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Discussion on Charismatic Leadership:

Cast Study of Steve Jobs
Guoyi Chen
School of Economic and Management, Chongqing Three Gorges University, Chongqing, China
Cgy_22@126.com
Abstract- Effective leadership is one of the most important key factors for organization success and long-term development. The
purpose of this paper is to provide a new perspective for improving leadership skills through analysing charismatic leadership. It
firstly introduces the concept of charismatic leadership, and then briefly reviews Jobs and his leadership art in Apple ltd, based on
the above; it makes an analysis of key elements of charismatic leadership. The finding of this study reveals that four primary
excellence traits which distinguish these leaders from other ordinary ones: excellent eloquences, persistence, perfectionism pursuer
and self-confidence. The findings of this study have significant contribution to the body of knowledge in leadership theory, as well as
practical implication to the management of a small- and medium-sized company (SME) especially in the area of organizational
leadership influences organizational performance a lot.
Keywords- Charismatic Leadership; Case; Leadership Traits; Organization

I.

INTRODUCTION

Charisma is a God-given gift that a few people possess and this man is one of them. God not only gives him the gift, but
also gives him the magic to attract the public, which is usually the character of provocative evangelist and politician the
"magic" to attract the public [1]. He is a typical American-style hero, like Hemingway said in "The Old Man and the Sea": A
man can be destroyed but not defeated. He and his friend created a miracle in electronic world and brought the world to an era
of personal computer. But at the peak of his career he was blocked, his life fell from the peak to the bottom [2]. However, 12
years later, he came back to start another miracle. "Yow time is limited, so dont waste it living someone else's life" says Steve
Jobs. From the day he was born on February 24, 1955, Steven Jobs was on his own. As the CEO of Apple Computer and CEO
and Chairman of Pixar, Jobs now is recognized as one of the top leaders with charismatic traits worth an estimated $ 4.4 billion
[2]. He is a successful example not only in computer industry but also in entertainment industry; his story impresses the public
a lot so the researcher decide to write this paper about him, mainly to uncover the factors and traits that lead him to so many
successes and distinctive characters which making him such a charismatic person.
Gardner and Avolio (1998) have stated that charismatic leadership is positively related to organizational performance. The
establishment of a shared vision, collective agreement with leaders' value, together with subordinates' strongly commitment to
the leader, all these can produce a high level of internal cohesion and value congruence [3]. Most leaders want to be
charismatic because charismatic leaders are considered as effective and influential. They have personal power and charm,
which is not a typical feature of an ordinary leader. Thus this paper aims to explore the leadership traits and components of
charismatic leadership, and develop new constructs of charismatic leadership, and examine their relationships by case study.
Hopefully the results will provide a greater understanding of the components and role of the charismatic leadership. The
ultimate goal of this study is to use the results of this research to improve management in China, especially for Chinese SME
competitiveness.
This paper first gives a brief review about charismatic leadership, and then gives a general introduction about background
information of his career and his creative life, and then it will list and elaborate his unique leadership traits and behaviors
which make him an idol. The last part will be the conclusion of the paper.
II.

LITERATURE REVIEW OF CHARISMATIC LEADERSHIP

The idea of charismatic leadership can be traced to Max Weber (1947), who believed authority was based on specialty
characteristics, personalities, heroism and unique sanctity of an individual person [4]. Weber identified three key reasons that
define why people follow others, including rank or level of the individual, belief that obedience was necessary to those in a
position of power, and charismatic qualities or strong personality qualities [4]. Although charismatic leadership has been
discussed since Webers initiation, it was not fully embraced until transformational leadership emerged. House (1977) defined
charismatic leaders as those who have a profound, personal impact on those that follow them [5]. Bradley (1987) identified
three types of charisma that can be included in a discussion of charismatic leadership, including (a) charisma as a special
personality characteristic, (b) charisma as the mutual relationship between leader and followers, and (c) charisma as a social
structure [6].
The definition of charismatic leadership was broad in scope. Charismatic leaders are considered as the extraordinary
persons who are of strong charm and influence to assist the persons to realize their meaningful goals [7]. The role of personal

