Steve Jobs: Check and Balance - Assignment Example

First, Jobs appears to be one of the most overrated CEOs of the century. His attempts to capture the media, web, literature, telling schools what to teach and what not to teach, and others, suggest that he is trying to catch more attention than he deserves (Maccoby, 2004). Second, jobs appeared to be satisfying one of the major criteria of narcissist leaders as they saw the bigger picture, and always moved forward with a vision in mind. Since these people focus on their own selves, they can always see the bigger picture rather than breaking things into small bits to understand them (Maccoby, 2004).

Steve stands true to this criterion. From day one, he knew what is he was going to do with the apple. He changed his title from interim CEO to CEO indicating that he will work on iPhones and iPods (Gillam, 2008). Third, according to the official figures, Steve owns almost 6.1 billion US dollars and his name occurs in the list of top 50 wealthiest Americans, yet when it comes to corporate philanthropy, his record is one of the poorest compared to other billionaires. Furthermore, he also eliminated the corporate philanthropy division at Apple in 1997 and it has not been more restored until yet (Gallo, 2009).

Fourth, Narcissist leaders always take credit, even for the work, which has been done by others. For the past fifteen years, Apple has been a one-man show, at least on the scene. Without any doubts, not all the products that Apple has launched during this time were a result of Steve’s ideas and execution but there are many other hardworking and creative employees of Apple who never get a chance to take the credit publicly (Imbimbo, 2009). When it comes to the impact of Jobs’s narcissism on Apple Inc.

, without any doubt, it has been productive and positive. With its own management style and philosophy, Steve Jobs was able to turnaround Apple during the 1990s into what it is today. Steve Jobs has allowed his company to benefit from his own desire to gain prominence. In fact, wherever Steve Jobs has been, he has always tried to promote his own name as a brand and Apple’s brand name at the same time. Furthermore, his creativity, excellence, desire, and pursuit of success and prominence have allowed Apple to emerge from what was appearing to be the end of Apple.

Another reason why Jobs’s narcissism has been so successful is the fact that narcissist leaders are the most successful in leaderless groups. When Steve Jobs returned to Apple Inc., it was a leaderless company and Jobs knew that the only way he could promote himself was through building Apple (Gillam, 2008). Without any doubts, narcissist leaders are what they are because of the support and admiration that they get from their followers, in absence of the same; they are just like ordinary people (Maccoby, 2004).

Jobs inspired many people to follow his vision and people followed him as well. Lastly, it is important to see that what checks and balances were missing that allowed Steve Jobs to become larger than life. The answer lies in the situation when Steve joined the company in 1996. After the merger of NeXT with Apple, Jobs got the chance to return to the company he founded. Despite the fact that the company appeared to be doing fine from the outside but there were many signs that Apple was in deep trouble.

The shareholders needed someone to do something about it and the CEO of that time, Gil Amelio was not able to fulfill the expectations of the shareholders, therefore, Steve was made the interim CEO (Gallo, 2009). Quite understandably, in order to change the company, Steve demanded power, which was given to him. This, virtually limitless power that Jobs still enjoys today is now because of his reputation and expertise. It is difficult for Apple to develop any system of check and balance on “Steve Jobs” since “he is Apple and Apple is him” (Imbimbo, 2009).

Conclusion Therefore, towards the end, it is understandable to conclude that despite the fact that Jobs appears to be fulfilling the criteria of a narcissist, he can be classified as a productive and positive narcissist, the one that has allowed Apple to grow along with him.