Article

Leader Motives, Impression Management, and Charisma A Comparison of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates*

Tanvi Shah Zubin R. Mulla

Management and Labour Studies 38(3) 155–184 © 2013 XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources SAGE Publications Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, Washington DC DOI: 10.1177/0258042X13509736 http://mls.sagepub.com

Abstract Charisma is an essential part of transformational leadership; however, there are hardly any reliable ways of predicting leader charisma in an organizational context. Using a qualitative-descriptive study of two leaders—Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, we compare their charisma and impression management styles. Through a content analysis of their public speeches, we determine their motives. We find evidence to validate our proposition that a high power motive and acquisitive impression management techniques are related to charisma. Specifically we characterize Steve Jobs as a personal-power manager and Bill Gates as an achievement oriented manager. Implications for practice are discussed. Keywords Motives, impression management, charisma, content analysis

Charisma is the single most important predictor of positive leadership outcomes (Lowe, Kroeck and Sivasubramaniam, 1996). Despite the importance of the leader’s charisma in research and for organizational outcomes, there are very few ways of predicting charisma and hence selecting charismatic leaders. The pioneering studies of charismatic leadership and effective managers have investigated the motivations of leaders like their needs for achievement, power and affiliation (House, Spangler and Woycke, 1991; McClelland and Burnham, 1976/2003). Other studies of transformational leaders have looked at abilities like self-confidence, dominance, feminine attributes, pragmatism and nurturance (Ross and Offermann, 1997); emotional quotient, self-awareness (Sosik and Megerian, 1999); internal locus of control (Howell and Avolio, 1993); proactive personality (Bateman and Crant, 1993; Crant and Bateman, 2000); and cognitive skills (Sashkin, 1988). Still other studies have identified relationships between transformational leadership and the leaders’ values (Krishnan, 2001); moral reasoning (Turner et al., 2002); and ethical preferences (Banerji and Krishnan, 2000). In this study, we compare the motives of two prominent leaders—Steve Jobs and Bill Gates using a content analysis tool developed by David G. Winter, and find that high power motive is related to charisma. *This article is based on the first author’s Master’s dissertation completed at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.

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Moreover, we find that acquisitive impression management techniques—namely, ingratiation, selfpromotion, intimidation and exemplification help in building the charisma of the leader and not defensive techniques. We emphasize the need for companies to hire impression management consultants in order to ensure that their leaders are able to create a heroic image of themselves to the world. This is particularly important for public companies as such perceptions have an impact on the market valuation of the company. Moreover, these findings have implications for human resources managers in the area of selection. We propose the use of a scoring tool for interview responses of candidates to discern their motive profiles, drawing from Winter (1991a).

Motives Henry A. Murray, a leading proponent of motivational psychology (McClelland, 1951) expanded the study of motives by classifying them as primary/biological and secondary motives. His most significant contribution was enlisting 17 secondary motives such as achievement, aggression, dominance and nurturance, which, according to him, shape human personality and drive behaviour (Morgan et al., 1986). Motivation, simply put, ‘is what “moves” people to do things they do’ (Ciccarelli and Meyer, 2006). Motivation theorists held that motives are ‘tensional states’ that ‘energise’ a person/other organism whereby he/she/it strives to restore the equilibrium (McClelland et al., 1953, pp. 7–8). Thus, motive was considered a state wherein a deficit or a tension is created within a person. This tensional state energizes a person—whereby he/she strives to restore the equilibrium, i.e. the concept of ‘homeostasis’ (Ciccarelli and Meyer, 2006) comes into play, the biological equivalent of the thermostat. Motives are energisers to the extent they ‘activate a habit’ (Brown and Jacobs, 1949). McClelland et al. (1953) extended the work of Murray and proposed that three main motives, namely need for achievement, need for power and need for affiliation, drive leadership behaviour.

Power Motive According to Veroff (1957), as cited in McClelland (1987), the goal of power motive is ‘exerting influence’. McClelland (1987) includes controlling ‘the means to influence others’ (p. 269) also, in the ambit of this motive. People with a high need for Power, n (Pow), desire to influence the behaviour or emotions of others. These are people who continuously endeavour to ‘enhance their prestige or reputation’ (Winter, 1992, p. 265). This motive is characterized by a desire to maintain and enhance power and influence on others as well as to consolidate a position of power. These persons not only hope to acquire a good stan­ ding in society, but also simultaneously fear a loss of such standing and reputation. Some of these people are motivated by affecting not just a few others, but the community, society, nation or the world at large. They tend to derive pleasure and reward in such impact (Schultheiss, 2007). Such persons express ‘a power concern through strong forceful actions’ (Smith, 1992, p. 303). In trying to control or regulate the behaviour of others, such persons tend to provide unsolicited help, support or advice (Smith, 1992). Drawing from McClelland et al.(1953), Morgan et al. (1986) and Winter (1992), in the organizational context, it can be stated that people with a high need for power would be characterized by four traits.

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First, they strive to reach organizational positions that provide them a chance to have an impact on others. Second, they indulge in politics and power play within the organization in order to acquire and maintain over time a position of power. Third, they endeavour to create a favourable impression on both superiors and subordinates as well as external agencies. Finally, they take up roles as mentors to other employees to influence and affect them by providing advice or help.

Achievement Motive McClelland et al. (1953) defines achievement motive or need for achievement or n(Ach) as the ‘success in competition with some standard of excellence’ (p. 110). People with a high need for achievement are perpetually engaged in competitive activities and ‘winning or doing better than or as well as someone’ (McClelland et al., 1953, p. 111) is their primary concern. This competition may or may not be explicitly stated. In cases where this motive is explicit, people tend to use adjectives of degree like faster, best etc. This depicts an evaluation of performance (McClelland et al., 1953). It may be implicit in that the person shows ‘concern over goal attainment’ or performs ‘instrumental activities that show desire to complete (a task) successfully’ (McClelland et al., 1953, p. 112). However, in some cases, competition may be missing, and the person may be concerned only about his/her own success in achieving a certain standard of excellence. At the same time, this does not mean that a person high on achievement motive will always be successful. It does however mean that success is important to such a person and inability to achieve goals causes distress and feelings of failure. Moreover, people with unique accomplishments are considered to be high on n(Ach) as it is assumed that they would experience feelings of failure if the goal is not met (McClelland et al., 1953). In the organizational context, a person with a high need for Achievement would set lofty targets for himself and others, and put in best effort to achieve it; penalize others for their failures and be grieved by personal failure; and develop situations of competition where actually team work may be more critical.

Affiliation Motive Persons high on affiliation motive tend to affiliate, or ‘to connect one’s self or associate one’s self’ (Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913) with others. Other people are very important to such persons. According to French (1956), as cited in Smith (1992), persons with a high need for affiliation would prefer working with their friends rather than with experts in that field. These persons prefer to spend time with others, not just at work but even otherwise, rather than being alone (Wong and Csikszentmihalyi, 1991). They attach significance to happiness (McClelland and Boyatzis, 1982), to peace in the world and to true friendship (Rokeach, 1973 as cited in McClelland, 1987). According to French (1958b), as cited in Smith (1992), people with high n (Aff) prefer getting feedback on how well the group is performing rather than on how well the work is being performed or on the extent of goal achievement. Such persons may, in the organizational context get along very well, both with subordinates and superiors; face problem in providing honest feedback to others, and deal with other such difficult situations

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in which it is likely that the feelings of others may be hurt; and enable the creation and maintenance of a robust informal culture within the organization.

Charisma and Charismatic Leadership Charismatic Leaders inspire followers to go beyond the call of their duties and even make personal sacrifices in the interest of some larger purpose (Weber, 1947). Weber explains that the charismatic leader’s ‘transcendental mission or course of action may (or may not) be in itself appealing to the potential followers, but which is acted upon because the followers believe their leader is extraordinarily gifted’ (Dow, 1969, p. 307). This tends to point to the fact that the leader inspires them more greatly than the purpose itself. These leaders influence followers in ways that are ‘quantitatively greater and qualitatively different’ (House et al., 1991) from others, often resulting in emotional attachment of the followers to their leader. House (1977, pp. 194–203) identified five sets of behaviours that distinguish charismatic leaders. These are effective role modelling, behaviours creating impressions of success and competence, articulation of ideological goals, communication of high expectations plus confidence in followers and motive arousing behaviours. For the purpose of this study, the customers of the organization and members of the public are considered as followers of the leader, and thus, the significance of charisma of the leader acquires even greater significance. This is because at a distance followers form a perception of the leader based on his/ her public appearances, wherein leaders can attract and charm followers through inspiring followers and creating a vision of an idealized future for all to see, both of which are aspects of charismatic leadership.

