Leadership

Theory & Practice

Sixth Edition
 Chapter 9
Transformational Leadership
Transformational Leadership
• One of the current and most popular approaches to leadership that has been the
focus of much research since the early 1980s.

• Transformational leadership is part of the “New Leadership” paradigm (Bryman,

1992), which gives more attention to the charismatic and affective elements of
leadership.

• Transformational leadership’s popularity might be due to its emphasis on intrinsic

motivation and follower development, which fits the needs of today’s work groups,
who want to be inspired and empowered to succeed in times of uncertainty.
Transformational Leadership
• Many scholars are studying transformational leadership in leadership research.

• Transformational leadership changes and transforms people.

• It is concerned with emotions, values, ethics, standards, and long-term goals.

• It includes assessing followers’ motives, satisfying their needs, and 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.

Transformational Leadership
• It can be used to describe a wide range of leadership, from influencing followers
on a one-to-one level, to influencing whole organizations and even entire cultures.

• Although the transformational leader plays a pivotal role in precipitating change,

followers and leaders are bound together in the transformation process.
Transformational Leadership Defined
• The term transformational leadership was first coined by Downton (1973).

• James MacGregor Burns wrote of leaders as people who tap the motives of
followers in order to better reach the goals of leaders and followers .

• For Burns, leadership is quite different from power because it is inseparable from
followers’ needs.

• Burns distinguished between two types of leadership:

Transactional

Transformational
Transactional Leadership
• Transactional leadership focuses on the exchanges that occur between leaders and
their followers.
Politicians who win votes by promising “no new taxes”

Managers who offer promotions to employees who surpass their goals

Teachers who give students a grade for work completed

• The exchange dimension of transactional leadership is very common and can be

observed at many levels throughout all types of organizations.
Transformational 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.
Leader is attentive to the needs and motives of followers

Leader tries to help followers reach their fullest potential

• It positively affects followers’ moral identities and moral emotions.

• It is positively associated with group ethical climate, decision making, and moral
action.
 Transformational Leadership Examples
• Gandhi raised the hopes and demands of millions of his people, and
in the process, was changed himself.

• Ryan White, a teenager who raised the American people’s awareness

about AIDS and in the process became a spokesperson for increasing
government support of AIDS research.

• A manager who attempts to change his company’s corporate values to be more humane
standard of fairness and justice. In the process, both the manager and the followers may
emerge with a stronger and higher set of moral values.
 Pseudo-transformational Leadership
• Leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Saddam Hussein, who were transforming but in a
negative way.

• Pseudo-transformational leadership is a term that refers to leaders who are self-

consumed, exploitive, and power oriented, with warped moral values.

• It focuses on the leader’s own interests rather than on the interests of others.

• Transformational leadership is socialized leadership, concerned with the collective

good, where leaders transcend their own interests for the sake of others.
Transformational Leadership & Charisma
• At about the same time Burns’s book was published, House (1976) published a
theory of charismatic leadership.

• Charismatic leadership has received a great deal of attention by researchers.

• It is often described in ways that make it similar to transformational leadership.

• The word charisma was first used to describe a special gift that certain individuals
possess that gives them the capacity to do extraordinary things.

• Weber (1947) defined 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.
Transformational Leadership & Charisma
• House suggested that charismatic leaders act in unique ways that have specific
charismatic effects on their followers.

• For House, the personality characteristics of a charismatic leader include:

Being dominant

Having a strong desire to influence others

Being self-confident

Having a strong sense of one’s own moral values.

Transformational Leadership & Charisma
• Charismatic leaders demonstrate specific types of behaviors:

Strong role models for the beliefs and values they want their followers to adopt

Articulate ideological goals that have moral overtones.

Competent to followers.

Martin Luther King famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Charismatic Leadership
Charismatic Leadership
• Charismatic leaders communicate high expectations for followers, and they exhibit confidence in
followers’ abilities to meet these expectations.

• This increases followers’ sense of competence and self-efficacy, which in turn improves their
performance.

• Charismatic leaders arouse task-relevant motives in followers that may include affiliation, power,
or esteem.

