Leadership in the 21st Century

Question: Using relevant theories and models critically evaluate and analyse the leadership of a 21st century business leader. If you were in the position of the leader, what could you do to be a better leader and make a stronger impact on the followers and on situation/s? Answer: Introduction Efficient leadership is essential for businesses in the 21st century in achieving higher level of success in their operations. This requires a highly qualified and talented business leader that could contribute his/her knowledge and abilities in leading the entire organisation to higher level of success. The role of business leaders is to strategically define the vision and goals of the organisation, and they should thereafter make efforts in guiding their followers in a manner that ensures their successful attainment. Leadership is highly essential from the point of view of leading the organisation to higher level of success and also in sustaining such growth over the longer period of time. The efficient leaders have the ability of leading the organisation to higher level of success on their own efforts and contribution. This indicates that there has been the pivotal role being played by leaders in leading the organisation to higher level of success (Boal and Hooijberg, 2001). This report is aimed at analysing the leadership of a 21st century business leader through the application of relevant leadership theories and models. The business leader as selected for the purpose of analysis is Steve Jobs of Apple Corporation. The analysis is therefore focused towards assessing the leadership style of Steve Jobs initially and this is followed by a comparison of his leadership style with the applicable leadership theory. Based on this discussion, there would be the analysis of the leadership style and approach that I would have followed if I were put under the same situation. The entire findings will then be summarised in the conclusion section. Description of the Leader, Organisation/Industry and Situation/Context The leader as selected for the purpose of analysis is Steve Jobs of Apple Inc. An analysis of Steve Jobs indicates that he was an American entrepreneur and become responsible in the foundation of Apple Corporation. He has been known as the pioneer in bringing revolution in the personal computing through his innovative skills and abilities. Steve Jobs was known as highly influential personnel throughout his career in the Apple Corporation, as he has successfully taken the organisation to higher level of growth and development. It is his influential ability that has resulted into Apple being identified as the most innovative company. He has been a successful business leader in driving desired level of efforts and actions on the part of his followers. His focus towards innovation has been the key mantra that made him successful and highly recognised leader in the industry (Griffin, 2008). The organisation/industry that has been served by Steve Jobs is Apple Corporation which is mainly i n the electronic industry. Apple has occupied the leadership position in the industry as being the most innovative organisation, and this is all because of the influential abilities of the business leader of the company i.e. Steve Jobs. However, currently the leadership position is being served by the new leader Tim Cook. But the core basis of the organisation has been implanted by Steve Jobs and it is because of his highly innovative approach in undertaking organisational responsibilities, the organisation is still following the same approach to performing its management. This signifies that the policies and practices of being highly innovative is still followed at Apple and this is an important indication of the influential capability of Steve Jobs. He has guided the path to follow for the entire organisation, and this has been currently being emphasised across the organisation (Eleftheriou-Smith, 2014). The situation/context that has been selected for analysing the leadership of Steve Jobs is the performance of business organisation. An analysis of the leadership approach and ability of Steve Jobs in detail indicates that Steve Jobs highly emphasised on the innovative factor whereby he expects each and every employee within organisation to remain highly innovative with respect to the tasks and responsibilities as undertaken. Steve Jobs has been responsible for the introduction of large number of innovative products and services under his leadership tenure whereby he has brought revolution in the entire electronics items. The major innovation by Steve Jobs is identified as iPhones, iPad, iPod, iMac, and the latest operating system iOS. These are the major innovations that have been noted under the leadership of Steve Jobs (Ireland and Hitt, 2005). Overall, the leadership practice and approach of Steve Jobs seems to be highly influential and it is mostly focused towards innovative factor in particular. This is mainly because Steve Jobs has always emphasised on brining innovation which could be easily reflected on the newer products and services that are introduced across the company. Evaluation of Steve Jobs through Leadership Theories and Models An analysis of Steve Jobs in brief has indicated that he has been a revolutionary leader that has been successful in bringing innovation in the entire electronic industry through introducing large number of innovative products and services. However, an assessment of few such important criteria in respect to Steve Jobs indicates about his leadership style, trait