Impact of Leader’s Motives on Charisma Several theorists and researchers have concluded that the motives of leaders affect their performance (House, Spangler and Woycke, 1991) and success (Cummins, 1967; McClelland and Boyatzis, 1982 and others). According to research done by motivation theorists, managers with a high need for achievement succeed in entrepreneurial roles, and roles such as setting up of new, small businesses etc. or as individual contributors (McClelland and Boyatzis, 1982). Cummins (1967) and Varga (1975), in two separate studies found that executives that are more successful scored higher on power motivation than the ones who were less successful. According to research exploring possible relationship between motives, charisma and effective leadership, a certain profile called the ‘leadership motive profile’ (House, Spangler and Woyce, 1991) is more conducive to effectiveness of leaders. This includes a moderate-to-high need for power (Cummins, 1967), high activity inhibition and a low need for affiliation (Varga, 1975; McClelland and Burnham, 1976; Winter, 1978; McClelland and Boyatzis, 1982). This profile can be further elaborated as one characterized by an interest in influencing and impacting others, and often regulating the behaviours of others, creating powerful networks and playing the influencing game. However, the expression of this need for power is tempered by self-control, i.e., activity inhibition (measured as the number of ‘not’ divided by the total number of words in the passage) preventing any impulsive decision-making, and groupthink (Fodor and Smith, 1982). The concept of Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184

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‘responsible leadership’ (Winter, 1991) comes into play with the moderating effect of this activity inhibition on the need for power. Leaders with high activity inhibition ‘use power to achieve institutional rather than personal goals’ (House et al., 1991). Activity inhibition is measured as the frequency of use of the word ‘not’, considered a measure of self-control (McClelland and Boyatzis, 1982). Similarly, House and Howell (1992) concluded that ‘personality traits are very likely to be antecedents of charismatic leadership’ (p. 102). Having conducted an extensive review of past literature, they contend that a high need for power is indicative of a charismatic leader. In as early as 1976, House had built a theory to suggest that one of the traits that differentiate a charismatic leader from others is ‘a high need to have influence over others’ (House, 1977, p. 194).

Impression Management Styles Impression management or dramaturgy is an ‘attempt (by persons) to influence the impressions other people form of them’ (Gardner, 1992). This includes directing certain behaviours towards others to ‘maintain desired perceptions of themselves’ (Gardner and Martinko, 1988b). Although decision-making should be based on information and facts, in dynamic business situations, managers need to function under the premise of incomplete information. Such quick decisions and spontaneous actions necessitate that managers ‘form impressions that serve as the foundation for later inferences’ (Gardner, 1992). The success of managers, to some degree, depends on their prowess in managing impressions of themselves (Gardner, 1992). The key performance elements that form part of impression management are the actor, the audience, the stage, the script, the performance and the reviews (Gardner, 1992). Actors can ‘set the stage’, or in other words, manipulate the situation, in order to meet their objectives (Gardner, 1992). Over time, a set of expectations develops from a given familiar situation. Actors may orchestrate their performance in case of less familiar situations. Other than the six assertive impression management techniques proposed in the model of dramaturgy (Gardner, 1992 and Gardner and Avolio, 1998), for the purpose of this study, we have drawn from the review of impression management literature by Sharma and Grant (2011) and included other impression management strategies as suggested by the authors in their comprehensive model. Ingratiation is an attempt to become more likeable to a target; verbal flattery, compliments, conformity, smiles and sometimes, even artificial behaviour such as dressing up well is used to positively impress upon the target. Self-promotion can be done by self-enhancement and entitlements. Self-enhancement involves highlighting one’s desired attributes and portraying these in a highly positive way, while entitlement is ‘used to maximize the... apparent responsibility for positive outcomes’ (Gardner, 1992, p. 38) that the actor holds. Intimidation is also used as an impression management technique, in cases when one party needs to create fear of oneself in others, in situations when the target is either unable to or has no desire to retaliate and the intimidator is not concerned with maintaining relationship with the target. Exemplification involves portraying oneself as a role model. Leading by example through display of personal integrity, a willingness to take risks, and make personal sacrifices for the good of the organization is characteristic of exemplary acts. Supplication is typically a last resort impression management technique, wherein, the actor with an actual or perceived lack of skill tries to invoke pity in the mind of the audience, who is a person with the necessary skill at his/her disposal. This, however, Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184

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makes the actor vulnerable and at the mercy of the audience. Face saving is used by actors facing a predicament wherein they attempt to defend themselves by pleading innocence. Setting the Stage is another technique for managing impressions. According to Pfeffer (2010), setting the stage for the performance by the leader is critical. It symbolizes power and status, and can be used to influence the audience. According to Sharma and Grant (2011) the stage, where the leader performs and interacts with his audience, is divided into back stage and front stage, and the act must be prepared and performed seamlessly, i.e. stage management should be practiced to ‘cultivate and maintain the leader’s charismatic image’ (p. 5). This theory suggests that there is a lot of secretive information that is available back stage, which if gets leaked out to the audience may ruin the social character of the actor, if there is a dissonance between the actor’s actual actions and the actions of the portrayed character. Moreover, a faux paus when on the front stage may create similar effects. Sharma and Grant (2011) suggest a threepronged approach for stage management. First, impression management in the form of ‘dramaturgical loyalty’ (p. 8) is required to ensure that the supporting cast does not leak any back stage information. Second, ‘dramaturgical discipline’ (p. 8) is essential to avoid faux paus on the front stage. Third, the actors and supporting cast need to exercise some foresight in being prepared for the unexpected and the contingencies that may arise in the course of the performance. This is termed as ‘dramaturgical circumspection’ (p. 8).

Impact of Leader’s Impression Management on Charisma Weber (1947) emphasized the importance of impression management and spoke of the ‘proof’ that the leader is required to provide of his extraordinary powers to the followers (House, 1977). House (1997) states: It is entirely possible that charismatic leaders present themselves as highly confident and as having a strong conviction in the moral righteousness of their beliefs but do not indeed believe in either themselves or their beliefs. Some leaders may thus have charismatic effects because of their ability to act as though they have such confidence and convictions (p. 193).

The assertion made by Gabriel (2004) with regard to ‘stretching the truth’ has been quoted in Sharma and Grant (2011) as ‘the truth of stories lies in their meaning, not in their accuracy.’ According to Weber (1977), charismatic leaders focus on ‘image building’ to ‘create the impression of competence and success’ (p. 197). Theory suggests that ‘idealized influence’ and ‘inspirational motivation’ (Bass and Avolio, 1990, 1994), elements of charismatic leadership, also involve impression management (Gardner and Cleavenger, 1998). In a research conducted by Gardner and Cleavenger (1998), a significant and positive correlation was found between exemplification and attributed charisma. In other words, the research showed that leaders who engage in exemplary deeds tend to be viewed as charismatic leaders. Intimidation, another impression management strategy, was found to be negatively and significantly correlated to charisma. The research results also led to the conclusion that self-promotion is negatively and significantly correlated to leader’s charisma. On the other hand, ingratiation was found to be positively related to charisma. Ingratiation is seen to foster a charismatic image, as friendly, warm behaviour towards the followers will Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184

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endear the leader to the followers. Social skills required by a charismatic leader like smiling at people, complimenting them etc. are done by someone engaging in ingratiation. Research, thus, clearly shows that most impression management strategies help leaders elicit attributions of charisma, i.e., to say that in the minds of the followers, these strategies tend to be associated with charisma and help foster a charismatic image of the leader in the minds of people. House (1977), in describing the behaviour of Charismatic Leaders contends that these leaders behave in a manner they want their followers to behave. In doing this, they act as role models for the followers. It can thus be argued that exemplification as an impression management strategy would be often used by charismatic leaders. Fodor and Farrow (1979) argue that individuals with a high need for power exhibit more ingratiation than others.

