Transformational leadership styles

Supervisors interactions with new employees, what might be terms their leadership style, will play an important role in the establishment of tmst-relationships. Evidence is mounting that a transformational leadership style, where leaders develop affective bonds with their employees will help facilitate tmst development and positively influence safety (Conchie 2013), as well as positively influence performance outcomes (Schaubroeck et al. 2011). Supervisors should of course develop a safety-specific tmst relationship with a new employee based on evidence from their behavior, not based on assumptions. While supervisors may be somewhat insulated from the adverse impact of new employee s behavior, they should consider new employees as potential sources of safety risk until proven otherwise. Co-workers are likely to be the most vulnerable in terms of the impact of unsafe behavior from new employees. Thus from the perspective of co-workers, it is advisable to be careful and ensure that any tmst which is given to a new employee is deserved. 

Figure 2.8.16 Features of transactional and transformational leadership styles...

One study (Figure 4-2) examined correlations between the transformational leadership style and the best practices. We found a significant positive correlation between subordinate ratings of each element of transformational leadership and each leadership best practice. As we said earlier, leadership best practices consist of a set of specific behaviors and activities that safety leaders engage in effectively, while style is about how safety leaders perform these activities. 

Are there traditions and systems for the detection and blame-free exploration of biases and errors, and for sharing lessons learned These cultural attributes and practices are fostered by a strong transformational leadership style (see chapters 4 and 5) and reflected in high scores on the OCDI s four organizational dimensions (procedural justice, perceived organizational support, leader-member exchange, leadership credibility). 

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 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. 

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. 

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... 

How the leader influences—the leader s style—encircles his personal safety ethic. Over the years, researchers and scholars have described a plethora of leadership styles—laissez-faire, autocratic, charismatic, participative, transactional, theories X, Y, and Z—to name just a few. One widely researched style, transformational leadership, stands out as consistently predictive of business outcomes. The transformational leader focuses on the future, and her approach is strongly oriented toward developing her people. By going beyond her own self-interest, such a leader inspires employees to go beyond their mere shortterm self-interest. The transactional leader, in contrast, focuses on current results and undertakes individual exchanges (of recognition, position, or money) to deliver expected results in the near term. We ll explore these two leadership styles, both of which have their merits and uses, later in this chapter. 

The research literature has classified leadership style (the second ring in the Safety Leadership Model) in a number of ways. In recent years, the various dimensions and models have coalesced into two basic styles transformational leadership and transactional leadership. (A third type, laissez-faire leadership, is also mentioned, but it amounts to an abdication of leadership responsibility and is thus not desirable to safety leadership.) There is increasing evidence that transformational and transactional leadership are not mutually exclusive, but that different situations call for different styles. Great leaders are adept at using the mix that is appropriate to a given situation. ... 

Transformational leadership is also more effective when the leadership task at hand entails culture change. The transformational style is conducive to developing others to become leaders and motivating interest in new and better ways of doing things. It avoids the problem of blame and fosters cooperation on behalf of organizational goals. 

The LDI measures not only the safety leader s best practices (discussed in the next chapter) but also the leader s style—the degree to which the leader aligns with these four characteristics of transformational leadership ... 

It is very important for safety leaders to develop their transformational leadership skills. But one cannot be an effective transformational leader without strong transactional skills. Both styles are necessary for great safety leadership. A natural disaster, for instance, calls for the forceful command and control skills of an efficient transactional leader to stabilize an inherently unstable situation and to get immediate and urgent results. However, such a situation also requires the supportive and developmental skills of the transformational leader to reassure and support disaster victims and build and sustain their hope and belief in the future. It behooves the leader to cultivate both leadership styles and to become sensitive about when to use each style. 

If a leader wants to improve his capacity for either transactional or transformational leadership, it is important that he first clearly understand his natural inclinations. Personality factors predispose to stylistic preferences but do not determine them. For example, extroversion predisposes to a transformational style. Leaders who do not score high on extroversion can nevertheless learn to be very strong transformational leaders. They may have to build on other facets of their personality, but they can be just as effective. 

The interesting point, however, about Rosener s conclusions is not that women and men necessarily lead in different ways, but that women s success in using a transformational style of leadership is pointing the way to a revision of traditional definitions of effective leadership. 

Leaders are required continually to review organisational norms and how people behave, including self evaluating their own behaviour to ensure it has a positive impact on staff behaviour. Effective leadership is not just about a style or type (e.g. transformational or transactional) as leaders will clearly use a variety of styles in any given situation. Leaders create a culture by casting a shadow that keeps Q S at the forefront of the mind of all staff and teams, with constant... 

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