Leadership Style of Steve Jobs: A Case Study

This article explores the leadership style of Steve Jobs, focusing on his traits, behaviors, and the theories that can be applied to his leadership. It also discusses the contemporary leadership issues related to leadership change and global leadership.

Running Head : SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
About the leader...........................................................................................................................3
The leadership Theories and the leadership of Steve Jobs..........................................................3
The Trait Theory..........................................................................................................................4
The behavioral theory..................................................................................................................4
The transformational leadership..................................................................................................5
Steve Jobs as a Transactional leader............................................................................................6
The contemporary leadership issues related to leadership change and global leadership...........6
Recommendations............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Leadership can be referred to as an art of motivating a particular group of people who act
towards the achievement of a common goal. In a particular business setting, the term “
leadership “ can refer to providing direction to the colleagues and the workers to fulfill the needs
of the company. The definition of leadership captures the various important elements to inspire
people around. The effective leadership refers to the accumulation of the ideas along with the
ideals (Arena & Uhl-Bien, 2016). Leadership cannot be successful unless the ideas are
communicated to others in the most engaging way. In simple words, a leader is someone who
inspires others and directs their actions. He or she is the person possessing unique characteristics
which makes others enthusiastic towards his leadership styles.
A leader can be in any field such as in the social, political, business or legal field. As far
as the business leadership is concerned, it is linked to the performance of the workers and their
motivation. It is not only about the business profits but also about increasing the bottom lines of
the company. It has to be noted that the leaders are often endowed with better leadership
qualities than others. There are ample examples of the leaders who had no prior experiences but
faced such situation which made them great leaders. In this report, one of the classic leaders
Steve Jobs will be focused on along with the analysis of the unique leadership style that he
possesses. The report will also examine his development, the capabilities the achievements. The
struggles of the leader will be assessed and end with some of the actionable recommendations for
the leader.

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Discussion
About the leader
Steve Jobs is a classic example of a leader who was not born as a leader but the adverse
situations made his a person to be followed by people in the business field and in other fields too.
In the year 1976, he began the Apple Computer from his garage for which he got fired by the
directors of the board in the year 1985. When the company fell under extreme competition, he
dared to go against the CEO in terms of preceding the business in future. In the year 1997, he
was rehired by Apple after founding the Pixar Animation Studios and the NeXT computer. By
every way, Steve jobs was a mercurial genius who yelled at the employees in the early days of
his career. As per the statement of some of his employees in the NeXT and Apple, he was
intolerant about anything he viewed to be a failure.
It seems that he believed in being brutally honest without considering the feelings of
others. He was against conducting the formal reviews on the employees but at the same time
praised openly if somebody did really well. As per the critiques of some of the scholars, in the
later parts of his career, he began to shift his leadership style towards the moderate one and
started empathizing with others. He began realizing that people have their own limits and
saturation points (Lord et al., 2017). In the year 2011, Steve Jobs died at the age of only 56.
However, even after his death, his reputation and accomplishments are at the heart of people. He
has been staying within his followers as an iconic, innovative and visionary leader.
The leadership Theories and the leadership of Steve Jobs
The leadership theories will be linked with the leadership style of Steve Jobs along with
the challenges faced by him during his career journey.

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The Trait Theory
It has been found that the personal attributes of a person determines his leadership style.
Taken for example, the qualities such as self-assurance, knowledge, awareness, drive, chance
taking and the expectations frame in which the leader will be leading in future. These are the
qualities which make an idea pioneer or leader. The quality based hypothesis suggests that the
effects of the circumstances are overlooked by most of the leaders. The hypothesis expects the
leaders to possess an unequivocal arrangement of qualities which will be helpful in making the
leader a powerful leader in any given circumstances. The extended research on the trait theory
suggests that the compelling authority generates from the behaviors of the leader which involves
the cooperation with others. As found from the characteristics of Steve Jobs, he had a propensity
to make the administration hypothesis legitimate. The leadership style of Steve Jobs can be
analyzed from the viewpoint of his social, physical environment. The leader possessed a
considerable tint of vitality and high aspiration. The battling quality can at once separate him
from other leaders. The desire and vitality was gained by Steve Jibs from his father. From the
very early age, his father made him familiar with the gadgets. In the year 1976, when Apple 1 PC
was recently launched, he did not hesitate to sell his Volkswagon for saving funds for the
organization. This is a lively example of his aspiring nature along with vitality.
The behavioral theory
As a contrast from the trait hypothesis, the behavioral hypothesis holds the leader under
the light of the leaders’ conducts instead of the characteristics. The hypothesis based on the
behavior suggests that a leader can learn authority which is essential for the conversion into a
good leader. There can be distinctive styles for the under the behavioral theory of leadership.
The styles are the legitimate style and the participative style. The behavioral speculations have