Method We used a qualitative-descriptive research design to delve into the lives of two business leaders based on information available from secondary sources to bring out the vivid differences in the leadership styles— specifically impression management strategies used by the two leaders. Leader motives were measured using content analysis of their speeches available; to discern the motive profile of the two leaders. The perceived charisma of the leaders was gauged from the qualitative analysis of articles, books and newspaper reports about the two leaders. The research technique is in line with that of Trice and Beyer (1986) wherein the proposed theory of the researchers was validated through field data on two leaders. Drawing from their methodology, we describe in organizational terms two cases of leaders in which perceived charisma in the eyes of followers was more and less. This was done to not just help validate our hypotheses regarding leader motives and perceived charisma, but also to identify and account for the mechanism that comes to play in operationalizing this process. Implications for managers and organizations have also been drawn.

Sampling The leaders who are the subjects of our study are both founders of successful technology based organizations and have been considered to be at the forefront of the technology industry for almost four decades. William Henry Gates or Bill Gates, the first subject, founded Microsoft Corporation in 1975 that operates in computer software. A year later, in 1976, Steven Paul Jobs or Steve Jobs, the second subject of the study, founded Apple Computers Inc. that operates in computer hardware and software. Both had their visions and they build successful corporations around these. The two leaders were specifically chosen because they are well-known public figures with enough material about them available in the public domain; there are several similarities between the two (enlisted below); a preliminary review of literature on the two leaders revealed that the philosophies of the two leaders in the way they run their companies is quite different; and, both are considered successful leaders and are often considered synonymous with the organizations that they have built. Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184

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The lives of Gates and Jobs have several similarities. Born in 1955, both of them dropped out of school, though the reasons were very different for the two. Both Gates and Jobs founded technologybased companies—Microsoft Corporation and Apple Computers Inc. respectively in mid 1970s with co-founders Paul Allen and Steve Wozniak respectively. Moreover, both have been subjects of substantial media attention, through interviews, biographies and films made on them and their organizations. Interestingly, a movie called Pirates of Silicon Valley chronicles the rise of the two organizations built by the two leaders through their inceptions to 1997. Although both Gates and Jobs experimented with technology and entrepreneurship during the same decade, their backgrounds and personalities were vastly different. Gates came from a wealthy background; son of a prominent lawyer and a civic leader, he attended one of Seattle’s finest private school. Unlike Gates who came from a family of well-educated and accomplished professionals, Jobs was given up for adoption to a high school dropout mechanic and his bookkeeper wife. Nonetheless, Jobs adoptive parents stretched their means to provide education to him. The difference in their personalities is even starker; Gates was a pragmatist, and Jobs, a romantic. Unlike Jobs, Gates had excellent analytical abilities and was good at computer coding. Jobs, on the other hand, had an intuitive knack of making technology more user-friendly and the design more beautiful and elegant (Isaacson, 2011). The difference in their personalities also reflected in their philosophies of business. While Jobs was a perfectionist and an artist, who was focussed on creating beautiful products with integrated hardware and software, Gates, analysing technology and business more practically, partnered with other technology companies and licensed Microsoft’s operating system and software to several manufacturers. This, in turn, translated into the vision statements that the two companies worked towards. Microsoft’s vision read ‘a personal computer on every desk and in every home, running Microsoft software’. On the other hand, Jobs strived to create ‘great tools for people who’re out to change the world’ (MacWorld Expo, 1997). For Steve Jobs, it was about a passion for making great products, not just profitable ones (Isaacson, 2011).

Data Collection Methods The video clippings of public appearances made by the two leaders (five each of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and one combined interview of the two) were content analysed by a single scorer and scored for power motive, achievement motive and affiliation motive. The choice of video clippings was made over any other medium of communication used by these leaders due to the following reason—these public speeches were delivered to an audience of followers directly or indirectly (i.e., press statements were excluded) and (even if the speech is written by a speech writer) the personality of the leader, his impression management styles etc. come to play here (Bligh and Robinson, 2010). Each video was divided into 15-second frames and alternate frames were scored for motives (Winter, 1991a). It was a conscious endeavour to include similar videos of both leaders, spanning the lifetime of the leaders. For instance, the final sample includes an address by the leaders to a college gathering of graduate students, a product launch, an interaction with their employees, an early video of the 1980s and a press interview. Moreover, a common interview wherein both leaders participated was also content analysed for this purpose. A detailed table showing the assortment of videos analysed for this study is given in Table 1.

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Leader Motives, Impression Management, and Charisma Table 1. List of Videos Scored for Motives Name

Common Interview* Stanford Speech* Thoughts on Life* The First Macintosh* Young Vibrant Jobs* Rare footage

Steve Jobs Year Duration 2007 2005 1995 1984 1983 1980

01:29:04 15:05 01:54 10:15 09:55 23:00

Frames Name 140 57 8 15 29 89

Common Interview* Harvard Speech* Introducing Vista* Intro of Windows* Hello, I’m Bill Gates* History of Microsoft*

Bill Gates Year Duration 2007 2007 2006 1985 1990 1980

01:29:04 0:26:00 03:00 03:40 01:01 02:00

Frames 139 66 12 15 4

8

Note: * Transcriptions of these speeches were used for analysis with LIWC2007.

As suggested by Winter (1991a), we scored only the meaning of the content of the clippings, without inferring otherwise and attaching deeper meaning to the words. The context was used only to understand the meaning of the words or phrases spoken. Since video content was used, any clear (non-canned) response of the audience to actions or words of the leader was scored. For example, hooting and clapping by audience to a joke or a simple appearance of the leader was scored for power imagery. The data in collection for gauging the perceived charisma of the leader in the eyes of the follower was done through a qualitative analysis of videos, newspaper clippings, articles and books available on the two leaders. The tool used to score the speeches for this study is the Manual for Scoring Motive Imagery in Running Text (Winter, 1991a). The scorer acquired a 91 per cent reliability before conducting the final scoring (a 90 per cent reliability is suggested). In addition to this, some of the videos were transcribed into text and were analysed using the Linguistic Analysis and Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker, Booth and Francis, 2007), a text analysis software which calculates the degree to which people use different categories of words in a given text. The LIWC software provided scores on the use of ‘negations’ such as the words ‘no’, ‘not’, and ‘never’. Following House, Spanger and Woycke (1991), we used the frequency of occurrence of these words as indicating activity inhibition.

Analysis Technique Content Analysis, which has been used in this study to score leader motives, as a technique was first used in the eighteenth century. In the last century, the use of content analysis has gained momentum and it has started being used in Psychology, Anthropology, History and Education (Krippendorf, 1980). Today, Content Analysis is one of the most important research techniques in Social Science Research—it helps understand persons and events not just as a function of the linguistic interpretations of the message, but as the ‘symbolic phenomena’ (p. 10) linked to their message. Specifically in the case of Psychology, Content analysis technique started being used for the following purposes relevant to our research, namely analysis of verbal records to explore motivational, psychological and personality characteristics, and

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construction of the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) wherein content analysis was used as a secondary technique applied to open-ended questions (Krippendorf, 1980). In our research, Content Analysis is the appropriate technique as we are analysing verbal records of leaders to determine their motivational characteristics; this has been followed by several social science researchers (Winter, 1987; House and Howell, 1992). Moreover, the specific tool (Winter, 1991a) used by us scoring has been adapted from the original scoring systems for scoring these motives for TAT participants. As suggested by Krippendorf (1980), in this research content analysis has been used as a part of larger research efforts, wherein a section of data has been content analysed to gather data on one variable (independent variable) of the hypotheses. This study involves the use of case study method of research analysis involving analysis of longitudinal data from 1980 to the present. A simple average of the motive scores of each video was taken to arrive at the final motive score of each leader. The charisma of the two leaders was assessed in terms of the opinions on the charisma of the two leaders held by the public in the form of posts on internet Web log, and authors and biographers. Moreover, public information in the form of press news pieces, research articles and biographies on the two leaders has been researched to understand the charisma of the leaders against the theoretical perspectives on charisma.

Results The charisma of the two leaders—Gates and Jobs has been assessed drawing interconnections of instances from their lives with literature on charismatic leadership and drawing from what has been said and written about them in media and the masses. We have studied the personality of the leader and the perceived charisma of the leader in the minds of the followers, taking followers as the customers of the two companies—Microsoft and Apple as well as general public, including opinion makers. Weber’s (1947) conception of a charismatic leader having extraordinary qualities and a transcendental vision that result in emotional attachment of followers to their leader is analysed for both Gates and Jobs.

