THARMARAJ SUBRAMANIAM

(TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP )

1.WHAT IS TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP?

Since the early 1980s, one of the current, most encompassing and most popular
approaches to leadership that has been the focus of much research is the transformational
approach. Transformational leadership is concerned with the process of how certain leaders
are able to inspire followers to accomplish great things. As its name implies, transformational
leadership is a process that changes and transform people.

Transformational leaders have a vision of what they want to achieve and the ability to
clearly communicate this vision so that everyone in the organization understands what is
needed to achieve this vision. Transformational leaders are recognized as change agents who
are good role models, who can create and articulate a clear vision for an organization, who
empower followers to meet higher standards, who act in ways that make others want to trust
them and who give meaning to organizational life.

Transformational leadership also inspires people to achieve unexpected or remarkable

results. It gives followers autonomy over specific jobs, as well as the authority to make
decisions once they have been trained. Some of the basic characteristics of transformational
leadership are inspirational, in that the leader can inspire workers to find better ways of
achieving a goal and mobilization because leadership can mobilize people into groups that
can get work done. All of these traits make transformational leadership a good fit for many
types of organizations.

Transformational leadership also is a style of leadership where a leader works with

subordinates to identify needed change, being a role model for followers in order to inspire
them and to raise their interest in the organizations, challenging followers to take greater
ownership for their work, allowing the leader to align followers with tasks that enhance their
performance. It includes assessing followers motivates, satisfying their needs and treating
them as full human beings. Transformational leadership involves an exceptional form of
influence that moves followers to accomplish more than what is usually expected of them.
Therefore, this approach stresses that leaders need to understand and adapt to the needs and
motives of followers. James McGregor Burns introduced the concept of transformational
leadership in his 1978 book, "Leadership." He defined transformational leadership as a
process where "leaders and their followers raise one another to higher levels of morality and
motivation."

2. How does the theory evolve across times ?

Early 1980s the most popular approaches to leadership are focus on research and that
called transformational approach. The term transformational leadership was coined by
sociologist James V. Downton in 1973. The concept of transformational leadership was
initially introduced by leadership expert and presidential biographer James MacGregor
Burns. James McGregor Burns introduced the concept of transformational leadership in 1978.

Transformational leadership occurs when one or more persons engage with others in
such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and
morality.
James MacGregor Burns

According to Burns, a transformational leader changes the lives of people and

organizations by changing perceptions, values, and aspirations of the employees at all the
time working for the greater good of the organization. Leadership expert James McGregor
Burns defined transformational leaders as those who seek to change existing thoughts,
techniques and goals for better results and the greater good. Burns also described
transformational leaders as those who focus on the essential needs of the followers.
Therefore, according to Burns, transformational leadership can be seen when "leaders and
followers make each other to advance to a higher level of moral and motivation." Through
the strength of their vision and personality, transformational leaders are able to inspire
followers to change expectations, perceptions, and motivations to work towards common
goals.

Transformational leadership concept was further developed by Bernard Bass in 1985

when he introduced the methods of measurement of the effectiveness of transformational
Leaders. Bernard M. Bass expanded upon Burns's original ideas to develop what is today
referred to as Basss Transformational Leadership Theory. According to Bernard Bass,
transformational leadership can be defined based on the impact that it has on followers. Bass
also suggested garner trust, respect and admiration from their followers. Around the same
decade earlier in the year of 1976, House published a theory of charismatic leadership which
has become popular among the researchers although the word charisma was first already
mentioned by Weber in 1947 in his studies. Bass expanded and refined the theory of
transformational leadership concentrating more on the followers needs, by describing
transactional and transformational leadership. Transactional is common daily transactions
that exist in life and in organisations to get the work done. Whereas transformational
leadership is the engagement process that heighten the motivation and morality level of the
follower in doing what is good for the organization. Along these times, terms like pseudo-
transformational leadership came into discussion, which concentrates more as a personalised
leadership rather than socialised leadership as the authentic transformational concept of
leadership. Avolio in his book Full Leadership Development : Building the Vital Forces in
Organizations thereafter in 1999 clarified the model saying that transformational and
transactional leadership incorporates seven different factors illustrated in his full-range
leadership model. Therefore, transactional is a telling style, while transformational is a
selling style. We can conclude that :

Transformational leaders specialize in Transactional leaders do the following

Working to change the system Work within the system
Solving challenges by finding experiences Start solving challenges by fitting
that show that old patterns do not fit or work experiences to a known pattern
Wanting to know what has to change Want to know the step-by-step approach
Maximizing their teams capability and Minimize variation of the organization
capacity

Christie et al. (2011), set forth a model of pseudo-transformational leadership as

having four components included idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual
motivation and individualised consideration. Further, Zhu et al. (2011), sorted out the moral
complexities component of authentic transformational leadership influencing the ethics of
individual followers and groups. The studies used synthesis of the earlier qualitative
approaches and moved on to use systematic line of enquiries involving quantitative
approaches like Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) to study of leadership which
measures a leaders behaviour in seven areas as idealized influence (charisma), inspirational
motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, contingent reward,
management-by-exception and laissez-faire. High scores on individualized consideration and
motivation factors are most indicative of strong transformational leadership.

