Review Questions – Chapter 8: Transformational Leadership

1. Describe what is implied by the term “transformational leadership.”
Transformational leadership is a form of leadership that gives more attention to the charismatic and affective elements of leadership. It is concerned with emotion, values, ethics standard and long-term goals. It involves an exceptional amount of influence that moves followers to accomplish more than they thought they were capable of.

2. What accounts for the popularity of this concept?
The popularity of this concept may be partially due its emphasis on intrinsic motivation and follower development, which fits more closely with todays’ work groups who want to be inspired and empowered through leadership in times of uncertainty. Through the multitude of studies conducted on transformational leadership today, it is clear that this concept occupies a central place in leadership research.

3. Explain the differences between transactional and transformational leadership.
Transactional leadership, often the bulk of leadership models, focuses on the exchanges between followers and leaders. This type of leadership can occur at any level of an organization and can involve any transaction between a leader and a follower. A simple example can be demonstrated through a teacher giving a student a grade for work completed.
Contrastingly, transformational leadership focuses on the process of a leader building a connection with a follower that increases the motivation and moral of both the leader and the follower. This type of leader is attentive to the needs of their followers and motivates them to read their full potential. A classic example of transformational leadership is Mohandas Gandhi.

4. Define and describe pseudotransformational leadership from Bass’s (1998, 2006) perspective.
Pseudotransformational leadership according to Bass describes a form of leadership that is characterized by leaders who are self-consumed, exploitative, power oriented and have warped morals. This form of leadership is considered personalized as it focuses on the leader’s interest above the followers.

5. What did Christie, Barling and Turner (2011) contribute to our understanding of pseudotransformational leadership?
The model published by Christie, Barling and Turner in 2011 helped to clarify the meaning of pseudotransformational leadership. The model defined pseudotransformational leadership as leadership that is self-serving, that is unwilling to encourage independent thought in followers and exhibits little general caring for other. While this type of leader will have strong inspirational talent, they are often manipulative and direct followers into believing their values.

6. Discuss what other real-world leaders, past or present, could be considered transformational leaders.
While many real-world leaders both past or present could be considered transformational leaders a few that stick out to me are: Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi
And Martin Luther King Jr. All of these leaders not only had strong foundations and roots for what they believed in but were also very charismatic leaders that called their followers to support their beliefs and ultimately make a lasting impact. A poignant example of this can be seen through Nelson Mandela, who through his charisma and his high moral helped to transform a generation and ultimately end the apartheid in South Africa.

7. Explain the personality characteristics and types of behaviors often associated with charismatic leaders.
According to House, a charismatic leader is a leader that is: dominant, self-confident, has a strong sense of their own moral values as well as a strong desire to influence others. Charismatic leaders also typically exhibit specific forms of behavior. These include being strong role models for their beliefs and values they hope their followers will adopt, having a strong sense of competence and articulating ideological goals that have moral overtones. Furthermore, charismatic leaders communicate high expectations for followers and exhibit confidence as well as arousing task-relevant motives in followers.

8. According to research, how does using transformational leadership result in growth for the leader?
Compared to transactional leadership, transformational leadership results in performance that goes well beyond what is expected. In this form of leadership in order for the followers to grow the leader is held to a very high standard including characteristic such as setting an example and making people feel inspired in the work environment. This high standard required to ensure effective leadership, requires leaders to step up to the plate, causing them to grow as well.

9. Describe the view that leadership is on a continuum ranging from transformational to laissez-faire.
Bass and Burn’s suggested the idea that transformational and transactional leadership were not mutually exclusive, but instead ranged on a continuum from transformational leadership on the far left to laissez-faire leadership, or lack of leadership on the far right.

10. Explain the seven factors incorporated in the Bass Model of Transformational and Transactional Leadership.
1. Charisma/Idealized influence; this is the emotional component of leadership. Idealized influence characterizes a leader that acts as a strong role model for followers and often has very high standards of moral and ethical conduct. These leaders are usually deeply respected by their followers, who will place great trust in them. This factor is measured on two components, namely the attributive component and the behavioral component.
2. Inspirational motivation; characterizes a leader who communicates high expectations to followers and inspires them to be committed and part of the shared vision of the organization. Team spirit is essential to this factor of leadership, as leaders apply to emotional appeals that focus the group efforts on achieving more than simply their self-interest.
3. Intellectual stimulation; characterizes a leader that stimulates followers to be creative and challenge their own beliefs as well as those of the organization. This type of leader will support followers as they try new approaches through thinking things out on their own and engaging in careful problem solving.
4. Individualized consideration; characterizes a leader who provides a supportive atmosphere, in which they listen to the individual needs of the followers. Leaders that exhibit this factor act as coaches when assisting followers and may use delegation to help followers grow through personal challenges.
5. Contingent reward; is a transactional leadership factor. It characterizes a leader that is leaders and followers engage in an exchange process for specific rewards. In this type of leadership, the leader will try and negotiate with the follower and try to obtain an agreement of what must be done and what payoffs will come from it.
6. Management-by-expectation; is the second factor of transactional leadership. It characterizes leadership that involves corrective criticism, negative feedback and negative reinforcement. This form of leadership can take two forms, either active or passive. An active leader will actively watch followers for mistakes and rules violations and correct them, whereas a passive leader will only intervene after standards have not been met or problems have arisen.
7. Laissez-Faire; represents the absence of leadership. The French word laissez-faire means hands off and characterizes a leader who does exactly that. This leader abdicates responsibility, delays decisions and makes little effort to help followers satisfy their needs.

