Leading in an Organization: Discussion Post - MBA 550 Assignment

This discussion post examines Steve Jobs' leadership initiatives at Apple Inc., particularly focusing on his approach to cultural diversity within the organization. The paper highlights key leadership qualities such as confidence, a sense of control, and vision, illustrating how Jobs utilized these to foster an inclusive environment. It references the increasing diversity in Apple's workforce, including the rise in female and minority hires. The discussion also touches upon the importance of these initiatives in gaining a competitive advantage. References are provided to support the analysis of Jobs' leadership style and its impact on Apple's success. The assignment follows the MBA 550 discussion rubric, requiring an initial post and two response posts addressing the course content and fostering connections with classmates.

Running head: LEADING IN AN ORGANIZATION
LEADING IN AN ORGANIZATION
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1LEADING IN AN ORGANIZATION
Introduction
The primary purpose of this paper is to discuss the leadership initiatives taken by
Steve Jobs, former Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of the organization of Apple Inc.,
to accomplish cultural diversity. The leadership practices, as well as the initiatives taken by
him, will be identified and discussed in this paper.
About Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs was the co-founder of Apple Computers, as well as a designer,
entrepreneur and inventor from America, and it’s under his leadership and guidance the
organization invented some revolutionary technology-driven product, which included iPhone
and iPad among many other products (Bilton, 2014).
Leadership Initiatives
There are many leadership skills or initiatives that are required to become an effective
leader like Steve Jobs. One of the primary abilities, or the post important one, which was
possessed by him was confidence. From making innovative products to maintaining the
cultural diversities within the organization of Apple, it was confidence which led Steve Jobs
to achieve his goals and made him one of the most exceptional leaders the world has ever
seen. Another essential leadership quality is a sense of control, mainly in urgent situations
(Malloch & Melnyk, 2013). As Apple possessed and still possess employees from different
regions of the world as well as who possess different cultural backgrounds. It has been widely
accepted that Steve Jobs has a passion for bringing more and more people who are minority
into the organization under his leadership and hold managers from different departments to
encourage diversity practices within the overall functioning of the organization. He was very
much eager to bring the minorities into engineering. He possessed a great sense of control as

2LEADING IN AN ORGANIZATION
his leadership ability, which helped the organization to have both majorities as well as
minorities within the organization of Apple (Krapfl & Kruja, 2015).
There was always a need for inclusion of people from different cultures in the
workforce of Apple. It included both people from minorities and the number of female
workers. It has been found from the reports that the number of females hiring has increased
from 31% in 2014 to 37% in 2016, whereas the number of minority hiring has increased from
21% in 2015 to 27% in 2016. Vision, another major leadership quality, was possessed by
Steve Jobs, which helped him to think ways forward and included people from different
cultures into his workforce, which resulted in such innovative products and helped Apple to
become the leading organization around the whole world. The organization is widely known
for its commitment to diversity. The overall diversity included race, gender, disability and
sexual orientation. All the leadership qualities that were possessed by Steve Jobs gave
importance to commitments of the organization to diversity and honoured the people
belonging from that group or culture, and treated them equally like all other people who
worked in the organization as well as in the stores that are located not only in America, but
also in other parts of the world. The leadership initiatives taken by Steve Jobs helped Apple
to reach out to another level, that enabled them to gain the competitive advantage over all
other organizations related to this field, and are crucial for successful leadership to perform in
an organization to gain the competitive edge over others (Crooke, Csikszentmihalyi & Bikel,
2015).

3LEADING IN AN ORGANIZATION
References
Bilton, N. (2014). Steve Jobs was a low-tech parent. New York Times, 10(09).
Crooke, M., Csikszentmihalyi, M., & Bikel, R. (2015). Leadership in a complex world.
Organizational Dynamics, 44(2), 146-155.
Krapfl, J. E., & Kruja, B. (2015). Leadership and culture. Journal of Organizational Behavior
Management, 35(1-2), 28-43.
Malloch, K., & Melnyk, B. M. (2013). Developing high-level change and innovation agents:
competencies and challenges for executive leadership. Nursing administration
quarterly, 37(1), 60-66.