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Steve Jobs was a remarkable leader who transformed the world of technology and communication by building great products that changed the lives of millions of people. This essay will argue the way Steve Jobs used his power to lead his organisation and his management style and its impact. Firstly this essay will focus on the power and leadership and implications of Steve Jobs‟ that reflected in his management approach in Apple. Secondly, this essay will focus on how he drove all his employees to their maximum potential to build great products and a great company and revolutionized the technology and communication pattern of the whole world. (Biography.com, 2019) After his death in 2011, a lot has been said about him. Many people consider him to be a revolutionary and a transformational leader whereas others also argue about his demanding and toxic behavior towards his employees and executives. Even now many youngsters look up to him as an ideal source of inspiration and want to be like him. He changed lives of a lot of people by creating innovative products with precision and he will always be remembered for that but many people who worked under him and also many authors who has written about him characterize him as temperamental and secretive(Steinwart & Ziegler,2014). Steve Jobs was considered a great and innovative leader by his employees. Elliot(2012) , who worked with Jobs as a human resource manager mentions in his book that Jobs always had a vision and wanted to communicate that vision in all his employees and wanted everyone in the team to work to their maximum abilities to turn his vision into reality. Glassdoor is a website where employees rank, criticize and post comments about their organisation‟s leader. Elliot & Simon (2012) also mention that employees rated Steve Jobs 97 points which suggests that the employees were satisfied and happy working under Steve Jobs. Several authors mentioned in their books that people working for Jobs strived for appreciation from him, they wanted to perform and stand out and they felt like they were doing a great job and believed that they were about to change the pattern of technology and communication of the world under Jobs leadership, and they felt proud and lucky to work under him (Isaacson,2011, Elliot & Simon, 2012) This showed that Steve jobs had a charismatic ability to convince people, make them believe in the vision and push them to be even greater to turn his imagination into absolute reality. He had the power to make his team aware and make them accept the organisation‟s mission and goal. But his management style had effects on the other side too. Many of his employees working under him explained Jobs as very dominating, manipulative and demanding. Isaacson (2011) mentioned in his book that many employees felt pressure on a different level to meet Jobs‟ expectations as Jobs fired people if he thought that their work was inadequate. He always wanted people to go parallel with his vision and create the perfect product. He never compromised on the quality and simplicity of his products, he wanted to build the best products and for that he always wanted „A‟ players in the game. Whenever someone presented an idea or a product that they were given to work on, it either had to be the best or the worst, there was no average or in between. Many organisations are ruled and controlled by leaders who have authoritarian approach and in such organisations the rule is to do things „my way‟. (Morgan, 2013) explains that following this principle can be advantageous as there is less conflict of interest in the team and the team has to solely follow the leader‟s decisions. Jobs used his power to minimize and resolve such conflict of interest and produce effective results in efficient time without listening to personal perspectives of other team members regarding the design and functioning of a certain product. He always had creative and innovative imagination about building innovative products with great yet simple designs and he never wanted anything or anyone to divert him, therefore he never compromised. Many argue that his character and approach towards his team members and employees could have been nice and humble but as Coursey (2011) explained in his article that Jobs in the pursuit of quality and excellence never cared about the people who did not fit in his plan rather than he always focused on the changes and incredible results that he could produce through his strict and central authority approach. He believed that the task had to be done in the given time with maximum effort from each and everyone working within his brand „Apple‟. Jobs always tried to find the great people and pushed themselves to be the best in order to

achieve his irrational, highly creative and unrealistic imagination. (Spence, 2009)Although he was charismatic and could make almost everyone believe in his vision and work, his magic did not work on all the people. The people who could not be coherent with Jobs vision and could not move parallel and work as passionately as him could not eventually cope with the environment that Jobs had created in his company. This led those people to feel immensely pressurized and they were the ones who criticized Jobs characteristics. Morgan (2013) explained that when people cannot cope with the organization‟s mission and goal, it creates conflict of interests which eventually creates politics in the organization. To prevent this politics in his company Jobs approached autocratic, task oriented and authoritarian methods of leadership to make the best out of everyone and to make his product and the company the best in the world. Hay(2006) explained that transformational leaders possess different characteristics and unique abilities such as creativity, extreme passion , focus and they expect high performance from their team and employees. Jobs was highly creative, extremely focused and expected very high performance from his employees. This approach of him did more good than bad. Some of the members of his organisation accepted that he was strict, single minded and always pushed them to do more than they thought and explore their hidden abilities which was hard to adapt in the beginning but once you take it positively, you get addicted to it. This eventually helped them to grow more than they could have ever imagined and contribute in building the world changing innovative products. Apple is one of the biggest companies in the world and it would not have been possible without Steve Jobs‟ imagination, his goal and his passion towards building the brand. He used autocratic and authoritarian approach in managing his company and fostering his vision. He was manipulative in a sense that he wanted all of his team members to believe in his unrealistic goals and to work as hard and as passionate as him. The people who could not agree with him or could not find themselves comfortable in the work environment that he had created in his organisation found him very strict, immature, stubborn and cruel at times but Steve thought that it was crucial for him to act in such way where he put himself in the center of the organisation and took all the decisions by himself as he felt that embracing divergent perspectives would hamper the ultimate goal that he had set for himself and the company. He had some strict rules that was a little toxic to a very few people but his way helped most of them. He knew what he was doing and proved himself as a transformational leader transforming the whole communication and technology industry. He will be remembered for his creativity and the audacity to take decisions to stimulate and foster his dreams and imagination. There was madness in his methods but it can be argued that there was a method in his madness too as he has set himself as a pantheon among the world‟s greatest innovators of all times.

References:

1. Hay I. (2006). Transformational leadership: characteristics and criticisms. [online] 5(2). Available at: http://www.weleadinlearning.org/ejournal.htm [Accessed 31 Oct. 2019]. 2. Bilton, N. (2011). One on One: Walter Isaacson, Biographer of Steve Jobs. [online] Bits Blog. Available at:https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/18/one-on-one-walter-isaacson-biographer-ofsteve-jobs/ [Accessed 31 Oct. 2019].

3. Biography.com. (2019). Steve Jobs Biography. [online] Available at: https://www.biography.com/business-figure/steve-jobs [Accessed 31 Oct. 2019]. 4. Coursey, D. (2011). Steve Jobs Was A Jerk, You Shouldn't Be. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: 5. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidcoursey/2011/10/12/steve-jobs-was-a-jerk-you-shouldntbe#4e52d3dd4045 [Accessed 31 Oct. 2019]. 6. Elliot, J. and Simon, W. (2011). The Steve Jobs Way: iLeadership for a New Generation. 2nd ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10589332-the-steve-jobs-way [Accessed 31 Oct. 2019]. 7. Steinwart, M. and Ziegler, J. (2014). Remembering Apple CEO Steve Jobs as a “Transformational Leader”: Implications for Pedagogy. Journal of Leadership Education, [online] 13(2), pp.52-66. Available at: http://journalofleadershiped.org [Accessed 31 Oct. 2019]. 8. Spence, L. (2009). Preferences for Leader Traits and Leadership Communication Styles Among Members of Different Generational Cohorts. [online] Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265068308_Preferences_for_Leader_Traits_and_Leadership_ Communication_Styles_Among_Members_of_Different_Generational_Cohorts [Accessed 31 Oct. 2019]. 9. Isaacson, W. (2011). Steve Jobs. 1st ed. New York: Simon & Schuster....