IMPACT OF POSITIVE VALUES IN ORGANIZATIONS
Part 1
Question 1
Introduction
This essay discusses the life and traits of the late Steve Jobs, a renowned business leader and the co-founder of Apple Computers. He is remembered as an American inventor, entrepreneur, and designer of Apple Computers products such as iPod, iPhone, and iPod. This essay shall look at the background, qualifications, experience, characteristics, behaviors, and traits of Steve Jobs.
- Background
Steve Jobs was born in 1955 in San Francisco, California. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area after his parents put him up for adoption. He later went for his studies at Reed College in 1972 before dropping out in the same year to pursue enlightenment. To seek enlightenment, he went to India and learned Zen Buddhism. Jobs’ biological father was a Syrian political science professor. He discovered information about his biological parents when he was 27 years. In 1976, Steve Jobs and his friend founded the Apple Computers Company (Amy & Christina, 2013)
- Qualifications
Most people have known Steve Jobs as an intelligent and innovative thinker despite dropping out of college. During his elementary school, he felt so bored by school that he had to be bribed by his fourth-grade teacher to study. After high school, Jobs enrolled at Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He lacked direction in school, so he dropped out of college after six months and spent the next 18 months dropping in on creative classes. Jobs later recounted how one course in calligraphy developed his love of typography (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014).
- Experience
The Apple Computers company was founded in 1976 by Steve Jobs and Stephen Wozniak in the Job’s family garage. To fund this entrepreneurial adventure, Jobs sold his Volkswagen bus, and Wozniak sold his scientific calculator. He was the chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), and co-founder of Apple Computers, the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar, a member of the Walt Disney Company board of directors after it acquired Pixar. Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985 and became the founder, chairman, and CEO of NeXT, a software and hardware business (Dhiman, 2016).
- Characteristics, behaviours or traits
The character traits or attributes of Steve Jobs are best seen during his years at the helm of Apple Computers. Being adopted, dropping out of school, and later founded one of the largest technology companies shows Jobs was a resilient man. His father’s training ensured that the young Steve Jobs developed confidence, tenacity, mechanical and electronic expertise. Upon returning to serve as the CEO of Apple Inc. Jobs is credited for his efforts to revitalize and return the company on a path to success (Amy & Christina, 2013).
Question 2
- To create, improve or establish the culture of a workplace the strategies below form part of the actions that a manager or the board of directors can employ,
- Establishing a culture of trust
The building and development of trust between the employees and management of a company are key ways of creating a strong workplace culture. The employees should feel free to engage the management in important discussions without fear of any consequences. A proper organizational culture should be developed around high trust rather than mistrust (Bateman, 2012)
- Using Shared Experiences to create a sense of belonging
It is important for the company to device ways that offer the people a true feeling of excitement, meaning, and passion for their work. The creation of a sense of belonging among the employees results in a healthy workplace culture as everyone feels part of the project, thus increasing the desire to be involved. However, it is worth noting that a sense of belonging is created through positive workplace culture rather than higher paychecks or perks (Bateman, 2012).
- During his time as the Chief Executive Officer of Apple Computers, Steve Jobs took various actions that were crucial in developing a workplace culture at the company. The workplace culture developed by Jobs is credited for the company’s amazing success over the decades. Below is a simple explanation of how Jobs did it and the strategies that he used to achieve the workplace culture he left behind at Apple Inc.
The workplace culture of an organisation plays a key role in creating and maintaining the company’s values, beliefs, philosophy, and ethical practices (Bateman, 2012). The success enjoyed by Apple Computers can be credited to the strong workplace culture established by Steve Jobs and his co-founder Stephen Wozniak. Jobs established a workplace culture based on top excellence, innovation, creativity, and secrecy (Steinwart & Ziegler, 2014). This culture ensures that the company’s success depends on the employees being connected and expected to support the company’s strategic objectives. Through the leadership of Steve Jobs and other executives, Apple Computers Inc. established a corporate culture that maximises on human resource support towards the achievement of the company’s mission and vision. The Culture established by Steve Jobs has been effective for a long time. It continues to play a key role in preserving top-quality innovations based on creativity and mindsets that are willing to go against the norms or standards (Dhiman, 2016).
