Apple Inc the Way Leadership Has Changed within Globalized Environment - Case Study Example

Topic: Discuss the way leadership has changed within the context of a globalized environment, over time. With reference to the readings for this unit, profile the leadership and communication styles of a global or a national leader you admire. Introduction Globalization has been an issue that has affected leadership in a great way. The growth of information technology sector has made it possible for business to be conducted in a global perspective which is different from the local. Using information technology, business communication can be made in seconds. The cost of moving goods from one continent to another has also been reduced and enhanced. Managers have been forced to learn how to survive in the globalized business era. This is due to the challenges and changes that has been brought by globalization. These challenges are; working in different time zones, ever changing technology, complexity of business operation and working in a multi-cultural environment. The businesses have changed into knowledge based business which has made them to act locally and think globally. Global trading started when transport enabled people to move from one nation to another. The competition now comes from world wide competitors unlike the times when the business owners’ main cause of worry was their neighboring businesses. Organizations have been forced to change their form of leadership from local leadership to global level. This has been done by teaching their leaders on the required skills to handle different cultures and personalities that come with globalization (Avolio, 2007). This essay will look into the ways which leadership has changed in the context of globalized environment over time. This will be achieved through looking into notes, related research and the leadership and communication of Steve Jobs who was the CEO at Apple computers Inc. Steve Jobs is one of the most admired global business leaders due to the transformations he did at Apple Inc. making it excel as a global organization. Individual and Collective Approach Leadership Leadership has changed from being a person’s position which was based on individual approach into a collective approach (Bennis & Thomas, 2002). The collective approach looks at leadership as a process in which the whole organization takes part in decision making. To develop and lead a multicultural organization, the leader has to consider the key factors that are required in it. These include; need for pluralism, having diversified leadership, cultural integration, maintaining informal activities, lack of intergroup conflict and bias free. Steve Jobs as a multicultural business leader delegated duties to members of his executive during his tenure as the C.E.O. The decision on the new products involved collective decision from all the executives under his leadership. Apple Inc. under his leadership had diversified leadership with operation in many countries across the globe. His hiring procedure was a multi-cultural based on talent and not the background of the employee. This made the company have the best talent while maintaining the cultural balance (Linden, Kraemer & Dedrick, 2011). Knowledge Based Leadership In global leadership, knowledge has a vital role in their operations. The knowledge has to be circulated within the organization and applied in it (House et al, 2004). The main aspect of knowledge is clarity, universal processes, and being market responsive. Having knowledge helps in improving performance among the employees in an organization. One of the striking attributes that Steve Jobs had in the Apple’s leadership was sharing of knowledge. The CEO took the employees who were well performing into a retreat where they could share with them on the company strategy. This group would give feedback on these issues and this helped in improving the company performance. During his leadership of the multinational, the executive would meet on every Monday and review all the company’s aspects as well as make decisions. Steve Job as a global leader in business never failed to share ideas and knowledge with the employees (Linden, Kraemer & Dedrick, 2011). Communication Another change in leadership due to globalization is communication. The communication has advanced so rapidly such that the leadership in multinational organizations has to adapt to them. The messages in these organizations are sent into different countries with different cultures and languages. Passing the communication to different cultures has to be made in a way that all understands. Looking at the context of such a leader, Steve Jobs was a great spokesman. This was seen during his talks at the launch of the companies’ products. His speeches were able to cut across all the cultures. These were well prepared and rehearsed speeches that catered for global customers. For multinational leadership, the channels of communication have evolved and the executives have to utilize the most recent technology. The leaders have to be acquainted with the latest communication technology and skills to cater for a larger clientele (Conger & Riggio, 2007). Crisis Management As the globalization continues to affect the leadership, crisis management has changed. The crisis that face global business require fast response. For crisis response to be effective, it depends on leadership, planning, culture, and communication (House et al, 2004). Of these, leadership is the most important factor to solve a crisis. Looking at the profile of Steve Jobs, his skills in solving the crisis are admirable. His entrance as the company CEO came when the Apple was in crisis; the company was making losses in the computer sales globally. By putting effective measures in place, he was able to put the company back into profit making. This was achieved through communication and being a role model in leading. In situations of crisis, leaders who win are those that are sure of their role and know what is expected of them. Change, bad