Steve Jobs’s Charisma Jobs’ vision of creating great tools for people who are out to change the world (Mac World Expo, 1997), on the face value, cannot be termed as transcendental, at least to customers. It may have been so to the technology experts and software and hardware developers, employees or otherwise. However, the accompanying elaboration provided by Jobs to create products that were years ahead of their times in order to amplify human capability of people who think ahead of their times, does strike a chord in even the minds of the public. He never accepted no for an answer and continually pushed his team to strive for the best. Fortunately, for him, he had the extraordinary knack of selecting just the right people at Apple, brilliant at their work and with inquisitive minds of innovators. With this ferocious drive and a passion for perfection, Jobs is credited to have revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing and digital publishing (Isaacson, 2011). Another quality that endeared him to the public

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was his excellent presentation skills, coupled with an ‘intuitive sense of how to stroke excitement, manipulate the competitive instincts of journalists’ (Isaacson, 2011, p. 185). He would hold pre-launch private displays of Apple products for key journalists; even there he would be in his showman mode ‘covering the new gadgets with cloths and then uncovering them... (With) a gleam in his eye and passion in his voice’ (Mossberg, 2011). He was instrumental in energizing his employees through his words during Apple keynotes. One of the tactics used by him included, use of “us-versus-them references” (Pfeffer, 2010, p. 143). First, the external threat or the enemy was IBM and later, it became Microsoft (Pfeffer, 2010). In a video spoof of the relationship between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, a character from one of the Xbox games, talking about Jobs, says to Gates, ‘He needs you; without an enemy, he’s nothing’. To this, Jobs agrees and confesses, ‘It’s true... I need a big, giant nerd to keep me going; and Bill; you’re the biggest, giantest nerd I ever met’ (Faure-Brac, 2010). Although an exaggeration of real life, this gives us a clear indication of the perception of Steve Jobs that the public has of him. Above all, he stands as a visionary and ‘the ultimate icon of inventiveness, imagination, and sustained innovation’ (Isaacson, 2011, p. xix). The emotional attachment that the customers and other followers had with Jobs was evident at the time of his death in October 2011 when iPhone-lit vigils were held at San Francisco, and people across the globe flocked to Apple stores and placed apples and flowers as a sign of respect and remembrance to Jobs (Bass et al., 2011). Luck (1978) contended that charismatic leaders where characterized by narcissism, impulsiveness and cyclic behaviours. Jobs narcissism was well known and comes across often in media as well as in research. Maccoby (2004) in his article on Narcissistic Leaders cites the example of Steve Jobs as a narcissistic leader with an abrasive personality. When Gil Amelio became the CEO of Apple in 1996, Jobs paid him a visit and reportedly exclaimed, ‘There’s only one person who can rally the Apple troops’. He narcissistically continued, ‘...only one person who can straighten out the company’ (Isaacson, 2011, p. 297). Jobs’ girlfriend of over half a decade, Tina Resde asserted that Jobs was a very self-centred person and suffered from a ‘Narcissistic Personality Disorder’ (Isaacson, 2011, p. 266). His impulsiveness was gathered by not just incidents of his life, but also from the analysis of his handwriting by Handwriting University International that claims that the right slant if his handwriting shows that he has an impulsive attitude. His impulsiveness, coupled with the way he would distort reality, made him extremely unpredictable. The Macintosh team was well aware of Steve’s cyclic behaviours. He was known to sway erratically between ecstasy and depression. He is said to rubbish ideas of his employees and a few days later he would walk upto them and narrate the same idea, claiming it as his own (Isaacson, 2011). Steve Jobs exuded confidence right from his speeches and interviews during the 1980s down to 2011. In the Stanford Commencement Address in 2007, he shared that even after his devastating and public ousting from the company he founded; he was determined to continue looking for opportunities. ‘(Although) the focus of my entire adult life was gone... I still loved what I did’. A self-assured smile and confident gait (House, 1977) also add to the perception of charisma, which accentuated Jobs’ charisma in the eyes of his followers. He was also dominating and overpowering in nature as can be seen during the joint public appearance of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates at an interview, wherein when Gates was asked a question, Jobs interrupted him in the midst of an answer and narrated his own version of the story, starting off by saying ‘Let me... let me tell this story’, drawing a huge applause from the audiences. Moreover, his dominating style was much talked about by his employees at Apple. Despite not being fluent in coding and software development like his Macintosh team, Jobs would often come to sit with them while

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they were working and contend that what they were creating wasn’t fast enough, was too big and that it should be half the existing size, without understanding the challenges of the existing technology (Isaacson, 2011). The charismatic style of leadership of Steve Jobs finds abundant mention in press articles and internet blog postings (HBS Press Release, 2011; Healy, 2011; Palmer, 2011; Perenson, 2011; Stone and Burrows, 2011; Strukhoff, 2011 and others). A news piece carried by Bloomberg touted Steve Jobs as ‘the most charismatic chief executive officer in business history’ (Stone and Burrows, 2011). Such was his appeal, that one article on the Cloud Computing Journal read, ‘In the performing arts, charisma is valued. It separates mere technical brilliance from the sublime. In politics, it is dangerous. And in business, charisma will forever be known as “Jobsian”’ (Strukhoff, 2011). According to Perenson (2011) of PC World, Steve Jobs showmanship is class apart, and is the reason for his ‘cult following’. According to the 1996 PBS documentary, ‘Triumph of the Nerds’, Larry Tessler, an Apple employee commented, ‘When I wasn’t sure what the word charisma meant, I met Steve Jobs and then I knew’ (PBS, 1996). Another Apple employee, Bob Metcalfe commented, ‘Steve Jobs is on my eternal hero list; there is nothing he can do to get off it’ (PBS, 1996). The death of Steve Jobs in October 2011 escalated the quantum of web log comments posted about him manifold. One of the comments posted read, ‘Business leaders don’t often come to have that sort of cultural resonance. Apple’s storefronts became impromptu shrines and memorials, something we can safely say will not happen... when the CEOs of Exxon Mobil or Nestlé pass away’ (Healy, 2011). He is remembered by the faculty of Harvard Business School, as well as by people across the globe as ‘a charismatic leader with the clarity of vision’ (HBS Press Release, 2011). Several books written on the life, work and personality of Steve Jobs portray him as a charismatic leader, citing episodes from his life to prove the point. His ‘charismatic rhetorical style’ (Isaacson, 2011) have been at the core of the books written on Jobs. Young and Simon (2005), begin the prologue of their book on Jobs by stating, ‘Charisma (is) a gift given to few people... Nature bestowed that gift on Steve Jobs...’ (p. 1). According to Trice and Beyer (1986), charismatic leaders strive for ‘radical innovations that challenge established practices and generate excitement...’ As illustrated above, Steve Jobs checks all the points on this list.

Bill Gates’s Charisma Bill Gates, in the early years of Microsoft, envisioned a computer on every desk, and in every home, running Microsoft software (Beaumont, 2008). With this simple and easy to visualize (Warfield, 2011), yet powerful vision, Gates created a multinational giant that initially provided a platform for a generation of computer scientists to flourish (Wessel, 2011), and later ‘gave the world a new standard way for computing, documenting and connecting’ (Yanai et al., 2007). The clarity of his vision is evident in the fact that Gates quit his studies at Harvard in order to be part of the technological revolution that was taking shape at that time, and founded Microsoft with Paul Allen. According to Lowe (1998), ‘Gates is to software what Edison was to the light bulb—part innovator, part entrepreneur, part salesman, and full-time genius’ (p. xi). Gates did in fact succeed in (almost) achieving his vision; Windows, a series of operating systems (OS) produced by Microsoft holds over 92 per cent market share in the OS market (Net Market Share, Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184

