Criticism of Transformational Leadership - Coursework Example

Transformational Leadership Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction In the contemporary world of business, performance improvement has become the biggest issue for many different organizations. However, the workforce is considered the important aspect in organizational performance and this is greatly depended on how leadership handles it. It is therefore becoming paramount that each leadership in an organization must be able to inspire the team members to think and excel beyond what their job descriptions are. In this regard therefore, different and new concepts of leadership have emerged and transformational type of leadership is one of them (Kent et al 2001). Transformational leadership in an organizational context may be found virtually at all levels. That is to imply to imply that it must be demonstrated in different teams, various departments and the organizational general. In such contexts, leaders are expected to be visionary, daring, thoughtful thinkers, inspiring and risk-takers. In other words, transformational leaders must have a charismatic appeal. However, the charismatic characteristic appeal is not enough in determining the way an organization should operate (Hackman & Johnson 2004). It is therefore in the interest of this essay to present a detailed discussion of the concept of transformation leadership and this will include the characteristics that transformational leadership will help an organization bring about the desired. Definition of key terms: Transformational leadership: Transformational leadership can be described as a those leadership attributes that have the capacity to inspire the members of the team resulting in a situation where both the followers and the team leader tend to raise one another into the next level of motivation and morality as well as performance. This is based on four specific categories leadership behaviors which include individualized consideration, inspirational motivation, idealized influence and intellectual stimulation (Barbuto et al 2005). Idealized influence: Idealized influence is described as that component of transformational leadership also known as charisma and that encompasses the leader’s behaviors towards communicating the vision, using motivating language to communicate with the followers and also leading as an example of what others should follow executing a given vision (Kent et al 2001). Inspirational motivation: Inspirational motivation takes place when a transformational leader engages in actions or behaviors that are aimed at articulating the expectations and at the same time reveal the commitment of the leader towards organizational goals and objectives. The behaviors are particularly important in advancing the meaningfulness of the team member’s work experiences and also offer them both challenging objectives and opportunities (Barbuto et al 2005). Intellectual stimulation: Intellectual stimulation is described as the desire by the transformational leaders to challenge the followers and also to make them think of the different strategies that can be used to solve different problems and also enhance creativity and innovation (Barbuto et al 2005). Individualized consideration: Individualized consideration is defined as the actions of the leaders that are aimed at guiding the followers towards reaching their intended levels of capabilities. In this case, the leader is the mentor and the coach and is expected to provide the followers with work opportunities to challenge their growth and also development (Kent et al 2001). Transformational leadership Transformational leadership as a leadership style, has the capacity to accelerate innovation and also bring some change on a person and a group scale to help redesign and even expand perspectives, rationales, values, opportunities and aspirations as well as limitations. Transformation leaders are expected to play the role of catalysts in enhancing change among different people from different diversities, motivating change among themselves and other people as well as including the social entrepreneurs, innovators, consultants, human resource practitioners, facilitators and humanitarians and many more (Jones 2011). In the contemporary business environment, transformational leadership is expected to enhance growth among individuals, communities and organizations as well as society by creating a climate that promotes expansion and also shape change and grow into the future. Further, transformational leadership is critical in creating an enabling environment that can be able to release and facilitate proper communication, and valuing of diversity as well as the tendency and creativity. This will go a long in empowering individuals for personal and organizational development which is a requirement for great potential (Hackman & Johnson 2004). The concept of transformational leadership was first developed in 1978 by Burns. Transformational leadership takes place when one person or more engages with other people that raises their motivation and performance as well as morality. As described in the literature, transformational leaders are persons who should be interactive, empowering, visionary and creative as well as passionate. Further, Bass, went ahead to categorize transformational leadership into four major categories namely: intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, individualized consideration and idealized influence (Barbuto et al 2005) . Idealized influence: According to Harle (2001), idealized influence as the ability of the leader to be able to articulate the vision for the followers, even the ability to motivate the members to join the team. This is particularly important in ensuring that each and every member of the workforce is able to stand together for a common purpose. This because the leader is able to clearly let the team members know about what is expected of them in realizing the intended vision. In addition, according to (Barbuto et al 2005), idealized influence characteristics are important in arousing strong emotions among the followers. This is key to ensuring that the employees are willing to identify themselves with the leader and work with him. This aspect is key in describing transformational leadership from the charismatic perspective. This is because transformational leaders are able to make their followers enthusiastic when executing their duties, attracting their respect and create a sense of mission among the followers. Intellectual stimulation: This category of transformational leadership is described as the one which the followers have the opportunity to question the various methods and procedures that are being applied by the leaders in solving different problems. This is aimed at helping the members of the team participate in the process of improving on these methods and make them even more effective. This aspect of transformational leadership according to Hackman & Johnson (2004), creates opportunity