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Transformational Leadership
Description: Transformational leadership is part of the “New Leadership” paradigm
(Bryman, 1992), which gives more attention to the charismatic and affective elements of leadership. As its name implies, transformational leadership is a process that changes and transforms people. It is concerned with emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long-term goals. It includes assessing followers’ motives satisfying their needs treating them as full human beings Transformational leadership involves an exceptional form of influence that moves followers to accomplish more than what is usually expected of them. It is a process that often incorporates charismatic and visionary leadership. Although the transformational leader plays a pivotal role in precipitating change, followers and leaders are inextricably bound together in the transformation process.
Transformational Leadership Defined
Transformational vs. Transactional Leadership
Burns distinguished between two types of leadership: transactional and transformational. o Transactional leadership refers to the bulk of leadership models, which focus on the exchanges that occur between leaders and their followers. The exchange dimension of transactional leadership is very common and can be observed at many levels throughout all types of organizations. Employees prefer managers to perform transformational leadership behaviors such as encouraging creativity, recognizing accomplishments, building trust, and inspiring a collective vision. o In contrast to transactional leadership, transformational leadership is the process whereby a person engages with others and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation and morality in both the leader and the follower. This type of leader is attentive to the needs and motives of followers and tries to help followers reach their fullest potential. Pseudotransformational Leadership This term refers to leaders who are self-consumed, exploitive, and power oriented, with warped moral values. Pseudotransformational leadership is considered personalized leadership, which focuses on the leader’s own interests rather than on the interests of others.
o Pseudotransformational leadership is inspired leadership that is self-serving, is unwilling to encourage independent thought in followers, and exhibits little general caring for others. o A pseudotransformational leader has strong inspirational talent and appeal but is manipulative and dominates and directs followers toward his or her own values. It is leadership that is threatening to the welfare of followers because it ignores the common good.
Transformational Leadership and Charisma
Weber (1947) provided the most well-known definition of charisma as a special personality characteristic that gives a person superhuman or exceptional powers and is reserved for a few, is of divine origin, and results in the person being treated as a leader. The personality characteristics of a charismatic leader include being dominant, having a strong desire to influence others, being self-confident, and having a strong sense of one’s own moral values. In addition to displaying certain personality characteristics, charismatic leaders demonstrate specific types of behaviors. o They are strong role models for the beliefs and values they want their followers to adopt. o Charismatic leaders appear competent to followers. o They articulate ideological goals that have moral overtones. o Charismatic leaders communicate high expectations for followers, and they exhibit confidence in followers’ abilities to meet these expectations. o Charismatic leaders arouse task-relevant motives in followers that may include affiliation, power, or esteem. According to House’s charismatic theory, several effects are the direct result of charismatic leadership. They include follower trust in the leader’s ideology, similarity between the followers’ beliefs and the leader’s beliefs, unquestioning acceptance of the leader, expression of affection toward the leader, follower obedience, identification with the leader, emotional involvement in the leader’s goals, heightened goals for followers, and increased follower confidence in goal achievement.
A Model of Transformational Leadership
This discussion will be divided into three parts: transformational factors, transactional factors, and the nonleadership, nontransactional factor. Transformational Leadership Factors
Transformational leadership has an additive effect; it moves followers to accomplish more than what is usually expected of them. They become motivated to transcend their own self- interests for the good of the group or organization. Transformational leadership and charismatic leadership were overlapping but unique constructs and that both were different from transactional leadership. This suggests that transformational leaders may be especially effective in environments where followers need to focus on learning, development, and mastering job-related tasks rather than a more competitive or performance-based work context.
Transactional Leadership Factors: Transactional leadership differs from
transformational leadership in that the transactional leader does not individualize the needs of followers or focus on their personal development. Factor 5. Contingent Reward: It is an exchange process between leaders and followers in which effort by followers is exchanged for specified rewards. o The leader tries to obtain agreement from followers on what must be done and what the payoffs will be for the people doing it. Factor 6. Management by Exception: It is leadership that involves corrective criticism, negative feedback, and negative reinforcement. Management by exception takes two forms: active and passive. o A leader using the active form of management-by-exception watches followers closely for mistakes or rule violations and then takes corrective action. o A leader using the passive form intervenes only after standards have not been met or problems have arisen.
