Transformational Leadership During Group Work Assignments - Research Paper Example

ID Do show transformational leadership during group work assignments? Module Module Contents Article I.Introduction 3 Section I.1Background information 3 Section I.2Literature review 3 Section I.3Study approach 4 Article II.Analysis 5 Section II.1Limitations 5 Section II.2Data collection 5 Section II.3Findings 5 Article III.Conclusion 7 Bibliography 9 Appendix A: Questionnaire 11 Article I. Introduction Section I.1 Background information Transformational leadership is characterised by the existence of a relationship between a leader and his followers, normally it is inspiration that the followers get from the leader that inspires them to do more than they would ordinarily do. This desired form of leadership has been linked to success in many fields of human influence such as; the public service, private sector, not for profit institutions among others. Justification of the study Many hypothesis and proposals have been formulated and tested and a number of inferences made out of the correlations of the different data collected from different variables. Efforts are still in place to ensure that, this much-desired skill set is enshrined in young scholars before they leave their training institutions, hence the subject matter of this research. In this paper, we undertake to examine transformational leadership style by the attribute that are deemed to it. Section I.2 Literature review Most researchers, scholars and students who have got their interest in this line of thought have defined this transformational leadership as an exchange between a leader and his followers, this relationship exists to make the world a better place (Anderson, 2008, pg. 8). Transformational leaders often go out of their way to effect change. At times, they pay heavy sacrifices for the choices they make (Anderson, 2008, pg. 10). Though most studies of transformational leadership have not been done on group assignment it is important to relate some of the practices identified in earlier studies. For any leadership to be considered transformational the individuals in leadership should inspire others to overcome obstacles on their way (Bass, & Riggio, 2008, pg. 108), but most importantly they should encourage them to make basic decisions (Balyer, 2012, pg. 581), this is a very particular characteristic observed in group assignments in schools. The other concept widely exhausted on this subject is the fundamental belief that, for transformational leadership to be effective the followers of the leaders must believe that the leader is a statue of success in that particular field in order to be inspired and motivated by him or her (Brower, and Balch, 2005, pg. 7). Section I.3 Study approach To begin, we break down transformational leadership to understand what it is exactly that is being sought. To lead is to inspire by example and to transform is to change; thus we intend to develop these qualities in students. Our study will focus on group work assignments to asses if it could be a way of instilling these qualities in students. We will seek to find out if group assignments go along in trying to instil these qualities in students. The reasons for focusing on group assignments are; group tasks are characterised by people working in teams, in a team you are either a team member or a team leader, these are transformational leadership qualities being sought and thus subject to scrutiny. It is our assumption that more strides towards achieving transformative leadership can be realised if more efforts and resources were put in place to facilitate group work assignments. To prove this hypothesis, we will carry out a study, a both qualitative and quantitative study on university students to find out it if our hypothesis is null or it’s true. Our sample size will be ten respondents, our sampling criteria will be at random; any student at the University has an equal chance to be a respondent. Questionnaires will be used as the tool for collecting the data from the participants and each respondent will be expected to answer their questionnaires independently, this will reduce the errors of canvassing thus the views collected will be sufficiently be assumed to be those of the respondent. Article II. Analysis Section II.1 Limitations Having outlined the parameters of the research, and collected the data the following can be deduced from the information gathered. At this point it is important to note that this research is limited as to the inferences that can be deduced from it, the sample size is too small to make general conclusions. However, the information can be used as a reflective indicator of the possible views on the ground. Section II.2 Data collection The research involved ten respondents, and they were asked to fill out a 10 questions questionnaire. The issues addressed in the survey focus on how much he respondent agrees or disagree with the statements presented to them, the statements relate to the title of the research. The statements are; I put in my best when working on group assignments, In the groups that am involved in, I care about improving the welfare of others, I like to work on tasks that have the potential to benefit my groups members, It is important for me to be in a group for my assignments, I learn much more beyond the scope of the assignment in group discussion, I know my failure to contribute to my group affects the whole group, As a group leader I have to make sure all members are active and productive, As a group member I only have to do what is delegated to me, the rest will be handled by someone else. Section II.3 Findings It was found out that involving students in group work helps in setting direction and moulds the learners into transformational leaders when they come up with creative methods of solving complex problems arising in the group work. Students come up with clear methods for achieving tasks amid setting goals for themselves and this is very helpful in setting grounds for them to be transformational leaders when they practice the skills in the group work. It was also discovered that in group work, students exhibit high expectations of working with others and identifying the special skills in each other and assigning them tasks and this is a sign of group work enhancement of transformational leadership since they take part in developing each other. In attempting to accomplish the tasks it as also realized that students attempt to enhance professionalism in the work they do relating their group tasks to the strategies acquired in class and they tend to exhibit high sense of collaboration among themselves, encouraging one another and creating conditions for accomplishing tasks that enhance collaboration in the tasks at hand. From these findings it is clear that in group work, students tend to practice transformational leadership and this is attributable to having a sense of shared responsibility for the successes