Introduction to business and finance

Latifa Alkhalifa
Group D
Ch. 9
p.332

9-27 Do you think Steve Jobs was a charismatic leader? What leads you to this conclusion?

There is no doubt that Steve Jobs was a charismatic leader. Charismatic leadership has three
essential elements. Charismatic leaders set trends and envision the future, set high
standards, energize others through internal passion and enable others to succeed. Steve
Jobs demonstrated all of these crucial elements with his own unique approach to
leadership.

One important thing to note abut Steve Jobs was that he was generally regarded as an
unkind and unpleasant individual to work for. However, charismatic leaders do not have to
be kind and pleasant to be successful and effective. Steve Jobs gained his charisma through
his passion, credibility, ability to communicate, and vision of the future.

Steve Jobs intense passion and high expectations. He set very high standards for his
employees and his products. Not only did his products look good on the outside, internal
components were subjected to the same standards, even if they were never seen. It was
attention to detail like this that elicited respect and commitment from his employees. Even
though he expected excellence and was very critical of his employees.

Steve Jobs also demonstrated charisma through his ability to adjust his rhetoric to his
audience. Jobs would first determine his credibility with his audience. He would then adjust
his communication style by appealing to the audience's emotions or making logical
arguments. If he had high credibility, he would primarily focus on logical arguments.
Conversely, if he had low credibility, he would appeal to the audience's emotions.

Apple, success and an almost cult like following of admirers are proof that Steve Jobs was a
charismatic leader. He exhibited many of the agreed upon elements of charism. leadership,
but also paved new ways in our understanding of charismatic leadership.

9-28 Jobs enjoyed almost cult-like loyalty among his employees. why do you think
people clamored to work for Apple under job's leadership?

One unique attribute of Steve Jobs was that he was generally regarded as an unkind
and unpleasant individual to work for. However, individual strived to work for Apple
under his leadership. Steve Jobs gained loyal employees through his passion,
credibility, ability to communicate, and vision of the future.

Steve Jobs had intense passion and high expectations. He set very high standards
for his employees and his products. Not only did his products look good on the
outside, interval components were subjected to the same standards, even if they
were never seen. It was attention to detail like this that elicited respect and
commitment from his employees. Even though he expected excellence and was very
critical of his employees.

Motivated and creative individuals longed to work under the tutelage of a visionary
like Steve Jobs. His ability to create new products with enormous success and mass
appeal created an environment of success that attracted employees. Employees
always felt like they were always learning, moving forward with their careers, and
working on the next best thing.

Steve Jobs also demonstrated charismatic leadership by his ability to adjust his
rhetoric to his audience. Jobs would first determine his credibility with his audience.
He would than adjust his communication style by appealing to the audience's
emotions or making logical arguments. If he had high credibility, he would primarily
focus on logical arguments. Conversely, if he had low credibility, he would appeal to
the audience's emotions.

Apple, success and an almost cult-like following of admirers are proof that Steve
Jobs elicited respect and loyalty among his employees. It goes to show that
individuals strive to work for the best and in an environment of excellence.

9-29 What challenges face employees working for a leader such as jobs?

One important thing to note abut Steve Jobs w. thW he was generally regard. as an
unkind and unpleasant individual work for. However, he w. able to build an
enormously successful company with dedicated, talented, and loyal employees.

Steve Jobs was very intense and passionate leader. He expected ex.11en. from his
employees in everything they did. This can put tremendous pressure on individuals.
When individuals did not meet Jobs' level of satisfaction, he was harshly critical and
passed judgment. This can bread a feeling of doubt and fear in employees, but can
also lead them to excellence.

Employees working for Jobs also had to have a keen eye on design and intense
attention to detail. Product design and detail were crucial to Steve Jobs and the
products he created. Individuals without a design background or little confidence in
their abilities would have a hard time meeting Jobs' design parameters. They also
must contend with details that may not be important to the public when working on
products, but extremely important to Jobs.

Steve Jobs is also a very brilliant individual. Therefore, employees found it hard to
stand up to him or disagree with his ideas. This is because he was able to defend his
position with highly intelligent and logical arguments.

Lastly, Steve Jobs hired educated and extremely talented employees. This breeds
an environment of excellence that may be intimidating to some individuals. This can
bring about feelings of inadequacy if they are unable to produce high quality or
industry-changing results.
9-30 Describe Jobs with respect to intuition, escalation of commitment, and risk
propensity.

Steve Jobs had been known to possess a keen sense of intuition. He was very
intelligent individual who understood the technology business. He had a creative and
imaginative mind, as seen through many of his products which were considered
game-changers in the industry. Mr. Jobs also was known to quickly produce creative
solutions to difficult problems in meetings when nobody else on his team had
solutions.

Escalation of commitment is a behavioral process in which decisions follow a chosen

course of action, even if there is evidence the decision is wrong. Steve Jobs is guilty
of demonstrating escalation of commitment due to his intense focus and dedication
to projects.

Early in his career at Apple, Steve Jobs lead a team to build a computer in light of
evidence that the project was not going the right direction. Considerable investment
dollars were spent. Ultimately the product failed and was a primary reason Jobs left
his position at Apple early on.

Great leaders must manage risk propensity well. Steve Jobs had taken great risks in
his career which allowed him to achieve enormous success. First, Jobs risked a
good education, and dropped out of college to work on building one of the first
computers. This takes considerable intuition and tolerance of risk.

Steve Jobs continued taking risk during his career at Apple. The first Mac was
redesigned three times, had a major disk drive switch, and ran on software that was
way more sophisticated than it needed to be. All of these risky decisions proved
valuable when the released the Mac and for future models.

All of these factors have contributed to the success of Apple and Steve Jobs. One
must learn to follow their intuition, but know it comes from years of experience. They
must be careful of escalation of commitment, but learn from it when it happens.
Lastly, they must manage risk which comes from experience and intuition.

9-31 Do you think that you would have enjoyed working for Apple during Jobs
leadership? Why or why not?

I would have enjoyed working for Apple under Steve Jobs’ leadership. First, my
passion for technology and innovative products would have meshed well with
Apple’s atmosphere. I would have been driven to excel and had the opportunity to
learn a great deal from his leadership.

Steve Jobs would have gained my loyalty through his passion, credibility, ability to
communicate, and vision of the future. At times, it may have been difficult to work
with him, but in the end these attributes would outweigh his criticism and judgement.

Employees working for Jobs also have a keen eye on design and intense attention to
detail. Product design and detail were crucial to Steve Jobs and the products he
created. This would have been interesting to learn about the importance of design in
products.

Finally, Steve Jobs hired educated and extremely talented employees. This breeds
an environment of excellence that pushes people to excel and exceed their goals.
This type of work ethic would have been beneficial all through life.