11. Describe the work of Bennis and Nanus and the work of Kouzes and Posner. What are the similarities in their research methods?
Both Bennis and Nanus and Kouzes and Posner utilized similar research methods in while collecting their research. Both groups identified middle or senior level leaders and interviewed them with open-ended semi-structured questionnaires. This information collected was then used to develop their respective models of transformational leadership.

12. Explain the four leadership strategies identified by Bennis and Nanus.
1. Clear Vision; describes a leader that has an attractive and realistic view of the future. This vision is usually clear and easy to understand, resulting in followers understanding what role they play within the organization. In order for this vision to be successful however it must grow from both the leader and the follower.
2. Social Architects; are leaders that create a shape for their organization, specifically the shared meanings of followers. This leadership strategy communicates a direction that often transforms an organizations norms and values.
3. Leaders created trust; through articulating a direction and then consistently implementing this direction, even if it holds a high degree of uncertainty. Establishing trust in an organization, not only gives the organization a sense of integrity, but it also propels forward the vision of the organization.
4. Utilized creative development of self; through self-regard. This is an important strategy of leadership as it shows that leaders understand their strengths and weaknesses and based on their knowledge of their competence were able to immerse themselves in tasks and the overarching goals of the organization.

13. Explain Kouzes and Posner’s five practices that enable leaders to get extraordinary things accomplished.
1. Model the way; characterizes a practice in which the leader is clear about his/her values and philosophy. This practice makes leaders exemplary to others as they follow through on their promises while affirming the common values shared with others.
2. Inspire a shared vision; includes creating a compelling vision that guides followers’ behavior. This strategy of leadership challenges others to transcend the status quo to do something for others.
3. Challenge the process; is a strategy utilized by leaders that challenges the status quo. This expands to being willing to innovate, grow and improve. Through taking risks leaders are being like pioneers showing followers how to take risks and learn from your mistakes along the way.
4. Enable others to act; characterizes a leader that highly values team work and cooperation. This type of leader will listen closely to diverse points of view and treat it with respect and dignity. Essentially, this form of leadership fosters an environment in which people are inspired and motivated to work.
5. Encourage the heart; typifies a type of leader that encourages the heart through awarding accomplishments. They will give praise to workers for a job well done and use authentic celebrations for show appreciation for others. This ultimately results in a greater collective identity ad community spirit.

14. What are strengths of transformational leadership theory?
Transformational leadership has six main strengths. Firstly, it is a theory that has been widely researched from many different perspectives and well-known organizations. It has also been a focal point for large amount of leadership research, which increases the credibility of this theory. Secondly, transformational leadership is intuitively appealing as it lines up with societies popular notion of what a leader is – a person on the front lines advocating change. The next strength of this theory is that it incorporates both the leader and the follower, instead of placing the responsibility of leadership solely on the leader. Furthermore, transformational leadership expands the realm of leadership models through not only including the exchange of rewards, but also the leaders’ attention to the needs and growths of followers. Finally, it is not only seen as an effective form of leadership (as seen in various research studies), but it is also places a strong emphasis on followers needs, values and moral.

15. What are criticisms of transformational leadership theory?
Contrary to the strengths of transformational leadership, the theory also contains six key criticisms. These are described in more detail below:
1. Lacks conceptual clarity; as it covers a wide range of activities and characteristics. As this theory contains multiple dimensions it is often hard to know where the parameters of each dimension are.
2. Difficult to measure; as there is no universal way of measuring transformational leadership. Although MLQ has often been used, the validity of this method has been questioned.
3. Treats leadership as a personality trait rather than a behavior. The downfall of this perspective is that it treats transformational leadership as innate, rather than a skill that can be learnt over time.
4. Lack of research as to whether transformational leadership actually transforms organizations. While there is evidence that transformational leadership is associated with positive outcomes, it has not be directly found as the causal factor.
5. Transformational leadership is elitist and anti-democratic. This theory by some is considered to be elitist as it focuses on creating changes and establishing a vision, which strong makes the impression the leader is working independently as supposed to collaboratively.
6. Potential to be abused. As transformational leadership is often concerned with changing peoples’ viewpoints, it has the potential to result in negative outcomes.

16. Why might the transformational leadership approach not be as effective with Millennials?
The transformational approach may not be as effective with millennials as it only provides a broad set of generalizations of what a typical transformational leader is like as supposed to a set of guidelines. This can make it harder for millennials to know how to act in situations of leadership as unlike other approaches, this approach does not clearly spell a leaders’ actions, but rather provides a general way of thinking of leadership.