Nonleadership Factor: In the model, the non-leadership factor diverges farther from
transactional leadership and represents behaviors that are nontransactional. Factor 7. Laissez-Faire: This factor represents the absence of leadership. o This leader abdicates responsibility, delays decisions give no feedback, and makes little effort to help followers satisfy their needs. o There is no exchange with followers or attempt to help them grow.
Bennis and Nanus: Bennis and Nanus identified four common strategies used by leaders
in transforming organizations.
First, transforming leaders had a clear vision of the future state of their organizations. It was an image of an attractive, realistic, and believable future. The vision usually was simple, understandable, beneficial, and energy creating. Second, transforming leaders were social architects for their organizations. This means they created a shape or form for the shared meanings people maintained within their organizations. These leaders communicated a direction that transformed their organization’s values and norms.
Third, transforming leaders created trust in their organizations by making their own positions clearly known and then standing by them. Trust has to do with being predictable or reliable, even in situations that are uncertain. Fourth, transforming leaders used creative deployment of self through positive self- regard. Leaders knew their strengths and weaknesses, and they emphasized their strengths rather than dwelling on their weaknesses.
Kouzes and Posner : The Kouzes and Posner model consists of five fundamental practices
that enable leaders to get extraordinary things accomplished: model the way, inspire a shared vision, challenge the process, enable others to act, and encourage the heart. Model the Way: To model the way, leaders need to be clear about their own values and philosophy. They need to find their own voice and express it to others. Inspire a Shared Vision: Effective leaders create compelling visions that can guide people’s behavior. They are able to visualize positive outcomes in the future and communicate them to others. Challenge the Process: It’s mean being willing to change the status quo and step into the unknown. It includes being willing to innovate, grow, and improve. Enable Others to Act: o Outstanding leaders are effective at working with people. They build trust with others and promote collaboration. Teamwork and cooperation are highly valued by these leaders. o They listen closely to diverse points of view and treat others with dignity and respect. They also allow others to make choices, and they support the decisions that others make. Encourage the Heart: Leaders encourage the heart by rewarding others for their accomplishments. o Effective leaders are attentive to this need and are willing to give praise to workers for jobs well done. o The outcome of this kind of support is greater collective identity and community spirit.
How does the Transformational Leadership Approach Work?
The transformational approach to leadership is a broad-based perspective that encompasses many facets and dimensions of the leadership process. In general, it describes how leaders can initiate, develop, and carry out significant changes in organizations. Transformational leaders set out to empower followers and nurture them in change. They attempt to raise the consciousness in individuals and to get them to transcend their own self-interests for the sake of others. They have a highly developed set of moral values and a self-determined sense of identity. They are confident, competent, and articulate, and they express strong ideals. They listen to followers and are not intolerant of opposing viewpoints.
A fifth criticism some have made is that transformational leadership is elitist and antidemocratic. Transformational leaders often play a direct role in creating changes, establishing a vision, and advocating new directions. Another criticism of transformational leadership is that it has the potential to be abused. If the values to which the leader is moving his or her followers are not better, and if the set of human values is not more redeeming, then the leadership must be challenged. The potential for abuse of transformational leadership is mitigated when followers are aware and engaged in how they are being led. A final potential weakness of transformational leadership is the fact that it may not be well received by millennials. It has been suggested that because millennials expect frequent promotions and value extrinsic rewards, two of the fundamental components of transformational leadership—idealized influence and inspirational motivation— may be ineffective.
Application: Rather than being a model that tells leaders what to do, transformational
leadership provides a broad set of generalizations of what is typical of leaders who are transforming or who work in transforming contexts. It provides a general way of thinking about leadership that emphasizes ideals, inspiration, innovations, and individual concerns. Transformational leadership requires that leaders be aware of how their own behavior relates to the needs of their followers and the changing dynamics within their organizations. One particular aspect of transformational leadership that has been given special emphasis in training programs is the process of building a vision. Overall, transformational leadership provides leaders with information about a full range of their behaviors, from nontransactional to transactional to transformational.
