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1988 words

A critical analysis on the leadership style of Steve Jobs

Overview of the leader and his company

“The key to leadership and personal success is having good faith towards other people.”

It is a famous quote of a person, who is still the real face of Apple Inc. He is none other

than Steve Jobs, who founded the company, pressured to leave it, but joined again to re-build

its image when it was in crisis. He strongly believed in creativity and innovation, which helped

him in becoming a famous entrepreneur and a great leader. He started working on Apple

computers, co-jointly with his friend in 1977. They launched Apple I and Apple II, and then, they

never looked behind (Toma & Marinescu, 2013).

Apple Inc. manufactures and sells computer software, iPhones, consumer electronics, and

various other online services. It revolutionised the world of information and technology

through its creative products (Linzmayer, 2004). The company remained successful for years

with higher profits. However, it went to the brink of failure, when Jobs stepped down from his

position. But as soon as he joined again, Apple turned into the most valuable company in 2011

before his death.

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Analysis of the leadership style and power tactics of Jobs

Capabilities, characteristics, experience, and expertise

Jobs did not only transform the company but also revolutionised the entire

technological climate through his leadership characteristics and expertise (Yu, 2013). As a

leader, he has shown various traits of transformational leadership style (Steinwart & Zieglar,

2014). However, Bel (2009) identified Steve Jobs as the adopter of innovative leadership. It

means that he was an amalgamation of different leadership traits. Besides, his natural

capabilities like creativity and expertise added more to his effective leadership style (Yu, 2013).

One of the characteristics is strategic visioning, which resulted in focus for Jobs. He

discovered the needs of the consumers about computers, electronics, and other technologies.

He was always reluctant to burden the product development in Apple through focus groups

(Lsaacsn, 2011). In other words, he never liked unnecessary pressures. Therefore, he targeted

the routine requirements for technologies among consumers and businesses (Lashinsky, 2012).

It also increased the focus of Jobs as the leader on product development. Jobs hated

smartphones of that age and wanted to develop something different through his company.

Therefore, he turned his and his team’s focus towards the development of something beyond

imagination. It resulted in the development of the iPhone (Lsaacsn, 2011).

Lozano (2013) ascertained that with promoting innovation, leaders also have to

overcome the resistance within the organisation. Jobs promoted changes in the organisation

and implemented the most effective solutions to overcome the hesitation. He convinced his

teams about changing the designs of iPhones and also challenged them to create high-end
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boutiques (Levy, 2006). He confronted the traditional organisational behaviours through “top-

down interventions” (Niebuhr, Vobe & Brem, 2016). To simplify, he communicated with the

lowest levels of teams to transform the resistance into acceptance, bypassed all obstacles, and

changed the situations (Sander, 2019).

Similarly, sustaining the momentum of change is another capability and expertise of the

leader. Jobs followed the supportive approach to develop a maintenance-oriented behaviour

among the teams in Apple (Anderson, 2012). He supported every employee (going beyond the

formal organisational structure) for sustainable progress. For instance, he developed a separate

department for keeping the pace of innovation for iPhone development and increasing the

value (Young & Simon, 2005; Anderson, 2012). The result was the continuous increase in sales

of the iPhone since its launch. Yu (2013) added that various big names tried to develop leaders

on the track of Steve Jobs, but many of them have failed. It indicates that real leaders fit in the

situation or change it according to their requirements.

White, Gunasekaran, Ariguzo (2013) claimed that the technological world requires

knowledge management, which is possible through creativity and innovation. Without thinking

out of the box, a leader cannot bring something beyond imagination. Jobs leapt the frog when

left behind by adopting an employee-oriented behaviour (White et al., 2013). After the launch

of the iMac, Jobs found that the music downloading option was necessary but missing.

Therefore, instead of modifying the product, he revolutionised the music industry through

iTunes. It covered all the options ranging from listening to buying, downloading, sharing, and

storing. With the above-mentioned leadership characteristics and expertise of Jobs, Apple
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emerged as the guru in the technological world. It succeeded against its rivals after a serious

downfall. It indicates that the effectiveness of leaders also impacts organisational behaviour.

Steve Jobs as the leader in the light of theoretical approaches

Leadership is a fascinating topic for researchers. They have developed theories and

models to develop a better understanding of different leadership styles. However, Steve Jobs is

one of those leaders who showed that no leadership style fits every situation. Therefore,

various scholars have developed models that imitate the style of Jobs.

Path goal theory is one of them to analyse the leadership style of Steve Jobs. It stated

that “it is the leader’s job to assist followers in attaining their goals and to provide the

necessary direction and/or support to ensure that their goals are compatible with the overall

objectives of the group or organization (Bans-Akutey, 2021).” A leader’s behaviour is significant

as it identifies the path for followers based on the organisational goals. Thus, it results in

improved employee performance and job satisfaction (Cote, 2017). However, the behaviour

divides into directive, supportive, participative, and achievement-oriented elements. As a

leader, Steve Jobs fulfilled all the components of path-goal theory while leading Apple Inc.