and power in particular. As for instance, the leadership style that has been identified in respect to Steve Jobs is mainly the transformational leadership style whereby the leader seeks to transform the entire organisation into higher level of success and growth. Steve Jobs has been able to revolutionise the performance of Apple and he has also been successful in leading the entire organisation to higher level of success. All these have been possible because of his ability to direct the workers and positively encourage them to follow the desired path of innovation as showed by him. This suggests that the leadership style can b e best correlated to the transformational leadership theory which suggests radical or massive changes aimed at leading the organisation to higher level of success. As per the transformational leadership theory, the leaders have the ability to lead the organisation on their own and they decide the shape and direction in which the entire organisation has to lead upon (Mclnerney, 2011). The directional path as chosen by Steve Jobs in respect to Apple is to lead the organisation in becoming the leader in the entire industry, and as such, the individual efforts are driven mostly towards the required direction. However, there have been strict policies and procedures that are being followed by Steve Jobs, and there has been higher level of expectations from employees as well. The decisions are mostly undertaken by Steve Jobs, and this reflects the leadership style to be highly autocratic leadership style. The strategic decisions are mostly undertaken by the senior management without involv ing the employees. The employees are only required to follow up the policies and procedures that have been set up for them. They need to contribute their efforts with a view to achieve the set organisational goals by way of integrating innovation in their policies and actions. Steve Jobs accounted for adapting behaviour of high maintenance co-worker which demanded excellence from his co-workers. Employees are therefore treated as a way of getting the tasks done, and this particular approach has allowed Apple in achieving the successful position in the industry (Issacson, 2012). The stronger leadership ability of Steve Jobs can be evident from the growth position at which he has taken to Apple Inc. As for example the market value of the shares of Apple was $US 5 billion in 2000, but it has increased to $US 351 billion as of today. Such a massive growth in the market performance is all because of the leadership effectiveness of Steve Jobs. He has been a successful visionary leader who not only designed the vision for the company, but also articulated the organisational goals by way of which they could be accomplished through the active contribution by its employees. The autocratic leadership style of Steve Jobs proved highly successful in generating positive level of efforts in bringing innovation within organisation, and thereby in achieving excellence in terms of generation of innovative products and services for its customers (Mclnerney, 2011). An assessment of the traits of Steve Jobs with regard to his innovative abilities and thoughts implies that Steve Jobs was highly visionary in nature. As for example, his vision in respect to Apple was mainly to perform the development of products and services with simple user interface and elegant design that would please greatly to customers of all age groups. This has been positively attained through his attitude of being highly innovative in his approach of doing things. He has positively influenced the abilities of his followers in innovating efficiently with respect to their contribution and this leads to the delivery of sound and innovative products to his customers. Apart from this, the leadership trait of Steve Jobs also clarifies that he has been a strong leader as he not only manages his employees, but there has been stronger relationship being managed with the suppliers, partners and competitors (Hom, 2014). Apart from this, the other major leadership attributes that have been evident in respect to Steve Jobs include his wonderful thinking ability, exceptional influence capabilities whereby he can influence his subordinates to act in a particular manner that is in the best interest of the organisation. The exceptional influence capability of Steve Jobs can be identified from the fact that he made all the employees of the organisation to contribute towards the innovative factor by way of designing and developing innovative products and services. In addition to this, the leadership attitude also reflects that Steve Jobs was the survivor of tough times, as he has encountered various such events that have impacted his performance in the industry. This is evident from the example that Steve Jobs has suffered with cancer and still he has made significant contribution in the form of introduction of newer iPhones and also predicted the future generation of products that would be highly suitable to Apple in leading the entire industry (Cunningham and Harney, 2012). Overall, the analysis of the leadership style, ability and attitude of Steve Jobs indicated significant level of findings. It has been evaluated that Steve Jobs was highly transformational leaders who always pursues creativity in his strategy, and encouraged others in following the same path through his highly influential capabilities. Ways in Which I Would have Lead the Similar Situation An analysis of the leadership style and ability of Steve Jobs has indicated about significant level of findings