Transformational Leadership Essays

Transformational Leadership Essays Transformational Leadership Essay Transformational Leadership Essay Structure: Transformational Leader’s Effectiveness Abstract Many studies have been conducted on various leadership types and their effectiveness. James MacGregor Burns first introduced the transformation leadership concept in 1970. Other scholars have also published similar studies. Bernard Bass’s theory examines how leaders affect their followers and literally transform them. Three research studies were examined on transformational leadership, and its effectiveness. The first study proved employees pay close attention to whether leaders practice procedural justice (Leventhal, 1980; Thibaut Walker, 1975). The second study proved effective transformational leadership has a direct effect on the successful implementation of quality management in administrative service. The third study proved effectiveness of leadership is situational determined. Introduction Leaders today encourage followers to step out of their comfort zones, and take risks. Today’s innovation and global competition makes the status quo way of operation an endangered species. Leaders must possess the ability to persuade their followers to step out of their comfort zones, and take a leap of faith. They must be willing to follow their leaders into the unknown. This is accomplished by building trust, and making oneself vulnerable without knowing the outcome or how it will affect ones job. Leaders must have the skills, and ability to change, learn, adapt quickly, and positively as innovation dictates. There are four dimensions of authentic transformational leadership. They are charisma influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration (Bass, 1985; Bass Avolio, 1993). Transformational leader’s personal values are an unshakable force from within that drives them. Their charisma is thought to be the most important aspect of transformational leadership qualities. These perceived values strengthen their ability to unite followers, and transform their beliefs to line up with their own (Bass, 1990; Burns, 1978; Deluga, 1988). Followers identify and aspire to be like these leaders. This luxury gives leaders the influence needed to set high standards for all to achieve. Transformational leaders provide vision and mission to others which instill organizational pride. Their expertise of the organizations tasks, earns them respect among their followers. It is their inspirational motivation that challenged followers to achieve the organizations goals. The leader’s intellectual stimulation complements their charisma. It is hear that high expectations and purpose are communicated in simplicity in an effort to generate creative solutions to problems. This platform allows their followers to question assumptions. They use, rationality, and logic to identify old problems. These problems are then examined from a different perspective to generate innovative ideas for improvement. A transformational leader’s individualized consideration is where employees are viewed as individuals. It is here they increase their employee’s awareness of the importance of their job. They coach them on achieving a better performance. Leaders also motivate their employees to work for the good of the organization instead of exclusively for their own personal gain. They then make employees aware of their individual needs for personal growth. They identify areas to target for development needed to obtain their own personal goals within the organization (Bass, 1985). In the wake of many business scandals there has been an out cry for the need of good leadership, with high morals. Authentic transformational leadership is characterized by its high morals and ethical standards in each of the four dimensions previously detailed. Followers engage in collectively pursuit of these leaders in ethical moral actions. Transformational leader literature has been linked to the long-standing literature on virtue, the moral character of Socratic and Confucian typologies, as well as modern Western ethical agenda. It is important that transformational leadership overcome the unethical pseudo transformational leadership images, which plagues organizations today. Pseudo-transformational leaders endorses only them self. Oppression of its followers, their ideas, and individualization is practice. Submission is enforced, and in some cases these leaders (Jim Jones) invent fabricated obstacles, and teach fictitious visions of superiority. These imaginary enemies instill fear into their followers of outsiders. Some Pseudo-transformational leaders are not so prevalent; they straddle the line of moral virtue. They make inspiring appeals and lead everyone to focus on the positive to maintain creditability with the unsuspecting followers they manipulate. They withhold information (Enron). In some instances they support a proposal in public while privately they may directly impede on its progress. This is done in an effort to postpone or continually delay its implementation. For a period of time pseudo-transformational leaders appear like saints, but are deceptive devils. They go through great lengths to prove to their followers their righteousness. This convinces many to believe they are following a transformational leader, unbeknownst to them they fund the masquerade created by these pseudo-transformational leaders, either until they are swindled out of all their money or until exposed by law enforcement agents. Even after their exposure they will still be able to convince some of their innocence, or justify their wrong doing as being right because of their superiority (Charles Mason). According to Kanungo and Mendoca (1996), transformational leaders are guided by unselfish values. They influence followers with empowerment rather than control. They strive to help their followers develop their own qualities. Authentic transformational leadership fosters moral values of honesty, loyalty and fairness. Values of justice, equality and human rights are a mark of their character. They are sincere leaders who strive to lead followers to attain the organizations objectives and goals. These leaders