Answer

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs is delineated as one of the most remarkable leaders in modern day technology. He is, as a matter of fact, the founder of Apple, Inc. He is depicted as one of the co-founders of this very successful entity (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2012). It is important to take note that Steve Jobs has had a long and tough road to attain success, and there have been multivariate factors that have contributed significantly to his success.

Biography

Steve Jobs was born in the year 1955 in San Francisco, California.  Hailing from an adoptive family, Steve had an inherent interest in gadgets and electronics with the help of their neighbor who at that time, worked at Hewlett-Packard (Dickson et al., 2012). At the age of 12, Job owned his very first computer. It was this development that Steve Jobs decided to follow his passion for computers. One notable fact that has been widely held is that he dropped out of school after two years of college and later joined a group dubbed Homebrew Computer Club. It was here that he met and interacted with Steve Wozniak, which later on led to a partnership that formed Apple, Inc. in 1976.

Important Lessons Drawn from Steve Jobs Leadership

One important tenet that can be drawn from Steve Jobs is that he had an undying passion for what he did (Gallo, 2010). That is, he loved his enterprise, the people who worked with him, their products, etc. Sure, Steve Jobs worked over time to ensure that he brought the firm back from bankruptcy, but it is delineated that he, in fact, enjoyed bringing the company back to its status because he loved what he did. Apple, Inc. was his calling. It is normal for one to go through a bad job experience at one point in time but what matters is how we bring ourselves back together, whether we are on the right job or not, etc. One thing that can be learned from Steve Jobs is the fact that he had this moment, picked himself up and created one of the most remarkable entities at all time (Finkle and Mallin, 2010).

On the other hand, Steve Jobs has been a pillar and a reference to the ‘you can’t do it all by yourself’ assertion. In between his stints at Apple, he became a better manager at each successive instance. He could, of course, reprimand an employee if it was established that they did not do their jobs, but his outbursts were fewer and indeed far much less hostile. Team work is an important factor in any undertaking –whether formal or informal (Braun et al., 2013). It is impossible to do it all by yourself, at least if the vision bearer wants to see their company succeed on a massive scale. One of the tenets that saw Steve Jobs as a leader succeed is that he always worked with talented, responsible and inspirational people. He always held them accountable for whatever misdoings they did but at the same time gave them an opportunity to fail and succeed on their own, one of the greatest lessons to an employment niche.

Steve Jobs Attributes

Integrity

Steve Jobs is described as a man of absolute integrity. It is established that he pursued the deepest truths that encompassed with his imagination with the uncompromising singularity of purpose, unabashed passion, and unyielding urgency (Bolman and Deal., 2017). The entity’s tenacious actualization of his lofty and transformative vision with respect to integration was integral in bringing the employment workforce together. He is described as a force of nature, a man who is passionate about his work, family, and employees.

Responsibility

There are two dictates with respect to integrity. One of the very important intricacies is that Steve Jobs was a very responsible person taking into account each and every detail that was pertinent to Apple, Inc. and their objectives (Bajaj, 2012). He knew that the best way to attain simplicity was to ensure that the corporations’ software, hardware, as well as the seamless integration was top notch. For instance, the apple ecosystem –an iPod connected to a Mac with iTunes software. On social responsibility, the company made their devices to be very simple regarding use, syncing them to be smoother and reduce a number of glitches. On the other hand, the more complex and dynamic tasks such as coming up with playlists could be mandated using a computer, making the iPod have fewer buttons and functions.

Compassion

Compassion is an attribute that is highly misconstrued and misunderstood. Unfortunately, many of them deem it as pity and hold the perception that it is an indication of frail, weakness and wimpish behavior. A trait, perceived by very many people –especially from the business realm as very pathetic. Steve Jobs was compassionate to his employees, to his work and his family. With respect to the works of Daniel Goleman, Lorne Ladner, Dalai Lama, etc. as enshrined within Avolio and Yammarino, (2013) it will be noted that Steve Jobs’ character of Compassion is not attributed to pity but instead to a character that is admirable. Compassion resonates to empathy. Steve Jobs used compassion to find solutions to challenges while being assertive and mindful.

Forgiveness

There is no coach or rather dictates for leadership. It is not possible to just get any special training and become a leader overnight. Historically, the best leaders of all time are the ones who can make the best of their inherent abilities, although each has them only a few are able to realize (Ciulla, 2014). Great leaders, although sounding philosophical, are great at forgiving people. Steve Jobs was very forgiving, not that he is any different from other human beings. In fact, each person is forgiving; the only difference is that this trait changes overtime. Steve Jobs was able to control his feelings of resentment, anger, frustration, disappointment, etc. –a reason why he was able to forgive people quite easily.