For instance, during the Mac’s invention, Steve Jobs worked up the psyche of his engineers to refer to them as artists while expressing his desire to have the computer designed in the greatest way possible. This clearly shows how he instilled confidence in his employees by making them believe they could push themselves beyond limits. The aspect of establishing trust among the employees and the management brings out improved performance. As a result, the Mac computer was a market hit when it was eventually released (Amy & Christina, 2013).
Part 2
One example of a Maori business in New Zealand is the Kia Kaha Clothing Company. Kia Kaha is a Maori term that means ‘forever strong.’ It was started in 1994 as a family business whose vision was to promote Maori customs such as whanau support. Consequently, this business ensured that it maintained whanau directorship while encouraging whanau involvement in running the business. The Kia Kaha Company was originally based in the Bay of Plenty, where it conducted the business of selling T-shirts. At its founding, the business vision was to become the leading Maori business governed and managed under the Maori rules, beliefs, perspectives, and ethics (Salmond, 1983).
The business adopted a Maori name and product design in the manufacture of clothing items. Additionally, the company’s directors adhered to Maori customs and beliefs. Maori elders known as kaumatua and kuia were tasked with approving new designs, products, and clothing before they were made or released into the market. The essence of this was to ensure that all products coming from this business adhered to Maori beliefs and practices in terms of offering traditional inspiration and non-exploitation of the iwi cultural property (Mika, 2014).
Like the Kia Kaha, a majority of Maori businesses operate under these rules and values that differentiate them from other businesses, especially the companies that are only aimed at making profits from the shareholders or owners. Some of the Tikanga values are the Maori’s shared sense of belonging, Self-determination, ownership, and control, Maori diversity, and the guardianship of natural resources. This means that the Maori cultural and leadership values embraced in business are not focussed on profit-making (Salmond, 1983)
On the other hand, the Events Clothing Company Ltd is a business that is a New Zealand based clothing company that is established, managed, and controlled by the New Zealand European principles and ideas. It specialises in the design and supply of innovative, high-quality clothing products to the superyacht and corporate markets (Mika, 2014). Unlike the Kia Kaha, the Events Company is a business that is not bound or operated under rules such as the Maori beliefs and practices.
The organisational and workplace culture in these two businesses is different because they have different inspirations in the construction of their vision, mission, and objectives. For instance, the Kia Kaha guiding principle is kaitiakitanga, a Maori term meaning guardianship of land (Salmond, 1983). Therefore, the products from this business are made with respect to the environment; thus, it relies on natural fibres that are ethically sourced and sustainable. It is important to note both companies are generally bound by New Zealand laws but operated under different organisational cultures. In the case of the Events Company, the vision and objectives may be set with profit-making as a motivation, while in the case of Kia Kaha, preservation of the environment must be aligned with the profit-making activities (Mika, 2014).
Conclusion
The success of a business and maintenance of its relevance is majorly based on its organisational culture. The management of an organisation needs to ensure that its vision, mission, or perspectives align with its workplace culture. A toxic culture or one that negatively influences the output of employees should be avoided.
References
Amy, E. Christina, M. (2013).D Academic Reflections on the Life and Career of Steve Jobs: Journal of Business Management 19(1), 7-59.
Bateman, C. R. (2012). Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications, and Conflict 16(2).
https://www.abacademies.org/articles/jocccvol16no22012.pdf
Dhiman, S. (2016). The Spiritual Quest of Steve Jobs: Connecting the idots Gazing Forward, Glancing Back: The Journal of Values-Based Leadership 9(2).
Mika, J.P. (2014). The role of culture in Māori international business and trade
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269409892_The_role_of_culture_in_Maori_international_business_and_trade
Salmond, A. (1983). The Study of Traditional Maori Society: The State of The Art: The Journal of the Polynesian Society 92(3), 309-331
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20705798Journal of Leadership Education
Steinwart, M. C. & Ziegler, J. A. (2014). Remembering Apple CEO Steve Jobs as a “Transformational Leader”: Implications for Pedagogy: Journal of Leadership Education 13(2), 52-66
https://journalofleadershiped.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/13_2_steinwart.pdf