TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Definition
Model and Dimensions
Transformational leadership is a management philosophy that encourages and inspires employees to innovate and develop new ways to grow and improve the path to a company’s future success. Using this method, executives give trusted employees the independence to make decisions and support new problem-solving approaches.
- Intellectual stimulation: Transformational leaders not only challenge the status quo; they also encourage creativity among followers. The leader encourages followers to explore new ways of doing things and new opportunities to learn.
- Individualized consideration: Transformational leadership also involves supporting and encouraging individual followers. To foster supportive relationships, transformational leaders keep lines of communication open so that followers feel free to share ideas and so that leaders can offer immediate recognition of the unique contributions of each follower.
- Inspirational motivation: Transformational leaders have a clear vision that they can articulate to followers. These leaders can also help followers experience the same passion and motivation to fulfil these goals.
- Idealized influence: The transformational leader serves as a role model for followers. Because followers trust and respect the leader, they emulate this individual and internalize their ideals.
Weakness
- The transformational leader’s inspiring, big-picture vision is not always paired with detailed directions of how to get there.
- If the vision is too grand or aggressive, employees can burn out or get discouraged trying to achieve it.
- By definition, a transformational leader brings change to an organization, but in some cases, that change can be too disruptive. Leaders must focus on the benefit to the organization, not change for the sake of change.
- There is always a risk that some employees won’t agree with the transformational leader’s vision. It doesn’t mean they won’t do their jobs, but it could be in a less-than-optimal way.
- A key part of being a transformational leader is keeping enthusiasm levels high and engaging with employees. This is best accomplished with ongoing proactive communication and encouragement, which can be time-consuming.
Strength
- These leaders have a less heavy-handed management approach, where employees are freer to experiment and suggest new ideas and approaches.
- Employees are encouraged to focus on what’s good for the organization rather than their own self-interests.
- More new ideas and approaches come from the people doing the work, dealing directly with customers and production issues.
- Employees have a personal interest in the organization’s goals, leading to greater commitment and effort in the workplace.
- An effective transformational leader unites the organization in a common cause.
World Transformational Leaders
Reed Hastings
The co-founder and co-CEO of Netflix helped change entertainment forever with its namesake service that has established streaming in the industry. Originally, the company shipped DVDs (digital video disc) for a monthly fee and later transitioned to streaming. Under Hastings’s leadership, Netflix grew beyond being a delivery service to become a major provider of original content. Going a step further, Netflix developed complex algorithms about viewer consumption to make relevant content recommendations. A key element of Hastings’s leadership has been his belief that the company needed to have the right culture. After meeting with employees to hear how they thought the company could best operate, he created an internal culture guide. Later, it was posted publicly online and became a screening tool that helped dissuade incompatible people from applying to work at Netflix.
CHARISMATIC VS. TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Similarities
- Engaging and motivating
- Ability to develop strong interpersonal relationships and connections that inspire trust and loyalty
- Strong communication skills
- Empathetic
Differences
- Transformational leadership is focused on improvements and changes that forward the vision of the organization or department at large
- Charismatic leadership may be focused on the organization or department, but they may also be focused on forwarding their own agenda or mandate
PREVIOUS RESEARCH RELATED TO TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Impact of transformational leadership on work performance, burnout and social loafing: a mediation model
Khan, H., Rehmat, M., Butt, T. H., Farooqi, S., & Asim, J. (2020). Impact of transformational leadership on work performance, burnout and social loafing: A mediation model. Future Business Journal, 6(1), 1–13. Springeropen. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-020-00043-8
The aim of this research was to study the effect of transformational leadership on employees’ work outcomes which include their work performances and working burnout, and their working behavior such as social loafing at workplace. Also, it studies the impact of intrinsic motivation as a mediator between transformational leadership and other stated variables. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to collect data from 308 employees working in the telecommunication sector. To test the hypotheses, Model 4 of Process Hayes was used to test direct and mediating effects among transformational leadership and employees’ work outcomes and working behavior. The results showed that transformational leadership has a significant positive relationship with mediator intrinsic motivation. The results also concluded that work performance has positive significant relationship with transformational leadership. However, there is indirect and insignificant relationship of transformational leadership with working burnout and social loafing. Therefore, it can be stated that organizational leaders must have transformational attributes by getting informed of their employees well because transformational leader can inspire employees to achieve anticipated or significant outcomes. It gives employees self-confidence over specific jobs, as well as the power to make decisions once they have been trained.