Transformational leadership is a leadership style in which a leader works with subordinates to identify necessary changes, creates a vision to guide change through inspiration, and implements change together with committed group members. Transformational leadership serves to enhance the motivation, morale, and performance of followers' work through various mechanisms; this includes connecting the feelings of identity followers and self to the project and the collective identity of the organization; be role models for followers to inspire them and increase their interest in the project; challenging followers to take greater ownership of their work, and understanding the strengths and weaknesses of followers, allowing leaders to align followers with tasks that improve their performance.
Video Transformational leadership
Origins
The concept of transformational leadership was originally introduced by James V. Downton, who first mimicked the term "Transformational leadership", a concept further developed by presidential biographer and biographer James MacGregor Burns. According to Burns, transformational leadership can be seen when "leaders and followers mutually make progress toward higher levels of morality and motivation." Through the strength of their vision and personality, transformational leaders are able to inspire followers to change expectations, perceptions, and motivations to work towards common goals. Unlike in a transactional approach, it is not based on the "give and take" relationship, but on the personality of the leader, the nature and ability to make changes through example, the articulation of energizing vision and challenging goals. Transforming leaders is idealized in the sense that they are moral examples working for the benefit of teams, organizations and/or communities. Burned theorizes that transformational and transactional leadership are mutually exclusive styles. Later, researcher Bernard M. Bass expanded Burns's original idea to develop what today is called the Transformational Leadership Theory of Bass. According to Bass, transformational leadership can be defined based on the impact it has on followers. The transformational leader, Bass suggests, gathers the trust, respect, and admiration of their followers.
Bernard M. Bass (1985), extends the work of Burns (1978) by explaining the psychological mechanisms underlying transformational and transactional leadership. Bass introduces the term "transformational" in lieu of "transformation." Bass added to Burns 'initial concept (1978) to help explain how transformational leadership can be measured, and how it impacts followers' motivation and performance. The extent to which a leader is transformational, measured first, in terms of its influence on followers. Followers of such leaders feel confidence, admiration, loyalty and respect for leaders and because the quality of transformational leaders is willing to work harder than originally intended. This result occurs because the transformational leader offers followers something more than working for self-gain; they provide followers with a mission and vision that inspires and gives them identity. Leaders change and motivate followers through their ideal influences (formerly referred to as charisma), intellectual stimulation and individual considerations. In addition, this leader encourages followers to come up with new and unique ways to challenge the status quo and change the environment to support success. Finally, unlike Burns, Bass suggests that leadership can simultaneously display transformational and transactional leadership.
Maps Transformational leadership
Definition
According to Bass, transformational leadership encompasses several different aspects, including:
- Emphasizing the intrinsic motivation and positive developments of followers
- Raise awareness of moral standards
- Highlight important priorities
- Maintaining higher moral maturity in followers
- Create an ethical climate (share value, high ethical standards)
- Encourage followers to look beyond self-interest to the common good
- Promote cooperation and harmony
- Use an authentic and consistent way
- Use persuasive appeal based on reason
- Provide individual training and mentoring for followers
- Appeals to followers ideals
- Allows freedom of choice for followers
The transformational leader is depicted to hold positive expectations for followers, believing that they can do their best. As a result, they inspire, empower, and stimulate followers to exceed normal levels of performance. Transformational leaders are also focused and concerned with their followers and their personal needs and developments. Transformational leaders are particularly suited for leading and working with complex work groups and organizations, where in addition to seeking inspiring leaders to help guide them through an uncertain environment, followers are also challenged and empowered; this nurtures them to be loyal, high performers.
There are four components to transformational leadership, sometimes referred to as 4 I:
- Idealized (II) Influence - the leader serves as an ideal example for followers; leaders "walk talking," and admired for this.
- Inspirational Motivation (IM) - Transformational leaders have the ability to inspire and motivate followers. When combined, these first two are what constitute the charisma of transformational leaders.
- Individual Consideration (IC) - Transformational leaders show genuine concern for the needs and feelings of followers. Personal attention to each of these followers is a key element in their best endeavors.
- Intellectual Stimulation (IS) - leaders challenge followers to be innovative and creative. A common misconception is that transformational leaders are "soft", but the reality is that they are constantly challenging followers to higher levels of performance.
Transformational leadership is said to have taken place when group involvement produces leaders and followers who mutually improve one another to increase the level of motivation and morality.
Characteristics
Five key personality traits have been identified as contributing factors to the possibility of individuals displaying transformational leader characteristics. The different emphasis on the different elements of these traits leads to a tendency in personality for inspirational leadership, transactional leadership, and transformational leadership. These five properties are as follows.