create vision for their followers, and implement strategies to help them accomplish their goals. Research on Transformational Leadership Effectiveness Three studies were examined to illustrate the effect transformational leadership has in particular situations and its effectiveness Transformation leadership style effect on procedural justice Employee relationships in procedural justice studies did not emphasize which leadership style would enhance procedural justice effects. It was not until recently when Judge Piccolo, and Ilies (2004) statement about the Ohio State factors of justice theory and its importance for future research did scholars begin to examine leadership style effects on justice issues. De Cremer (2004) introduced the leader fairness theory. It suggests that the effectiveness of procedural justice depended on the type of leadership style used to ratify the procedures (De Cremer Tyler, 2005). Transformation leaders have the ability to articulate a shared vision, intellectually stimulate employees, and provide individual differences for employees (Brown Keeping, 2005). This paper will provide evidence as to whether transformational leadership and procedural justice interact in affecting employees’ response. According to Burns (1978), transformational leaders embrace moral values, justice equality, and respectful treatment of their followers. These leaders increase their followers’ moral development. Followers focus on important principles such as justice and equality (Brown and Trevino, 2003). From this we can conclude that transformational leaders should increase the influence of procedural justice as well. Another factor of transformational leadership is the ability to motivate their followers to go beyond self-interest and focus on the common interest of the organization (Bass, 1998; Yukl, 1998). This implies that transformational leadership creates a collectivistic environment and attitude among their followers. Studies show that the more employees identify with the organization the more likely procedural justice will influence their behavior. The analysis suggests that transformational leadership style heightens employee’s awareness of justice issues and a strong sense of group identification which make it a good moderator for procedural justice. Theories of procedural justice have strong emotional consequences (Tyler and Smith, 1998). Procedural injustices bring into being feelings of anger, rejection, and resentment which can influence a wide range of negative emotions (DE Cremer, 2004). In the first study the focus was on how procedural justice and transformational leadership style effects the self-esteem and emotions of followers. The two theories studied are Hypothesis 1) Leader’s transformational behavior and procedural justice interact, such that the effects of procedural justice on followers’ negative emotions are stronger when the leader is high in a transformational style rather than low. Hypothesis 2) Leader’s transformational behavior and procedural justice interact, such that the effects of procedural justice on followers’ self-esteem are stronger when the leader is high in a transformational style rather than low. The author conducted three studies to test these theories. In the first study, 69 Dutch men and women, undergraduate students participated. The results showed that procedural justice influenced participant negative emotions more, if the leadership style was high in transformational behavior. Fairness of procedures affects both personal and collective self-esteem. Fairness in the work environment signals to employees that they are respected, that how they feel matters, because they are valued. Employees with good self evaluations have higher self-esteem (Leary, 2001). In the second study, 57 Dutch men and women undergraduate students participated. The results showed in the high transformational leadership negative emotions were significantly influenced by procedural justice; however for a low transformational leader this was not the case. In the third study, the employees’ perception of their supervisor’s procedural justice and transformational leadership style was examined and the effective responses were measured by means of organization based self-esteem. HRM managers handed out questionnaires at random to 575 male and female civil servants to participate. A total 257 were returned, yielding a response rate of 45%. The results show that procedural justice was affected only when the leader was high in transformational leadership style. The results from the scenario experiment, laboratory experiment, and the organizational survey confirmed the influence of procedural justice and transformational leadership style interaction has a pr onounced affect on their follower’s emotions, and self-esteem. Employees pay close attention to whether leaders use correct and fair procedures when making decisions and allocating outcomes i. e. procedural justice (Leventhal, 1980; Thibaut Walker, 1975). According Burns (1978) transformational leaders encourage followers to embrace moral values, justice, equality, in turn this increase their awareness of fairness and justice, which increase the influence of procedural justice. Transformation leadership effect on quality The second study was conducted at The University of Missouri-Rolla (UMR). UMR received the Missouri Quality Award in 1995 after four years of quality management implementation. UMR was the first public research university in the nation to win this award, and was chosen because of its receipt of the quality award for practicing quality management. The study was conducted by Hirtz, P, D. from University of Missouri-Rolla, Murray, S. L. from University of Missouri-Rolla, and Riordan, C. A. from Central Michigan University, were the effects of leadership on quality was examined. The objective of this study was to identify what relationship existed between the leadership style of administrative service heads, and the perceived implementation level of quality management? The focus was on transformational leadership, transactional and non-transactional leadership styles effectiveness and their effect on quality. The multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) by Bass and Avolio (1995) was administered to nonacademic administrative and service departments at the University of Missouri-Rolla. The campus mail system was used to distribute the surveys to 438 employees in 29 departments. Each survey was coded to guarantee the confidentiality. There were one hundred-nine surveys returned completed constituting 24. 