• Former U.S. President John F. Kennedy appealed to the human values of the American people
when he stated, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your
country.”
 Charismatic Leadership Results
• According to House’s charismatic theory, several effects are the direct result of
charismatic leadership:
Follower trust in the leader’s ideology and 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
Increased follower confidence in goal achievement.
 Charismatic Leadership Results
• House’s charismatic theory has been extended and revised through the years.

• A revision made by Shamir (1993), he stated that charismatic leadership transforms followers’ self-

concepts and tries to link the identity of followers to the collective identity of the organization.

• Charismatic leaders forge this link by emphasizing the intrinsic rewards of work and deemphasizing the

extrinsic rewards.

• The hope is that followers will view work as an expression of themselves.

• Leaders express high expectations for followers and help them gain a sense of confidence and self-efficacy.

• Charismatic leadership ties followers and their self-concepts to the organizational identity.
A Model of Transformational Leadership
• In the mid-1980s, Bass provided a more expanded and refined version of
transformational leadership than of Burns and House.

• Bass gave more attention to followers’ rather than leaders’ needs, by suggesting
that transformational leadership could apply to situations in which the outcomes
were not positive, and by describing transactional and transformational
leadership as a single continuum rather than mutually independent continua.
Leadership Continuum From Transformational to Laissez-Faire
 A Model of Transformational Leadership
• Bass gave more attention to the emotional elements and origins of charisma and
by suggesting that charisma is a necessary but not sufficient condition for
transformational leadership.

• He argued that transformational leadership motivates followers to do more than

expected by:
Raising followers’ levels of consciousness about the importance and value of specified and idealized goals

Getting followers to transcend their own self-interest for the sake of the team or organization

Moving followers to address higher level needs

A Model of Transformational Leadership
• The model of transformational and transactional leadership incorporates seven
different factors. A discussion of each of these seven factors will help to clarify Bass’s
model.

• This discussion will be divided into three parts:

Transformational factors (4)

Transactional factors (2)

The non-leadership, non-transactional factor (1)

Leadership Factors
Transformational Leadership Factors
• Transformational leadership is concerned with improving the performance of
followers and developing followers to their fullest potential.

• People who exhibit transformational leadership often have a strong set of

internal values and ideals, and they are effective at motivating followers to act
in ways that support the greater good rather than their own self-interests.
Idealized Influence
• Factor 1 is called charisma or idealized influence; the emotional component of leadership.

• The leaders who act as strong role models.

• These leaders usually have very high standards of moral and ethical conduct.

• They are deeply respected by followers, who usually place a great deal of trust in them.

• They provide followers with a vision and a sense of mission.

• The idealized influence factor is measured on two components:

An attributional component: attributions based on perceptions followers have of their leaders

A behavioral component: that refers to followers’ observations of leader behavior

Idealized Influence
• The charisma factor describes people who are special and who
make others want to follow their vision.

• A person whose leadership exemplifies the charisma factor is

Nelson Mandela, the first non-White president of South Africa.

• Mandela is a leader with high moral standards and a vision for

South Africa that resulted in monumental change in how the
people of South Africa would be governed.

• His charismatic qualities and the people’s response to them

transformed an entire nation.
Full Range Of Leadership Model
Inspirational Motivation
• Factor 2 is inspiration or inspirational motivation.

• This factor is descriptive of leaders who communicate high expectations to followers,

inspiring them to become committed to and a part of the shared vision in the organization.

• Team spirit is enhanced by this type of leadership.

• An example: a sales manager who motivates members of the sales force to excel in their work
through encouraging words and pep talks that clearly communicate the integral role they play in
the future growth of the company.
Intellectual Stimulation
• Factor 3; includes leadership that stimulates followers to be creative and innovative
and to challenge their own beliefs.

• This type of leadership supports followers as they try new approaches and develop
innovative ways of dealing with organizational issues.

• It encourages followers to think things out on their own and engage in careful
problem solving.

• An example: a plant manager who promotes workers’ individual efforts to develop

unique ways to solve problems that have caused slowdowns in production.
Individualized Consideration
• Factor 4 is representative of leaders who provide a supportive climate in which they
listen carefully to the individual needs of followers.

