Tim Cook Beats Steve Jobs in Popularity Among Apple Employees: Why?

Hardly 7 months have passed when Tim Cook took the post of CEO at Apple Inc. and now he has gained the top spot on top 25 Highest Rated Tech CEOs of 2012 ranking list. Tim Cook received the hottest spotlight within a few months, while it took years for Steve Jobs become so popular.

Tim Cook beats Steve Jobs in popularity by 2 points. He received 97% approval rate, while Steve Jobs was rated 95% in Q1 2011 (his last quarter as Apple CEO). Qualcomm CEO Paul E. Jacobs was on second spot and Google CEO Larry Page on third with approval rate of 95% and 94% respectively, as announced by Glassdoor.

The rating is based on anonymous data collected from company's employees in which they have to answer just one simple question - whether they approve the way respective CEO is leading the company or not?

And clearly Tim Cook is more popular among U.S. Apple employees than Steve Jobs. But why he is so popular? Cook is not only friendlier with Apple employees than Jobs was, but also the Charitable Matching Donation program launched under his leadership is greatly admired by Apple insiders. Through this program the company offers to match employees' personal charitable contributions dollar-by-dollar up to $10,000 per year.

Cook has also become more popular than Jobs among Apple shareholders too, after the company decided to roll out $10 billion dividend each year to its shareholders.

I think leadership is doing an amazing job. We have the best management team anywhere, says one Apple employee.

Cook was also able to shred off all the criticism surrounding Apple from Steve Job's times about poor working conditions in Chinese partner factories, including Foxconn. During his recent visit to China (a first by any Apple CEO), Cook inspected a Foxconn plant located in mainland China and vowed to improve working conditions in Foxconn factories.

Indeed, Cook has overcome the hurdles in the way and has increased his popularity among Apple employees. Cook may not have the charisma of Jobs. He may not also be driven by the demons that possessed Jobs. However, Cook, like Jobs, is doing things in his own way, and till now, he's doing a great job. And, nobody can deny that.

(reported by Johnny Wills, edited by Surojit Chatterjee)