Ekstraversion
The two main characteristics of extravert are affiliates and agencies, which deal with the social and leadership aspects of their personalities. Extraversion is generally seen as the inspirational nature usually shown in transformational leadership.
Neuroticism
Neuroticism generally gives individuals anxiety associated with productivity which, in group settings can weaken to a level where they are unlikely to position themselves in transformational leadership roles due to low self-esteem and a tendency to shirk of leadership responsibilities.
Openness to experience
Creative expressions and emotional responses have been linked to the general tendency of openness to experience. This trait is also seen as a component of transformational leadership related to the ability to give a big picture of visionary leadership for an organization.
Agreeableness
Although not a trait that specifically refers to transformational leadership, leaders generally have a pleasing nature that comes from a natural concern for others and a high degree of individual reasoning. Charisma and ideal influences are the classical ability of the individual who has consent.
Measurement
One way in which transformational leadership is measured is through the use of Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), a survey that identifies different leadership characteristics based on the example and provides the basis for leadership training. Early developments were limited because knowledge in this field was primitive, and thus, finding good examples for items in the questionnaire was difficult. The next development on MLQ led to the current survey version, MLQ5X.
The current version of MLQ5X includes 36 items broken down into 9 scales with 4 items measuring each scale. Further validation work by John Antonakis and his colleagues provides strong evidence supporting the validity and reliability of MLQ5X. Indeed, Antonakis went on to confirm the viability of the proposed nine-factor MLQ model, using two very large samples. Although other researchers are still critical of the MLQ model, since 2003 nothing has been able to provide unconfirmed evidence of a nine factor model that theorizes with a very large sample size as published by Antonakis.
In terms of transformational leadership, the first 5 components - Innovative Attributes, Idealized Behavior, Inspirational Motivation, Intellectual Stimulation, and Individual Considerations - are regarded as transformational leadership behaviors.
Effectiveness compared to other leadership styles
Research has shown that the transformational leadership style is associated with positive outcomes in relation to other leadership styles. According to research conducted by Lowe, Kroeck, and Sivasubramaniam, charisma (or Idealized Influence) is found to be the most powerful variable associated with leader effectiveness among MLQ scales. Other studies have shown that transformational leadership is positively associated with employee outcomes including commitment, role clarity, and well-being.
Transactional leadership
In contrast to transformational leadership, transactional leadership styles focus on the use of rewards and punishments for attaining followers' adherence. Transformational leaders look towards future change to inspire followers and achieve goals, while transactional leaders seek to maintain the status quo, not aiming for progress.
MLQ performs testing for some transactional leadership elements - Contingent Reward and Management-by-Exception - and the results for these elements are often compared to the transformational elements tested by MLQ. Studies have shown transformational leadership practices lead to higher satisfaction with leaders among followers and greater leader effectiveness, while transactional practices lead to higher followers' job satisfaction and leader job performance.
Laissez-faire leadership
In a laissez-faire leadership style, one can be given a leadership position without giving leadership, which makes followers struggle on their own. This causes subordinates to have freedom in determining policies and methods.
Studies have shown that while transformational leadership styles are associated with positive outcomes, laissez-faire leadership is associated with negative outcomes, especially in terms of follower satisfaction with leader and leader effectiveness. Also, other studies comparing male and female leadership styles have shown that female leaders tend to be more transformational with their leadership style, while laissez-faire leadership is more prominent in male leaders.
Factors that affect use
Phipps points out that the individual personality of a leader greatly influences his leadership style, in particular with regard to the following five personality model personality components: openness to experience, sincerity, extraversion/introversion, friendliness, and neuroticism/emotional stability. (SEA).
Phipps also proposes that all of the Big Five dimensions will be positively related to transformational leadership. Openness to experience allows leaders to be more receptive to new ideas and thus more likely to stimulate followers intellectually. Careful leaders are achievement-oriented and thus more likely to motivate their followers to achieve organizational goals. Individuals who are repeated and fun are more open and fun, respectively, and more likely to have successful interpersonal relationships. Thus, they are more likely to influence their followers and become attentive to them. Emotionally stable leaders will be more able to influence their followers because their stability will enable them to become better role models for followers and to truly engage them in the process of goal fulfillment.
Specific examples of cultural backgrounds that affect the effectiveness of transformational leadership are Indian culture, where leadership style tasks have proven to be effective leadership styles. Singh and Bhandarker (1990) show that effective transformational leaders in India like the heads of Indian families who pay personal attention to the welfare of their followers. Leaders in Indian organizations are more likely to exhibit transformational behavior if their followers are more independent in approaching leaders. It is also hypothesized in general that the socialized subordinates to be less assertive, confident, and independent will enhance the transformational leadership exhibits of superiors.
There is also evidence to suggest that social demographics do not necessarily influence transformational leadership styles.