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the propensity to separate the practices. The theory holds the view that authority appears by the
demonstration of man and not the characters. It can be said that the administrative style of Steve
Jobs fits well into the behavioral hypothesis. Steve Jobs had the insight into the inclinations of
people and always confided in them. He emerged as a leader who was more focused on the
situations. He had conduct which always sought Apple to be the most developing brand. Having
arrived in the organization, he piled up some measures which were highly focused on Apple. He
established the working sources more open and outsourced to Taiwan. However, the decision of
outsourcing to Taiwan had an unsafe impact on certain employees.
The transformational leadership
It can be said that the transformational leaders are the most visionary, charming,
empowering persons who always focus on the advancements of their supporters elevating higher
amounts of adequacy. The charming identity of Steve Jobs makes him a transformational
administrator. The most visionary aspect of the approaches of Steve Jobs was his zealous
enthusiasm which supported him to show the individual capacity of people. He could show the
potential of his people which motivated them to work with energy and accuracy. The presence
of this quality made him an extremely valuable proselytizer (Meier, 2016). Job has also been
criticized several times but his zeal never ended. He has been referred to as a narrow minded
person who can never be satisfied. He has further been accused as a autocratic leader who hardly
cared for anyone else. As suggested by the theory of transformational leadership, it is all about
empowering the development having realized the adjustments in the reasoning and being
visionary in the execution (Thompson & Glasø, 2015). As far as the characteristics of the
transformational leadership is concerned, Steve Jobs had he endeavors to utilize the imaginative
computerized innovation for shaping the buyers purchasing decisions. The motivation and

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inspiring nature of jobs is evident in his discussion about a new thought among his
representatives.
It has also been found that the way Steve Jobs worked sometimes clashed with the
practices and he had his employees broken down to tears due to his temperament. On the other
hand, the executives who have worked with Steve jobs for a long time, credited him with the
quality of being the best employer (Tourish, 2019). As far as the communication with the
employees is concerned, Jobs only communicated with the 100 top executives and never related
his firmly wit the other 20000 workers in Apple.
Steve Jobs as a Transactional leader
The analysis of the leadership style of Steve Jobs would suggests that he had a mixed
leadership style of value –based and transformational style. Jobs made most of his
representatives build the framework for the organization (Kollenscher, Popper & Ronen, 2018).
He utilized the transformational administrative style for envisioning the change the PC will need
in the near future. On the other hand , the value –based style was utilized when his concentration
was on the actualization of his visions into reality.
The contemporary leadership issues related to leadership change and global
leadership
The contemporary leadership is focused on whether Jobs was conscious enough
regarding each minute details during staying at Apple. It has been found that he was highly clear
regarding his goals and positively turned his dreams into reality. The intricacies of Apple devices
were always his major concern. Moreover, he considered products before the profits of the
organization (Hammershøj, 2018).He wanted the products of his organization to be insanely

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superior so much so that the customers would not worry about whatever price it takes. He
motivated and inspired the executives to dedicate themselves into the products without worrying
about the profits because if the products are good , the profits will automatically follow. Another
trait of his leadership was concentrating more on the critical aspects of business and management
(Ghasabeh, Soosay & Reaiche, 2015). This evidences that he had a daring characteristic which
indulged him to take risks going beyond the comfort zone. It has to be noted in this regard that
his daring nature led Apple to higher stature and also brought some drawbacks. The example of
outsourcing to Taiwan is prominent in this respect. His working style can be characterized by
effectiveness and prominence.
Recommendations
The recommendations are as follows based on the assumptions which would possible.
 The pushing tendency of the leader often disturbed the works of the organization
up to greater extent. This is called the “ reality distortion”. He should have eliminated
this trait in his character which could have made the employees more agile and happy to
work giving utmost effort (Cunha et al., 2017). This would have led the organization to
the highest level than it is now. He should not have disregarded the realty and the
saturation point of the workers.
 An effective leader must have the efficiency to listen to the queries and the
pinions of the staffs as they are one of the most important stakeholders of the
organization. The use of clear communication plays a pivotal role in the achievement of
rapid success. A good communicator stays ready to listen to the members (Ford &

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Harding, 2018). The worker engagement instead of autocracy would have maintained the
balance between everyone in the organization.
 The effective leadership starts with setting a correct mindset. The attitude of the
leader can leave deeper impact on the performance the employees. Steve jobs could have
realized this earlier which would have helped in directing the employees towards the
business goals in the best possible manner.
Conclusion
Therefore , from the above discussion , it can be said that Steve Jobs a great visionary
leader with high aspirations and desires. He could easily fit into the traits of a best leader. It is
also true that he had an authoritarian style. It can be attributed to his being the perfectionist and
success oriented. He had extreme enthusiasm for Apple, and he wanted this organization to
reach unending heights. The followers of Steve Job’s leadership style are suggested to follow his
creative nature and the ability to innovate out of adverse situation.

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