communication skills, lack of clarity in contracts and poor cross cultural communication are some of the cases where leadership skills in managing conflicts become essential (Linden, Kraemer & Dedrick, 2011). Important Traits A global business leader should be having traits such as; honesty, integrity, self confidence and ability to recognize situations. This is the leader who should to have knowledge of the business he is involved in. The globalized economy has made it prudent that leaders have these traits for them to make it in business (Dalglish and Miller, 2010). In dealing with multi-cultural workforce, openness helps in bonding and making them feel part of the organization. Global business leaders are also expected to be confident in their work and also be able to recognize situations at a glance. These traits were evident in Steve Jobs leadership in Apple Inc. In his business deals, honesty was evident as in the case of iTunes. This was a leader who was self confident in his work. During the launch of new products, he would talk in a manner that would leave the consumers around the world expecting greater products. Having been in the leadership position for a long time, Jobs was admired for turning the loss making company into a global company with high returns (Linden, Kraemer & Dedrick, 2011). Transactional Leadership The global leadership demands a transactional ability in a leader. The global leader is expected to be involved in a lot of transactions in different environments. The exchange of ideas or services for a fee is one aspect that business is done globally. This makes it prudent for the leader to be good in making transactions that are in line with the business interest (Dotlich, Noel & Walker, 2004). Looking at the way Steve Job led Apple in making decisions, the aspect of good transactional skills is evident. In making transactions, Steve Job was a top negotiator. When he was negotiating with music labels for iPhone deal, his skills helped secure the iTunes store. To be relevant in the current global market the deals made must be able to profit the venture (Linden, Kraemer & Dedrick, 2011). Transformational Leader Current global leadership requires the leaders to be transformational. Transformational leadership makes it possible for the change in the status quo by driving the organisation forward. To be transformational, a leader should be up-to date with the current methods that are in use within the organisation (Dent, Higgins & Wharff, 2005). This should be in line with a vision for future combined with superb communication ability. Steve jobs work at Apple was transformational. His leadership helped in expanding the company and transforming it from a loss making venture to a great profit multinational enterprise. This shows how transformational leadership means to a business. The global industries require leaders who can be able to transform them in case of any crisis. Without change, there is no growth. This has made multinational companies trying to educate their leader on how to transform situations for the best of the company. The modern leadership has changed in that the transformational leaders are required to be charismatic. These are leaders who have a mission and a goal. Charismatic leaders have respect for the other staff members making them achieve loyalty among employees. At Apple, Steve made the management to be simple with a goal of increasing how fast sharing of ideas. This was among the few companies where employees would talk directly with their boss. He was able to talk with junior staff, making them feel part of the company (Linden, Kraemer & Dedrick, 2011). Global leadership has also been more focused in leaders who are more focused on what they can provide to those they serve. These are leaders who work to perfect the service or goods delivery for the sake of customer satisfaction. The issue of getting credit is not supposed to take centre stage in their work. The global leader should listen to the customer demands and act with foresight (Dotlich, Noel & Walker, 2004). One of the main areas that Steve Jobs worked on at Apple Inc. was perfection. This was done to ensure that the consumers of the company’s product got the best. In some cases, the CEO worked at home before coming to work. He would also listen to customers’ complaint on the email and try to solve these issues. Though this work was too low for a CEO, Steve made them part of his work. There was no detail that Steve Job assumed too small for him. This led to success of the company in perfecting its products to the customers (Linden, Kraemer & Dedrick, 2011). In the global arena, change is inevitable. The business world is being transformed very fast due to factors such as technology. This has led to the requirement that leaders must be able to take the changes by preparing to take it. To accept and implement change, the leader should be able to know how change is implemented in groups. The group processes should also be known to leadership. These are achieved with direct communication and making sure the team culture is developed within the organisation. Global leaders should make sure that they make team members are aware of policies and the company framework (Dubrin, Dalglish and Miller, 2006). These were found to be Steve Job’s ways of managing the team work at Apple. He had made an executive team that carried out the setting of policies and directions in the company. This group met regularly to discuss on the way forward. All the teams were supposed to make their presentation on the same day and discuss about the products. He made every team member know the role they were supposed to take in an explicit way. The responsibilities were made clear for everyone. Through this, it was possible to get high performance from the employees through team work (Linden, Kraemer & Dedrick, 2011). Creating Positive Culture Leadership is about creating a positive culture within an organisation. This culture should be easy to emulate and employees should be able to admire