What is transformational leadership?

Answered by Priya Chetty on April 8, 2012 Leave a comment (0) Go to comments

Transform as the name suggests represents change. A transformational process is one that creates some kind of change. Change is inevitable in any organization. It is likely to occur in some point of time of the organizations’ period of functioning.

All organizations can introduce change (Lowe, Kroeck and Sivasubramaniam, 1996). However, only a few of them can implement change successfully. Successful implementation of change lies in efficient change management and managing change efficiently lies in the hands of leaders working in an organization. Transformational leadership is one that brings about change in individuals as well as organizations in order to contribute to the success of an organization (Roberts, 1985).

Transformational leaders strive towards bringing in the best out of their followers by identifying their strengths and weaknesses and improving their level of commitment towards the organization. In most cases the vision and mission of these leaders are in line with that of their followers. Transformation leadership concentrates on empowering workforce rather than exhibiting control on them. Transformational leadership is widely adopted in today’s organizations (Bass and Riggio 2006). Today organizations tend to motivate individuals to attain their professional objectives not by enforcing rules but by bringing in them a sense of personnel commitment towards the workplace. Communication is indispensable in any work environment and effective communication is mandatory for the success of any enterprise. Transformational approach to leadership enables better communication in the work environment by preventing miscommunications (Northouse, 2009).

To conclude, transformational leadership lays emphasis on intrinsic motivation of followers. Leadership as a transformational process lays emphasis on the subordinates to change for their betterment, as well as, the improvement of the organization. Thus, transformational leadership creates with its additive effect performance beyond expectations.

References

Northouse P G (2009), Leadership: Theory and Practice, SAGE, India.
Lowe K B, Kroeck K G and Sivasubramaniam N (1996), Effective correlates of transformational and transactional leadership, Thomson Learning, pp 385-425, New York.
Bass B M and Riggio R E (2006), Transformational Leadership, Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers, New Jersey.
Roberts N C (1985), Transforming Leadership: A process of collective action, Human Relations Press, pp 1023-1046, Melbourne