Steve Jobs Film
Steve Jobs Film
Introduction
`Despite his untimely demise, Jobs remains one of the notable leaders in the tech industry because of the revolutions that he inspired at Apple and the trend that he set for other leaders at the company. Jobs Movie not only explores his positive leadership qualities but also outlines the darker sides of his leadership, including taking credit for others’ ideas, which allowed him to thrive despite the obstacles that he encountered (Stern, 2013). His revolutionary ideas have continued to influence leaders throughout the globe and modeled them to embrace the creativity and innovations in their firms to guarantee steady growth and development. Similarly, Steve Jobs remains an instrumental figure because of his storybook comeback at Apple after his ousting by the board. Thus, this paper explores Jobs’ leadership style, instances when he demonstrated leadership, and leadership perspectives evident in the movie.
Leadership Style
The film documents Jobs’ aristocratic leadership style to introduce viewers to how he managed to revolutionize Apple’s success and create a culture that has continued to dominate the company even after his death. The film documents the ultimate triumphs as a man who set out to change the world and did just that through aristocratic leadership (Stern, 2013). His leadership style was reinforced by his attentiveness to details and commitment to interacting with like-minded people to spearhead the innovation and success of Apple (Stern, 2013). He also modeled people to follow him by embracing a hands-on approach to leadership to encourage people to embrace his lead and ideas by mimicking what he was doing. Instead of delegating tasks, his aristocratic leadership increased his involvement in operations and activities of the company, including product development, to spearhead success and continuous innovation. His reluctance to delegate tasks allowed him to embrace initiatives to increase his interactions with like-minded individuals to shape organizational excellence.
The film also asserts that Jobs’ fluid mindset modeled him into an effective aristocratic leader because he was open to new ideas and implemented changes designed to foster a culture of creativity/innovation at Apple. His openness to new ideas empowered employees to innovate and motivated them to follow his leadership because he had excellent people skills and continuously engaged employees (Stern, 2013). Thus, the culture of involvement and engagement that he introduced at Apple spearheaded the dominance and success of his leadership approach because it encouraged knowledge sharing among teams to spearhead continuous product development and organizational excellence. The film indicates that Job’s aristocracy remains a defining feature of contemporary leadership because Job has continued to inspire generational leaders even after his death.
Instances of Leadership
In the film, Jobs demonstrated leadership in several instances. Firstly, he demonstrated leadership during product development and launches by participating in these activities and guiding employees or interacting with consumers during launches. The film focuses entirely on the product launches that promoted Jobs’ leadership cult, especially his attention to detail to enable the viewers to understand that he was a hands-on leader that believed in accomplishing tasks by collaborating with others (Stern, 2013). Similarly, the movie’s focus on product launches enables the viewers to determine Jobs’ mastery of the choreographed presentations and contrasts them with the backstage presentations where his failure as a colleague and father are continuously exposed (Stern, 2013). The film demonstrates that Jobs showed leadership during product launches to convey an appealing public and brand image and motivate them to identify with the Apple Brand. His presence at product launches enabled him to adore the audience and gain their responses or ensure that he resonated with the teenage audience that embraced the Apple Brand. His leadership during product launches was also evident through the corporate sales pitch that he offered to capture the audience’s attention and boost the sales of the company. Thus, his leadership during product launches focuses on showing his enthusiasm for the Apple brand to increase public confidence in the company and enable the consumers to relate his qualities with the Apple brand.
Jobs also demonstrated leadership when he returned to save Apple from bankruptcy in 1977 (Stern, 2013). The film demonstrates how he abandoned the competitive mindset and sought the assistance of Microsoft’s founder, Bill Gates, to revitalize the capsizing company (Stern, 2013). This deal enabled the companies to shape the computing industry together and deal with the legal issues that were undermining the efforts of these firms to penetrate new markets. The partnership between Apple and Microsoft demonstrated Job’s leadership because it depicted that he could compromise his position for the wellbeing of a company that he believed in revitalizing. Although the deal did not end the competition between the two firms, it established the precedence that fostered mutual collaborations and redefined Apple’s success. Saving apple from bankruptcy was a significant leadership quality not only because it allowed Jobs to restore Apple’s innovative culture but also restored the public’s confidence in the Apple brand.
