DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

STUDENT NO 802053597

SURNAME & INITIALS Makgato W.M

TEL NO 082 978 9920

QUALIFICATION B Tech Business Administration

QUALIFICATION CODE 404-1

MODULE Management Practice – Assignment 1

MODULE CODE MBP401

DATE SUBMITTED to UJ 06/09/2016

LECURER NAME Dr Reddy

ASSIGNMENT TOPIC Compares and Contrasts of Two Master Managers

I, William Makgato, student number 802053597, hereby declare that:

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This is my own work. Where someone else’s work was used (whether form a printed source, the
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Signature:_________________________Date: 06 09 2016

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Title: Compares and Contrasts of Two Master Managers
Introduction: Jack Welch and Steve Jobs are one of the most successful Managers. Jack Welch
was the chief executive officer General Motors and Steve Jobs was Chief executive Office of Apple
Inc.
Both These Master Managers are viewed as very impactful leaders and their extensive
understanding of the market indexes and financial measure shows their high level of conceptual
skills, where they have managed to solve very complex problems in their respective markets and
managed to form consistent performing companies .
The similarities and differences between the two managers regarding their general skills
1. Conceptual skills refer to the ability to think analytically and diagnose complex situations.
They help managers see how things fit together and facilitate making good decisions. (Hellriegel
et al. 2012, pp. 20). Furthermore, Conceptual skills characterise the manager's ability to organise
information to enhance their understanding and have a holistic view of the organization and
understand how different sections of the organisation function. This allows them to think
strategically to see 'big picture' and to make broad based decision that serve the overall
organization. (Management skills 2010).

Jobs and Welch viewed as uniquely impactful leaders, they have in-depth knowledge in market
indexes and financial measures, and both were successful. They have turn losing companies into
multibillion company. However, both this Master Managers have different problem solving styles.
The Job is more radical than Welch, where Welch uses an increment approach when solving
problems. To illustrate this Welch have Turn General Electricity by while starting with small
projects and while Jobs used His Radical methods when changing apple image in less than a year, in
addition Jobs tended to invoke personal and emotional appeals combined with a radical, world
changing vision (Flynn and Staw 316)

2.Interpersonal or human skills encompass the ability to work with, understand, mentor, and
motivate other people, both individually and in groups(Hellriegel et al. 2012. This also includes
incentives and rewards and furthermore it includes the healthy workforce that have striving for
work/life balance. According to Katz, human skill is the manager’s ability to work effectively as a
group member and to build cooperative effort within the team he leads (Katz 2009)
Both Jobs and Welch approached the organization with a focus on task, a ruthless toughness that
some viewed as inhumane and far from an ideal model of leadership but their also reward their
employees who performs and they do not accept poor performers. They had an eye for talent, they
also able to retain the best employees and keep them motivated. But Welch is more focus on people
development, family orientate employees, view employees as assets that needs to be look after
whilst Job is more focus on the company objectives and he was least concerned what will it after
the employees but was standout about Jack’s human skills his possessed charisma to influence
others and his combination of tweaking ideas and perfectionism yielded remarkable products along
with a mythical perception of Job’s vision (Conger; Gladwell)

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3. Technical skills are abilities to apply specialized knowledge or expertise. Job and Welch are
very technically managers((Hellriegel et al. 2012) ; to illustrate this fact we would look at their
Backgrounds Welch started as a Process Engineer, solving numerous plant issues and later became
the youngest CEO in the history of General Electric.
Job technical ability was excellent is the sense he managed to change a normal cell phone into a
smart phone that had more application than some of the computers by doing that Jobs turn company
that was almost bankrupt between 1985 and 1997 and hi technical skills manage to help to returned
and reinvigorated the company (Swiercz and Lydon). Welch as strong believe in continuous
improvement thus being advocate of improvement methodologies for example six sigma, Deming
and lean and many others . To illustrate this, Thompson discovered that Welch led a transformation
at GE that resulted in dramatic increases in shareholder value through 6-sigma process
improvement, acquisition and disposition of businesses, and implementation of values that focused
on the task elements of work including: excellence, competition, teams, customer focus, change,
energy, and targets (Thompson).
4.Political skills are related to the ability to enhance one's position, build a power base, and
establish the right connections(Hellriegel et al. 2012) . Is art of foster relationships with
subordinates and bosses that encourage responsibility, self-expression, and commitment.(Block
1987)
Jobs and Welch have built their management style and the success around people of high
performance and leading by example. They have shown this by providing a clear direction,
encouraging their staff, established efficient controls and understood the implication of their
decision should be financial or operationally. While Jobs offered world-shaping visions and
attracting high performers, Welch was charismatic as well, fulfilling the key charismatic
behaviours albeit in more of a company-changing rather than world-changing framework. Welch
envisioned GE as the leader in their business segments, operating with a focus on learning,
improvement, tight controls, cross-business leadership development, removal of bureaucratic
impediments, and a relentless pursuit of excellence including in the company leaders themselves
(Tichy).
Specific skills/Competencies
Drawing similarities and differences between the Jack Welch and Steve Jobs regarding their:
1. Communication competency: it is the ability to diffusion information from one person to
another with the aim of transferring and exchanging of information that can lead to understanding
between two parties.( Hellriegel et al. 2012) Communication competency include seven
interpersonal communication skills often mentioned as being important to cross-cultural
adaptation were empathy, respect, role behaviour flexibility, orientation to knowledge, interaction
posture, interaction management and tolerance for ambiguity (Ruben 1979)
Both Welch and Jobs have effective way communicating to the employees, shareholders and their
Customers. They have been using communication medium like web-based applications, global
meeting, and more face to face with their employees, in addition they have extensive market plans
to communicate to their existing customers and potential customers.
Jobs ability to communicate Apple is famous for its entertaining, world-class product
presentations, that attract press coverage (read: free advertising) from the entire world — and there