• Leaders act as coaches & advisers.

• Leaders may use delegation to help followers grow through personal challenges.

• An example: a manager who spends time treating each employee in a caring and
unique way.

• To some employees, the leader may give strong affiliation; to others, the leader may
give specific directives with a high degree of structure.
The Additive Effect Of Transformational Leadership
 Transformational VS Transactional Leaders
• Transformational leadership produces greater effects than transactional leadership.

• Whereas transactional leadership results in expected outcomes, transformational

leadership results in performance that goes well beyond what is expected.

• Transformational leadership moves followers to accomplish more than what is expected

of them.

• They transcend their own self-interests for the good of the organization.

• They found that transformational leadership behaviors were positively related to

acceptance, job satisfaction, and performance.
 Transformational VS Transactional Leaders
• In a study of 220 employees at a large public transport company in Germany, Rowold
and Heinitz (2007) found that transformational leadership augmented the impact of
transactional leadership on employees’ performance and company profit.

• They found that transformational leadership behaviors were positively related to

acceptance, job satisfaction, and performance.

• Findings revealed that employees became more engaged when their supervisors
were able to boost their optimism through a transformational leadership style.
Transactional Leadership Factors
• Transactional leadership does not individualize the needs of subordinates or
focus on their personal development.

• Transactional leaders exchange things of value with subordinates to advance

their own and their subordinates’ agendas (Kuhnert, 1994).

• Transactional leaders are influential because it is in the best interest of

subordinates for them to do what the leader wants.
Contingent Reward
• Factor 5; is the first of two transactional leadership factors.

• It is an exchange process between leaders and followers in which effort by followers

is exchanged for specified rewards.

• The leader tries to obtain agreement from followers on what must be done and what
the payoffs will be for the people doing it.

• An example: a parent who negotiates with a child about how much television the
child can watch after practicing the piano.

• Another example: A dean negotiates with a college professor about the number and
quality of publications he needs to have written in order to receive promotion.
Management by Exception
• Factor 6; is leadership that involves corrective criticism, negative feedback, and negative
reinforcement.

• Management by exception takes two forms: active and passive.

Active Passive

Leader watches followers closely for Leader intervenes only after standards have
mistakes or rule violations and then takes not been met or problem have arisen.
corrective action.

A sales supervisor who daily monitors A supervisor who gives an employee a poor
how employees approach customers. He performance evaluation without ever talking
quickly corrects salespeople who are with the employee about her or his prior work
slow to approach customers. performance.
Laissez Faire
• Factor 7 describes leadership that falls at the far right side of the transactional–transformational
leadership continuum.

• This factor represents the absence of leadership.

• The laissez-faire leader takes a “hands-off, let-things-ride” approach.

• This leader delays decisions, gives no feedback & makes little effort to help followers satisfy their
needs.

• There is no exchange with followers or attempt to help them grow.

• An example: is the president of a small manufacturing firm who calls no meetings with plant
supervisors, has no long-range plan for the firm, and makes little contact with employees.
Other Transformational Perspectives
• In addition to Bass’s work, two other lines of research have contributed to
transformational leadership.

• They are the research of Bennis and Nanus (1985) and the work of Kouzes and
Posner (1987, 2002).

• These scholars used similar research methods, they identified a number of middle or
senior level leaders and conducted interviews with them, using open-ended, semi-
structured questionnaires.

• From this information, they constructed their models of leadership.

Bennis and Nanus
• Bennis and Nanus (1985) asked 90 leaders basic questions such as:

“What are your strengths and weaknesses?”

“What past events most influenced your leadership approach?”

“What were the critical points in your career?”

• From the answers, Bennis and Nanus identified four common strategies used by
leaders in transforming organizations.
Bennis and Nanus
• 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.

• When an organization has a clear vision, it is easier for people within the organization
to learn how they fit in with the overall direction of the organization and even the
society in general.

• Bennis and Nanus found that, to be successful, the vision had to grow out of the
needs of the entire organization and to be claimed by those within it.
Bennis and Nanus
• Second, transforming leaders were social architects for their organizations.

• 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.

• They were able to mobilize people to accept a new group identity or a new
philosophy for their organizations.
Bennis and Nanus
• 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.

