“The study of leadership rivals in age the emergence of civilization, which shaped its leaders as much as it was shaped by them. From its infancy, the study of history has been the study of leaders- what they did and why they did it.”
(Bass,1990)
“..the transformational leader articulates the vision in a clear and appealing manner, explains how to attain the vision, acts confidently and optimistically, expresses confidence in the followers, emphasizes values with symbolic actions, leads by example, and empowers followers to achieve the vision (Yukl, 2002)
Yukl, G. (2002), Leadership in Organizations, 5th ed., Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, .
Leadership is a topic of great importance not only in military or organisational settings but all most in all settings which involves people. It’s a universal activity evident in humankind (Bass,1990). It is a wide and diverse field of knowledge. Leaders are individuals who help their followers or subordinates to carry out a particular task in an efficient and an effective manner. Researches on the topic of leaders and leadership have been taking place for past many decades. One of the more recent styles of leadership which has been considered to be very effective is the transformational leadership. It’s a concept explained by James McGregor Burns in 1978 who was influenced by the work of German sociologist Max Weber. The concept was then further refined and developed by Bernard.M.Bass. The whole concept of transformational leadership talks about how leaders can transform their followers into doing a task better than what is expected from them and how it can help in the betterment of the organisation and the followers. The purpose...
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...s does not explain the leaders’ influence on the group tasks. Northouse(2007) has criticised on the clarity of the theory. He states that the theory is too wide and covers a range of factors that it does not give the complete parameters under the transformational leadership. The four factors of the transformational leadership were found to overlap often which showed that the four dimensions did not have borders (Tracey & Hinkin,1998). The problem of multi co linearity lower than desired reliability in MLQ was most commonly criticized by many researchers.
Hunt (1996) has criticised MLQ (Peter Warr)
The earlier versions of the MLQ were criticised that it measured the attributions and not the leaders’ behaviour. In response to this criticism, Bass and Avolio in the recent version of MLQ has divided the Idealised influenced factor into attributions and behaviour.
According to Riggio (2009), the most popular theory of leadership is transformational. Many believe that these leaders get the job done through inspiring, modeling, and helping others develop their skills as leaders. Research provides clear evidence that groups lead by transformational leaders have higher levels of performance and satisfaction than groups led by other types of leaders (Riggio, 2009). Clear communication is vital to transformational leadership and in order to succeed further, one will need to work on their own skills, and set aside time and space for personal development (Manktelow, 2005).
The Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner (2007) is the result of twenty years of research on the factors that influence and create great leadership. Through studies and stories from leaders with various backgrounds throughout the world, the practices and characteristics that create great leadership are delineated. Leadership is viewed not as a group of inherent characteristics, but as learned behavior that anyone can achieve. The goal of Kouzes and Posner’s book is to inspire and educate leaders through transformational leadership. As such, leadership is about mobilizing others to become and do extraordinary things.
There are many leadership theories that play an important role in the every day workforce. Some of the theories are successful in producing a strong and productive leader, while others lack the qualities required for the job. Out of the multitude of available theories out there, I feel that the Transformational Leadership Theory is the one that stands out as being the most successful. This theory is far from coercive and instead focuses on making a satisfied team that collaborates to form a productive work environment. An environment like this, ran by a top-notch leader, is needed for success.
In civilization, leadership could be a tool to maneuver society from one steady state to another; it is essentially regarding modification. Leaders play a crucial role, not solely as creative thinker and models of reliability in their discrete capability, but also institutionally, in describing, motivating and seeing through transformation. Vision, efficiency and uprightness are at the core of effective leadership. These approaches of leadership are crucial for little and huge scale modification and toward achi...
