It can. As CEO, one of his responsibilities was to create an organisation that would endure. Apple itself may be Steve Job's greatest creation. The test of the next 10 years is to see if that is true.
None of the Apple execs are the same people they were 10 years ago. This is a joint interaction between them and Steve. Those changes have the potential to continue to guide Apple successfully (but it is by no means certain).
It's not different than my kids following my beliefs if I died today.