Leadership Perspectives Evident/Absent in the Movie
Several leadership perspectives are evident in the film. For example, the humanistic leadership perspective is evident in the film because Steve Jobs has committed to collective task performance to support organizational excellence. Critical humanist perspective leadership entails participating as a collective whole and maintaining ethical conduct while trusting others to accomplish tasks (Shafique & Beh, 2017). Despite Job’s reluctance in delegating tasks, the humanist perspective dominates the film because it indicates that Jobs focused on nurturing the collective performance of tasks. Similarly, this perspective outlines a clear and aligned vision to guarantee that mission, vision, and values are developed for Apple employees to embrace (Shafique & Beh, 2017). A collective vision is evident in Job’s leadership because he created a culture of creativity and attentiveness to detail to improve the firm’s success and increase employees’ loyalty to the firm. This implies that the humanist perspective enabled Jobs to embrace individualism and collective roles to support Apple’s success.
Furthermore, the functional leadership approach is evident in the movie because the employees are empowered to innovate and embrace creativity but are not designed to lead the team. Jobs has positioned himself as the ultimate aristocratic leader at Apple, enabling him to lead several organizational actions, including product development and product launches, to support the wellbeing of the employees (Stern, 2013). Similarly, the functional leadership perspective has focused on increasing the authority of Jobs and limiting the possibility of other employees embracing leadership functions. This implies that Jobs has retained leadership functions to assert his dominance and control the actions of other employees. Furthermore, the evidence of functional leadership perspective in the movie demonstrated that Jobs stipulated his roles as a leader and detailed the responsibilities of his followers to increase the success of the firm and promote the clarity of roles within the organization.
Similarly, the constructivist leadership perspective is evident in the film because Jobs has assumed a pivotal leadership role to improve organizational excellence and generate the commitment of other employees (Shafique & Beh, 2017). Despite the continuous exposure of his weaknesses as a colleague in the film, Jobs played a pivotal leadership role in nurturing creativity at Apple. The film points out how he hired and interacted with like-minded individuals to increase his authority and generate continuous employee engagement to support innovation. Similarly, Jobs defined himself as an attention to detail leader because of his mastery of the design concepts and presentations employees use to support continuous product development. This approach embodies the constructivist leadership perspective because it outlines how Jobs created his unique leadership identity and played a pivotal role in Apple’s development.
Finally, the political conflict leadership perspective is not evident in the film because Jobs focused on minimizing conflicts rather than addressing them. The film does not document detailed perspectives on how he utilized his conflict leadership perspective to address the issues affecting the company. Although Jobs managed to address the issues surrounding his ousting from the firm, the documentary’s progress from his return to the firm after 1997 does not detail sufficient approaches that he leveraged to deal with conflicts. Similarly, his aristocratic leadership also reduced the relevance of the conflict leadership perspective because of the continuous employee engagement and interactions aimed at minimizing conflicts and increasing teamwork. The lack of conflict leadership perspective in the film demonstrates that Jobs leveraged the avoidance approach to minimize confrontations and conflicts among employees.
Conclusion
Jobs (2013) details significant actions that defined Jobs’ success at Apple and reveals the darker sides of his leadership to inform viewers of his approach to management and leading people. The film builds on his aristocratic leadership style and instances when he demonstrated positive leadership qualities to enable the viewers to connect with the leader and understand how he revitalized Apple Inc. Similarly, the film introduces viewers to leadership perspectives such as the humanist and constructivist perspectives to demonstrate how Jobs’ success and leadership styles were influenced by the perspectives that he implemented to shape people management and his interactions with others at the company.
References
Shafique, I., & Beh, L. S. (2017). Shifting organizational leadership perspectives: An overview of leadership theories. Journal of Economic & Management Perspectives, 11(4), 134-143.
Stern, J.M. (2013). Jobs: A Biography. Open Road.