for the followers of a particular leader to stand a chance of challenging some of the decisions being made by the leaders and the involved group processes. This goes a long way in encouraging creative thinking. This is possible because intellectual stimulation encourages organizational learning and the required changes by ensuring the group needs that will help deliver their responsibilities are met. In general, the concept of intellectual simulation as used in transformational leadership plays a very significant role in promoting organizational learning whereby leaders put emphasis on the need to value learning for both the leaders and the people they lead (Jones 2011). Individualized consideration: In an organization, different individuals have different capabilities in handling different tasks. It is in this regard that the transformational leader, has to play the role of a mentor and this could be done assigning different roles to the followers which will see different opportunities for growth and development in the process that can be termed as self-actualization. According to Kent et al (2001), individualized consideration is particularly important positively affecting and facilitating team-building efforts in the group. This idea has also been boosted by the findings by Harle (2011) who has added that individualized consideration help support and encourage and coach the followers. This is so because the relationship that exists between mentoring and coaching is founded on meeting the developmental needs of individuals and the process through which the leaders evolve. Further, individualized consideration takes place when the relationship between the leaders and the followers. It is from the interactive perspective that the leader is able to establish personalize his leadership and at the same time determine goals for each and every follower (Barbuto et al 2005). Inspirational motivation: According to Bass (1999), inspirational motivation entails the process of providing the team members with the opportunities to experience different challenges and at the same engage in common goals. Further, inspirational motivation is considered as the ability of the leader to effectively communicate his vision for each follower to understand and take necessary action to help fulfil that particular vision (Jones 2011). This is one of the preferred concepts under transformational leadership since it used to ensure that all leaders are remaining focused towards the group vision despite the challenges that may be faced in the process. In inspirational motivation, there exists behaviors that help communicate the vision for the team in an appealing manner and this can be done with the aid of different symbols that are focused on subordinated approach and design of appropriate behaviors. “Some researchers have related inspirational motivation to concepts of ethics, claiming that when leaders show concern for organizational vision and follower motivation, they are more inclined to make ethical decisions.” (Gooty et al 2009, pg. 353). Criticism of transformational leadership While transformational leadership is considered as one the most common and preferred leadership style in the contemporary society because of the approach it gives to getting the workforce perform exemplary well some negative criticisms have also been labeled against. To start with, it is evident that the energy many of the people use when doing something, can also the same people to give. For instance, transformational leaders are understood to have a high level of enthusiasm which always is not maintained and therefore can easily wear out among the followers. Next, transformational leaders are known to issues from a big picture and not in small but critical detail where the biggest challenge might be lurking (Kent et al 2001). In essence, what happens here, is if there are no people to take care of such important information, then the leaders are likely to fail. Finally, there is also an aspect of transformational leadership working in a vacuum. In other words, while transformational leadership is being exercised, actually there is nothing to transform and therefore very little can realized from the leadership style. However, in circumstances where transformation leadership is effectively applied and strategic, such factors as motivation and employee morale as well as performance of the followers are most likely to be increased in a number of ways. First, through linking the follower’s personal identities to the mission and the organization’s collective identity. Second, making it a role model for inspiring the followers. Third, challenging all the followers to be responsible of their duties and responsibilities. Fourth, Understanding the capabilities weaknesses exhibited by the followers. Finally, aligning the followers with their tasks in order to optimize on their performance (Barbuto et al 2005). Conclusion The completed task has tackled the concept of transformational leadership and has extensively tackled various components of transformation leadership and which include: Intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation and idealized influence as well as individual consideration. Further, the essay has synthesized different ideas by using different literatures in order to inform the whole process of evaluating of the concept. Take for instance the case of idealized influence and individual consideration, both components can be built by employing the mentoring techniques upon which the leader pays attention to individual development. In general, transformational leadership is a very important leadership style and whose benefits can be achieved if its able to motivate and boost employee towards performance and this is especially possible where clear vision is stated. References Barbuto, J. E., Strahan, R. and Walumbwa, F. O. (2005). Motivation and transactional, charismatic, and transformational leadership: A test of antecedents. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 11(4), 26-41. Gooty, J., Gavin, M., Johnson, P., Frazier, M., & Snow, D. (2009). In the eyes of the beholder: Transformational leadership, positive psychological capital, and performance. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 15(4), 353. Hackman, M. Z., & Johnson, C. E. (2004). Leadership: A communication perspective (4th Ed.). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press. Harle, T. (2011). Fractal leadership: Emerging patterns for transformation. In J. D. Barbour & G. R. Hickman (Eds.), Leadership for transformation. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Jones, M. (2011). Transforming leadership through the power of the imagination. In J. D. Barbour & G. R. Hickman (Eds.), Leadership for transformation. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass. Kent, T. W., Crotts, J. C., & Azziz, A. (2001). Four factors of transformational leadership behavior. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 22(5), 221-229. Read More