This case study provides an opportunity for course members to evaluate and

consolidate their learning on leadership and management. Please this is a

group assignment and I will advise that each member of the group takes an
active part to enhance their learning on the topic.

Submission Date: Saturday 20th of November, 2010.

Please make sure you submit your assignment to your Course Rep
Edna on the 20th so that I can pick them up from her on the 21st of
November, 2010.

CASE STUDY: Being Apple: Steve Jobs

Background and links with the chapter 10 of Management and

Organisational Behaviour by Mullins, L.J. (2010)

The choice of Steve Jobs for this case study draws in many aspects of the
theories of leadership
and reminds us of one further thing: that successful leaders may sometimes
divide the world
into two camps: those who adore the leader and those who cannot stand him
(or her). This
phenomenon is not so unusual: it was true of Margaret Thatcher’s political
leadership, for
example, and of many military leaders over the centuries.

What marks out Steve Jobs as a successful leader is the success of Apple and
the extent to which Apple is Jobs’ personal creation. As the case points out,
Jobs is one of a number of
celebrated 70s and 80s college dropouts (Bill Gates and Michael Dell are
other examples) who
have gone on to be fabulously successful.

Each has made their own mark in different parts of the IT business, but Jobs’
Apple was always the most creative, the quirkiest, maybe even the coolest of
the three brands. Jobs is welcomed like a rock star at conventions of the
Apple faithful, for reasons that are not just to do with his casual style. His
speeches are both personal and inspirational and the enthusiasm of the fans
(or ‘customers’ as a more conventional business would call them) must
surely be one of the reasons why Apple has survived a number of rough
patches over the past couple of decades. But the passionate personality has
a reverse side: Jobs has not always worked well with other Apple team
members, for example, and has sometimes behaved roughly towards those
employees who have fallen below his high standards. Perhaps creative
brilliance, determination and entrepreneurial flair make it difficult to be
tolerant and easy-going; but perhaps the world is prepared to put up with the
difficulties while the creations continue to delight and amaze.

Tasks
1. How and to what extent does Steve Jobs’ career illuminate the difference
between
Management and Leadership?

2. How can Steve Jobs’ leadership style be analysed? To what extent does
the evidence so far
conform to the Burns model of transformational leadership?

3. Jobs’ career has been in two industries that are characterised by rapid
market change, fast
technological development and considerable turbulence. Critically examine
the extent to
which these situational factors bear upon the leadership style that Jobs has
shown over the
years.