Transformational leadership

In their introduction to the book Transforming Leadership (1986), John Adams and Sabina Spencer have argued that a manager has to be adept in each style. Both reactivity and proactivity are needed for effective managing ... 

The approach to power being put forward here is therefore essenti ly transformational . Transformational leadership was explained in Chapter 3 as gaining compliance by means of getting others to change their viewpoint, attitudes or beliefs. This concept, which has been developed extensively by Noel Tichy and Mary Ann Devanna (1986), is equally applicable to the use of personal power. 

Adams, J. and Spencer, S. (Eds) (1986). Transforming Leadership. Miles River Press. 

The leadership theories discussed in Chapter 8 were trait, behavioral (i.e., autocratic, democratic, and laissez-fare), situational or contingency-based, transactional, and transformational. The majority of these theories are transactional in nature however, transformational leadership is used more often to implement innovation and change within the profession and achievement of organizational goals (Bass, 1985). Building on Chapter 8, other leadership theories or styles used extensively in the health care industry are servant-leadership and strengths-based leadership. 

The research suggests that leaders best accomplish facilitating the shared vision when they value the human resources of their organizations. At least two contemporary theories work with this principle of valuing human resources the transformational leadership theory and the theory of emotional intelligence. 

The transformational leadership theory focuses on the need for consensus development among followers and achievement of organizational goals. 

Bass B, From transactional to transformational leadership learning to share the vision. Organ. Dynam., Winter 1990. 

Managerial style is linked with culture, as the latter often defines, implicitly or explicitly, acceptable behaviour for a person with these responsibilities. A distinction commonly made is between managers whose primary responsibilities are operational and those who have more strategic and visionary responsibilities. Kotter (1990) describes these as managerial and leadership roles, respectively, while Bass and Avolio (1990) refer to transactional and transformational leadership. In reality most managers and leaders perform both roles but to differing degrees. 

Bass, B. M. and Avolio, B. J. (1990). The impUcations of transactional and transformational leadership for individual, team and organizational development. Research and Organizational Change and Development 4 321-72. 

Bass and Avolio (1994) propose an integrative framework that includes transformational, transactional, and nontransactional leadership. According to Bass and AvoUo s fuU range leadership model, leadership behaviors form a continuum in terms of activity and effectiveness. Transformational leadership behaviors are at the higher end of the range and are described as more active-proactive and effective than either transactional or nontransactional leadership. Transformational leadership includes four components. 

Thus, according to the full range leadership model, every leader displays each style to some degree. Three-dimensional optimal and suboptimal profiles are shown in Figure 3. The depth frequency dimension represents how often a leader displays a style of leadership. The horizontal active imension represents the assumptions of the model according to which the laissez-faire style is the most passive style, whereas transactional leadership incorporates more active styles and transformational leadership is proactive. The vertical effectiveness dimension is based on empirical results that... 

Transformational leaders encourage follower to both develop and perform at levels above what they may have felt was possible, or beyond their own personal expectations (Bass and Avolio 1990, p. 234, emphasis in original). Thus, achieving certain levels of performance as well as development become a targeted outcome. The linkages between transformational leadership, employee development, and performance are presented in Figure 4. 

Figure 4 Linkages among Transformational Leadership, Employee Development, and Performance.

Numerous studies have examined the relationships between various components of the full range leadership model and performance outcomes. Overall, these studies confirmed the positive impact of transformational leadership on perceived effectiveness as well as on hard measures of performance. 

However, even when predictions regarding objective performance outcomes support the model, we are stiU faced with plausible alternative cause-and-effect relationships (Bass and Avolio 1993, p. 69). Therefore, to establish causal effects, several experiments (Barling et al. 1996 CrookaU 1989 Dvir et al. in press HoweU and Frost 1989 Kirkpatrick and Locke 1996 Sosik et al. 1997) were conducted either in the field or in the laboratory. OveraU, these experiments confirmed the causal impact of transformational or charismatic leadership on performance outcomes. Such an experimental design can confirm that the direction of causal flow is indeed from transformational leadership to the hypothesized performance outcomes as opposed to instances where enhanced follower performance cause the higher transformational leadership ratings. HoweU and Frost (1989) found that experimen-taUy induced charismatic leadership positively affected task performance, task adjustment, and ad-... 

To sum up, there is sufficient empirical evidence to conclude that transformational leadership has a positive impact on both perceived and objective performance and that this impact is stronger than the effects of transactional leadership. 

Most general references in the literature to follower development actually refer to an intrapersonal, developmental change that followers of transformational leaders presumably undergo the leader transforms followers by serving as a coach, a teacher, and a mentor. Dvir et al. (in press) propose a conceptual framework for examining developmental aspects of transformational leadership theory on the basis of the sporadic theoretical discussions and empirical examinations in the literature. Their framework for follower personal development includes the three domains of motivation, morality, and empowerment. Dvir et al. found evidence of the impact of transformational leaders upon their direct followers development in at least one measure of each category. 

Another motivational aspect associated with transformationed leadership is the emphasis on employees extra effort. Bass (1985) originally posited extra effort as a manifestation of employee motivation. He claimed that employees extra efforts show how highly a leader motivates them to perform beyond expectations. TTius, it can be concluded that the emphasis on satisfying self-... 

Empowerment Transformational leadership theory, in contrast to early charismatic leadership theories (e.g.. House 1977), never assumed that leadership relationships are based on regression or weakness on the part of the employees. On the contrary, transformational leadership theory has... 

A more recent study (Barling et al. 1996) demonstrated that bank branch managers who received transformational leadership training had a mote positive impact on follower commitment and unit financial performance than did those who did not receive training. Finally, Dvir et al. (in press)... 

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