Applying Leadership Styles - Essay Example

Applying Leadership Styles Discussion about the Organization and the Changes Apple Inc is consumer electronics based company of repute which serves modern communication devices in the global market. Generally, Apple serves computer hardware, software, Tablet, iPhone, iPod along with other modern technology accessories. In serving with attractive technologies in the global competitive market, Apple has achieved a leading position in the technology industry (CNN Money, 2012). This position is achieved by Apple with the help of its leaders who led the company efficiently while achieving the desired objective.

The major measures initiated by the leadership of Apple include Tim Cook as the new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and also inspiring employees to work with innovative ideas along with rewarding the employees for motivation. Additionally, previous CEO and charismatic leader of Apple, Steve Jobs shared the vision of launching cell phone in the market besides the computers and motivated the employees to follow his vision (Docstoc, 2012).Explanation of Leadership Styles with ExampleGenerally, there are three styles of leadership namely transactional, transformational and situational leadership styles.

Transactional leadership style can be defined as a style of a leader with which he/she promotes acquiescence of the employees with rewards and punishes according to their performances along with focusing on every operation and activity of the organization. In other words, transactional leadership style is also known as managerial leadership style (Dibley, 2009). With due consideration to this aspect, it can be stated that a leader following this style might desire to promote innovation in the organizational operational processes by inclusion of promotions and rewards to obtain best out of the employees.

Similarly, it is observed that Apple’s leaders considered this style into its operational process. Apple’s management led by Steve Jobs prudently considered the inclusion of Tim Cook as the new CEO to lead Apple to further growth and prosperity (Docstoc, 2012). Transformational leadership style can be classified as the quality of a leader who changes the state of mind according to the organizational requirements through motivating and implementing various mechanisms, further which also helps the employees to enhance their performances.

The roles performed under this style include idealized influence, inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation. Moreover, idealized influence can be stated as the manager who is identified to be the best in his/her abilities to guide and to respond to the employees’ requirements. Inspirational motivation role can be described as the role of a manager, who involves his/her entire employees into the decision making plans along with motivating the employees to achieve the objective of innovative ideas which have been considered.

Intellectual stimulation can be explained as the influencing role played by the manager in order to motivate employees to come up with innovative ideas or plans for launching new products or to resolve the existing or future problems (Hall, Johnson, Wysocki, & Kepner, 2012).Therefore, a leader following this style might intend to encourage, motivate and influence his/her followers or employees to bring about best possible outcomes for the organization. With reference to the context, it has been observed that Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs followed this particular style of leadership which is observed from the fact that he motivated his employees to undertake continuous innovation which has resulted in superior innovative products and offerings of Apple such as iPhone, iPod, and Mac among others (Docstoc, 2012).

Situational leadership is defined as the role played by the managers in which they establish an effective process in order to maintain a proper flow of communication between the managers and the employees (Lussier, 2011). A leader following situational leadership style might desire to maintain a proper flow of communication within the organization in the situations when the leadership of Apple changed hands i.e. when Tim Cook took over as the new CEO (Stamp Drang, 2007). ReferencesCNN Money. (2012). Apple. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/most-admired/2012/snapshots/670.html?iid=spltoplink Docstoc. (2012). Leadership Steve Jobs.

Retrieved from http://www.docstoc.com/docs/116418763/Leadership-Steve-Jobs Dibley, J. E. (2009). The relationship between the transformational leadership style of officers and the levels of their followers’ work engagement in the South African army. University Of South Africa, pp. 1-146.Hall, J., Johnson, S., Wysocki, A., & Kepner, K. (2012). Transformational leadership: the transformation of managers and associates. University of Florida, pp. 1-3.Lussier, R. N. (2011). Management fundamentals: concepts, applications, skill development.

United States: Cengage Learning.Stamp Drang. (2007). Leadership styles of Carly Fiorina and Steve Jobs. Retrieved from http://www.stempeldrang.nl/uploads/4/8/5/5/4855530/project_example.pdf