Leadership Analysis

Steve Paul Jobs was a celebrated American businessman who was born in 1955 and died in 2011. He was a business magnate and investor who made hefty investments in various companies. Steve was the chairman and co-founder of Apple Inc. He was also the majority shareholder of Pixar, CEO of NeXT, a member of Walt Disney’s board of directors among many others. He, therefore, had an established career as a business leader seeing that all his engagements in the different organizations needed to have been fuelled by certain characteristics of leadership. This analysis will assess Steve Jobs’ leadership, his ethics and professionalism, conflict management, strategic planning, and power and politics. 

Ethics and professional codes of conduct

Ethics are acceptable standards of behavior and maintaining integrity in the workplace. They are the guiding principles by which an organization is led. Ethics encompass values that guide the behaviors of the management and also that of the employees (Lewis, 2003). They are the values that influence the actions and attitudes which are enhanced in the firm by the leadership. Ethics and professional codes determine the manner in which an organization is led because they impact on employee performance too. 

Steve Jobs was a man who had such an instrumental view of ethics and professionalism. Most of the people who related with Steve relate him to such experiences of honesty, fairness, respect of diversity and dignity. Under Steve Jobs, Apple Inc. employed people regardless of races but based on competence. He had an unmatched appreciation for diversity which is the reason that he hired the best for the company. His honesty and fairness were also on another level. He was candid enough to criticize poor delivery and praise good performance (Isaacson, 2012). His professional approach was also depicted in his workmanship approach and appreciation of conventional-decision making in the organization as opposed to making decisions without involving employees. Steve jobs in various instances held organizational meetings regarding critical decisions such as when creating a new product line as opposed to making decisions alone. The success of Apple Inc. during his tenure can be largely affiliated to his ethical and professional behavior.

Managing Conflict

Leaders in organizations are expected to be informed not only on the performance of the organization but also the presence of conflict in the organization. Conflict management requires a leader to be well-informed of the sources of conflict in their organizations and decide the best approaches that they should use to manage the conflict before it gets out of hand.

In most instances, Steve Jobs was seen as the reason for conflicts in the organization. He was a resilient leader who was driven by innovation and his basic goal was to build a company with the best products in the world. Inspired by the goal, Steve Jobs did not worry about being liked or hated. His sole focus was in the way that the organization could make the best products and make hefty sales (Isaacson, 2012). One of the reasons that he failed and was fired from Apple Inc. is his spirited direction of the way that the organization needed to act which the other managers did not concede to. Drooping performance and failed sales hit the organization as a result of conflicts with most of the top leadership before he was fired. Due to the belief that his goals were everything he wanted to achieve, Steve Jobs failed in conflict management as a leader. 

Strategic Planning

Strategic planning is the ability of an organization to define its direction and strategy to engage the market in the present and the future. Strategic planning includes allocation of resources and mechanisms of implementing the strategy that the organization has put in place. It is a core leadership skill that a leader should display lest their organization is doomed to fail (Lewis, 2003). Strategic planning revolves around scores of issues that focus on priorities, a proper evaluation of the strengths of the firm and making the desired outcome, a focus of the whole organization.

Steve Jobs was super talented in strategic planning. Indeed before he stepped out of Apple Inc. in 201 due to medical reasons. Steve had led to the organization in a path of success due to his ability to make strategic plans. Steve considered strategic products that the organization would sell which saw him launch new products within very short instances of time (Heracleous & Klaering, 2014). Steve Jobs did not just dwell in strategizing on products but also in the strategic marketing of the products. Incoming and existing products during his last few years at the company saw him make hefty sales that left the organization flourishing in profits till is demise. Steve was, therefore, an excellent strategic planner. 

Power and Politics

The structure of organizational leadership yields an influence of power and politics involuntarily. Power and politics in organizational settings can be viewed in multiple directions such as in the view of the leadership structure, employee motivation, the type of leadership a leader engages among other issues (Lewis, 2003). Organizational leaders need to acknowledge that they are the center of power and politics in their organizations. They should, therefore, familiarize themselves with the organizational responses to their leadership approaches such that they can manage to create hospitable environments for business.

Steve Jobs was one crucial individual who understood the role of power and power and politics to his organization. He recognized the sources of power and understood the consequences of organizational politics to the organization. In 2007, Steve was named the most powerful person in business. He had different sources of power from where collectively became a convincing organizational leader. As the CEO of Apple Inc. Steve jobs could make decisions regarding the organization effectively. He hard reward power at Apple Inc. due to his wealth. Steve Jobs was also an information seeker which enabled him to understand different market which gave him the ability to advise the organization effectively. Steve jobs also had inspirational power that made the employees motivated towards his direction (Heracleous & Klaering, 2014). Steve Jobs instrumentally used his sources of power to address various issues such as when addressing resistance, establishing creativity and handling management problems in the organization. He was therefore a leader who was well versed with organizational power and politics.

The assessment established that leadership involves a wide array of skills and to succeed, a leader ought to have them. It was acknowledged that success in any business, a leader needs to uphold ethics and professional conduct; they also need to have good conflict management skills, be good in strategic planning and also the understanding of how to use organizational power and politics. Steve jobs is a man who had the mastery of ethics and professionalism, he was a great strategic planner and knew how to use organizational power and politics. He, however, had such a limited understanding of conflict management which sometimes cost him his influence and management at Apple Inc. Using the results from the assessments, leadership roles and responsibilities will be assigned to those who showcase a mastery of the four aspects of leadership that have been assessed to ensure maximum productivity in the organization.

References

Heracleous, L., & Klaering, L. A. (2014). Charismatic leadership and rhetorical competence: An analysis of Steve Jobs’s rhetoric. Group & Organization Management, 39(2), 131-161.

Isaacson, W. (2012). The real leadership lessons of Steve Jobs. Harvard business review, 90(4), 92-102.

Lewis, J. P. (2003). Project leadership (p. 208). New York: McGraw-Hill.