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2012). This was a result of hiring for the brains (Harris and Brannick, 1999). He is credited for having created an organization of brilliant people as he believed that ‘ideas could get better from combined smarts and perspectives’ (Sources of Insight, 2011). Today, Gates is not just a business leader, but also a ‘leader of people’ (Wessel, 2011); the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, founded in 1994, attempts to reduce the inequities in the world. After stepping away from Microsoft, Gates has committed his time, talent and resources to the cause of fighting inequality, eliminating diseases and increasing development standards in developing and underdeveloped nations. This has earned him a following among not just customers, but among people across the globe. However, people are not emotionally attached to Gates as a leader; an Apple fan writes that there never can be an emotional connect to Microsoft products as one has with Apple products (MacForums, 2011), and by extension no emotional attachment to Gates. Although, this may be a biased opinion, there is no evidence (article, videos and newspaper reports) available in media and popular literature that contradicts this view or talks about this aspect in relation to Bill Gates or Microsoft products. Calling Bill Gates a narcissistic leader, Maccoby (2004) adds that he also lacks empathy. He goes on to elaborate that such leaders face difficulty in communicating effectively and in persuading others. Reportedly, he is also not a very good listener. Hertzfeld, a member of the Macintosh team at Apple once remarked that Gates could never bear anyone else explaining to him how things worked (Isaacson, 2011). Gates is not impulsive, a trait associated with charismatic leaders (Luck, 1978). Instead, he is pragmatic and calculating (Isaacson, 2011), which is also reflected in the business decisions that he has taken for Microsoft—never shying away from making Microsoft software and operating systems available to a variety of manufacturers. Isaacson (2011) writes about an incident that shows the impulsiveness of Jobs and the calm poise of Gates. When Microsoft divulged that it was in the process of developing a new OS for IBM PCs, Jobs was furious and accused Gates for having cheated him (when actually Gates was allowed to do this as per their contract). Gates sat calmly, looking on coolly at Jobs outburst of anger, and famously said, Well Steve, I think there’s more than one way of looking at it. I think it’s more like we both had this rich neighbour named Xerox and I broke into his house to steal the TV and found out that you had already stolen it. (Isaacson, 2011, p. 178)

Gates came from a family that was close-knit, where people were ambitious and competitive, but at the same time believed in giving to the community (Strother, 2007)—values that Gates internalized in his childhood. Winning was a compulsion for him, so much so, that, although a nerd, he succeeded in individual sports as well (Strother, 2007). He strived to win, but winning was never enough for Gates. He would take things ‘a little too far’; he would like to win by breaking rules to show that he was smarter than the one who wrote those rules (McCollester, 2007). A workaholic father and a grandmother with whom Gates played during childhood fostered a competitive spirit in him. His interest in business was sparked early in life, sitting by his father’s side at the dinners that his family hosted, inviting business people from the neighbourhood (Strother, 2007). Although, Gates has been recognized as rude and temperamental (Isaacson, 2011; PBS, 2011) by some, he is widely known as a quiet, level-headed and in control of himself and his emotions. He himself says, ‘I’m good at when people are emotional; I’m kind of less emotional’ (Isaacson, 2011). Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184

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Bill Gates has been recognised as ‘the world’s most famous nerd’ (Foo, 2006), and ‘nerd’ by definition are considered ‘socially inept’ (Webster, 1913) and lacking confidence (Wikipedia, 2012). Although several web log comments claim that Gates is a highly confident person (Squidoo, n.d.), Isaacson (2011) claims that Gates often has problem making eye contact with people; something widely considered a sign of lack of confidence. Another view is that Gates was not confident during his childhood, but he created and perfected a sense of self-confidence by believing in himself (Creative Living Inc, n.d.). As far as dominance is concerned, Gates, with an inculcated winning streak, strives to dominate over competition, that too by a huge margin (Ashley, 2008). According to Bryan et al. (2011), Bill Gates is an example of dominance in his domain of technology as well as of financial dominance as one of the richest men in the world. However, in a common interview with Jobs and Gates, the latter seems to get easily overpowered by the former (D5 Conference, 2007). A strong conviction is something that can be seen in Gates decisions from the time he traded his aspirational degree at Harvard in order to deep dive into the technological revolution that was taking shape in the Silicon Valley at that time, and later when he ‘dropped out again’ (McCollester, 2007), giving up his position as the Chief Executive Officer at Microsoft, to devote his time to the reduction of inequities around the world. The strength of his conviction of the moral righteousness of his new form of philanthropy work and the significance he attaches to it became evident in 2005 when he chose this unconventional topic (as per the general business school convention) at the commencement speech at Harvard, where he was invited as the keynote speaker. Supporters argue that he should be idolized by people (Wessel, 2011) not just because he changed the world once by helping people realize their potential through the use of software, but more so, because he is changing the world everyday with his work through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; his own style of philanthropy and a passion for innovation (TED, 2009). The Time Magazine as cited in TED (2009) summarised his contribution to the world as follows, When Gates looks at the world, a world in which millions of preventable deaths occur each year, he sees an irrational, inefficient, broken system, an application that needs to be debugged. It shocks him—his word—that people don’t see this, the same way it shocked him that nobody but he and [Paul] Allen saw the microchip for what it was’.

The media, articles by the academia and internet blog postings are divided in their verdict on Bill Gates as a charismatic leader. Some consider him a charismatic leader (Friedman and Langbert, 2000; Maccoby, 2004; Murdock, 2010), while others do not (Majewski, 2012; Pavlus, 2012; Santos, 2011). Kahan (2012) contends that although by Weber’s definition Gates may not be charismatic (since Weber believed that modern capitalism was essentially anti-charismatic), in true sense he is actually quiet charismatic, but this may be unknown to the world. This points to the fact that, perhaps, Gates’ charisma has not impressed upon the general public. A book by Cohn and Moran (2011) takes Bill Gates as an example of an effective leader who is not charismatic. On the other hand, Samier (2005) considers Gates a charismatic leader with an exceptional gift of coding, prescience in seeing the future of technology and business prowess. Thus, an evaluation of anecdotal evidence and statements of opinion makers Bill Gates can be said to be charismatic to the extent that he has the following characteristics of a charismatic leader given by Weber (1947), Luck (1978) and House (1977) respectively—extraordinary gift and articulation of vision; narcissism; and self-confidence dominance, and a strong conviction in the moral righteousness of his/her Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184

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belief. Here too, the evidence for narcissism, self-confidence and dominance is not as conclusive as in the case of Jobs.

Comparing the Charisma of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates On three out of five characteristic traits of charismatic leaders that were used for the purpose of this study, the two leaders differed significantly. There also exists a marked difference in the perception of charisma of the two leaders among authors, journalists and general public (gauged through Web log comments). Steve Jobs fits perfectly in the mould of a charismatic leader. A narcissist, impulsive, confident and dominating person who expressed cyclic behaviours, he possessed all characteristic traits of a charismatic leader. Gates, on the other hand, is calculative, lacks confidence and is not prone to cyclic behaviours, though he too is considered a narcissist. Although considered intimidating and dominating due to his ruthless business decisions, as an individual, he could be easily overpowered by Jobs. Confidence (or perhaps display of confidence) is the primary distinguishing factor in the personality of the two leaders that set them apart in the eyes of their followers. The confidence that Steve Jobs exuded makes people believe in his otherwise larger-than-life vision and in his distorted reality, just because he says in a very self-assured way. Impulsiveness of the leader may appeal to followers at a distance since it may be seen as a sign of authenticity. For instance, during un-orchestrated interviews, audience is likely to cheer on an impulsive person who indulges in being politically incorrect (and honest), as opposed to a person who provides well-thought out and calculated answers. While authors, the media, and public provide a tentative verdict on the perceived charisma of Bill Gates, in the case of Steve Jobs, there is unanimous consensus on the charismatic appeal of the leader. Moreover, literature provides enough anecdotal evidence on some Apple employees considering Jobs as a hero. There is no such evidence available on the perception of Microsoft employees about Gates. There is also mention of the word ‘charisma’ being associated with the name of Steve Jobs. It is thus clear that as far as charisma is concerned, Steve Jobs wins over Bill Gates. According to Isaacson (2011), Gates was mesmerized by the effect that Jobs had on people, and that he was slightly envious of Jobs for this reason. We attempt to highlight the differences in the personality (motives and traits) as well as in the vision and philosophy of the two leaders that we believe contributed to the difference in charisma between the two.

