Transformational Leadership and Innovation - Research Paper Example

Trаnsfоrmаtiоnаl lеаdеrshiр аnd innоvаtiоn Student’s name Institution Introduction Innovational leadership entails utilization of different leadership styles for an organization in order to influence the production of creative ideas, services, solutions and products. Innovation in leadership is used to support the attainment of organizational objectives. In the changing world with development of new processes and technologies, it is important for organizations to become innovative to ensure success of the company. The key role in practice towards innovational leadership involves the incorporation of an innovative leader in order to adapt to the new evolving changes. Without innovation in leadership, organizations will likely suffer ( Darling , Gabrielsson , & Seristö , 2007). Innovative leaders have the ability of better understanding the customer requirements and as well exploit new market opportunities. They access new strategies such as the utilization of technology in order to ensure that they are successful in delivering products and services. Innovative leaders are accountable of assembling teams and leading them to optimal performance outcomes (Darling, Keeffe, & Ross, 2007). The leader uses innovation to recognize the importance of embracing the differences in people and recognize the best ways of connecting those differences in-order to get the best outcomes in the organization. However, the employees needs to work together in order to come up with new ideas from multiple sources to ensure organizational success (Redman, 2005). Innovation and leadership are interrelated. Leadership main focus is bringing a better future for the organization. In this way, leaders are considered as innovators. Innovative leadership entails more of that protection of the status quo. It suggests some break from the “norm” of the status quo and determining alternatives strategies of doing things. An “innovator” and a “leader” are cut from the same cloth and are intersecting dimensions of the same phenomenon (Day, 2000). Human Resource as a driver for organizational innovation The success of an organization is not determined by the R & D spending but it depends on the focus of the people themselves and human capital issues. Innovation is essential to ensure long-term success and competitive advantage of a business. The ability of a company to innovate is considered as the most important predictor of its growth (Bangcheng, Xiaomei, & Ningyu, 2007). In most companies, investment decisions today are tied to how companies are focused on transformational innovation. Human resource is responsible for many of the levers that are required for bringing transformation. Thus, organizations need to understand the importance of human resource on organizational innovation. This can be achieved by keeping and attracting the innovative employee by constantly improving on their skills as well as enhancing the creation of an innovative culture in the organization (Tan & Nasurdin, 2011). Transformational Leadership Transformational leadership is a leadership style that inspires positive changes in organizations. Leaders who are transformational are passionate, energetic and enthusiastic and are not only concerned but are also involved in the organizational processes. They integrate the organizational members and help everyone in the group process to attain success (Purvanova & Bono, 2009). A style of leadership that organizations uses when they want their members to push the boundaries and perform beyond their status quo in order to attain a new set of organizational goals and objectives. James Mc Gregor Burns introduced transformational leadership concept in his book in 1978 (Gumusluoglu & Ilsev, 2009). He stated that transformational leadership as a process where “leaders and their employees raise each other to higher levels of motivation and morality.” Transformational Leadership Theory According to Rafferty & Griffin, (2004), there are two basic categories that are involved in leadership i.e. transformational and transactional type of leadership styles. Burns made distinction between ordinary leaders( transactional leaders) who valued tangible rewards for work and loyalty by employees to the extraordinary leaders (transformational) who main focus was engaging followers and raised consciousness on the significance of outcomes and development of new ways of attaining the outcomes (Rafferty & Griffin, 2004). Bernard Bass further developed the idea of transformational leadership and supported Burns work. Transformational leadership facilitates a redefinition of the people’s vision and mission, renews the people’s commitment and restructures the system for goal accomplishment. It entails a relationship of mutual stimulation that converts followers to become leaders and leaders to moral agents (Waldman, Siegel, & Javidan, 2006). Thus, it needs to be grounded on moral foundations. The leadership style fosters capacity to development and brings higher levels of commitment among the employees in an effort of attaining the organizational objectives. It normally occurs when the leader broaden and elevate employees interest by generating awareness and acceptance of the mission of the organization (Popper, Mayseless, & Castelnovo, 2000). The leader needs to stir the employees to look beyond their own interest to attain the organization goals. The heightened commitment and capacity of the employees and managers therefore results to additional effort and greater organizational productivity (Kelloway, Mullen, & Francis, 2006). Transformational leaders need to elevate employees from their low levels of needs to higher levels of needs. They need to motivate the employees to transcend their interest for the benefit of the group. However transformational leaders need to help their followers to satisfy their human needs and not to take them for granted i.e. love. The leaders need to engender admiration, trust, loyalty as well as respect on the employees ( Gillespie & Mann , 2004). The leadership style requires the leaders to engage with the followers as people by treating them with respect and