and need to enlarge their knowledge by sharing and the need to succeed. Fear of failure thus pushes the students to enhance their leadership instincts and apply them to their groups to ensure success. This tendency is supported by the core group theory which intimates that every single individual has a drive enhanced by the desire of satisfying a the core objective of a group or setting they belong. Therefore, once the students understand the expectations of the groups they belong, they strategise for attaining success by all means and skills disposable to them and hence transformational leadership is exhibited in them, while undertaking group work. Students exhibit transformational leadership by performing several or at least one of the functions below as fostered by cultural and organisational mechanisms in their groups. Transformational leadership is essential in determining and steering the efficacy of groups and thus to achieve success, the students strive to fulfil functional imperatives in the process exhibiting transformational leadership. The table below shows the various motivators of transformational leadership by students in group work.   Objective Achievement Adaptation Incorporation Maintenance Leader Assignment Management Performances Forming Ideas, Mission, or Approach Change Management Instruction Team building Solving Problems Facilitation of management of conflict causing Manners Fostering Relationship Behaviors Other Incentive System Control Method: Guidelines, Objectives Robust Philosophy Participant objective internalization Duty Response System Competence/Professionalism Progression (e.g quality management) High sense participant creativity Self-managed team work High affiliate co-reliance Tasks flow with Unified Working Group Article III. Conclusion Having seen the results and analysed them as above, it suffices to conclude that out of the respondents examined, there exists a correlation between the attributes of transformational leadership and group assignments. Students involved in group assignments are not only aware of the ills of not doing their work to themselves but also to others in groups with them. This moves on to affirm that a more transformational leadership style is observed in group assignments This research also shows an increasing concern for other students by the respondents, clearly showing some affirmative relation among them a trait in transformational leadership. Thus, it can be deduced from the research that group study assignments has an impact on young scholars on transformational leadership style. Thus much has to be done to facilitate group assignments among students. In this section it would be apt to mention that in subsequent studies the sample size should be considerably increased to facilitate the inferences that can be deduced from it and to also increase the representation of the data to the university and make it possible to replicate the same data for other institutions. Bibliography Anderson, K. D. (2008). Transformational teacher leadership in rural schools.The Rural Educator, 8-17. Balyer, A. (2012). Transformational Leadership Behaviors of School Principals: A Qualitative Research Based on Teachers’ Perceptions. International Online Journal of Educational Sciences, 4 (3), 581 Barrick, M, Thurgood, G, Smith, T, & Courtright, S 2015, Collective Organizational Engagement: Linking Motivational Antecedents, Strategic Implementation, And Firm Performance, Academy Of Management Journal, 58, 1, Pp. 111-135, Business Source Complete. Bass, B. M. & Riggio, R. E. (2008).Transformational Leadership. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Brower, R. E., and Balch, B. V. (2005). Transformational Leadership and decision making in Schools. Corwin Press. United Stated of America. Deichmann, D, & Stam, D 2015, Leveraging transformational and transactional leadership to cultivate the generation of organization-focused ideas, The Leadership Quarterly, 26, pp. 204-219, ScienceDirect. Dóci, E, & Hofmans, J 2015, Task complexity and transformational leadership: The mediating role of leaders state core self-evaluations, The Leadership Quarterly, ScienceDirect. Hoffman, B, Bynum, B, Piccolo, R, & Sutton, A 2011, Person-Organization Value Congruence: How Transformational Leaders Influence Work Group Effectiveness, Academy Of Management Journal, 54, 4, Pp. 779-796, Business Source Complete. Jackson, D, Hickman, L, Power, T, Disler, R, Potgieter, I, Deek, H, & Davidson, P 2014, Small group learning: Graduate health students views of challenges and benefits, Contemporary Nurse: A Journal For The Australian Nursing Profession, 48, 1, pp. 117-128. Kahai, S, Jestire, R, & Rui, H 2013, Effects of transformational and transactional leadership on cognitive effort and outcomes during collaborative learning within a virtual world, British Journal Of Educational Technology, 44, 6, pp. 969-985, Professional Development Collection. Macquet, A, Ferrand, C, & Stanton, N 2015, Divide and rule: A qualitative analysis of the debriefing process in elite team sports,Applied Ergonomics, ScienceDirect. Riaz, M, & Khalili, M 2014, Transformational, Transactional Leadership and Rational Decision Making in Services Providing Organizations: Moderating Role of Knowledge Management Processes, Pakistan Journal Of Commerce & Social Sciences, 8, 2, pp. 355-364, Business Source Complete. Sun, W, Xu, A, & Shang, Y 2014, Transformational leadership, team climate, and team performance within the NPD team: Evidence from China, Asia Pacific Journal Of Management, 31, 1, pp. 127-147, Business Source Complete Tse, H, & Chiu, W 2014, Transformational leadership and job performance: A social identity perspective, Journal Of Business Research, 67, pp. 2827-2835, ScienceDirect. Appendix A: Questionnaire I am [insert name of the interviewer]. A student at [insert name of institution]. Carrying out an academic research on transformational leadership among young scholars. The information collected is confidential and will only be used for the purposes this research only. 1.0 To be able to contact you, please give us the following details: Name Email: Cell: 1.1 Please indicate your sex. Female Male 1.2 Year of study 1.3 Your Faculty 2.0 To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements Strongly Disagree Disagree Medium agree Strongly agree I exhibit transformational leadership when working on group assignments In the groups that am involved in, I care about showing enhanced leadership I like to work on my showing ability to play leading roles in groups I belong Students show various leadership levels when doing group assignments. I see leadership qualities in group members when working in groups I know my failure to contribute to my group shows lack of leadership in me As a group leader I have to make sure all members are active and productive. As a group member I only have to do what is delegated to me, the rest will be handled by someone else. Thank you for your input. Read More