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meaning in charismatic leadership is significant because the leader must have a personal belief in the task and situation at hand
[8]. Charismatic leaders are strong role models for values and beliefs, displaying competency to followers, often
communicating ripe ideas with strong moral overtones, having high expectations of their followers, and possessing the ability
to communicate, on some level, an affinity with followers [9]. Bass (1990) suggested that charisma is a necessary but not
sufficient condition for charismatic leadership to take place [10]. Therefore, charisma represents at least one of the basic
behavioral patterns essential for a charismatic leadership experience. The positive characteristics necessary for the
development of charismatic leadership include the expression of vision, rhetorical skills, image and trust building, and an
empowering personalized leadership style [11]. Therefore Charismatic leaders are commonly described as owning excellent
eloquences, persistence to the final goals, possessing an exceptional ability to win the devotion and support of followers. Their
followers want to keep in pace with them and develop intense feelings with them, displaying undoubtedly trust and confidence
in them. Based on the above review, the author then put forward Hypothesis 1:
Hypothesis 1: The main source or indication of Charismatic leaders comes from the four issues including excellent
eloquences, persistence, perfectionism pursuer and self-confidence.
It can be illustrated in the following Figure 1.

Fig. 1 Basic leadership traits of Charismatic leadership

The charismatic leadership attributes and behaviours listed above represent foundational contributors to influential
charisma and are heavily dependent upon a positive self-concept. Sosik and Dworakivsky (1998) buttress this statement by
noting that a leader's self-concept is important to the emergence of charismatic leadership [12]. They also noted that
individuals are motivated to behave in ways that are consistent with existing self-perceptions, which in other words means selfconfidence [12]. With enough confidence, Charismatic leaders can transform and integrate followers value, conceptions,
preferences and interests to the collective level and call for making personal sacrificing for the collective goals. Thus
Hypothesis 2 will be:
Hypothesis 2: Self-confidence is the foundation for Charismatic leaders.
The followers demonstrate strongly dependent on the Charismatic leaders and they form strongly personal feelings with
them. Personality characteristics and emotional attachment provided a key differentiation between charismatic and
transformational leadership.
The following Table 1 makes a comparison of Charismatic leadership and transformational leadership.
TABLE 1 COMPARISON OF CHARISMATIC LEADERS AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Theory/idea

Description

Pros

Cons

Transformational
leadership

Transformational leaders work to

raise follower awareness of
organizational priorities, strategic
picture, and create an atmosphere
that encourages risk taking,
sharing and follower selfactualization.

1) Strategic direction is evident

and helps followers to see the big
picture
2) Followers take risks and think
outside the box.
3) Relationship between leaders
and follower may transcend
organizational bounds.

1) Leader needs to attend to diverse

needs of followers.
2) Necessary to balance big picture
with tactical follower situation.
3) Must be an inspirational leader.
4) Able to leverage change--leaders
and followers, this may be a
challenge.

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Charismatic
leadership

Charismatic leaders are people

who have a profound and
personal impact on those who
follow them.

1) In crisis, inspirational leaders

can be powerful.
2) Can influence followers on a
personal level to participate.
3) Provide true change and
growth in followers.

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1) Credibility or believability of
leader may be questioned due to
interpersonal traits.
2) May be less effective in routine
situations.