Steve Jobs Leadership and Organizational Culture

A substantive number of leaders in the current era have the ability to drive their enterprises to greater ranks. This group of leaders has unique leadership characteristics that make significant contributions to the success of the entities that they head. Steve Jobs incepted the transformational leadership style (Eisenbeid and Boerner, 2013).  At the same time, he also incorporated the inspiration form of leadership with regard to the achievements that he attained as the CEO of Apple, Inc. Steve Jobs faced multivariate hurdles over his life time but he chose to be patient. On one instance, although being the co-founder of Apple, Inc. he was still ousted, but he never gave up and chose to remain patient. There are things that needed attention from him or the company but he always took his time not to rush things. He has received acclimation over his sensitivity towards his employees, and his customers. His charisma stood up for impeccable ideals that he inspired individuals to share so that the entity would move to greater places.

Concerning the inspirational leadership perspective, Steve Jobs championed for change in the world. It was his inherent desire that his form of leadership would be one that would always have a significant impact in the world and the people that he served (Harms and Crede, 2010). To this effect, Jobs’ was adamant for the goals that he wanted to achieve and would not back down until it was fully attained. It was in his character to always uphold the ideals that he formulated as an individual and his employment workforce. Based on his form of leadership, character, and attributes, his impact on the world is still being felt till date. Upon conceptualization of Apple, Inc. it moved away from the contemporary structure that has been mandated by a good number of enterprises at the time and subsequently continued in a diverse and dynamic mechanism of managing its organization. Apple, Inc. operated based on the concept of informed corporate culture in the sector that it had prowess in –the technological industry where it favored an ideally flat organizational culture (Sharma and grant, 2011).

Steve Jobs’ incepted a corporate culture that was unique one that could only be easily identified with Apple. Comparing it to the traditional classic institutional culture, it can be concluded that the firm’s ad hoc approach is no longer retroactive (Northouse, 2015). However, when compared to the post classic organizational structure, it can then be argued that as a matter of fact, its structure is within the dictates of success. Contrary to the tall hierarchical structure, a relatively flat organizational structure is characterized by few layers of management, making the chain of command from the management to the employment workforce very short. It is, however, important to note that although Apple’s organizational culture is ideal, a limitation occurs when there is change because of damaging repercussions as quite a number of strategic aspects may not be coherent.

Leadership Effect and Ethics

                Leadership, as explained by Selznick, (2011) is the manner in which a person is able to influence other group members concerning the attainment of organizational goals. The component that delineates leadership as ascribed to by Ciulla, (2013) is that leadership is a process that incorporates influence towards a group of people and overall attainment of set objectives. This is in line with Isaacson, (2012) definition that asserts that leaders, in quite a number of ways, have an impact on the motivation level of employees. Be that as it may, the transformational and inspiration leadership style as adopted by Steve Jobs was not only able to influence his employers but also stirred up strong emotion that caused identification of the employees to the entity’s leadership.

Steve Jobs is a true depiction of a moral leader who can be transformational at the same time, contrast to Wang et al., (2011) who explore transformational leaders as amoral and likens them to Adolf Hitler. In his argument, the author explains that there is need for leadership to resonate to the objective and purpose and that an effective leader should be judged with his influence over social changes. To further assert the claim, the author went ahead to define good leadership as one in which leaders induce their workforce to work and follow certain intricacies that should be a clear representation of the motivation and the values of both leaders and the employment workforce. Steve Jobs was a charismatic leader, one who had in him very strong assertions towards motivation and creativity. His attributes and character were able to motivate the employees to attain very high degrees of efficiency.

Steve Jobs was characterized with laying his ideas and goals down, then taking the necessary and extraordinary measures to attain them. A significant number of the goals that he came up with were meant for the overall well-being of the employees and the entity’s consumers. It was his strife to always change the will of others and took it upon himself to convince people that ethical behavior is not only the right thing to do but also an important tool in ensuring the company, in fact, attains its set objectives in an easy and concise manner. Steve Jobs is a true example of transformational leadership. Not only has he made significant contributions towards the technological sector, but has also made remarkable changes in the entertainment industry. He has, as described by Wheatley, (2011) made impeccable impacts on the contemporary society and the prevalent issues being faced. He will be remembered for his immense accomplishments in the business world and his tough and uptight managerial form of leadership.