Being Apple Steve Jobs Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Being Apple Steve Jobs - Essay Example 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 a s 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 compar ed 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