Transformational Leadership - Essay Example

?Executive summary The success of any given organisation is mainly tied to the leadership styles implemented by the leaders. From this assertion, this paper has been designed to give insight into what leadership is as well as to evaluate different types of leadership styles. Various authors have suggested that different theories in leadership such as trait theories, behavioural as well as contingency theories have been developed to explain the impact of leadership styles on the performance of the organisation as a whole. However, recent studies have shown that transformational leadership is more ideal during the contemporary period since it is adaptive to change. Organisations operate in a dynamic environment and they ought to keep pace with the changes that may take place hence this style can improve the organisation’s fortunes. The most important traits of transformational leaders is that they are value driven and they belief in people which helps them to share the same vision for the organisation. Introduction Organisations are operating in environments that are characterised by radical change, immense volatility and international dynamics during the contemporary period (Schultz, 2005). Therefore, organisations have to cope with increasing competition and the changing demands of the customers and it can be noted that leadership is the key factor in determining whether the organisations are better positioned to capitalise on the opportunities that evolve from these changes in the environment. Thus, the way in which the organisations respond to new challenges is strongly tied to the values, attitudes, styles and responses of their leaders hence it is imperative that the leaders should adopt leadership practices that are compatible with the situation obtaining on the ground during the current period. Also of concern is the fact that leadership is not only limited to chief executive officers since anyone can be in a position to lead in one way or the other. As such, this paper seeks to focus on what leadership is, discuss various contemporary leadership perspectives and theories. Special attention will be paid to transformational leadership through a review of literature that explores what various academic authors suggest are the key traits that make such a leader. Examples will be used as to why this is an important leadership style and how it can change the organisation’s fortune. What is leadership? According to Schultz (2005, p. 186), “leadership is generally defined as the social process of influencing people to work voluntarily, enthusiastically and persistently towards a purposeful group or organisational goal.” From this definition, it can be noted that leadership is not restricted to a formal position given that anyone can be in a position to exert influence on the other people within the organisation. Robbins (2003) concurs with this suggestion when he said that leadership is the ability to influence a group of people towards the achievement of organisational goals. In order for the organisations to be effective, there is need for the leaders to take a leading role in influencing the members to put optimum performance in their operations for the betterment of the organisation as a whole. The behaviour of the employees has to be channelled and directed towards the achievement of the organisation’s objectives and this calls for leadership. Various perspectives have been developed over the years and a number of theories have developed within these perspectives. Only the most popular and recent theories will be discussed in the following section and these include the following: trait theories, behavioural theories as well as contingency/situational theories of leadership. Focus of the discussion will then switch to transformational leadership which represents a new paradigm in leadership. The trait theories This approach to leadership is the foundation of leadership theory and thinking. The trait approach to leadership focuses on specific individual attributes of leaders such as physical characteristics, social background, intelligence, values as well as aspects of personality that that the leaders were thought to possess (Amos, 2008). This approach posits to the effect that leaders possess unique qualities of traits that distinguish effective leaders from non-leaders. According to this approach, it is strongly believed that effective leaders are born given that they will possess unique characters that make them different from the other non-leaders. For instance, Britain’s Margaret Thatcher is usually described as confident, iron-willed and determined while South Africa’s Nelson Mandela is described as charismatic, courageous, diplomatic and democratic (Swanepoel, 1998). It follows from this argument that effective leaders possess unique traits that make them different from non leaders. However, the main limitation of this approach to leadership is that there are no universal traits that can be predicted in all situations. As such, this approach cannot be regarded as a reliable strategy to leadership especially during the contemporary period where it can be noted that there are various changes that characterise the environment in which the organisations operate hence these traits should not be static but evolve with time. Behavioural theories The behavioural leadership theories attempt to identify differences in the behaviour of effective leaders versus ineffective leaders (Shultz, 2005). The behavioural perspective to leadership was popularised by two studies conducted at Ohio State University and Michigan University. These studies identified two dimensions of leadership behaviour namely a relationship dimension and a task dimension. The Ohio State studies labelled these dimensions consideration and initiating structure. Initiating structure refers to the extent to which a leader is likely to define and structure his or her role and those of the employees in search for goal attainment and this includes positive behaviour that attempts to organise work relationships and goals (Robbins, 2003). On the other hand, consideration is described as the extent to which a person is likely to have work relationships that are characterised by mutual trust, respect for the employees’ needs and regard for their feelings (Robbins, 2003). Such a leader has concern for the followers’ comfort and well-being. As such a leader with high initiation and consideration is considered to be effective at workplace given that he displays concern for the workers as well as the accomplishment of the task. On the other hand, the Michigan University also came with two dimensions of leadership behaviour and these were labelled employee oriented and production oriented. From this approach, effective leaders are those who are concerned with both the task and the employee and they ought to integrate personal needs as well as organisational needs (Robbins, 2003). In the same vein, the leadership grid is also similarly used to identify two dimensions of leadership namely concern for production and concern for people. In as far as productivity of the organisation is concerned, these two considerations are very important as they seek to create a fine balance between the people’s needs and the organisation’s needs. Contingency theories Both trait and behavioural leadership perspective were attempts to identify the traits and behaviour of the leaders but it has later been discovered that no one leadership style fits all situations hence the managers and leaders ought to adapt their style to the demands of the situation (Schultz, 2005). This gave rise to the third school of thought referred to as contingency theories of leadership which focuses on situational factors that determine the pattern of leadership. According to Swanepeoel (1998), this approach assumes that effective leadership depends on the particular situation and involves a fit between personality, task, power