communication is a basic element in any organization. The common communication styles employed by global leaders vary depending on their style. Communication of influential leaders, contain verbal aggressiveness, preciseness, expressiveness, assuredness, argumentativeness, and supportiveness (De Vries et al., 2010). This style express self, organizational needs, people’s view and emotions reality and external considerations. Effective leaders express preciseness, supportiveness and assuredness when communicating with subordinates Task-oriented leadership is less communicative while charismatic and human-oriented leadership are more communicative. A leader’s communication styles influence organizational knowledge sharing behaviors, leader performance, subordinates team commitment and satisfaction with that leader. Steve Jobs not only changed the world of businesses but also changed the whole world. He had a well public communication techniques and tools. In public speaking, Jobs knew the importance of leaving a lasting and powerful impression on the audience. Every presentation according to him was a performance. For instance, in presentation of a product from the company, he would mainly focus on the impact a product would have on their lives rather than harping on the details of a product. It is obvious that he had passion in communication. This made the audience get excited as he was excited in his presentation. Indeed, simplicity to him was the key to effective communication. As much as he was known to be a tough CEO, Jobs ensured excellent communication in the work place. This created an excellent working climate. The communication behavior among leaders in the company easily affects the way the subordinates do communicate. In ensuring that there was a flow in communication in the company, Jobs made sure that there was an understanding within the board (DiStefano, 2003). As a charismatic leader, Jobs encourage feedback from the employees. The employees had a way to discover what the leaders wanted and they supplied then information to them. In addition, Steve Jobs was a good listener. He was physically and mentally alert while communicating. This is evident as he was able to guide the employees after they had given him the needed information. Genuine interest was also evident as his concerns were expressed. From this, he was able to understand his employees and acknowledge the work that they had done for the company. Essentially, as an effective leader, Jobs was aware that effective communication is important in a company or organization. Poor communication results to problems (De Vries et al., 2010). In conclusion, leadership has tremendously changed within the context of a globalized market over time. Different leaders have been seen to work hard in ensuring that the organization or company remains effective and highly competitive despite these changes. Good leadership provides the driving force for strategies, structures and different methods of managing resources. Globalization as a result of technology, has led to changes in the global economy. This has had a great effect on organizations and companies. Therefore, it is important that the leaders of various organizations take advantage of the changes in the market to make profits and be able to compete highly in the world of business (Javidan, 2006). It is obvious that various leaders exhibit different types of leadership skills. It is important to note that the leadership skills and styles that are portrayed but different leaders in an organization have a profound effect in the running of an organization. Types of leaders include; transactional transformational and charismatic leaders. Steve Jobs is a renowned leader in the business world. He is well known for his efforts in making Apple Inc the second brand in the computer industry. Jobs displayed the combination of the leadership styles in the company. His efforts were in accordance to the increased change in the global economy. In addition, his communication skills had a positive effect not only to the business world but in the world. He created a good environment where communication was healthy resulting to high performance in the company. Indeed, globalization has led to change in leadership in various organizations resulting to failure or success of some organization. References Bennett, T.. (2009). A study of the management leadership style preferred by it subordinates. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communication and Conflict, 13(2), 1-25. Bonnstetter, B (2000). The DNA of global leadership competencies. Thunderbird International Business Review, 42(2), p.131.  Cohen, E. (2007). Leadership without borders: successful strategies from world-class leaders. Singapore Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons (Asia) Wiley. De Vries, R., Bakker-Pieper, A. & Oostenveld, W (2010). Leadership = Communication? The Relations of Leaders’ Communication Styles with Leadership Styles, Knowledge Sharing and Leadership Outcomes. Journal of Business and Psychology, 25(3), p.367-380. DiStefano, J. (2003). Developing global managers: integrating theory, behavior, data and performance. In Advances in Global Leadership. JAI, pp. 341-371.   George, B (2003). Leadership is Authenticity, Not Style. In Authentic leadership rediscovering the secrets to creating lasting value. John Wiley and Sons, pp. 87-98. Hitt, M., Keats, B. & Yucel, E (2003). Strategic leadership in global business organizations: Building trust and social capital. Advances in Global Leadership, 3(3), p.9-35. Javidan, M (2006). 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