3. What is the main components of the transformational leadership theory ?

The transformation process is constitutes leadership as a single continuum from
transformational to transactional and to laissez-faire kinds of leadership. Additionally, the
theory is further clarified in transformational leadership as having seven different factors in
the Full-Range Leadership Model in three parts: four transformational factors, two
transactional factors and the non-leadership, non-transactional factor of leadership. The
transformational factors in concerned with developing and improving the followers to
achieve their highest potential. The transactional leadership transforming either the leader or
the follower in the process of getting the work done. On the other hand, laissez-faire
leadership which shows the absence of leadership where no exchange with followers in done
along the process and no attempt is set to develop the followers. Bass suggested that there
were four different components of transformational leadership:

Idealized Influence The transformational leader serve as a role model for followers. The
transformational leaders act as role models and display a charismatic personality that
influences others to want to become more like the leader. It is because followers trust and
respect the leader, they emulate this individual and internalize his or her ideals. It is through
this concept of idealized influence that the leader builds trust with his followers and the
followers develop confidence in their leader. The leader also provide followers with a vision
and a sense of mission. The idealized influence factor is measured on two components: an
attributional component that refers to the attributions of leaders made by followers based on
perceptions they have of their leaders and a behavioural component that refers to followers
observations of leader behaviour. Transformational Leadership Factors are :

Inspirational Motivation Transformational leaders have a clear vision that they are able to
articulate to followers. These leaders are also able to help followers experience the same
passion and motivation to fulfill these goals. Inspirational motivation refers to the leader's
ability to inspire confidence, motivation and a sense of purpose in his followers. The
transformational leader must articulate a clear vision for the future, communicate
expectations of the group and demonstrate a commitment to the goals that have been laid out.
Other important behaviours of the leader include his continued optimism, enthusiasm and
ability to point out the positive.

Intellectual Stimulation Transformational leaders not only challenge the status quo but they
also encourage creativity among followers. The leader encourages followers to explore new
ways of doing things and new opportunities to learn. The leader supports his followers by
involving them in the decision-making process and stimulating their efforts to be as creative
and innovative as possible to identify solutions. The leader helps change the way followers
think about and frame problems and obstacles. The vision of the leader helps followers see
the big picture and succeed in their efforts.

Individualized Consideration Transformational leadership also involves offering support

and encouragement to individual followers. In order 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 direct recognition of the unique contributions of each
follower. Through one-on-one coaching and mentoring, the transformational leader provides
opportunities for customized training sessions for each team member. These activities allow
team members to grow and become fulfilled in their positions.

Transactional Leadership factors are as follow :

Contingent reward It is an exchange process between leaders and followers in which effort
by followers is exchanged for specified rewards.

Management-by-exception - involves corrective criticism, negative feedback and negative

reinforcement. A leader using the active form of managements-by-exception watches
followers closely for mistakes or rule violations and then takes corrective action.

Laisseez-faire factor describes leadership that falls at the far right side of the transactional-
transformational leadership continuum.

Therefore, transformational leader give a lot to the team and care deeply about the
groups ability to accomplish its goals and able to inspire a great deal of commitment in their
followers.
4. How is the theory working in areal setting? Use your organization as an example.
School is the most important organisation in Malaysian educational system. One of
the elements to a school's success is an experienced leader, who has a positive attitude and is
able to create a school environment that encourages cooperation and communication among
staff members, between staff and administration, and between staff members and the pupils.
A solid leadership is the most essential key to school success. For example, it was inspiring
how in 2004 excellent principal (JUSA C) Mary Yap Kain Ching transformed a wrecked
school into a tremendous school. How did she motivate the whole school ranging from the
teachers to the students to follow her vision? Why was the whole school so committed to
change themselves from an ordinary school into the first 30 schools nationally entitled for
cluster schools? Undoubtedly, this is what was believed as the character of transformational
leader. The effectiveness of the leader transcended the expectation, included charismatic
characteristic, able to evoke the inspiration, stimulate the intellectual and individually tolerate
others. Therefore, leaders who practice transformational leadership inspire their subordinates
to identify their interest and look into focused and centralized aim.

Transformational leaders focus on their effort to long term goals, put values and
stresses on development, inspire the subordinate to follow their vision and achieve it. The
central concept for transformational leadership is change and the role of leadership in
envisioning and implementing the transformation of organisation performance. With
transformational leadership, the subordinates feel trust, admiration, loyalty and respect
toward the leader and they are motivated to do more than they are originally expected to do
due to the importance of leadership in bringing success to the school.

The transformational leadership behaviours were positively related with teacher's

organisational commitment. This means that leadership behaviours which involve
headmaster's inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individual consideration do
explain how teacher feels about wanting to, needing to, or feeling obligated to, stay with the
organisation. The more the headmaster displays these behaviours, the more teachers may
want to, need to, or feel obligated to stay in the school. Therefore, the transformational
leadership, do play very important roles in determining levels of affective commitment,
continuance commitment and normative commitment of the teachers in that particular school.
For that, headmaster really needs to pay attention on their leadership styles and behaviour in
order to make the teachers more committed to the school. Headmaster should do everything
he or she can to give information and experience to teachers in order to accomplish certain
task or jobs, especially for those who are new in this field. This could improve their early job
experience. Headmaster also should provide opportunities for committing acts and the school
must show high level of commitment to the teachers in return. There also needs for training
programme, which designed to improve and to increase headmaster's transformational
leadership. This might be an effective strategy to boost teacher's commitment towards the
school.

The challenges of modern organisation required the objective perspectives of

managers as well as the brilliant flashes of vision and commitment that wise leadership
produce. Leaders who practice transformational leadership inspire their subordinates to
identify their interest and look into focused and centralized aim.