Being directive refers to the task performance-oriented attitude. A leader focuses on the

performance related to any task. Steve Jobs has always provided the best directions to his

teams while interacting with them through a whiteboard. He did not compromise on the quality

of the products. For example, he has task his teams to simplify the designs of the Xerox mouse

despite it was a high-tech product. Meanwhile, the results were mind-blowing. However, critics

argued that being highly directive is authoritarian leadership, which is also observed in the style

of Jobs. The next aspect is being supportive to ensure maintenance-oriented behaviour. Jobs
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supported Apple from his heart at every stage. For example, after being fired from his own

founded company, he again took the charge because a great leader always wants to maintain

the products and companies he has worked with. Jobs remained participative in the

organisation by taking timely decisions. For iDVDs, he simplified the option of burn with just

one click. The decision increased the sales of iDVDs across the globe. The last one is

achievement-oriented that deals with motivating teams and rewarding them for their work.

Jobs motivated every employee just to bring the best products in the market. However,

rewards (monetary or non-monetary) were not found in his case.

The second theory that perfectly describes the leadership style of Steve Jobs in leading

Apple Company is the charismatic leadership approach. Shamir, House, and Arthur (1993)

defined it as the leadership style that profoundly impacts the followers through the

effectiveness of the leaders. House and Howell (1992) divided charismatic leaders into two

types based on their traits. The first is personalised charismatic leaders who are exploitive and

power lovers. The others are socialised with characteristics like collectivism-oriented and non-

exploiters. However, the charisma of Jobs has spun the minds of various researchers.

Heracleous and Klaering (2014) mentioned that Steve Jobs’ leadership style was to customise

the behaviour and work style as per the requirements of the situation. It increased the

charisma of Jobs despite being criticised for being rude and outspoken. In their words, “Jobs

was also able to deliver a constant set of messages or themes across the different scenarios,

about his company’s products, future journey, and exceptional people. He employed rhetorical

strategies such as amplification, repetition, or re-framing the discussion in a way that suited his

goals, such as moving the tone of the CNBC interview from 'businesses at war' to 'business on a
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journey' (Heracleous et al., 2014). For his teams, he was charismatic because he uses real-life

terms and stories to motivate them and provide them with examples to think of the idea of the

product and develop it. Lastly, he used his charisma to pull Apple out of the crisis, putting it on

the right track of success, and standardising the level of energy and quality that Apple still

follows after his departure (Daily Mirror, 2015).

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Power Tactics of Steve Jobs

The evaluation showed that the years in which Steve Jobs was not a part of Apple were

a nightmare for the company. However, when he came back, the management of Apple

understood the benefit of getting the real leader. Meanwhile, Jobs also used various power

tactics to once again allow Apple to reach the sky.

The first tactic he used is legitimate power. It deals with receiving power as a result of

the position of the individual in the formal organisation structure. Jobs has unlimited power to

work and take decisions. And he made the most of it. In many cases, he communicated directly

from the top with the bottom teams to tell them his expectations. He bypassed their bosses by

creating a team of “Top 100 people” from the organisation using his power (Lsaacson, 2011).

Meanwhile, he also utilised his abilities to meet the goals of the company, which he cared for

like a newborn. It is also linked with his referent power because he praised the work, attitude,

and dedication of employees. In addition, he also challenged the abilities of the employees

among whom he discovered hidden talents. Secondly, Jobs used coercive power tactics to give

the best results to the company. It refers to punishing or penalising team members for not

reaching the goals. Steve Jobs has a blunt style that could make anyone cry out of tears. He

never compromised on the quality of products and neither had he forgiven anyone who valued

his job over the goals of the company (Lsaacson, 2011). Critics argued that the use of coercive

power is damaging. However, even the employees knew that behind the bluntness of Jobs it

was an objective to nurture their skills. The third is the expert power that Jobs used during his
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work at Apple. He knows various industries like computers and music at his fingertips. He used

each word of his knowledge for the success of Apple. For instance, he simplified the designs of

Xerox mouse and iDVDs because he took the responsibility for “end-to-end user experience

(Lsaacson, 2011).”
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Implications through the creation of legacies

Steve Jobs is a true example of a leader with various leadership styles. He adopted

transformational leadership style, innovative leadership styles, and charismatic leadership style

each for differing situations. He also used different power tactics to rebuild the image of the

company and provided the users with the best experience in different industries. Therefore, he

received the titles like “The most powerful person in the business” and “CEO of the Decade

(Imbimbo, 2009).”

With his zealous and zestful leadership for decades, Steve Jobs has created various

legacies. He brought a revolution in communication and technologies. According to Bharat

Anand (2011), “Jobs transcended the business to become a public figure.” Desphande (2011)

agreed and added that iPads, iPods, and iPhones are something beyond human imagination

creating a brand-based legacy for consumers. In other words, he transformed personal

computing and the mobile world with his passion and ideas. He created a legacy in the music

industry by allowing buying, sharing, and storing (Lsaacsn, 2011). Moreover, he transformed the

film industry with the creation of animated movies for different age groups and made the

impossible, possible.

Conclusion

Steve Jobs is an exemplary figure for not only leaders but also for transforming the

organisational behaviours within the organisations. His leadership styles and power tactics
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proved that leadership styles should change with the situation within the organisation. It also

aids in developing passionate organisational behaviour in today’s competitive business climate.

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