Transformational Leadership: Styles, Impact and Influence

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Leadership is an act of leading a group of people or an organisation showing direction or a source of inspiration (Hanks 1986). It is a very important role when it comes to business which provides direction of an organisation towards success or failure. Leadership effectiveness depends on what style of leadership is being used. Different leaders take up different leadership styles to lead people or organisations. This essay will be looking at the different leadership styles with focus on the transformational leadership with examples and a critical analysis on impact on employee drive and organisational culture and influences on the business. The four leadership styles that will be discussed in this essay are transformational autocratic, democratic, …show more content…

Ultimately, the transformational principles deployed by Joe have contributed to the success of the business. He was able to create a vision, direction and inspiration for employees, thereby giving the business a sense of purpose enabling him to inspire followers to move beyond expectations which according to Bass (1998), says that transformational leadership is required. Based on Bass (2006) the qualification of transformational leaders are those with great personalities and ability to influence others in exchange for loyalty it however, focuses on the processes between leader and followers. Therefore, to fault the transformational leadership theory concept is false, because transformational leadership is solid and does not vary when people present it differently. Transformational leaders are ideal for an organisation, especially during a major change because they provide energy and support during the change process. Furthermore transformational leadership has a great influence on the performance of the team. The four components of transformational leadership may be mapped to critical team work development factors in such a way as to possibly improve team communication and promote team …show more content…

A business leader can also use this form of leadership style. Howell Raines of New York Times, who was the executive editor between 2001 and 2003 used autocratic leadership with principles of self-decision making without interaction with employees or team members (Mullins, 2007). He used the “flooding the zone” policy which led to success with the company winning a record seven Pulitzers Price in one year. However, his drive to get things done made him dismissive and sarcastic. He shunned expert opinions of journalists which proves that the decision making process to be centralized (Nexis, 2003). He disregarded efforts and contributions from staff and assumed everyone was “lazy,” and “sluggish”. Although, this leadership style leads to quick decision making in a company, in the long run it can be lead to low employee morale which can be damaging. Howells use of this style led to distress among staff and the zeal and morale fell which lead to a decline in quality and quantity of information. Although, in most cases the autocratic leadership style helps improve organizational efficiency it is mostly a temporary remedy and sometimes fails to address underlying situations. It can also be very hard to move from this style of leadership to

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