Advantages and Disadvantages of Transformational leadership In a Change Context - Essay Example

In order to account for power, influence and leadership; transformational leadership is based on four components and influence is exerted on followers according to how admirably the leader behaves (Goleman, Boyatzis & McKee 2002). This in turn has an influence on the followers on whether they would like to emulate these leaders (Hoffman et al, 2011). In healthcare, transformational leadership has a number of benefits to both employees and employers who employ this theory and leadership model.

This is because it allows healthcare leaders to act as a role model, thus serving as a form of motivation towards the psychological wellbeing of healthcare workers, who are otherwise demotivated and professionally challenged under other models (Munir et al 2012). In addition, through the appeal of a leader to the values of healthcare worker, there is little discomfort in having an overall leader, and in case of implementation of changes, the leader is always the most effective change agent. This essay will evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of transformation leadership in healthcare when employed especially in a change set-up.

In addition, transformational leadership in the healthcare is also advantageous in that it promotes job satisfaction through the presence of organizational citizenship behaviour, which is discretionary and cannot be observed or viewed overtly (Podsakoff 2000). Studies indicate that when transformational leadership is applied in the healthcare setting, workers tend to have better job satisfaction in spite of challenges at work in that there are better relationships between leaders and employees (Wang, Chontawan & Nantsupawat 2012).

Transformational leadership in healthcare also leads to optimism and improved quality of service as these workers receive motivational inspiration by being given meaning to their work especially when introducing changes; for instance changing of shifts hours for nurses . This is seen through improved safety outcomes and higher success rates in tasks assigned to workers in the sector, as sense is made clear to them on the importance of proposed changes and in following certain procedures at work such as safety training and compliance to work ethics (Mullen & Kelloway 2009).

As a result, the mode of leadership promotes overall benefits to employers, employees and leaders by appealing to their state of being and making each party see the importance of the tasks assigned, and proposed changes. The model is also beneficial by putting some degree of responsibility and authority on healthcare workers such as nurses and doctors meaning that the workers feel involved in leadership, and as part of the team implementing the changes planned. As a result, the workers tend to take their work more personally as there is adequate reason to do it right since they make decisions that allow them to take over the jobs they do; consequently, there is less resistance to change.

However, there are disadvantages of transformational leadership in healthcare setting, especially where ethics are concerned due to the presence of shared decision-making and authority. In these cases, leaders tend to violate ethics of the work place by appealing to the workers in order to get the best of all situations including where the decisions they make are wrong (Grint 2005). This is in addition to overreliance on top-down communication, which leads to problems in communication and a breakdown in a change process context as well as decreased productivity.

Therefore, because of this transformational leadership tends to contradict productivity in the workplace due to confusion of instruction and largely inhibited down-top communication (Hayes 2007). The leadership model also requires the employee to be highly