LEADERSHIP ASSIGNMENT

Leadership Assignment

Leadership Assignment

Introduction

In today's rapidly changing business and technological environment leadership has received a widespread attention in business studies (Palmer & Hartley, 2011). Leadership can be defined as an activity of influencing people to strive willingly for the achievement of any set objectives by a particular group (Northouse, 2012). In fact, the groups could be small group, a sector of an organisation, and any organisation. In addition, it is also true that the different approaches to leadership have been evolved, but there are some basic responsibilities that often suggest the most important duties that need to be performed by a leader. It is essential to know that most of the responsibilities of a leader emphasise their obligation to achieve organisational goals and to provide attention to the needs of their subordinates.

However, it is also a fact that for a time, the recognition of potential leaders was based on the concept that there are certain characteristics that a good leader should possess. This approach has been modified in the light of modern research and suggests that, in certain situations, the characteristics of a leader do not sufficiently establish the difference between them and their followers or good leaders from the bad (Northouse, 2012). The world has seen many business leaders from Bill Gates of Microsoft to Oracle's Larry Ellison and Amazon's Jeff Bezos to Steve Jobs of Apple. It would not be wrong to say that if anyone in the world of technology and innovation that needs no introduction is Steve Jobs (Sharma & Grant, 2011). In fact, everyone whether or not in the IT market knows about the name of this visionary, but perhaps people do not understand that how it came to be where he is/was and the role of leadership styles behind his success (O'Grady, 2009). This paper aims to discuss the role of a business leader - Steve Jobs - and evaluates the outcome of his leadership style and approach in Apple.

Discussion

No doubt, new management theories replaced the old management mechanism by overhauling the management activities of the organisation. There is not only the formation of new roles of managers, but also the formation of other relationships in among the members of organisations. There is no doubt about the fact that modern business and management is not possible without a group of people based on the leader-manager mechanism that is united by common values of the organisation. In fact, market conditions dictate a new relationship not only from managers to subordinates, but also from subordinate to the leader which is largely reflected in the organisational and psychological climate. This emphasises a leader to know and take into account the expectations for themselves at the hands of the organisation and the individual units. No doubt, having knowledge of and accounting for such expectations significantly contribute to the improvement of management style, performance and competitiveness of the organisation.

Business and Leadership

A leader should have authority to act in ways that encourage a positive response from those who work with ...