Difference in Motives The scores of the three motives for both Jobs and Gates are given in Table 2 and a comparison of their motives and charisma is given in Table 3. Steve Jobs’ need for power is significantly higher than his need for achievement (F = 9.98, p = 0.01) and his need for power is significantly higher than his need for affiliation (F = 28.86, p = 0.00). Thus, Steve Jobs’ need for power is his most dominant motivation. On the other hand, even though Bill Gates’ need for power is not significantly higher than his need for Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184

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Table 2. Motives of Leaders Steve Jobs Name

Common Interview Stanford Speech Thoughts on Life First Macintosh Young Vibrant Jobs Rare footage Average

Frames Pow 140 57 15 4 29 89

Bill Gates Ach

Aff

Name

Frames Pow

0.19 0.26 0.27 0.50 0.24 0.18

0.15 0.16 0.07 0.00 0.14 0.10

0.01 0.05 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00

Common Interview Harvard Speech Introducing Vista Hello, I’m Bill Gates Intro of Windows History of Microsoft

0.27

0.10

0.01

139 66 12 4 15 8

Ach

Aff

0.13 0.24 0.17 0.25 0.13 0.25

0.14 0.05 0.17 0.25 0.13 0.13

0.01 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.25

0.20

0.14

0.05

Table 3. Bill Gates & Steve Jobs: A Comparison Aspect of Personality n (Pow)

n (Ach)

n (Aff) Narcissism

Impulsiveness

Bill Gates • Vision to change the world by reducing inequities

Jobs

• Exhorted his employees to “make a dent in the Universe” • Was “masterful at cajoling, stroking, persuading, flattering and intimidating people” • Known to “distort reality” and convince people of “practically anything” • “We make computers for people who’re out to change the world” • His death saw an upsurge of emotional reactions from people across the globe • Created an organization of brilliant people • Apple creates products that are “ahead of their times” as he believed that “ideas could get better • Strategy built around making “some really from combined smarts and perspectives” great and unique products” • Winning was never enough for Gates; he • Driven by a passion for perfection would take things “a little too far”; he would like to win by breaking rules to show that he was smarter than the one who wrote those rules Not very strong Not very strong Recognized as a narcissist with a lack of • Believed that he was the only person who empathy could “straighten out the company” • Suffered from a “Narcissistic Personality Disorder” Not impulsive; instead, considered • Displays when Microsoft announced calculating and pragmatic that it would develop a new OS for IBM; demanded to meet Gates immediately. Upon meeting Gates, he shouted, “I trusted you, and now you’re stealing from us.” (Table 3 continued)

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Leader Motives, Impression Management, and Charisma (Table 3 continued) Aspect of Personality

Bill Gates

Jobs

Cyclic Behaviour Confidence

Dominance

• Rubbished ideas of his employees and a few days later he would walk upto them and narrate the same idea, claiming it as his own • A self assured smile and a confident gait

• Faces problem in communicating effectively • Has problem making eye contact with people Known for ruthless and shrewd business • Limited expertise in technology; often practices interfered with work at the company and demanded that employees either produce unrealistically fast, or make the product work x times faster and the like

achievement (F = 1.95, p = 0.19) his need for power is greater than his need for affiliation (F = 9.83, p = 0.01). Hence, only Steve Jobs’ motive profile is completely consistent while Gates’ motive profile is only partially consistent with the leadership motive profile predicted by McClelland and Burnham (2003) and House et al. (1991). A leader with a higher need for achievement will be obsessed with the fear of failure and thus may not be able to trust followers to complete difficult tasks and also may not be able to inspire them to take risks. Thus, motives measure up to indicate that Jobs is a more effective leader among the two. However, in the context of charisma, the power motive is most significant, as it indicates a desire to influence, persuade Table 4. Results of ANOVA to Identify Difference in Average Frequency of Words Used within LIWC2007 Categories LIWC Word Category (examples of words in this category) 1st person singular (I, me, mine) 1st person plural (we, us, our) 2nd person (you, your, thou) 3rd person singular (she, her, him) 3rd person plural (they, their, they’d) Impersonal pronouns (it, its, those) Articles (A, an, the) Adverb (very, really, quickly) Affective processes (happy, cried, abandon) Inclusive (and, with, include) Biological processes (eat, blood, pain) Body (cheek, hands, spit) Sexual (horny, love, incest) Motion (arrive, car, go)

Average Per cent of Words Used Bill Gates Steve Jobs 1.73 3.31 1.52 0.51 0.61 7.13 7.99 6.64 3.72 8.92 0.30 0.06 0.02 2.95

2.21 1.29 3.09 0.19 1.70 8.82 6.73 5.03 4.66 5.71 1.44 0.20 0.19 1.99

F (p) value 0.27 (0.61) 11.42 (0.00) 1.44 (0.25) 0.58 (0.46) 3.32 (0.09) 1.42 (0.26) 2.49 (0.14) 5.59 (0.04) 2.92 (0.11) 6.35 (0.03) 3.55 (0.08) 2.88 (0.12) 2.69 (0.13) 3.10 (0.10)

Note: N = 6. Figures in brackets indicate the p values.

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and to impress upon the world at large. In keeping with our proposition, the leader with a higher need for Power (Steve Jobs in this case), also has a greater charismatic appeal among followers. In addition, to this, the speeches were analysed using the Linguistic Analysis and Word Count (LIWC; Pennebaker et al., 2007), a text analysis software which calculates the degree to which people use different categories of words in a given text. Based on the textual analysis of four speeches each of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates done by LIWC2007 software, we also had measures of activity inhibition of both the leaders. Steve Jobs’s scores on negations in each of the six speeches were 1.7 per cent, 0.43 per cent, 3.02 per cent, 1.8 per cent, 0.9 per cent and 1.38 per cent while Bill Gates’s scores on negations in each of the six speeches were 0.64 per cent, 0 per cent, 1.11 per cent, 1.83 per cent, 1.02 per cent and 1.35 per cent. Even though the mean scores on negations for Jobs (1.53) is almost one and a half times as much as the mean scores on negations for Gates (0.99), the differences between the two on activity inhibition was not statistically significant (p = 0.24). Based on these findings and applying McClelland and Burnham (2003) typology, we can classify Jobs as a personal-power manager and Gates as an achievement oriented manager.

Difference in Philosophies Although the visions that Jobs and Gates saw for their respective companies were both very powerful and appealing, there existed a fundamental difference in the philosophy of doing business that separated the two. The company and products that Jobs has built are less about structure and more about providing the individual a free will. Set out to put a ‘dent on the universe’, he comes across as a rebel who does not care about whether his product is compatible with another’s software as it could compromise the experience that the customer gets. His goal was to provide to his customers aesthetically beautiful, ahead-of their time-products that enable them to amplify their capabilities. On the other hand, Bill Gates’ company is built around the vision of dominating the software landscape; something he achieved through ruthless business practices, standardizing products and mass production. Gates’ products were compatible with other systems, more affordable and it is through Microsoft that every desk in (almost) every home did get a personal computer. While Gates’ focus was on the market share and stock price, Jobs told his employees ‘the press and stock price will take care of themselves’ (Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, 1997). It is true that many more people across the globe use Microsoft products than Apple’s, but it is Apple’s constant innovation and endeavour to provide a platform for users to experiment and multi-task, that makes Apple and Jobs by extension aspirational. As Professor Trachtenberg of the George Washington University states in the editorial of the New York Times, ‘(Although) my mind fully understands Gates’ mandate, (...) my heart is with Jobs’ (Trachtenberg, 2011).

Steve Jobs’s Impression Management With Steve Jobs, the art of impression management was quaint; amusing to readers and frustrating to those near him, at least at first. The way he played on his dramaturgy was termed by a software designer on the Mac Team, Bud Tribble, as the ‘reality distortion field’, a term that became instantly popular among employees, and is now widely associated with Jobs. According to Tribble and others, around Jobs Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184

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‘reality is malleable’ (Isaacson, 2011, p. 117) and he made impossible things seem possible. Using his excellent convincing skills, he could ‘convince anyone of practically anything’ (p. 118). According to Isaacson (2011), Jobs was ‘masterful at cajoling, stroking, persuading, flattering and intimidating people’ (p. 121). Founder of Atari, a company that defined computer entertainment industry from the 1970s to mid-1980s, Nolan Bushnell, who was also Jobs’ entrepreneurial role model, appreciated Jobs’ understanding of business aspects, and not just the technology. He advised him to ‘pretend to be completely in control and people will assume that you are’ (Isaacson, 2011, p. 55). In this way, Jobs from early days of his career was mentored by people who emphasized to him the importance of managing impressions. Ingratiation. Steve Jobs’ reality was a world with binary ways; according to him, one was either ‘the best’ or ‘totally shit’. His team became attuned to his philosophy, wherein he placed people he thought were ‘the best’ on pedestals; they were people, who according to him could do no wrong. Through his addresses to the stakeholders of the company, Jobs was often able to flatter and compliment both employees and audiences. In the Mac World Expo (1997) address, Jobs artfully complimented both the users and creators of Apple. You always had to be a little different to buy an Apple Computer... They are the creative spirits in this world. They’re the people who are not just out to get a job done; they’re out to change the world... with whatever great tools that they can get. And we make tools for those kinds of people... Because a lot of times, people think they’re crazy. But in that craziness, we see genius.