dignity rather than as “employees” for example. Leadership needs to be based on self-reflective changing beliefs and values by the leader and the employee in an effort of raising one another morality, motivation and achievement that otherwise might seem impossible (Fitzgerald & Schutte, 2010). Leithwood and Jantzi (2000), described six factors that make up transformational leadership whereas most scholars propose 4 main factors. The table below shows the factors Common I’s of transformational leadership Leithwood’s six factors Inspirational motivation -Capacity to offer motivation to others to commit to the goals Provision of intellectual stimulation Idealized influence- Having charismatic behaviors and visions that are inspiring. Building goals and vision Individualized consideration by coaching of the needs of the employee Demonstrating high performance expectations Intellectual stimulation by encouraging creativity and innovation. Offering support to the members Symbolizing professional values and practices Developing structures fostering participation in decision The Components of Transformational Leadership Intellectual stimulation- transformational leaders need to encourage and advocate for creativity among the followers. They need to encourage them to explore on new ways of doing things by learning on new things by arousing as well as creating awareness of the existing problems and ability of the employees in solving them. Employees need to approach problems in new ways. Leaders need to empower the employees by them to develop new and controversial ideas without fear in an effort of developing new strategies of problems (Oreg & Berson, 2011). Idealized influence- this entails leaders development of confidence and trust thus will act as a role model for the followers to emulate. Thus, a transformational leader need to possess certain attributes in-order to be admired, trusted and respected. Idealized influence is linked to charisma that is characteristic of transformational leadership. When the followers respect and trust their leader they follow the individual and internalize their ideas (Price, 2003). Inspirational motivation- leaders need to have clear goals that they are able to articulate to the organization for support. They need to make a clear appealing view of the future and will offer the employees an opportunity to see the meaning of their work thus providing opportunities for challenge. Inspirational motivation is important as it helps to encourage the employees to be part of the overall organizational culture (Oreg & Berson, 2011). Motivational speeches and public display of enthusiasm and optimism are a source of inspirational motivation in an organisation. An example is US president John. Kennedy vision of landing a man on the dream by 1970. Thus, the follower contributes and imagines the development of attractive futures which they work towards their realization (Jansen, George, Van Den Bosch, & Volberda, 2008). Individual consideration- it entails responding to the needs of the employees and ensures that the particular needs are included in the transformational process of the organization. In the organization, employees need to be treated individually on the basis of their knowledge and talents to develop their full potentials i.e. career counseling, enhancing professional development. The leader needs to comprehend the particular considerations and motivate the employees accordingly (Jansen et al., 2008). Transformational Leadership characteristics that influence organizational growth Charisma- This entails a leader with clear vision regarding the organisation. The leader should be able to communicate the organizational vision to other members and influence them to embrace it (Waldman et al., 2006). The leader can be able to determine the most important things for the organization and to the individuals as well to ensure organizational growth. Internal motivation and self-management- Transformational leaders find motivation from The leader should have the ability of finding motivation from within the organization and use the motivation as the driving force to efficiently manage the organization. The leader should also be a source of motivation to other. The best form of motivation is the leader loving their work and ensuring that their values are aligned with their organization goals and objectives. Transformational leaders also need to manage their activities appropriately to ensure meet their roles (Jansen et al., 2008). The ability to make difficult decisions and Proactive- Leaders need to be proactive decision makers and have the ability of making difficult decisions for the organization. Transformational leaders do not back away when faced with difficult situations. Rather they need to be willing to take risks in trying new things by adapting innovation approaches to grow the organization. The leader ought to understand how to manage risks and make sound decisions backed with research. Inspirational- A transformational leader should be a master, to help employees to do task that they were sure they could not do. Employees in the organization need to be inspired. Thus as leader, he needs to have the ability of making the employees rise to the occasion. This can be achieved through praise, motivational speeches and encouragement as well as treating the employees with respect and taking time to determine what inspires and motivates them (Price, 2003). Organizational consciousness- The leader needs to be organizational conscious. They ought to understand the appropriate actions to be taken to evoke change and spur innovation in order to make decisions that will enhance the organizational growth. They need to align their values to the organization and share a joint purpose with the organization to ensure organizational success (Eisenbeiss, van Knippenberg, & Boerner, 2008). Willing to listen and entertain new ideas- The leaders needs to pose an ability of listening and entertaining new ideas from other. They need to understand that success is a team effort and growth needs to be derived from the willingness of taking new ideas and developing ways of building them (Purvanova & Bono, 2009). Thus, the