Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Donald M. McCartney
Poullang Doung
Dr. William Waugh
Management and Organizational Behaviour PAUS 8431
10th November 2004
At its dawn, the challenge and possibilities of the 21st century focused attention on
leadership in a new light. Historically, the focus on becoming a true leader was through
meaning have been limited by the assumption that one can only be a leader if there are
followers. The focus has also been on intellect, but not intuition; knowledge, but not
wisdom; and as a consequence, the expectation that a leader should have all the answers
one has only to examine the annals of history in order to find examples of men and
women, who had the opportunity to be successful and were rendered unsuccessful by
their failure to see the many pitfalls that come with the acquisition of leadership. The
pitfalls of bad leadership can trip you up whether you run a country, a large corporation, a
Leadership is leaders acting as well as caring, inspiring and persuading others to act-for
certain shared goals that represent the values-the wants and the need, the aspirations and
expectations-of themselves and people they represent. And the genius of leadership lies
in the manner in which leaders care about, visualize, and act in their own and followers
values and motivations.
Management and Organizational Behaviour 2
underscores the following: (1) It does not allow leadership to use coercive power which
would render it null and void; (2) Good leaders are more in tune with movement toward
goals that are common to those who lead and those who follow; and (3) Leaders act in
accordance with the values of those whom they lead (Phillips 1997).
Leaders are confronted with “risk” when they try untested approaches and accept
the risk that accompanies all experiments. They are also confronted with risk when they
are (a) confronted with new challenge or a new idea, (b) pushed outside their comfort
zone, (c) willing to be “first” and or to “trust”, (d) willing to experiment with new ways
of doing things and or (e) willing to go beyond boundaries (Kouzes and Posner 1995).
It has been said that there were three revolutions in American history: (1) The
American Revolution (1776-1783); (2) The Civil War (1861-1865); and (3) The Civil
Rights Movement (1954-1968). These three major events transformed the American
landscape and created the atmosphere in which many disenfranchised Americans would
eventually realize the achievement of the American dream (Phillips 1998). There is no
management for these three revolutions to transform America. The difference or lack
this paper.
Among those who provided the leadership were the Founding Fathers, Abraham
Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., respectively. To this list of transformational leaders,
This paper will examine briefly the following: (1) definitions of transformational
(as a unit) to transformational leadership. In any event the scope of this paper will not
allow for comparison between the three in all respects. Therefore, in the sections on the
leadership and management, transactional leadership will not be at the focal point. The
principles toward which all organizations should strive. In the following sections, several
There has been growing interest in the study of transformational leadership. The
pace of change confronting organizations today has resulted in calls for more adaptive,
environments by helping to make sense of the challenges confronted by both leaders and
followers and then appropriately responding to those challenges. Adaptive leaders work
with their followers to generate creative solutions to complex problems, while also
1985).
Management and Organizational Behaviour 4
others and stimulate people to think in new ways (Kouzes and Posner 1995).
James MacGregor Burns coined the terms transactional leadership and transformational
leadership in 1978 in which he sets out to describe the situation between leaders and
followers. Such a leadership takes two forms: (1) transactional and (2) transformational.
When leaders go by the current goals of followers, the relationship becomes nothing
Such leadership occurs when one person takes the initiative in making
contact with others for the purpose of exchange of valued things. The
exchange could be economic or political or psychological in nature: a
swap of goods or of one good for money; a trading of votes between
candidates and citizens or between legislators; hospitality to another
person in exchange for willingness to listen to one’s troubles. Each party
to the bargain is conscious of the power resources and attitudes of the
other. Each person recognizes the other as a person. Their purposes are
related, at least to the extent that the purpose stand within the bargaining
process and can be advanced by maintaining that process. But beyond this
the relationship does not go. The bargainers have no enduring purpose that
holds them together; hence they may go their separate ways. A leadership
act took place, but it was not one that binds the leader and follower
together in a mutual and continuing pursuit of a higher purpose.
leaders try to bring about a change in followers’ motives and goals. He describes
transformational leadership as the ideal relationship between leaders and followers in this
way:
Such leadership occurs when one or more persons engage with others in
such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of
motivation and morality. Their purposes, which might have started out as
separate but related, as in the case of transactional leadership, become
fused. Power bases are linked not as counterweights but as mutual support
Management and Organizational Behaviour 5
for common purpose. Various names are used for such leadership, some of
them derisory: elevating, mobilizing, inspiring, exalting, uplifting,
preaching, exhorting, and evangelizing. The relationship can be moralistic,
of course. But transforming leadership ultimately becomes moral in that it
raises the level of human conduct and ethical aspiration of both leader and
led, and thus has a transforming effect on both.
next.