III. EMPIRICAL REVIEW OF STEVE JOB AND APPLE LTD

Steve Jobs has accepted wide respect and admiration of the world for his great contributions to the personal computer,
information technology field as well as the entertainment industry, and he has successfully invented and created the Apple II
and Macintosh in 1970s and 1980s for customers who can enjoy the computer at home conveniently. His greatest
breakthrough or achievement lies in his dismissal from Apple which was founded by him in 1985, and this dismissal has
promoted him to reach the most creative period throughout the life and made him to cooperate with Disney and produce the
animated feature film at NeXT.
After being resignation by Apple, Jobs started the Next Company in 1985 with several colleagues, and at first he decided to
sell the black as well as elegant computers in the business computer market, while this try leads to a failure, at last in 1993 Jobs
decided to shift the core business to its Next-Step operation system which has brought much profit for Next. While during this
period, Jobs has also made another tries, he stepped into the entertainment industry in 1986 by establishing the Pixar from
Lucas for less than $10 million, which put forward global first 3-D Animation film Toy story, had Pixar finally become the
world famous three-dimensions computer Animation studios, thus Jobs has become the biggest winner.
In 1997, Jobs returned back to Apple and he has saved this company from bankruptcy to annual increase of the income and
the profit, in 1998 it has realized its goal of profit driving. And this coming-back has been acknowledged as the wonderful
back, during 1998 to 2010, he has successfully put forward the beautiful consumer electronics appliance, including iMac, iPod
and the most famous iPhone. Even more, Jobs has transferred the traditional industry like the music, television and the movie
into the digital field, and made the business of selling digital content online possible. Under his guidance, Apple has realized
the annual increase of both sales income and the profit revenue. The number of staff has increased from 10,912 of 2003 to
21,600 of 2007, with twice increase in 5 years. And the personal net income also increases from $57 to $3, 496, which
represents 60 times more than 5 year before. It can be seen from Table 2.
TABLE 2 FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF APPLE LTD

Based on his amazing life, two key important things need to be mentioned to make a detailed analysis of his chrematistic
leadership:
A. Creation of Apple
Jobs together with Woz started to do all kinds of experiment day and night in his garage and dreamed about having a
personal computer. After several weeks, they finally finished their first piece of work: a personal computer. But at that time
they did not realize what their work means to the future electronic world. It was the first personal computer and was a brandnew concept to most people at that time. All of their friends were absolutely shocked and Steve with his friend tried everything
they could to raise money for bulk production. On the Fool's Day of 1976, Job, Woz and one of Jobs' friends Ronald Wayne
signed a contract together and decided to establish "Apple Company" with the well-known logo today, an apple bit to half.
And the computer itself was named as the "Apple I". Steve Jobs was the business force behind Apple Computer while
Wozniak provided the engineering acumen [13].
B. Jobs Return to Apple
December 17, 1996 is a remarkable day for "Apple" and the entire computer industry. Steve Jobs came back with an even
greater passion on "Apple", because he never forgot his dream. To stabilize the company, he made an essential but unpopular
alliance with Microsoft [14]. Just like before, he spent a lot of effort inventing new computers. His effort paid off until iMac, a
brand-new design computer occurred in the market with the famous motto 'I think, therefore iMac.
He always kept himself busy and company started to make profit again. Before he came back, company's balance showed
negative number of one billion, but by the time of 1999, the balance showed a positive number of 300 million. At the same
time, iMac II shocked the computer market again and people began to regard him with special respect. He is such a relentless

