Leadership Management: The Role of Steve Jobs in the Success of Apple Inc.

In this document we will discuss about Leadership Management and below are the summary points of this document:- Strong leadership and management skills are important for an organization's success. Apple Inc's success can be attributed to effective leadership management by Steve Jobs. Jobs used different leadership styles, and the trait theory identifies his characteristics as contributing to his success.

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Organizations that are or have been successful have strong managers and leaders that
encourage and support the longevity of an employee in a company. Leadership management
is a skill that has to implemented and used properly to help an organization gain profits.
Leadership and management have significant differences however it is important to use both
the skills collectively to sustain and be profitable in the market that will pave way for the
success of the company. Leaders of an organization have to carry and manage responsibilities
that have been assigned by the organization and need to have a team that is productive under
them in order to carry out assigned duties and to meet the organization’s goals. This paper
tends to talk about the leader management of the company Apple Inc that has helped the
company to garner one of the top positions in the market that has paved way for the success.
Apple Inc has gone through many ups and downs to finally acquire one of the most
successful positions in the market. The late CEO Steve Jobs had an important role to play in
making the company achieve their goals and becoming a success in the market. Apple Inc
was a company that was established and founded in the year 1976, April, 1 by eminent people
in the technology business, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. In the year 1985 one of the most
notable founder Steve Jobs was forced to quit the company he set up because of the failed
boardroom coup with John Sculley who was then the CEO of the Pepsi whom Jobs recruited.
It was in the year 1997 the CEO of Apple Inc. Gil Amelio oversaw the company’s worst
financial quarter. After the departure of the then CEO of the company, the company was
running in loss due to the dearth of a positive leader in the organization. Jobs later offered to
help the company to recover and to locate a completely new leadership. In 1997, Apple Inc.
officially announced Steve Jobs to be their new CEO. After this there was no looking back
for the company as the company had garnered appreciation for the new innovations that
became famous and a brand in itself in the market. The effective leadership management of
Steve Jobs and his vision had paved way for the success that the company still tastes today.

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It has been seen that Jobs had used different leadership management styles that has helped the
organization to become successful. One of the management theories that best describes the
leadership qualities and management of Jobs is the Trait theory. The trait theory suggests that
there are certain characteristics that leaders of companies possess that are used to forecast the
effectiveness of the leadership. The ensuing record of traits is later compared to the traits of
the leader to evaluate their possibility of failure or success. Scholars have taken the trait
approach to identify demographic, physiological, social characteristics and intellective
characteristics with leader effectiveness and leader emergence (Brown 2018). It is said that
successful and powerful leaders have abilities, personality and interests that are different
from leaders who have not been able to be very successful. It has been said the traits that Jobs
possesses has helped him to establish a successful company like Apple Inc. Steve Jobs has
been defined as a complex leader who possessed distinctive personality that constituted an
important factor in the way he led his company Apple Inc (Toma and Marinescu 2013). He
possessed certain personal traits that included him being a perfectionist, charismatic,
passionate, persuasive, intuitive, inspiring, courageous and open-minded. Steve Jobs
possessed many negative traits like narcissism, perfectionist that contributed in the success of
his company (Maccoby 2000).
One of the traits of Jobs possessed was independent thinking and being open minded.
Independent thinkers always ask the right question, they question the assumptions and
interpreting events and data according to the belief’s of an individual rather than rules that
have been established before or that have been put forth by others. Jobs always had his own
vision and have never followed anybody’s footsteps that have helped him and company come
this long way. He had acted upon the beliefs, values and ideals that he believed which often
led to conflicts between him and his employees. Here it is evident that how passionate he was

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for the company that he did not see to any other factors other than the success of the company
and the goals that he had set for the company.
The other trait that Jobs possessed was courage. Courage is the ability to do
something that scares a person. It has been seen that Jobs was aware and familiar with the
potential bankruptcy that Apple could have faced however he joined the company during this
crucial time and made amendments and certain decisions that helped the company to regain
their position in the market (Shah and Mulla 2013). Jobs was hesitant to join back the
company but looked passed the negativity and embraced his own vision that helped in
rebuilding the company (Stewart 2015). This also shows the determination he possessed
where he knew what he had to do in order to make sure his company gets back the position
and helped the company from bankruptcy (Wheelen et al 2017).
Jobs was considered to be inspiring. Inspiring is a trait where people inspire other
people to do something good. Jobs with his positive vision inspired many employees to be
like him. However Jobs negative trait like him being a perfectionist where ye wanted
everything to be perfect and any a time shad become harsh on his employees also helped him
to inspire people and employees saw the passion as he wanted to be every detail to be perfect
(Storey 2016). Jobs as a perfectionist did not give up and continued to pursue his dreams.
Jobs was open-minded and he did not restrict himself to traditional methods of
running an organization. He was always willing to experiment and find ways to introduce
innovative products which catered to the people in the market (Iqbal, Anwar and Haider
2015). His vision was to create unique products that would bring a revolutionary change in
the world.
Job had a charismatic personality. He was confident and exactly knew what he
wanted. He was good at communicating with other business associates in order to make his