Transformational leadership takes place when followers and leaders raise one
followers’ wants, needs, and other motivation as well as their own. By so doing, the
leader serves as an independent force in changing the makeup of the followers’ motives
leaders bring about change, innovation, and entrepreneurship. They describe the process
of corporate transformation that recognize the need for revitalization, create a new vision,
followers, encouraging them to reframe the future and question the tried and true, and
coaching them to develop their full capabilities (Avolio, et al. 1999). Transformational
leaders integrate creative insight, persistence and energy intuition and sensitivity to the
needs of others to forge the strategy-culture for their organization (Bass & Avolio 1993).
only on current needs of their followers or themselves, they focus on future needs. While
transformational leaders focus on short-term issues, they also concern themselves with
long-term issues. Rather than seeing intra and extra organizational factors as discrete,
Management and Organizational Behaviour 6
transformational leaders view them from a holistic viewpoint (Dubinsky et al. 1995). Six
attributes of transformational leadership have been identified: (1) displaying empathy, (2)
dramatizing the mission, (3) projecting self-assurance, (4) enhancing the leader’s image,
(5) assuring followers of their competency, and (6) providing followers opportunities to
experience success (Behling & McFillen 1996). It must be noted that transformational
leadership does not stand alone in the leadership vocabulary. Transactional leadership
(Bass et al. 2003). Showing transactional leadership meant that followers agreed with,
accepted, or complied with the leader in exchange for praise, reward and resources or the
provided based upon followers successfully carrying out their roles and assignments.
when goals are achieved. The clarification of goals and objectives and providing
recognition once goals are achieved should result in individuals and groups achieving
expected levels of performance (Bass 1985; Burns 1978). In its more corrective form,
under the nomenclature management by exception, the leader specifies the standards for
followers for being out of compliance with those standards. This style of leadership
implies closely monitoring for deviances, mistakes and errors and then taking corrective
action as quickly as possible when they occur (Burns 1978). In its more passive form, the
Management and Organizational Behaviour 7
leader either waits for problems to arise before taking action or takes no action at all and
(Northouse 2004). The next section will explore whether leadership is exclusively
transactional or transformational.
raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality. On the other hand,
leader possesses or controls that the followers want in return for his or her services.
approach followers with an eye to exchanging one thing for another: (1) jobs for votes, or
(2) subsidies for campaign contributions. Transactional style works well when both
leader and led understand and are in agreement about which tasks are important.
Despite what has been noted above, the seasoned, savvy leader recognizes that
transformational leadership and transactional leadership are not at odds with one another.
Experience has shown that they compliment each other as the circumstances dictate.
There is no magic formula or checklist that dictates when one is more relevant than the
Bernard Bass, who is an avowed disciple of James MacGregor Burns (the father
situation, he or she tries to convert it into a win-win problem-solving situation. When this
does not provide the results, he or she desires, then he or she can revert to the
Despite what may have been said about the transformational leadership style, it
appears, however, that the transactional, at least on the surface, provides the basis of most
leader-follower encounters. On the other hand, while the transactional style may appear
to be most prevalent, it produces results that may not be as high as with the
theory of R. Kegan. The six stages range from 0-5. Karl W. Kuhnert and Phillip Lewis
explore stages 2, 3, and 4. According to Kuhnert and Lewis, stage 2 is the transactional
stage, stage 3 is the higher-order transactional stage and stage 4 is the transformational
If Kegan’s theory holds true, then it is safe to accept the thesis that leadership
moves from the transactional to the transformational, thus establishing a relational link
paper, the next three sections will deal with (1) the pitfalls of transformational leadership,
(2) the relationship between leadership and management and (3) the attributes of
transformational leadership.
Management and Organizational Behaviour 9
One may get the impression that transformational leadership and participative
decision-making are always based solely on the consensus of the leader and follower.
Given certain circumstances, it is not always practical to afford the luxury of debate as to
what course of action can be taken. In fact even when there is debate, it must be
With that said, it is generally agreed that most powerful tools are potentially
In support of this Bass and Steidlmeier in their “Ethics, Character and Authentic
Hitler was a case study in transformational leadership gone wrong. Indeed, he appealed to
the values and ethics of the German people. It could be argued that instead of fulfilling
his followers higher order needs and aspirations he lead them to ruin. Hitler was a
leader, because his aim did not lead to the betterment of his followers, but rather his own
fulfillment through the abuse of power. In this regard, another argument is offered and is
worthy of attention.
