The essay provides an overview of the dysfunctional leadership characteristics of one of the successful CEO Steve Jobs. The essay includes the sections, such as dysfunctional leadership to identify dysfunction features of Steve Jobs, role of Steve Jobs as a motivator, and how he affected the organization, society and teams.
Dysfunctional Leadership
The leadership of Steve Jobs (founder and former CEO of Apple) is viewed from different viewpoints. For instance, he was viewed as a dysfunctional leader as part of partly negative charismatic leadership style. The dysfunctional leadership norms include passive-aggressiveness, narcissistic personality, and urge for personal power (Hamric, Hanson, Tracy & O'Grady, 2013; Hall, Blass, Ferris & Massengale, 2004). Padilla, Hogan and Kaiser (2007) stated that narcissism is linked to the charisma as well as the personalized use of power. In addition, it is associated with the domination, egotism, privilege, and self-centered pursuit of happiness. In the context of dysfunctional leadership style, Steve jobs showed narcissistic features of high level self-promotion and lack of consideration for the fellow workers (Hooker, 2015). Hooker (2015) provided a notion that Steve jobs was a perfect example of a leader, who shouted on the fellow workers at meetings. He was impatient and unconcerned of others’ contributions. However, he was the most successful entrepreneur and CEO. Branson (2011) provided an overview of the leadership of the Steve Jobs. He stated that he played a role of autocratic and as a dysfunctional leader he focused on the details and like to be surrounded by the talented people to follow his lead. He was not a best delegator and always stuck himself at the center of every aspects of Apple.
It is identified by Isaacson (2012) that passion, power and high level emotionalism enabled him to make high quality and innovative products. The moodiness and impatience were the part of his perfectionism. In addition, the characteristics of Steve Jobs enabled him to provide a conclusive vision of the importance of the information technology in 21st century. He focused on his cognitive capacity and self-determination to achieve objectives (Howell, 2013).
Steve Jobs’ Role as a Motivator
Steve jobs motivated his employees through both intrinsic and extrinsic factors. However, he considered intrinsic factors more important than extrinsic factors as he stated that creative culture is a gravitational force to motivate employees and to keep creative people together (Müller, 2010). The features of dysfunctional leadership enabled him to motivate his employees. It can be ascertained by the fact that he used ceremonies to communicate his agenda to his employees (Winfrey, 2016). He inspired his employees through his dysfunction personality and expected from them to deliver excellence. Moreover, he demanded no mistakes from employees. Despite the personality flaws, according to the critics Steve Jobs was succeeded to motivate his employees to innovate and be creative. He directed the work of others with the help of demanding tasks and structures. In addition, he influenced them for high level focus on goals and shared the vision and passion with them. He motivated his employees by focusing on developing great products and not on the profit. He inspired his employees by asking them to believe that they can do great things and achieve more than they are capable of (Isaacson, 2012).
Steve Jobs affected Organizations
Steve Jobs affected the organizations positively as high margins of Apple enabled it to rule the world from aesthetics. With the 50,000 coders and designers, he overturned the profitable giants like IBM and AT & T. For example, through owning the online delivery layer he transformed the industry of music along with book publishing, TVs, games and movies (Kessler, 2011).
Steve Jobs affected Teams
Steve jobs as a dysfunctional leader focused on the teamwork. He took opinions of different people about new idea as part of his job, argued with them and involved different people to identify different factors linked to that idea. He was a difficult person to work with, but he always hired senior executives with high level of competency, passion and love for Apple and who put company’s interest ahead of individual interests. The success of Apple, high level of employee retention and constant recognition as best place to work are the indications of Steve Job’s teamwork strategy (Elliot, 2012).
Steve Jobs Affected Society
Steve Jobs affected the society with his innovations. He narrowed down the information gap between rich and poor and education and uneducated people. The products made by Apple under leadership of Jobs helped to compress the world. For instance, he positively affected the society by enhancing level of education. It can be ascertained by the fact that the schools in Florida moved to iPads to engage students and replace books to reduce education cost (O'Connor, 2011). In addition, hospitals use iPads to keep nurses and doctors up to date about patient’s health. Moreover, the products like iPads are used in business to make presentations, store data and make decisions quickly.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the above discussion that dysfunctional leadership has disadvantages as the leaders with dysfunction features are difficult to deal with and sometimes lead to demotivation. For instance, Steve Jobs was a demanding leader, like to involve himself in every aspect, and focus on the innovative products and not on profit. However, in case of effective use of dysfunction features the leaders can play a positive role. As Steve jobs despite his aggressive attitude succeeded to motivate his employees by driving them to achieve more than they are capable of. Moreover, he focused on the teamwork that resulted in high quality products and service to serve society and organizations.
References
Hamric, A. B., Hanson, C. M., Tracy, M. F., & O'Grady, E. T. (2013).Advanced practice nursing: An integrative approach. USA: Elsevier Health Sciences.
Hall, A. T., Blass, F. R., Ferris, G. R., & Massengale, R. (2004). Leader reputation and accountability in organizations: Implications for dysfunctional leader behavior. The Leadership Quarterly, 15(4), 515-536.
Padilla, A., Hogan, R., & Kaiser, R. B. (2007). The toxic triangle: Destructive leaders, susceptible followers, and conducive environments. The Leadership Quarterly, 18(3), 176-194.
Howell, J. P. (2013). Snapshots of great leadership (Vol. 2). USA: Routledge.
Müller, C. (2010). Employee motivation and incentives at Apple. USA: Grin Verlag.
Elliot, J. (2012). Leading Apple with Steve Jobs: management lessons from a controversial genius. USA: John Wiley & Sons.
Hooker, L. (2015). Will Steve Jobs' management style get you to the top? BBC News. Retrieved from: http://www.bbc.com/news/business-34604387
Branson, R. (2011). Virgin's Richard Branson: Apple boss Steve Jobs was the entrepreneur I most admired. The Telegraph. Retrieved from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/steve-jobs/8811232/Virgins-Richard-Branson-Apple-boss-Steve-Jobs-was-the-entrepreneur-I-most-admired.html
Isaacson, W. (2012). The Real Leadership Lessons of Steve Jobs. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from: https://hbr.org/2012/04/the-real-leadership-lessons-of-steve-jobs
Kessler, A. (2011). How Steve Jobs Changed The World. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from: http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424053111904875404576530460630468114
O'CONNOR, J. (2011). Steve Jobs’ Education Legacy. Retrieved from: https://stateimpact.npr.org/florida/2011/10/06/steve-jobs-education-legacy/
Winfrey, G. (2016). How Steve Jobs Used Masterful Storytelling to Motivate Employees. Retrieved from: http://www.inc.com/graham-winfrey/4-ways-steve-jobs-used-storytelling-to-inspire-apple-workers.html
