Introduction :
Leadership has been
researched and studied from a variety of perspectives. Early research
on leadership focussed on individual traits that differentiated
leaders based on their appearance and personality characteristics.
Finding that inherent traits did not fully explained leaders'
abilities, researchers began focussing on behavioral aspects which
examined the influence of leaders' behaviors rather than their
personality traits. Subsequent leadership research revolved on
contingency theories that studied the connection between situational
variables and leader behaviors. Later on modern leadership theories
like transactional leadership, based on command and control model and
the transformational leadership which emphasized visionary and
charismatic leadership style has been at the forefront of leadership
research. Despite the depth and breadth of the debate concerning the
effectiveness of leadership, leadership still remains a debated
topic. Although no single perspective is taken as entirely accurate,
nor can they be taken as entirely irrelevant either. As a result, the
answer to most effective leadership still remains unclear.
To
better understand the effectiveness of various leadership theories,
this paper will first review the various leadership theories and then
illustrate leadership in practice by analyzing leadership patterns in
organizational leadership and behaviors of their successful leader
(Issacson, 2008), Allen (2011), Kahney (2008) and many others
consider Steve Jobs as a phenomenal leader. Jack Welsch called him
“Most successful CEO today” (Elkind, 2008). This paper will thus
focus on analyzing Apple's leadership under its CEO Steve Jobs, with
emphasis on the leadership style and qualities exhibited by him
during his tenure as CEO.
Leadership Theories :
Leadership is one of
those qualities that is difficult to define, but easily recognizable
when see it. Buchanan & Huczynski (2010) defined leadership as
the process of influencing the followers towards setting goal and
goal achievement. Since the 1930s, there have been predominantly four
main ‘generations’ of leadership theory:
- Trait based theories (1930s -1940s).
- Behavioral theories (1940s-1950s).
- Contingency theories (1960s).
- Transactional and Transformational theories (1970s).
Trait based Theory :
Trait based
theories focussed on analyzing physical and personality
characteristic of individuals in order to gain understanding of the
combination of traits that are common among leaders. In essence
leaders were born and leadership is art. These theories were
influenced by 'Great Man Theory' which argued that effective
leadership is dominated by individual personality characteristics
(Buchanan & Huczynski, 2010 , p.599). For example, qualities
such as intelligence, self-confidence, drive, sense of
responsibility, risk taking and other values makes an individual a
good leader.
The main critic of
trait based theories is that it ignores the impact of the situation.
The theory it assumes that there is a definite set of traits that
makes a leader effective in all situations, i.e. , same set of
traits would work in military setting as well as in a factory
setting. This led to later research which emphasized that effective
leadership arises from behavior and it involves interaction with
other people.
Behavioral Theory :
Compared to Trait
theory, Behavioral theory looks at leadership from the perspective of
a leader's behavior rather than selecting leaders based on their
personality characteristics. This theory suggested that leadership
can be learnt and everyone is capable of becoming a leader.
Different patterns of leadership behavior or styles were identified.
However, they all can be broadly grouped under the two leadership
styles:
- Authoritative Style;
In this style, leaders impose decision and motivate followers by
rewards or threat. They do not completely trust followers and focus
is on tight control of task completion.
- Participative Style;In this style, leaders share decision-making with others. Focus is on delegation and leaders have complete trust and confidence in the followers for getting the task completed.
The main critic of
behavioral theory is that it ignores the context in which these
different leadership style are used. The styles that leaders adopt
can be affected by the environment they are working within, and those
they are working with. However, despite this limitation, behavioral
theory can still provide useful insight on how we understand
leadership.
Contingency Theory :
Compared to
behavioral theory which narrowly focuses on the leadership style, the
contingency theory includes effects of contingent factors such as
leader's behaviors, follower's behaviors and other situational
variables. This theory argues that there is no one right way of
leading and that a leader must adjust their style depending on the
context. According to Fiedler's contingency theory, a leader’s
effectiveness is determined by three things (Buchanan &
Huczynski, 2010 , p.610) :
- Relationship between leaders and followers: The extent to which leader has support and loyalty of followers.
- Task Structure : The extent to which the task is clearly specified to goals, methods and performance standards.
- Leader's Power: The extent to which the leader has power for the purpose of influencing and getting the task completed.
The contingency
leadership theory makes us to think about what leaders do in a
variety of situations and the extent of their capability to direct
their followers.
Transactional & Transformational
Leadership Theories :
Contingency
leadership theory does not address the needs of the followers nor the
followers individual feelings. The modern leadership theories of
Transactional & Transformational leadership adds an emotional
argument that engages the follower.
Transactional
Leadership
Transactional leadership emphasizes the concept of exchange between
leaders and followers. The leader motivates followers by the promise
of rewards or the threat of punishment in exchange for effective task
completion (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2010 , p.618). The
transactional style of leadership is most often used by managers.
The main limitation in Transactional leadership theory is the
assumption that, employees are motivated by only reward and
punishment, and hence they obey leader's oreders. Despite this
limitation, Transactional Leadership is still a popular approach with
many managers. In practice, there is sufficient truth in the
transactional based approach due to the effects of the individual's
physiological and safety needs per Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Transformational
Leadership
The transformational leadership theory revisits trait theory by
underlining the impact of personality characteristics of effective
leaders and their role to appeal and transform their followers. The
transformational leadership theory differentiated between leaders and
managers by introducing “vision” and “charisma”
as an important leadership characteristic . Transformation leaders
use these key characteristics to inspire and evoke strong emotions
among their followers and enable them to share their vision
(Buchanan & Huczynski, 2010, p.618). Besides being visionaries,
transformational leaders are said to value the human resources of
their organizations, thus adding the emotional intelligence
attribute.
According to
Nahavandi (2006), transformational leadership is based on four
attributes:
- Idealized influence is the ability of the leader to engage follower's emotions to emulate leaders vision.
- Inspirational motivation is the ability to provide a sense of meaning to the followers in sharing of the vision.
- Intellectual stimulation is the ability to challenge followers assumptions and encourage exploration of leader's vision.
- Individualized consideration is the leader's ability to pay special attention to followers needs, i.e., facilitate support, direction and encouragement.
In the past 80
years, leadership has digressed considerably from the early trait
based theory to the modern transformational leadership theory.
Transformational leadership is a popular leadership concept today
especially when change is considered as critical for business growth
and survival. The current environment characterized by uncertainty
and instability requires transformational leadership to lead and
transform the organization when circumstances demand. However, it is
important to note that the trait based theory which was originally
discarded is shown to be important by the transformational leadership
theory as there are set of traits that are always found in
transformational leaders. The transformational theories were evolved
out of behavioral and contingency leadership theories. Nevertheless,
these four generations of theory, all attempt to describe the
behaviors of successful leaders. Apple, Inc is an excellent example
to demonstrate the organizational leadership in practice and how its
CEO, Steve Jobs, lead the company from the brink of bankruptcy to
become the most valuable company (Investor Relations 2012).