9 % response rate. 24 department leaders consisting of 8 females, and 16 males were included in the study. Each survey determines the leadership style of the department’s manager along with a quality management self-assessment survey to determine the level of quality management implementation. The theories studied Hypothesis 1) Consider the incidence of beneficial leader behaviors (idealized attributes, idealized behaviors, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, and contingent reward) would be positively related to quality management departmental behavior (leadership, information and analysis, strategic planning, human resource development and management, process management, customer focus/satisfaction, and overall total quality score). Hypothesis 2) Consider the incidence of dysfunctional leader behaviors (management-by-exception- active/passive and laissez-faire) would be negatively related to quality management. The results of the survey support the first hypothesis that effective transformational leadership has a direct effect on the successful implementation of quality management in administrative service. The results in the second hypothesis support the theory that passive leadership styles negatively impact efforts of quality management. Transformational leadership universal effectiveness In the third study the focus is on weather transformational leadership is effective universally, and determines how situational moderators limit its effectiveness. The author examines several situational aspects; leader-member relations, task structure, leader position power, follower ability level, and follower authoritarianism, and concludes that effectiveness of leadership is situational determined. Burns (1978), Bass (1985) believe that transformational leaders motivate employees to perform by transforming their attitudes, to strive to achieve the organizations goals. A total of 157 civil servants at one of the engineering services agency branches responded to the survey at a 76 % rate of return. All participants were assured their confidentiality. Each survey included the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire- 5X (MLQ), developed by Bass and Avolio (1989). It consisted of 60, five-point scale items to measure transformational leadership. This MLQ measure is a social-report of the employees perceptions of their leaders transformational behavior. Two individual motive pattern measurements were used: (1) growth need strength, and (2) need for autonomy. Growth need strength was assessed using the standardized twelve-item scale developed by Hackman and Oldham (1974). Need for autonomy was assessed using nine items of the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS) (Edwards, 1953). The theories studied Hypothesis 1) Whether the follower motive patterns influence the effectiveness of transformational leadership. Hypothesis 2) Whether transformational leadership is more appropriately viewed from individual-level analysis or a multi-level analysis. The results from the first hypothesis revealed that some followers are more receptive to transformational leaders. The study also reveals that situational moderators contribute to the prediction of outcome variables beyond that of leadership behaviors alone. Transformational leaders may be more effective in some environments than they are in others. Transformational leaders in this study were more effective with followers with high growth need strength, compared to followers with low growth need strength. Followers with higher independence rate their leaders as more transformational and are seen by the leader as being more effective in their units. The results from the second hypothesis revealed that transformational leadership is effective in individual and multi-level analysis. Evidence proved that transformational leadership includes behaviors that are apparent with some consistency to all group members. However, it can be applied to some followers more than to others. This supports the individualized consideration behavior of transformational leadership style. Conclusion Further research of how situations affect the effectiveness of transformational leadership is needed. It is clear in this test that quality management programs supported by top management’s commitment to the programs success in turn ensure the programs success. Transformational leaders have unshakable morals, and beliefs, and their ability communicate the organizations vision of the future, allow employees to support and adopt those convictions as their own. Transformational leadership invigorates exploration of innovative ideas that will improve the organizations as well as employees performance. This stimulates an environment that is adoptive to the change which is imperative for the organization to sustain their position in the global market among competitors. The implementation of having top management lead with compassion to promote change directly impact employees self worth to the organization which create loyalty and the diligence needed for them help the organization achieve its goals. This research supports the hypothesis that transformational leadership is positively related to the successful implementation of quality management in administrative service. It also supports the position that passive styles of leadership negatively impact the implementation of quality management. Investments in top manager leadership needed to development into transformational leadership promote higher performance expectation that in turn transcend throughout the organization. The charisma of transformational leaders inspires their followers to emulate them. This will allow the rapid spread of transformation leadership style; which creates a quality conscious organization committed to achieving the organizational goals.