• Leaders built trust by articulating a direction and then consistently implementing the
direction even though the vision may have involved a high degree of uncertainty.

• Bennis and Nanus (1985) found that when leaders established trust in an organization,
it gave the organization a sense of integrity analogous to a healthy identity.
Bennis and Nanus
• 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.

• Effective leaders were able to immerse themselves in their tasks and the goals of their organizations.

• It was found that positive self-regard in leaders had a reciprocal impact on followers, creating in them
feelings of confidence and high expectations.

• Leaders were committed to learning and relearning, so in their organizations there was consistent
emphasis on education.
Kouzes and Posner
• Kouzes and Posner developed their model by interviewing leaders about leadership.

• They asked leaders to describe their “personal best” experiences as leaders.

• Based on these descriptions, they constructed a model of leadership.

• The 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

encourage the heart

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.

• Leaders set a personal example for others by their own behaviors.

• They also follow through on their promises and commitments and affirm the
common values they share with 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.

• Leaders also listen to the dreams of others and show them how they can be realized.

• Leaders challenge others to transcend the status quo to do something for others.
Challenge The Process
• They are willing to change the status quo and step into the unknown.

• It includes being willing to innovate, grow, and improve.

• Leaders are like pioneers: They want to experiment and try new things.

• They are willing to take risks to make things better, they do it one step at a time,
learning from their mistakes as they go.
 Enable Others to Act
• Leaders are effective at working with people, they build trust with others and
promote collaboration.

• Teamwork and cooperation are highly valued by these leaders.

• 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.
HOW DOES TRANSFORMATIONAL APPROACH WORK?
• 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.

• Transformational leadership created a culture in which employees felt empowered and encouraged.

• Transformational leaders become strong role models for their followers.

• 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 spirit of cooperation often develops between these leaders and their followers.

• Transformational leaders to create a vision, which emerges from the collective interests of various individuals.
HOW DOES TRANSFORMATIONAL APPROACH WORK?
• Leaders make clear the emerging values and norms of the organization.

• They involve themselves in the culture of the organization and help shape its
meaning.

• Transformational leaders are effective at working with people, they build trust and
foster collaboration with others.

• Transformational leaders encourage others and celebrate their accomplishments.

 Strengths
• First, transformational leadership has been widely researched.

• It has intuitive appeal. People are attracted to it because it makes sense to them &
provides a vision for the future.

• It treats leadership incorporates both the followers’ and the leader’s needs.

• It directs leaders’ attention to the needs and growth of followers.

• It is morally uplifting.

• It is an effective form of leadership.

 Criticisms
• It is difficult to define exactly the parameters of transformational leadership.

• Some studies have challenged the validity of the MLQ.

• It treats leadership as a personality trait rather than a behavior that people can learn.

• Studies have not yet clearly established a causal link between transformational leaders and changes in
followers or organizations.

• It has the potential to be abused, as it is concerned with changing people’s values and moving them to
a new vision. But who is to determine whether the new directions are good? Who decides that a new
vision is a better vision?
 Application
• It can be taught to people at all levels in an organization and that it can positively affect a firm’s
performance.

• It can be used in recruitment, selection and promotion, and training and development.

• It can also be used in improving team development, decision-making groups, quality initiatives, and
reorganizations.

• It has been given special emphasis in training programs in the process of building a vision.

• It provides leaders with information about a full range of their behaviors, from non-transactional to
transactional to transformational.
Leaders You Admire
Stepping Into Transformational Leadership
 Transformational Leadership
1. Create an inspiring vision.

2. Motivate your people.

3. Manage delivery of the vision.

4. Build trust-based relationships.

The drops of rain make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but
by often falling…..
Lucretius
 Transformational Leadership
A leadership style where one or more persons engage with others in such a way

that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and

morality.
Transformational Leadership
Four Components
Steps For Transformational Leadership
Competencies Of Transformational
Leadership
Transformational Leadership
Assignment

Case Study 9.1, Page: 207

Leadership Instrument, Page: 211

Thank You

Hadeereldamarici@[Link]

Subject: MBA - Assignment # - Name