attitudes and perceptions. Thus effective leaders diagnose the situation, identify the leadership style that will be most effective and they can be in a better position to determine if they can be able to implement that style of leadership. Only three leadership theories namely: Fidlers’s contingency leadership model, path goal leadership theory as well as Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory will be covered in this section. Fidler’s contingency theory Fidler believed that a person has a preferred leadership style which may not change whereby one can be either a task or a relationship oriented leader (Schultz, 2005). As such, the success of that leader is dependent on whether a particular situation is compatible with the leaders preferred style and he developed the least preferred co-worker (LPC) to establish if a person has greater preference for task or a relationship oriented leadership style. Thus situational favourableness refers to the extent to which the leader has influence over the others and three dimensions of situational control exist as going to be explained. Leader member relations posit to the effect that the better the relationship between the two parties, the more influence the leader has on the followers and this will be a favourable situation (Schultz, 2005). Task structure suggests that if the tasks are clearly defined, the situation will be more favourable while on the other hand the position power posits to the effect that the more power the leader has, the more favourable the situation. Path goal theory This theory suggests that followers are motivated to the extent that the leader’s behaviour influences their expectations. The essence of the path goal theory is that it is the leader’s job to assist the followers in attaining their goals and to provide the necessary direction and support to ensure that their goals are compatible with the overall objectives of the group or the organisation (Robbins, 2003). This theory identifies four leadership styles namely: directive leader provides followers with information of what he expects to be done, supportive leader is friendly and shows concern for the workers, participative leader encourages the employees to give their ideas and opinions while achievement oriented leader sets yet achievable goals and demonstrates the spirit that the goals can be attained. Hersey and Blanchard’s situational leadership theory This theory suggests that the main factor is follower readiness or maturity. Follower readiness is defined as the extent to which the follower is able to (ability) and has confidence to do the task (willingness) which depends on the situation (Schultz, 2005). Transformational leadership According to Swanepoel (1998), transformational leadership emerged in the 1990s and is a set of abilities that allows the leader to recognise the need for change, to create a vision to guide that change and to execute the change effectively. This type of leadership is closely related to charismatic leadership and can influence leadership in any direction-downwards with subordinates, laterally with colleagues, upward with superiors and outward with customers (Swanepoel, 1998). From this above argument, it follows that the leader empowers the followers and it is aimed at keeping the followers dependent on the leader. On the other hand, transformational leadership is aimed at creating follower independence. First and foremost, transformational leadership demonstrates a crucial role played by the leaders in creating an adaptive organisation which anticipates change in its environment and responds proactively (Schultz, 2005). As such, a futurist leader creates a vision that compels the followers to believe that the anticipated change offers them the opportunity to grow and reach higher levels than previously anticipated. In transformational leadership, the leader creates a vision and communicates that vision to the followers such that they will share the same vision and identify with it to an extent that they will pursue it as their own goal (Robbins, 2003). In order to fully understand transformational leadership, one has to consider the leaders behaviour and its effect on the followers as well as the resultant impact on the organisational goal attainment. An outstanding characteristic of a transformational leader is that he must be able to articulate the vision of the organisation to the followers such that they will totally buy into it (Schultz, 2005). Such leaders often set high performance expectations for themselves and their followers to an extent that the followers will realise that collective action will lead to the attainment of the set goals and objectives of the organisation. These leaders are often called visionary leadership and charismatic leadership and the leader leads the way by modelling the desired values, traits, beliefs and behaviour needed to realise the vision for the organisation. This is an important leadership style given that the transformational leader inspires the followers to move into action whereby they feel inspired and strongly identify with the leader. The other important element of transformational leadership is that the leader is capable of dealing with situations that can emerge during the operations of the organisation. This is described as the emergent approach and it is primarily concerned with dealing with emerging situations within an organisation which enables the organisation to keep pace with the changes that may take place as well as to take appropriate action to deal with these emerging situations (Werner, 2007). The transformational leader on the other hand reinforces the core values of an adaptive culture that is aimed at anticipating and adapting to environmental changes (Schultz, 2005). Therefore, in theory and in practice, culture should be viewed as something that is not static hence the emergent approach in this particular type of leadership is very effective in as far as the attainment of the set organisational goals is concerned. The other important trait of transformational leaders is that they often implement the culture excellence approach which prioritises shared values within an organisation as a way of promoting better performance among the employees (Swanepoel, 1998). Transformational leaders are value driven and they believe in the people whereby they constantly offer supportive culture with the aim of encouraging better performance and cohesion with regards to dealing with changes within the organisation. Over and above, it can be concluded that organisations operate in dynamic environments that are characterised by radical changes. As such, they have to cope with aspects such as increasing competition and the changing demands of the customers and it can be noted that leadership is the key factor in this regard since it is mainly concerned with ensuring that the organisation is in a better position to keep pace with these changes. As discussed, various leadership theories have been developed to try to explain the behaviour of the leaders and these include trait, behavioural as well as contingency theories. However, transformational leadership is seen as the most ideal style during the contemporary period given that it enables the leaders to be adaptive to change. The other advantage of this leadership style is that it is value driven and is also people centred which gives an opportunity for growth and development of the organisation since the people will strongly identify with their leaders. Bibliography Amos, TL et al 2008, Human Resources Management, 3rd Edition, JUTA, CT. Armstrong, M 1999, Human Resources Management Practice, 7th Edition, Kogan Page Limited, NY. Brewster, C et al 2003, Contemporary issues in human resources management: gaining a competitive advantage, 2nd Edition, Oxford University Press, NY. Grobler, P et al 2006, Human Resource Management, 3rd Edition, Thompson Learning, London. 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