Steve Job’s Leadership

From this week’s reading, I can emphatically say that Steve Jobs was one of the world’s best renowned and successful leaders of this century. From a business ethics point of view, one that is tethered on the basis of improving the corporation and seeing to it that the corporation and brand both remain viable, Steve Jobs comes out as an individual who embodied ethics. He never sought to bankrupt the shareholders or the company for his personal gain. He neither acted in a manner of a corporate raider nor sought to bankrupt the company. As a matter of fact, Job’s major motivation as a business leader was his unmatched reputation that was solely as a result of his success at Apple Corporation. The way he carried out himself could only thrive the brand name and the company and not make it suffer. For him, his success at Apple Corporation was the sole reason to keep pressing on, something which he did with absolute sincerity and authenticity. Moreover, he believed in the ethics of the existence of his business. That alone was a good indicator of his ethical conduct.

Much as Steve Jobs appeared to be a successful and ethical leader, I think when evaluating his performance, his ethical standards mainly depend on how we define ethics in business. This is simply because Jobs acts can be validated or invalidated to be ethical based on the definition given to business ethics. If business ethics get defined based on the kind of loyalty leaders have towards their companies, then Steve Jobs automatically qualifies as one of the most ethical leaders of the century. However, if ethics are defined based on how an individual connects and interacts with other human beings, his ethical issues would be questionable. However, based on how he performed on his job and made tremendous strides to catapult the company to greater heights, I would vote Steve Jobs as an ethical leader. His management concepts were the best for his company.