it. This has led to leadership making sure they minimize myth and rumors which can kill the organisation. To do storytelling has been an avenue that has been explored in organisation (Dubrin, Dalglish and Miller, 2006). The leadership creates heroes that the employees are told about and are proud to strive toward their work for perfection. During his tenure Steve Jobs was a hero. He created this by ever striving for the best in the organisation making sure that every small detail was adhered to. The employees took him to be a hero who could turn anything into a great product. He was able to gain all this by leadership skills that were excellent globally (Linden, Kraemer & Dedrick, 2011). Learning Organisation Global organisations are learning organisations. This is a point where leadership is expected to continue expanding their skills as well as those for the employees to achieve the result that are required (Hoha, 2001). This means that global leaders in today’s market must be able to expand their capacity. In the past, business leaders were more concerned about immediate competitors as well as making profit. Today, the leaders are expected to be vigilant and know what is new in the world. The process of learning is an ever ending cycle with technology developing at a rapid rate (House et al, 2004). Technology related companies need leaders who are open to change and exploring new avenues. This was a trait that was evident in the profile of Steve Job as the CEO of Apple Inc. in his tenure. It was during his year that the company came up with new products that were relevant to the market. These involved the development of iPhone and iPad which made a great impact on the market. He was a manager who was involved step by step in product development hence change. This was achievable by tapping the employees’ potential and commitment. For a learning organisation, the leadership should encourage team work and share the company’s vision (Linden, Kraemer & Dedrick, 2011). Multicultural Leadership Current leadership especially in multicultural organisation has a diverse workforce and different economic locations. This has led to the development of multicultural teams which have been located in different countries. This makes it possible to have executives from different nationalities (Daft and Pirola, 2009). For example, the company can have a manager from China who is managing projects in Australia while the design team is located in UK and other in different localities. Apple Inc. was located in USA with all its design, manufacturing took place in China and other growing economies due to lowering the cost of production. This was complemented by stores in different other countries. This meant that the CEO had to distribute leadership at different levels. This is what can be referred to as cross cultural leadership. The cross cultural dimensions that are in this leadership are effective and give high output despite of the various cultures involved (Linden, Kraemer & Dedrick, 2011). Mentorship The global workforce is becoming younger as time goes by. These are workers who need a mentor in their day to day operation in the global market. The problem comes in because there are very few people who can mentor them (Daft and Pirola, 2009). This means that leadership has to look for means in which people must be found to coach and share information on the same. The technology that surrounds this work force is fast which can create cultural misunderstanding. This is due to reduced time in which people can think or consider. This requires the modern leaders to provide mentorship and coaching to the workforce. Apple Inc. CEO was an expert in this. During his tenure, there was no complaining from his diverse work force. The workforce was adequately trained in dealing with the multicultural communication (Linden, Kraemer & Dedrick, 2011). Global Literacy Leadership For a global leader, global literacy is a key personality. The leadership has adopted this from the changing business environment. The global leader should have good behavior, personal literacy, social knowledge, business knowledge and cultural knowledge. Having personal literacy means that a leader can be able to have a self evaluation while having social knowledge makes them capable of challenging others. Having the capability to values different cultures in multicultural organisations makes the leader gain respect and acceptance (Conger & Riggio, 2007). This can be well illustrated by Steve Job way of leadership. His manner of leading a multicultural workforce and his business acumen were in no doubt admired by many. His executives came from different background based on merit. The company assembly plant was located in China which had a different culture from the United States. Business expansion in a multicultural society has to involve well understood culture by the leadership among the other personalities (Linden, Kraemer & Dedrick, 2011). Conclusion In conclusion, change is a continuous process and those affected by it must be able to conform to it. To survive in today’s technological world, leaders must be able to develop a plan on how to change things. This plan should be well modeled and should take into consideration all that the organisation entails. The plan for change must be all inclusive in such a way that the leadership and employees are focused on the same goal. Today, global leaders must be well prepared to face the resistance to their transformation agenda from lack of good communication. This is why the leadership has shifted into understanding all cultures to eliminate misunderstanding and failures. Today’s leadership has also enhanced organisational learning. This involves making the organisation problem solving to be at the outmost and making sure that behavioral change which leads improved employees’ output are enhanced. Today leaders also have a task to emulate successful global leaders who have made it in multicultural environment such as Steve Jobs. 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