However, the characteristics of followers, combined with their perceptions of their own leaders and situations, seem to moderate the relationship between transformational leadership and the willingness of subordinates to take over and become good citizens of the organization. For example, if subordinates in a work group consider their leader to be their prototypical, then transformational leadership will have less impact on their willingness to engage in organizational citizenship behavior. Similarly, if subordinates are goal-oriented and have a traditional view of organizational hierarchy, they tend to be less influenced by transformational leadership. Self-motivated employees tend not to require transformational leaders to encourage them in action, while "traditionalists" tend to see positive organizational citizenship as something to be expected given their role as followers - not something they need to be "inspired" to do.
Evidence suggests that the above set of factors act, in essence, as an obstacle and a substitute for transformational leadership. As an inhibitor, the existence of these factors - either independently or primarily collectively - can make transformational leader presence "excessive" because the follower's positive behavior will be triggered by their own motivation or perception. On the other hand, when these factors are not present (for example, employees in the work group do not see their leader as "one of us"), transformational leadership tends to have a much greater impact on subordinates. In essence, when such "favorable conditions" do not exist, managers - and the organizations they work for - should see a better return on investment from transformational leadership.
It shows that the continuity of leaders increases the effect of transformational leadership on clarity of role and commitment, indicating that it takes time before transformational leaders actually have an effect on employees. Furthermore, peer support enhances the effect on commitment, reflecting the role of followers in the transformational leadership process. However, there are also factors that will serve to inhibit transformational leadership exhibitions, including organizational structures, ongoing changes, working conditions of leaders, and increased leaders' perceptions of personal power.
Results
Implementing transformational leadership has many positive outcomes not only in the workplace but in other situations as well. The evidence suggests that each of these earlier spoke of the four components of transformational leadership significantly related to emotions and positive outcomes in the workplace as well as in team projects conducted online. One recent study shows that these four components are significantly associated with higher job satisfaction and employee effectiveness. Both intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation are associated with higher levels of positive emotions in the workplace such as enthusiasm, happiness, and pride in followers' work.
When transformational leadership is used in the nursing environment, researchers find that it leads to an increase in organizational commitment. A separate study examined that transformational leadership and transactional leadership compared when implemented into online classes. The results of this study show that transformational leadership improves cognitive effort while transactional leadership lowers it.
Example
Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela used the principle of transformational leadership while trying to remove apartheid and impose change in South Africa. In 1995, he visited Betsie Verwoerd, widow of apartheid architect Hendrik Verwoerd, at his home in Orania. Orania is the homeland of Afrikaner and a symbol of striking anachronistic separation, and Mandela's repeated emphasis on forgiveness contributes to the healing of South African prejudices and as a major influence as a leader. In 2000, he was quoted as saying, "For all those who have found themselves in jail position and trying to change society, forgiveness is natural because you do not have time to take revenge."
He also set an example for others to follow in terms of sacrifice and philanthropy. Schoemaker explains one such example:
"One such leader received a call from Mandela's office requesting that he accompany the President to the Eastern Cape.This leader was less enthusiastic and pleaded that he had a noon promise around noon with Mandela's request, but no one denied Mandela, to go - but first consult with the finance director to set a reasonable limit on the size of the anticipated donation request.They settled on 500,000 Rand, or about $ 50,000 on days... after landing, some 80,000 black schoolboys - all decorated in a white shirt - simultaneously bowed to acknowledge the arrival of the great man.When they got out of the helicopter, Mandela stuck his hand firmly on the back of his guest and said, 'Now, I hope you will not disappoint me?' The business leader decides in that to double the donation... how he can tell a man that sacrifice as much as Mandela that he can not afford to be more generous? "
Other Context
Transformational leadership studies have been conducted in a variety of contexts including the military, education, higher education, and business.
Future
The evolution of transformational leadership in the digital age is related to the development of organizational leadership in an academic environment. As organizations move from position-based responsibilities to task-based responsibilities, transformational leadership is redefined to continue to develop individual commitment to organizational goals by aligning these goals with the interests of their leadership community. The academic community is a front-runner in the sense of redefining transformational leadership to conform to changes in the definition of this work.
The future of transformational leadership is also linked to political globalization and a more homogeneous spectrum of the economic system in which organizations find themselves operating. The cultural and geographic dimensions of transformational leadership are blurred as globalization makes certain collective and individualistic behaviors of more diversified organizational behavior in the workplace.
The concept of transformational leadership needs further clarification, especially when a leader is declared a transformational or transactional leader. When discussing Jinnah's leadership style, Yousaf (2015) argues that it is not a number of followers, but the nature of change that indicates whether a leader is transformational or transactional.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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