regarding his attitude, belief, behaviour and approach of leading the entire organisation. On the basis of analysis, it has been evaluated that there has been higher level of effectiveness being pursued by Steve Jobs in leading and managing the organisation. However, there are certain major areas whereby Steve Jobs could have done better in performing his role and responsibilities. In these areas, I could have considered for a different approach to performing the management of the entire organisation. As for instance, it has been assessed that Steve Jobs was highly focused towards the autocratic style of leadership whereby the strategic decisions are taken by him. The employees were just treated as a means to achieving the organisational goals (Ciulla, 2008) In this respect, I could have utilised the employees in a different manner in achieving success and higher effectiven ess level. As for instance, I could have considered for adapting a participatory nature of leadership whereby employees would be included in the majority of the decisions as undertaken within the organisation. It is quite clear that employees are responsible in leading an organisation to higher level of success, and since they actually perform the core processes of the organisation in producing products and services, they are better aware of the important decision making areas. As a result, the participatory nature of leadership would be of significant importance in such situation. An analysis of the nature of Apple Corporation indicates that the company pursues higher level of innovation and this requires positive level of contribution from both the management and the employees. The participatory nature of leadership style is therefore highly suited in this context whereby employees are included in the decision making process (Tariq, 2014). It is not only sufficient to include employees in the decision making process of the organisation, rather they should be treated with due respect and honour. Steve Jobs considered employees as the way of getting things done, but I could have dealt with such situation in a different manner. As for instance, I could have considered employees as asset and they would be given due respect and authority in the organisation. This particular leadership style to managing employees could have proved to be highly effective from the point of view of leading the organisation and achieving its strategic goals in a positive manner. Apart from these things, I could have also involved into doing certain things differently as being the leader of such large multinational organisation. As for instance, I could have focused towards empowering the employees of the organisation in order to achieve positive level of outcomes on their part. Empowering employees provides them the feeling that they are highly valued by their management, and this in turn is positively reflected in their performance level. As a result, I could have also considered for applying this strategy in performing the management of employees within organisation (Goethals and Sorenson, 2007). The above leadership style and strategy could have been considered by me in a different manner for the purpose of ensuring higher level of success of the organisation. Apart from these major factors, the rest of the aspects in relation to the leadership style of Steve Jobs have been highly excellent from the point of view of meeting out the organisational goals in a positive way. The additional important areas that are identified could contribute in a highly efficient manner towards the efficient attainment of organisational goals. Conclusion In this report, a critical evaluation has been carried out in respect to the leadership style, attitude, behaviour and trait in relation to Steve Jobs, the previous CEO of Apple Corporation. The analysis as carried out has been highly effective from the point of view of meeting out the strategic goals of the organisation. An analysis as carried out in respect to the leadership style of Steve Jobs has indicated that the leader has been highly enthusiastic in terms of his contribution towards leading the entire organisation to higher success level. It has been assessed that the leadership style of Steve Jobs is highly correlated to that of the transformational and autocratic leadership style. This is mainly because Steve Jobs has attempted to achieve revolutionary development in respect to the entire organisational performance and he has been successful in achieving higher level of effectiveness in its overall performance. Apart from this, the decisions of Steve Jobs are highly autocra tic which does not involve the involvement of any other employees within organisation. The analysis also indicated that Steve Jobs was highly visionary in nature and he has great influential capabilities which allowed him in transforming the entire organisation to higher level of success. The analysis also indicated about what could have been done by me differentially and it is assessed that I could have adapted a participatory style of leadership in order to achieve highly efficient performance conditions. References Boal, K.B. and Hooijberg, R. (2001), Strategic Leadership Research: Moving On, Leadership Quarterly, Vol. 11 (4), pp.515-549. Cunningham, J. and Harney, B. (2012), Strategy and Strategists, Oxford University Press. Ciulla, J.B. (2008), Leadership at the Crossroads, ABC-CLIO. Eleftheriou-Smith, (2014). Apple's Tim Cook: Business isnt just about making profit Goethals, G.R. and Sorenson, G.J. 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