Through the tactful use of words, Jobs was able to compliment both groups, without being overtly flattering. Since ingratiation, as a technique of impression management, was used by Jobs towards both his internal (employees) and external stakeholders, we can consider this as a likely contributor to his charismatic appeal in the eyes of the followers for the purpose of this study, i.e., the customers of Apple products and members of the public. Self Promotion. Videos of Steve Jobs addressing live audiences and during press interviews reveal the use of the self-promotion technique by him. While addressing college students at the Stanford Commencement Address in 2005, Jobs related the incident when he took Calligraphy classes while at Reed College. He asserted that it was that knowledge he had gained that helped them design Mac, which went on to become the first computer with beautiful typography. He ended the narrative by claiming, ‘If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionately spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal computer would have them’. Such blatant expression of his skills and attributes by Jobs seems to point to an attempt to ‘maximize the apparent responsibility’. Intimidation. Steve Jobs used this tool often and in the words of author Malcolm Gladwell (2011), ‘he was always able to be so devastating in his comments and actions: because he knew exactly where other people’s weaknesses were... He’s a really great bully—who understands you so perfectly he knows exactly how to hurt you’. His biography also emphasizes this aspect of his personality. Member of the original Mac team, Joanna Hoffman asserted that Jobs could manipulate people and had an ‘uncanny capacity to know exactly what your weak point is, know what will make you feel small, to make you cringe (p. 121)’. According to Ann Bowers, human resources professional at Apple, Steve words and actions ‘...had a hurtful effect. It created a fear factor’ (Isaacson, 2011, p. 121). His behaviour also caused Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184

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his team to burn out at times; other than the costs incurred due to his frequent interventions, ‘there was also a cost in brutalized human feelings’ (p. 124). Over time, he honed the art of mastering people through stares and long pauses of silence. However, since such intimidation was aimed at employees and partners and was restricted to the back stage, for the purpose of this study, we contend that this technique would not have a direct impact on the charisma of the leader in the eyes of the followers, i.e. people who are not in close contact with Jobs. Exemplification. Steve Jobs in the truest sense exemplifies what Apple stands for and aspires to be; what he would like his employees to emulate. According to him, Apple is an extension of himself. Parallels can be drawn between the life of Steve Jobs and the products of Apple. A proponent of simple living, he lived in a sparsely furnished home in Cupertino (Isaacson, 2011). ‘Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication’, read a line from the first brochure of Apple. Jobs expected his team to design products that were simple, sophisticated and easy to use. Setting the Stage and the Performance. The public appearances of Steve Jobs carried strong messages in content—be it product launches, press interviews or Apple key note addresses. This was not, however, without setting the stage which often bore some significance. Donning simple attire for all the key note addresses, press releases and interviews—a black turtleneck sweater, blue faded jeans and sneakers— Jobs built a connection with the viewers; so they could relate to a CEO who dressed like them, and not in business suits. It may also have been a tact devised to draw attention to the products, and not to the businessman himself (Vanderheeren, 2011). The Apple logo was always set at a prominent place on the screen behind Jobs during all his addresses, perhaps as a symbol of their collective identity. Jobs often started his addresses by narrating the story of success of the products of Apple till that time, or sometimes the evolution of the computing industry. This could have been done to instil a sense of pride in their creations and to reinforce the identity of the listeners (MacWorld Expo, 2007). He seems to know the pulse of the audience and would often break into impromptu sermons to prove his point if he felt the script was not generating the expected excitement (MacWorld Expo, 1997; Sharma and Grant, 2011). Moreover, all the slides in his presentations were always very brief and often only punch phrases were included. He would also use them to the best advantage by proving his point through visual images. For instance, while introducing the iPhone, he could have simply stated that the iPhone was both easier to use and smarter than all other existing smart phones. However, Jobs chose to highlight his point by depicting a graph on the slide, showing on the x axis the ease of use and on the y axis the smartness of the phone. Red and blue dots on the graph indicated competitor products, while the iPhone, a green dot was shown at the far northeast quadrant, showing the excellence of the product. He also used these slides to sometimes create humorous situations. Jobs’ ‘One Last Thing’ line became a craze among followers. He had the habit of keeping the best things for the end, thus keeping the audiences on the edge of their seats even while he told them about the sales figures and moderately important products. He would then make some fake concluding remarks and pretend to exit from the stage. He would then turn and say, but there is just ‘one last thing’ and that would typically be the most important part of the address. Products like the iPod touch, MacBook Pro were introduced in this fashion. People would break into applause whenever he said that or in his later addresses, there was sometimes a slide on the presentation being projected that said ‘One last thing’. He was also known to generate excitement by inviting business heads of companies Apple was partnering with to the key note addresses. Starting in 1983, Steve Jobs invited Fred Gibbons (President Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184

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of Software Publishing Corporation), Mitch Kapor (President, Lotus Development) and Bill Gates to an Apple Event. Next, when Apple announced a deal with Microsoft in 1997, Jobs invited Gates to speak at the event through satellite (MacWorld Expo, 1997).

Bill Gates’s Impression Management There is no mention of Bill Gates in any literature on impression management. However, several people have noted the development trajectory of Gates’ presentation skills over the last three decades (Asher, 2008; Gallo, 2009). Ingratiation. Although Bill Gates is known to be a shrewd businessman (TED, 2009) who is said to cut to the crux of the issue with ‘lapidary skill’ (Isaacson, 2011) and is often sarcastic and rude, has been found to go out of the way to be likeable to people when need be. In 1998, when Microsoft was sued by the US Department of Justice for its allegedly engaging in monopolistic practices, Gates orchestrated an event-packed trip around the Silicon Valley and San Francisco. Reportedly, he was at his humble best, smiling and shaking hands with people, giving autographs, being self-deprecating and even praising competition. A young girl was convinced by Gates efforts and claimed, ‘You can tell he’s not in it for money. He wants to make software better’ (DuBrin, 2005). Self Promotion. Bell (2010) cites Bill Gates as an example of a celebrity who ‘lies at the intersection of attributed and achieved celebrity’ (p. 191). By employing the services of a PR department, writing books (The Road Ahead) and opening a website in his own name, Gates does in fact fall into the narcissistic self-promotion category, as stated by Maccoby (2004). However, it can be argued that in the case of Gates not all of it is to do with portraying himself in a certain positive way. In fact, he uses these platforms to promote social causes and tries to build awareness about these. In this way, one cannot really consider him a self-promoter. Intimidation. Gates is known in the business world as brash and outspoken (DuBrin, 2007) and is feared for his aggression and obsession with demolishing competition (Schokker, 2007). Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork and Kenneth Starr, the Whitewater prosecutor, in a Wall Street Journal editorial in 2001 as cited in Soat (2007) wrote about Microsoft and the business strategies of Bill Gates, saying, ‘Its genius has been in business and predation, not innovation’. Gates and the then sales chief of Microsoft Steve Ballmer (current CEO, Microsoft) reportedly high fived each other when a financial analysts, after a grim and purposefully bearish presentation, said to them, ‘Congratulations. You scared the hell out of people’ (Merkl-Davies and Brennan, 2007). Moreover, there are stories of him brutally breaking down employees in his quest to cut down to the truth (McCollester, 2007). When he does not like an idea, he quips dismissively, ‘That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard’ (Soat, 2007). He thus intimidates people through his business decisions and is rumoured to have done so in person within his organization. However, in contrast, Gates in his public appearances (interviews, product launches, etc.) comes across as a rather amiable person. Exemplification. By being a coder and software developer par excellence, Gates set an example for all employees as Microsoft, as at the heart of the business model of Microsoft lies the brilliant Microsoft software developer with his analytical processing prowess, much like Bill Gates himself. Moreover, by constantly communicating with his software developers in his characteristic management by wandering Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184