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business grow. The other thing about him was passion. Jobs would do anything to save his
company and to help it grow. Jobs always kept Apple Inc first. Jobs had taken help from
Apple’s biggest rival and competitor Microsoft to create a version of Mac that his partner
could not finish making. This showed how he just cared about the company and its reputation
and would do anything to bring the company at the forefront (Yun, Jung and Yigitcanlar
2018).
Steve Jobs was a visionary leader. He had helped the company fight back and helped
the company to regain the positive position in the market. The trait that Jobs possessed has
helped the company to cater to the audience and create an empire (Carleton, Barling, and
Trivisonno 2018.). However some attributes and actions of Jobs can be questioned from a
certain point of view concerning with ethics, his intelligence, confidence and the
determination reflects the Trait Theories of leadership.
It has been seen that the leadership style and management that was used by Steve Jobs
reflected the autocratic style. He took full authority over the operation of the company to
ensure that his employees delivered the products that the customers demanded and wanted.
He was firm and determined in implementing his ideas and show his authority over the
company. It was said that Jobs had insisted the Macintosh project to be available and
launched in the market in a matter of twelve months. He was interested and indulged himself
in every detail of his company (Bhatti et al 2018). Steve Jobs was often harsh to his
employees and set impractical goals within a stipulated time to get his work done in no time
and the time he expected. Many employees were scared of Jobs and were unsure of when
they were going to be terminated by Jobs because of his behavior towards his employees
(Seago 2016). The passion and the love for the company made Jobs behave like this with his
employees. It has been seen that Jobs was more concerned with finishing and accomplishing
tasks rather than building interpersonal relationships between him and his employees (Howell

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2012). He made his employees work for longer hours, months and even days to meet the
deadlines. However, his employees had immense faith in him and trusted his vision which
made them accept the timetables that he made which was not favorable. Jobs was considered
to be demanding and instilled fear in the minds of his employees to make sure they made
innovative products and did the work they were assigned to do. Jobs focused on getting the
task done. His ideas and his vision were supported by the employees. The characteristics Jobs
possessed and the way he use to behave reflects the autocratic leadership management that he
implemented to help in making the organization a success and acquire a market globally.
The characteristics and the style of leadership that Jobs possessed has highly been
influential and effective in helping the company Apple Inc. get to the position which it is
experiencing today. It has become evident that without a proper and strategic leadership
Apple Inc. could not regain its position back in the market (Ng 2018).
The leadership management theory that Jobs had followed has helped his company
pave way for the success. I have experienced this and understood that the leadership quality
or the style and the management that Jobs followed or reflected in his style of management
was highly effective. I joined a company that was selling artifacts and furniture where I
worked as the team leader of the company. I had many employees working under me
however I saw they did not take me seriously which resulted in the poor productivity level of
the employees that was directly affecting the sales of the company. I understood that the
employees need to be made to understand the position I was holding and it was important to
follow and work on the works assigned by me. The company was getting affected and I had
to take measurable steps in ensuring the company gets back to the position they were in and
make fruitful results. Previously I was very casual with the employees. This time I focused
more on the goals of the company that needed to be achieved and also the operations. I made
sure the employees do their work on time and the goals are met. I gave them a stipulated time

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in which they had to carry out the work and set deadlines where they were motivated to do
the work and got the pressure in doing the job at the given time so that there was no work
remaining and everything was done efficiently and in time. In order to meet certain goals I
made my employees work for long hours and months so that the goals of the company could
be achieved in a short period of time that would pave way for the success of the company.
I set a vision for the company and made my employees understand the urgency and
the need for the work that they have been assigned to do. I made my employees have faith in
me so that they are willing to do the jobs in order to contribute to the success of the company.
I have a open mind and even like Jobs I did not stick to the traditional methods of operating
an organization and managing the employees. To promote my company I took certain
measures like promoting my company in social media and via other internet sources that are
new measures that are being taken up these days. I have realized that it is important to be a
task orientated leader to understand and shape the organization with the skills that I possess. I
am resistant to change and I am determined in what I do. When I joined the company and was
new and when nobody was taking me seriously I became determined that I will change the
situation and make suitable changes in the operation of the company. I made different
departments and assigned different works to people according to their expertise. I made sure
they followed the work I assigned to them that I thought would be beneficial for the
company. I implemented some strategic changes in the company that would help in making
the company acquire a good position in the market and also have a positive reputation in the
market that will help the company garner appreciation and increase the revenue.
Leadership management is essential in running an organization as it is important for
an organization to be guided in a positive way. An organization without a leader lacks the
necessary and important focus that a company or an organization needs to achieve the certain
goals to help the companies get a good position in the market. In this paper we can see the

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skills that reflect the leadership management that has been used by Steve Jobs in his own
company Apple Inc. The leadership management he followed or reflects on his actions was
the Trait theory of leadership and the Autocratic theory. Here we have seen how his
leadership management skills had helped the company regain its position in the market and
acquired a good position in the market that has paved for the success of the company and has
made the company on of the most desirable brand.

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