In the simplest terms, transformational leadership is a process that changes and transforms individuals northouse 2001. One disadvantage of transformational leadership is that it is not universally applicable. Transformational leaders help employees accept change through engagement and improving relationship or cooperation. The characteristics transformational leadership comprises charisma, inspiration, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration. Yet a causal relationship between transformational leadership and both followers work characteristics and task performance has. They have insight into their followers needs and utilize this to positively influence their followers. Transformational leadership transformational leadership is defined as a leadership approach that causes change in individuals and social systems. The paper draws on the main theories of transformational leadership to present the key behaviors that distinguish transformational leaders from transactional leaders. Inspirational motivation this is the very basic quality of the transformational leaders. A score for transformational leadership was then determined based on qualities such as providing intellectual stimulation, giving positive feedback for good performance, leading by example, and helping employees feel like they were making a contribution toward the goals of the group. There is a team spirit and camaraderie among groups that are guided by transformational leadership. A leader who has empathy interacts with the reality of other peoples lives. Being a leader is not always smooth sailing, you often have to make tough decisions. International journal of management and applied research, 2014, vol.
There are certain core characteristics the majority of leaders possess. We draw on the main theories of transformational leadership to present the key behaviors that distinguish transformational leaders from transactional leaders. Inspire others through transformational leadership. Leadership is a trait of influencing the behavior of individuals, in order to fulfill organizational objectives. Fivefactor model of personality and transformational. Transformational leaders do not shy away from difficult. A basic ingredient in transformational leadership development consists in identifying leadership qualities via distribution of the multifactor leadership questionnaire mlq to followers of the target leaders. It is vital that the mlq yields an accurate and unbiased assessment of leaders on the various leadership dimensions. The concept of transformational leadership was introduced by james macgregor burns in 1978 in his descriptive research on political leaders, but its usage has spread into organisational psychology and management with further modifications by b. Pdf transformational leadership, job characteristics, and. Transformational leaders find motivation from within and use that as the driving force to effectively. These outcomes occur because the transformational leader offers followers.
In its ideal form, it creates valuable and positive change in the followers with the end goal of developing followers into leaders. It has been proved to stimulate innovation and performance for the leader and follower, and a 20 study by the journal of occupational and environmental medicine also found that it leads to increased wellbeing amongst employees. Their vision is consistent, tethered to the end goal. By appealing to followers ideals and values, transformational leaders enhance. In order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the target leaders, the mlq is distributed to their followers or coworkers.
Although perceptions of core job characteristics are clearly dependent on structural aspects of ones formal job description, transformational leaders can foster. The qualities of transformational leaders and what. For leader behaviors, we focus on transformational leadership. For him, transformational leadership is a flawless, perfect and idealised form of leadership. The transformational leader also instills in their cohorts vision and direction.
While some leadership styles rely on blind obedience and compartmentalization, the transformational style brings goals into perspective to make them the goals of the team, and not just the leader. Transformational leadership focuses on what is in the best interest of the group as a whole, rather than what only serves the individual. The identification of leadership qualities is a basic ingredient of these transformational leadership development programmes. They seek to comprehend issues through the lived realities of other people, by listening to the experiences and emotions of others, or by understanding anothers experience based on their own. Characteristics of a transformational leader saint mary. These four factors include idealized influence, inspirational motivation. Enacted in its authentic form, transformational leadership enhances the motivation, morale. Characteristics transformational change leadership.
This means that conscious effort must be made to adopt a transformational style. Juan carlos pastor, professor of organizational behavior and academic director of the leadership center at ie, talks in this podcast about the five basic characteristics that new transformational leaders must have in order to execute the change needed by organizations. The manager helps in setting a compelling vision with. The relationship between transformational leadership and. According to purvanova, bono and dzieweczynski, 2006, this theory explains one of the fundamental ways in which leaders influence followers. Transformational leaders are not afraid to push their ideas forward, even in the face of adversity, challenge, and risk.
This cq dossier describes the qualities of transformational leaders and how they gain commitment to their vision and the mission of the organization. Moreover, taking sir richard branson as a living example, of such a leadership style, this research discusses his style and sees him as the transformational leader. For transformational leaders, followers are more than just employees. Collectively, these leader traits span the demographic, task competence, and interpersonal dimensions. Identification of transformational leadership qualities. A number of leadership theories have been propounded by various management experts considering behaviour, traits, nature, etc. The relationship between transformational leadership. Transformational leadership theory fits into the succession planning and management equation of strategic human resource planning for enhancing orgainsational performance. Transformational leaders inspire followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes and, in the process, develop their own leadership capacity. Applying transformational leadership because transformational leadership covers a wide range of aspects within leadership, there are no specific steps for a manager to follow. Transformational leadership and performance in brazil although national culture often instills idiosyncrasies in the organizational environment, which at times may render management practices recommended in the useu contexts less effective or not. Five characteristics of the transformational leader ie. This paper demonstrates that the traits abraham possessed, traits useful to individuals desiring to become transformational leaders, were.
It is an organizations ability to develop this next level of leadership capabilities through training programs. In transactional leadership, leaderfollower relationships are based on a series of exchanges or bargains between leaders and followers. Transformational leadership to use this approach in the workforce, one must first understand exactly what transformational leadership is. There are 4 typical characteristics that outline or form the basis of transformational leaders. This article focuses on two sources of bias which may occur in. The reason many leaders strive for a transformational leadership style is because it delivers real, tangible results. First, because very few studies have related any direct measure of a big five trait to transformational leadership, we describe characteristics of the traits that are conceptually relevant to transformational. Difference between transactional and transformational. One of the greatest transformational leaders of all time was, arguably, the biblical abraham, progenitor of three major religions. Colquitt university of florida although the effects of transformational leadership on task performance and organizational citizenship behavior ocb are welldocumented, the mechanisms that ex. Pdf transformational leadership, job characteristics.
Leadership study approaches leadership is a complex and fascinating topic. T ransformational leadership theory has captured the interest of many researchers in the field of. Transformational leadership characteristics can contribute to inspiring your teams, encouraging initiative and innovation, and improving care. Becoming an effective transformational leader is a process. It is easy to let ego take over when you are in a position of power. On the contrary, transformational leaders motivate their followers to do. Everyone knows the name of a transformational leader, someone who demonstrated that the sky was the limit and helped others along the way.
A master of arts in educational leadership program studies the differences between adequate leaders and those who transform their circumstances and the people around them. Transformational leadership represents the essential quality for successful management of transformational organizational changes. Leadership expert bill hogg talks about 10 characteristics of transformational leaders. Weaknesses and limitations of transformational leadership.
291 442 1288 1055 1418 116 621 743 260 1075 773 488 1103 381 1410 184 1081 497 966 91 245 962 734 1593 989 283 371 375 903 950 77 765 1271 439 745 1369 1261