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about, he was able to understand the new trends, and how they can be woven to create industry standard products (DuBrin, 2005). This also led to the development of a corporate culture that enables software researchers and developers to freely choose the path of their research (Wu, 2009). Setting the Stage and the Performance. Communication coaches (Asher, 2008; Gallo, 2009; McCollester, 2007; Morgan, 2012) contend that Bill Gates does not possess great public speaking skills. As far as content of speech is concerned, Gates speech is laden with jargon and statistics that may not appeal to the public. Moreover, his slides contain a lot of text and bullet points, and thus he often ends up repeating what is already visible on the slide. On the positive side, he likes to keep his speeches clear, honest and logical. He personally deletes every word that is superfluous; ‘Why say “truly X”? Is “X” not enough?’ he tells McCollester (McCollester, 2007). In most public appearances, he would turn up in business attire like most CEOs, reinforcing both the ‘rich’ and ‘nerd’ images that are strongly associated with him. According to communication theorist and Coach Nick Morgan, Gates adopts a head posture that can be perceived as timid and subservient (Morgan, 2012). In video clippings of Gates during product launches, he is seen to be blocking the vision of the viewers by standing in front of the projection screen. Moreover, his hand gestures are recognized by experts as awkward and sometimes display his lack of preparation (Gallo, 2009). To add to this, Gates’ voice has ‘one setting—high and loud’ (McCollester, 2007). In the past, during the 2005 Windows Live launch, Gates was found to be reading content off the slides, something that the viewers, live audience as well as broadcast audience, could have read themselves. According to McCollester (2007), Gates is quite tactless when it comes to persuasion and storytelling; ‘he (Gates) does it so badly that you can see it coming a mile off’, he says.

Comparing the Impression Management of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates While both, Jobs and Gates show examples of impression management behaviour, it is clear that Steve Jobs showed more instances and more pronounced impression management behaviour as compared to Bill Gates. Both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates show examples of ingratiation, intimidation and exemplification. However, Steve Jobs is the clear winner when it comes to self-promotion and setting the stage and performing. Steve Jobs’ skills as a stage performer are a key contributor to his popular appeal (and subsequent charisma) in the eyes of the public. On the other hand, Gates’ more reticent behaviour and poor management of the stage make him less charismatic.

Discussion We have used a qualitative-descriptive research design combined with content analysis to study the lives of two business leaders who have been at the forefront of the technology industry for almost four decades. We have analysed public speeches and interviews of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to study their motives, their impression management strategies and their charisma. Our results show clear differences in their motive profile, their impression management strategies, and their charisma. While Steve Jobs’ dominant power motive was the most dominant and greater than his motive for achievement and affiliation, Bill Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184

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Gates, need for power was greater than only his need for affiliation and not his need for achievement. In other words, while Jobs was motivated by a need to influence others even at the cost of his own achievement and relationships, Gates primary objective was to achieve goals rather than influence others or build relationships. Hence, we find that the leader’s power motive marginally predicts perceived charisma. This finding is congruent with earlier researchers (House and Howell, 1992). In addition, we find that acquisitive impression management strategies, namely ingratiation, exemplification, intimi­ dation and self-promotion has a positive effect on leader’s perceived charisma. We draw this from the fact that there is evidence that the leader with the higher perceived charisma (Jobs) used each of these techniques more than the other leader (Gates). No evidence of any defensive techniques—face saving and supplication—was found for the two leaders studied. Our findings support Gardner’s (1992) view that defensive techniques are used as the last resort. The study did not provide any evidence to support the findings of House et al. (1992). Leaders with high power motive would like to influence people and the world at large, and in doing so try to create impressions on others in a way he or she desires. In this way impression management may provide the mechanism by which individuals with a high power motive achieve their charisma. Further researchers may specifically explore the mediating effect of impression management on the relationship between leader motives and charisma.

Limitations of this Study Although the research method has enabled a very in-depth and focussed study, the findings of this research cannot be generalized under all scenarios and across sectors, due to the small study sample. Moreover, generalizations drawn from case based research may be subjective in nature (Sharma, Prasad and Satyanarayana, 1984, pp. 140–146). In addition, this research, like all qualitative research studies, is susceptible to the influence of personal biases and idiosyncrasies of the researcher, though utmost care has been taken to ensure objectivity. Finally, due to paucity of resources the scoring of motives using content analysis tool was done by a single rater and thus multi-rater check is not in place in this research.

Implications for Practice This study makes three important contributions to our understanding of charismatic leadership. First, our findings reveal that there exists a positive relationship between power motive and perceived charisma of the leader. This has implications for the selection process in organizations. For companies that wish to appoint charismatic personalities at leadership positions, who are likely to, in turn, affect positive outcomes within the organization, it is critical that the motive profile of the candidates is used as a critical data point in the selection decisions. Also, since these motives can be detected early on in one’s life (House et al., 1991), it can be successfully used by human resource managers to select entry level managers as well (not just the top leaders) who can then be groomed to take up higher roles over time. More contemporary and conclusive instruments for determining motives need to be developed in this regard since the existing TAT based tools are complex and time-consuming. In this regard, we propose Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184

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the use of the ‘Manual for Scoring Motive Imagery in Running Text’ (Winter, 1991a) to answers of interview questions. Second, we found that use of acquisitive impression management techniques, namely ingratiation, exemplification, intimidation and self-promotion has a positive effect on leader’s perceived charisma. The role of impression management is critical for building heroic leaders (Burns, 1978). When the geographical distance between the leader and his followers is large, when their interactions are limited and mostly unidirectional (leader to follower), and when the leader does not cater to the authentic and true needs of the followers (as in the case of a CEO and general public), the perceived charisma of the leader in the mind of the followers flows from his magical acts, words and persona rather than from his ideas and goals. In line with the theory proposed by Burns (1978), in such leader-follower relationships, the followers experience no internal conflict as they are moved by their own need for aspiration and hope that they project onto the heroic leader. Thus, these leaders enjoy mass appeal. We assert that such heroism and aura can be created through planned use of impression management techniques to dramatize the leader’s public performances. An important implication of this for organizations is that their top leaders need to focus on honing their impression management skills to create an aura of heroism around them as the opinion of the general public regarding these leaders has an important bearing on their perception of the organization and in turn on the market valuation of the company (in case of a public company), which is also perception driven. Moreover, it would be useful for companies to employ the services of impression management consultants. Today, an entire industry of professionals thrives on this concept; training CEOs and top leaders in these tactics. For instance, US Presidents employ the services of PR Firms, as do most business leaders. A lot goes into the backstage preparations for an impactful public speech. Organizations as well as leaders should invest time and effort in staging the performances, as it’s not just the leader’s image, but also the company image, product image and market valuation that are impacted by these. References Apple Event. (1980). Steve Jobs: Rare Footage conducting a Presentation (Insanely Great) [Video file]. Computer History Museum. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=0lvMgMrNDlg&feature= endscreen. ———. (1983). Macintosh Software Dating Game [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=WrEbML5C70U. ———. (1983). Young Vibrant Steve Jobs. 1983 Apple Keynote [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube. com/watch?v=ISoWKxKyWhQ&feature=related. Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (1997). Steve Jobs Keynote [Video file]. Apple’s WWDC 1997. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnO7D5UaDig. Asher, J. (2008). Public Speaking Tip from Bill Gates [Web log comment]. Retrieved from http://www.speechworks. net/blog/focusmessage/public-speaking-tip-from-bill-gates/. Ashley, M. (2008). Gates: Ruthless, Dominance and Respect. Network World. Retrieved from http://www. networkworld.com/community/node/28671. Babbie, E. (2004). The Practice of Social Research. Thomson-Wadsworth. Banerji, P., & Krishnan, V.R. (2000). Ethical preferences of transformational leaders: An empirical investigation. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 21(8), 405–413.

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Tanvi Shah is Employer Brand Manager at Hindustan Unilever Limited, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. E-mail: [email protected] Zubin R. Mulla (Corresponding author) is Assistant Professor at School of Management and Labour Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. E-mail: [email protected]

Management and Labour Studies, 38, 3 (2013): 155–184