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is no debate as to who built this reputation. Steve Jobs’ celebrity and charisma made him "the
closest thing to a rock star in the world of business". During his second tenure at Apple, between
1997 and 2011, he appeared 4 to 7 times a year (when he was healthy, of course) to unveil new
products during one of his trademark 'keynotes'. While he was notoriously a capricious speaker
who refused to rehearse in his late twenties, he perfected his art at NeXT, and came back to Apple
as the best showman of the industry and like to be on centre stage of communication and highlights.
Whereas Welch, will have more reserve approach and communicate to the relevant clients tile,
without attracting irrelevant spectators

2. Planning and administration competency: Involve decision making on allocating right

resources at the right task, it also include the gathering of information, analysing and solving
problems, furthermore it include time management. Both Master Managers they good in planning
and administrating, it is evident with the number of successful projects their have implemented.
They have managed to implement their projects on time before competitors could react to their
strategy and with that their financial resource have always managed properly. They have
contrasting approach on the planning where Jobs have the ability to plan five years ahead while
Welch will take gradual changes in his plan.
3. Teamwork competency: it is the ability to form a team that is competent.
Welch and Jobs have over the year able to form dynamic teams that have produces product that
are leading in their respective markets. They have also able to creating supportive environment for
them to perform to their optimum level. The style of management between the two managers are
different when it comes to the Key indicators of performance of their teams, Welch has rule that
every management will be on more like on trial bases where the team keeps on changing whilst
Jobs will have a teams that have being together for sometime.
4. Strategic action competency:
Welch strategy action was to energize the vision by complex narrative of managerial innovation
and prescient strategic moves, which not only included the acquisition of companies, but also the
selling of troubled firms owned by the enormous conglomerate, and the ruthless termination of
managers who did not produce. Whilst, Jobs’s leadership style was complex. He was intensely
focused when committed, confident enough to take risky leaps, and charismatic enough to enlist
legions of employees and customers in the relentless pursuit of his aspirations. He was also
interpersonally immature well into his adult life: impatient, stubborn, and hypercritical, if not
downright cruel at times

Global awareness competency: is the organisation’s managerial work by drawing on human,

financial, information and material resources from multiple countries and serving market on a
global scale. (Hellriegel et al. 2012)
Both Managers have led they companies into global companies and have become global leaders
in their respective industries and markets. They manage to sell their vision to the global market.
6. Emotional intelligence and self-management competency

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Both Welch and Jobs have great capacity to process their emotions however at time Jobs will have
uncontrollable when the plans didn’t materialised and fire people who are not pull their weight.
The similarities were that both could not handle poor performance.

Conclusions
Welch and Jobs offer a fascinating comparison of two, charismatic, transformational leaders who
shared an impressive ability to create change and direction, align an organization, promote
Excellence, and shape or reshape a unique company culture. They share the ability to create and
communicate a powerful vision. Both were more task and results than people focused in terms of
their personal interactions, yet were successful at driving their respective companies to financial
success while building their own leadership images.

Both Jobs and Welch were viewed as legendary leaders, and while they may appear to be quite
different, there are a surprising number of shared management characteristics.

Reference and Citation

1. Management skills 2010, Conceptual skills, viewed on 02/09/2016,
http://ebusinessmgmt.blogspot.co.za/2010/03/managerial-skills.html
2. D Hellriegel, J Slocum, SE Jackson, L Louw, G Staude, T Amos, HB Klopper, M Louw, T
Oosthuizen, S Perks & S Zindiye ,2012, Management, 4th South African edition, Oxford
University Press South Africa.
3. http://www.harvestcoaching.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Transform-or-Transfix-
Charismatic-Leadership-of-Jack-Welch-and-Steven-Jobs.pdf
4. Thompson, Phillip M. "The Stunted Vocation: An Analysis of Jack Welch's Vision of Business
Leadership." Review of Business 25.1 (2004): 45-55. Academic Source Complete. 28 August
2013.
5.Tichy, Noel M. "GE's Crotonville: A Staging Ground for Corporate Revolution." The Academy
of Management Executive 3.2 (1989): 99-106. Academic Search Complete. 28 August 2013.
6.Yukl, Gary A. Leadership in Organizations. 7th. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print
7. Ruben, B.D. and Kealey, D.J., 1979. Behavioral assessment of communication competency and
the prediction of cross-cultural adaptation. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 3(1),
pp.15-47..
8. Block, P., 1987. The empowered manager: Positive political skills at work. Jossey-Bass.
9. Katz, R.L., 2009. Skills of an effective administrator. Harvard Business Review Press.

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