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perfectionist whose company creates such beautifully designed products that have changed our expectations about how
everything around us should work [15].
IV. ANALYSIS OF THE OUTSTANDING LEADERSHIP TRAITS OF JOBS
According to attribution theory, personal traits including perseverance, confident, persistent, courageous, energetic,
passionate, strong sense of mission, and strong eloquent, all these can increase the charming of the leader. Based on Figure 1, it
seems that Jobs meets all of these elements, and his Charisma can be explained in the following:
A. Self-confidence and Dominance
One trait that differentiates him with others is his power of dominance. Steve Jobs dominates everything during work,
including all the employees and detailed production process. No matter whom you are, a layman or a computer genius, he can
always dominate your mind and behaviour. What's the real mystery is that most people are willing to obey his direction. For
those who oppose to his plan, he will do everything he can to challenge their ideas, defeat them and finally let them obey his
command (Sacks, 2008). For example, he always question people like, "Do you really believe your theory?" in this situation
most people will lose confidence and afraid of being humiliated for their wrong idea". For those who do not compromise, he
will try his best to find out the flow in their work, and destroy their self-confidence step by step and make them believe he is
the person that will lead you to success. Steve Jobs uses nearly every psychological skill that helps in controlling others' mind
and maintaining his dominance. In this case, it can be seen that confidence is very important to Charismatic leaders, which
provides the foundation for influencing others, thus it proves that Hypothesis 2 is right.
B. High Level of Presentation Skills and Eloquence
Steve Jobs has pretty high skills in delivering speeches and presentation. There are mainly three methods that Jobs adopts
to inspire his audience and he uses those methods to inspire his employees finishing the work or excite investors that are
important for him and the company. First, "Sell dreams, not products". Steve Jobs believes he is born to change the world.
When the first iPod was distributed to the market in 2001Jobs said, In our own small way we're going to make the world a
better place. Even though the product is a music player for most people, Jobs believes it is a tool to innovate people' s life.
Second, reveal a 'Holy Smokes' moment. There is always one water cooler moment in Steve Jobs presentation. For example,
when Jobs is trying to introduce the iMac to the public, he takes computer out from a big envelope! What a wonderful way to
electrify the audience. Third, share the stage. On the stage, Steve Jobs will always introduce his partners or co-workers in
every presentation. Even when someone is not available by the presentation time, he will show a video of him on the screen for
the audience to show his respect to his employee' work.
C. Persistent and Passion for His Own Work and Business
He has the greatest motivation in his work. During the first 3 year when he was back to Apple he did not get any money
from the company which equals to stock worth $500 million. He just worked there because of his love for Apple Company and
insisted working 90 hours a week. It is the passion in making unique products and changing the perspective of consumers that
make him incomprehensible in work. He will not give up the passion on Apple Company even when he had cancer.
Like all of the successful leaders, Steve Jobs has great sociability. When Jobs resigned his CEO and began to set up a new
company. Whats more, he also does some charities and sends new products to those who he admires by himself. All of these
behaviours enhance his influence in the public.
D. Directive Leadership Behaviour and Perfectionism Trait
Based on so many anecdotes of Steve Jobs no matter positive or negative, it may be found that he strictly belongs to
directive leaders. He seldom adheres to other's opinion and even name other's idea as 'stupid". Like most directive leaders, he
set up strict rules for his employee. Those who fail to meet his expectation will be reprimanded. In his mind, everyone should
follow his command, not only the employee but also members of the board.
His directive leadership behaviours annoyed the board and they finally decided to kick him out. Even though the directive
leadership style throws him in a great deal of trouble, his success is also based on that. He knows what the plan is, how to work
on it and get it done. He is such a directive leader that forces every employee to follow his order and get jobs done in his way
with no excuse, otherwise they will be dishonoured in public. When we are surfing the Internet with Mac-Pro or enjoying a
game with a multi-touch screen on iPhone 4, we will find out that it is Jobs' directive and perfectionism that make our life so
interesting.
Based on the above four items analysis, it can be seen that Jobs is full of characteristics of charismatic leadership with
excellent eloquences, persistence, perfectionism pursuer and self-confidence. Thus the Hypothesis 1 can be proved through
Steve Jobs case.

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V.

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CONCLUSION

This paper mainly discusses the charismatic leadership through combining the analysis of Steve Jobs' unexceptional life
and analysis of his charismatic leadership traits and behavior; it can be easily found out that he is a controversial figure who
owns strong personality and a total perfectionist. It is his self-confidence, persistence, great presentation skills as well as his
love about his career and the spirit to change the world that finally mark the height of his career.
This research makes contribution to leadership study by developing a model of key traits of Charismatic leaders; it may
assist the leaders who are trying to reinvent themselves within their organizations [16]. An analysis of the leadership traits
exhibited by Steve Jobs indicated that there are four primary excellent traits which distinguish these leaders from other
ordinary ones: excellent eloquences, persistence, perfectionism pursuer and self-confidence. Successful charismatic leadership,
while highly situational within the context of a particular leader-follower organization, has been found to be obvisouly selfconfidence and perfectionism of personal trait, and directive leadership in terms of leadership behaviour.
It may provide new insights for managers and leaders to develop internal personal traits to motivate the followers while
enhancing team cohesion. Future research should take more consideration of the external variables like organizational strategy,
vision and values as well as leader-follower relationship into consideration, and develop a much more comprehensive model
about how to develop charismatic leadership.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This paper was supported by Youth Foundation of Chongqing Three Gorges University (12QN02).
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Guoyi Chen (1982-), received his M.S. degree in Business Management from Wuhan University of Technology,
China in 2007. He is currently a professor of School of Economic and Management, Chongqing Three Gorges
University. His research interests include Corporate Strategy, Organizational Behavior, and Regional Economics.

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