Steve Jobs Rhetorical Analysis

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Who is Steve Jobs?

In 1986 Steve Jobs bought a Graphics Group from Lucasfilm's computer graphics division. Even though he bought it for 10 million dollars, this was considered an inexpensive purchase. George Lucas was in the process of some financial difficulties. He was going through a divorce and at this time in California the spouse receives half of everything. George Lucas did not want to lose financial control over his Star Wars enterprises so he made plans to give his ex-wife a monetary settlement.

Lucas thought that selling his computer graphics company was the fastest way he could generate more revenue. He expected to get 100 million for the company. Steve Jobs managed to get the company for only 10 million. Jobs relocated the company …show more content…

The CEO of Apple essentially "ousted" Steven Jobs for his visionary talk. It was at this point that Jobs formed another company called NeXT computers. Steve Jobs also purchased what is now Pixar. These actions on his part demonstrate, "the kind of rhetorical work a leader in transformational mode needs to do when confronted with a staff (Apple Computers) firmly embedded within a transactional mode. It offers further insight into the rhetorical features that make Steve Jobs' discourse so persuasive" (Nelson 248). Steve Jobs convinced many people to follow him as he planned to build computer technology of the …show more content…

Steve Jobs' CEO leadership over Pixar from 1986 to 2006 was a perfect example of charismatic leadership born out of these other two approaches. Charismatic Leadership is hard to define because many scholars disagree on the criteria for someone to have charisma. Most everyone agrees that charismatic leaders possess gifts and talents that are used to effectively persuade people to believe in their ideas.

I would consider transactional leadership and transformational leadership as very valuable talents that could be used to effectively persuade a group of people. Jay Conger in his book Charismatic Leadership in Organizations connects these three forms of leadership into one approach. "Many researchers postulated that charisma is a popular attribute of leaders who serve in the change agent or transformational roles. Others believe that charismatic leadership was the most exemplary form that transformational leaders could assume" (Conger

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