leader needs to listen to others and incorporate their insights. Visionary- Transformational leaders need to have the ability of seeing beyond the others. Being visionary entails the ability of setting concise as well as realistic vision, mission and values that fit the organizational culture and help in attainment of the organizational goals. The leader should possess the ability of persuading others to buy in their goals and work towards attainment of the perceived desires through effective communication (Oreg & Berson, 2011). He should be able to clearly provide direction to others emphasizing on the direction he wants the company to pursue. Transactional Leadership Also referred to as managerial leadership a style of leadership that focuses on the role of organizational supervision and group performance. In this type of leadership reward and punishment are the major contingents of performance of the employees. Leadership view the employee- employer relationship as a give- give relationship i.e. employee give their employers good results for reward (Judge & Piccolo, 2004). When they perform they are punished in a way. Procedure, standards and rules are important in this type of leadership. Employee are not encouraged to be creative or find new ways of solving problems. This style of leadership is appropriate in situations where simple and clearly defined problems are involved. However, while this type of leadership is effective in some situations, it considered to be insufficient as it prevents employee and leaders from attaining their full potentials (Azman Ismail, Mohd Hamran Mohamad, Hasan Al-Banna Mohamed, 2010). Transactional Versus Transformational Leadership Transactional leadership Transactional style of leadership is more concentrated with maintenance of the normal flow of operations. It does not incorporate innovation in its operations. It can be considered in other terms as “keeping the ship afloat” as it does not involve any new changes in organizational functioning. The leaders utilize disciplinary power and use incentives to motive the employees. As the term itself suggest “transactional” means that the leader way of motivation is exchange of reward for performance (Judge & Piccolo, 2004). The leader has no vision and does not look ahead to strategically guide the organization towards attainment of its goals but their main focus is ensuring that every operations runs smoothly. Transformational Leadership On the other hand, a transformational leader will go beyond management of the day to day operations of the organization to crafting new strategies of solving problems to ensure success of the organization. This type of leadership focuses on motivation, team building and collaboration of employees at different positions of the organization in order to develop change for the benefit of the organization. The leaders are involved in setting goals to push their subordinates to higher levels of performance. They also are involved in the provision of opportunities for personal and professional development ( Sarros & Santora , 2001). Leaders utilizing transactional leadership style of leadership are not looking for change rather they merely keep things the same. They pay attention on the work activity in order to find any deviations and faults. However, transactional leadership is effective in emergency situations and crisis as well as in problems that require specific solutions ( Stone , Russell , & Patterson , 2004). Transformational Leadership in Nursing Healthcare is changing and becoming increasingly more complex. Nurses associations are encouraging and supporting nurses to become more proactive in leadership in the healthcare setting. As a result of the continually metamorphic nature of the healthcare system, it is important for nurse mangers to employ transformational leadership style that encourages on the adoption of change (Hutchinson & Jackson, 2013). It also allows for recognition of areas of change that are needed in the healthcare setting and guides change process by inspiring the nurses and creating commitment. Transformational leadership allows nurse managers to feel comfortable and confident when dealing with development of healthcare policies as well as the ever-changing healthcare technology. Transformational leadership has become a major component of the magnet model that was developed by the American nurses association. Leaders are expected to adopt transformational type of leadership in the model. In the rapidly complex changing environment, adoption of transformational leadership is important , as nurse leaders are able to identify the changes that their environment needs and inspire others in the change process (Doody & Doody, 2012). Conclusion Innovational leadership entails utilization of different leadership styles for an organization in order to influence the production of creative ideas, services, solutions and products. Innovation in leadership is used to support the attainment of organizational objectives. Human resource is responsible for many of the levers that are required for bringing transformation. Thus, organizations need to understand the importance of human resource on organizational innovation. Transformational leadership is a leadership style that inspires positive changes in organizations. Leaders who are transformational are passionate, energetic and enthusiastic and are not only concerned but are also involved in the organizational processes. components of transformational leadership includes inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, idealized influence and individualized consideration. On the other hand transactional style of leadership is more concentrated with maintenance of the normal flow of operations and does not incorporate innovation in its operations. The healthcare is changing and becoming increasingly more complex. As a result of the continually metamorphic nature of the healthcare system, it is important for nurse mangers to employ transformational leadership style that encourages on the adoption of change. References Darling , J., Gabrielsson , Mika , & Seristö , Hannu . (2007). 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