Reicher, S., Haslam, S., & Hopkins, N. (2005). Social identity and the dynamics of leadership: Leaders and followers as collaborative agents in the transformation of social reality. Leadership Quarterly, 16, 547-568. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2005.06.007
According to Yoder-Wise (2015), a leader can be defined as, “an individual who works with others to develop a clear vision of the preferred future and to make that vision happen” (p 35). As employees, we often have our own ideal of a good leader, which may be influenced by experiences and perception of workplace norms. While one’s opinion of an effective leader may vary, there are several recognized leadership theories. The following will focus on the transformational leadership approach.
Northouse, Peter G. Leaderhip Theory and Practice. Ed. Fifth Edition. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc, 2010.
Bass (1990) states that transformational leadership is identified by different patterns of behavior. Firstly , transformational leadership delivers the charisma to be a leader in order to gain respect and trust. Secondly, the characteristics of a leader show efforts to change a purpose of the transformation process and to effectively communicate. Finally, transformational leadership proposes that leaders treat employees individually to show them attention and provide them coaching and advice to show that you care about your employees. However, Wang and Howell (2010) claim that transformational leadership is in every individual.This means an individual can develop their potential to enhance their abilities and skills to improve and overcome any weaknesses. In relation to group work transformational leadership helps to grow common values and beliefs, and to inspire group members to reach their group goals. In this type of situation, leaders treat equally towards members and to make them feel comfortable. However, on occasions problems occur during team work which puts a leader into a situation to overcome the condition. For example, if one of my team members has no belief in me to lead the group, my attitude towards the group and the member will change as they have shown a lack of confidence and interest in teamwork. According to Novicevic, Harvey, Buckley, Brown & Evans (2006) explains that authentic leadership is when a leader shows their individual responsibility in what they were responsible for in their organization. Novicevic, Harvey, Buckley, Brown & Evans (2006) discusses a particular style of leadership which is the matrix of executive leadership. This style of leadership occurs when a leader has lost confidence in them self. The
Certainly, an army would not be able to battle in the war without a commander who in charges of the whole strategy. Correspondingly, any organisations cannot function without leaders. Leader is the most substantial element of successful organizations. Becoming outstanding leaders, leadership skill is vital in order to drive the organizations forward. Several leadership principles are extensively used these days. Burns (1978) identified two types of leadership comprise of transactional and transformational leadership. Hence, leaders should be capable to indicate which theory should be applied in accordance with organization’s culture and objectives. This essay aims to evaluate the resemblances and the differences between transactional and transformational leadership as well as the feasibility to utilize a mixture of them by giving the definitions and examples followed by the supporting researches and studies.
Transforming theory of leadership is considered as a moral process due to interaction of leaders with followers based on their shared values, motives as well as goals (Burns, 1978). The theory comes by recognizing the needs and motives of
According to Pearson (2012), transformational leadership “ushers in radically positive possibilities so needed today to release the potential within situations and people, including the leader”.
Leadership Theories and Studies. (2009). In Encyclopedia of Management. Retrieved July 20, 2011 from http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-3273100155.html
As a growing debate, the question at hand is whether great leaders are born with specific leadership traits, or if one can be taught certain traits over time. According to (Wikipedia.com) the approach of listing leadership qualities, often termed "trait theory of leadership", assumes certain traits or characteristics will tend to lead to effective leadership. I believe that leadership traits such as honest, competent, initiative, inspiring, hardworking, intelligent, and the ability to lead the masses, are some of the leadership traits one should possess. Within this paper, I will examine the overall concept of leadership traits, while observing the traits that were, or can be associated with successful leaders.
Lussier, R.N. & Achua, C.F. (2010). Leadership: Theory, application, skill development (5th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western.
Transformational leadership is defined as a leadership strategy caused by the change of self and indirectly involved social processes. From this view, it creates valuable and positive changes in the followers with the objective of molding followers to become leaders (Damirch, Rahimi, & Seyyedi, 2011). Transformational leadership is the individualized consideration that the leader gives to his or her followers. A leader who listens attentively and pays close attention to follower’s needs help them to achieve their goal. This aspect of transformational leaders is closer to the concept of mentoring or coaching that encourages followers to take on more responsibility