In order to overcome this warning of Bass and Steidlmeier, it is crucial that the leader’s
agenda must be able to uplift the followers. James MacGregor Burns puts it best when he
said:
high moral values as ethics espoused by both leader and led, the dark side is mitigated
and the forces of good are championed. Now that the up and downsides of
transformational leadership have been explored, how does this relate to management?
According to Kotter:
Kotter further tells us that leadership is distinguished by appealing to the values of the
followers by:
While leadership works hand in hand with management, their focus is different.
Leadership envisions the future course and management builds the administrative process
Management and Organizational Behaviour 11
to get there, producing orderly results and maintaining the desired end-state. A listing of
some of the attributes of transformational leadership will be presented in the next section.
have been unearthed. These attributes are highlighted by the current literature on the
subject, and are noted as follows: (1) Authentic transformational leadership builds
genuine trust between leaders and followers. (2) Transformational leaders concentrate on
terminal values such as integrity and fairness. They see responsibility for their
organization’s development and impact on society. (3) They increase the awareness of
what is right and good, important and beautiful, when they help to elevate followers’
needs for achievement and self-actualization, when they foster in followers higher moral
maturity, and when they move followers to go beyond their self-interests for the good of
their group, organization or society. (4) The truly transformational leader who is seeking
the greatest good for the greatest number and is likely to avoid stretching the truth or
going beyond the evidence for he or she to set an example for followers about the value
of valid and accurate communication in followers. (5) Leadership and follower ship in
participants are empowered to act as effective leaders and followers based on core values
and a unifying purpose, the potential for unprecedented advance and exceptional
but not moralistic. Leaders engage with followers, but from higher levels of morality. In
the enmeshing of goals and values both leaders and followers are raised to more
and management have been presented and will succeed or fail on their own strength or
weakness. It is incumbent upon those who position themselves for leadership to develop
the sophistication and savvy which will assist them in determining when to use
interest of those whom they serve, lead, their organizations and themselves. They must
know how to create a balance among the three concepts in terms of their application,
because they are all necessary in order to successfully navigate the treacherous waters of
.
Management and Organizational Behaviour 13
WORKS CITED
Kotter, John P. 1999. John P. Kotter on What Leaders Really Do. Boston MA: Harvard
Bass, Bernard M, & Paul Steidlmeier. 1998. "Ethics, Character and Authentic
Kuhnert, Karl W., & Phillip Lewis. 1987. Transactional and Transformational
Northouse, Peter G. 2004. Leadership Theory and Practice. Thousand Oakes, California:
Sage Publications.
Burns, MacGregor James. 1978]. Leadership. New York, NY: Harper & Row
Publishers.
Burns, MacGregor James. 1978. Leadership. New York, NY: Harper & Row Publishers.
Bass, Bernard M. 1985. Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations. New York,
Northouse, Peter G. 2004. Leadership Theory and Practice. Thousand Oakes, California:
Sage Publications.
Bass, Bernard M., Dong I. Jung, Bruce J. Avolio & Yair Berson. 2003. Predicting Unit
(2) (Spring):
Dubinsky, A.J., F.J. Yammarino, M.A. Jolson & W.D. Sprangler. 1995. Transformational
Bass, Bernard M., & B.J. Avolio. 1993. Transformational Leadership and Organizational
Avolio, Bruce J., J. M. Howell & J. J. Sosik. 1999. A Funny Thing Happened to Me on
the Way to the Bottom Line: Humour as a Moderator of Leadership Style Effects.
Seltzer, J. & Bernard M. Bass. 1990. Transformational Leadership: Beyond Initiation and
Bass, Bernard M. 1985]. Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectation. New York,
Burns, MacGregor James. 1978. Leadership. New York, NY: Harper & Row Publishers.
Kouzes, James M. and Barry Z. Posner. 1995. The Leadership Challenge: How to Keep
Publishers.
Phillips, Donald T. 1997. The Founding Fathers On Leadership. New York, NY: Warner
Books.
Burns, MacGregor James. 1978. Leadership. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Management and Organizational Behaviour 15
Kouzes, James M. and Barry Z. Posner. 1995. The Leadership Challenge: How to Keep
Publishers.
Bass, Bernard M. 1985. Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectation. New York:
Bennis Warren 2001. Leading in Unnerving Times. MIT Sloan Management Review 42:
97-102.
Phillips, Donald T. 1998. Martin Luther King Jr. On Leadership. New York, NY:
Warner Books.
Gardner, John W. 1990. On Leadership. New York, NY: Harper Business A Division of
Harper Collins.