Evaluating the Theories of Innovation and Change from a Leadership Perspective

Those that follow a transformational leadership framework believe that leaders possess many of the aforementioned qualities, but the focus is on one’s ability to inspire and empower others (Ross, Fitzpatrick, Click, Krouse, & Clavelle, 2014). These leaders literally ‘transform’ their followers by inspiring enthusiasm and performance towards a

Becoming a transformational leader can occur either because the leader has a model or mentor that is a transformational leader, because he/she is a born transformational leader, or through reflection. Senge (1990) wrote that “Learning through reflection is about finding the creative tension...between an understanding of current reality and a vision of desirable practice” (as cited in Johns, 2004, p. 24). In addition, Schuster (1994) noted that one who desires to become a transformational leader can cultivate certain qualities that are characteristic of such a leader: a stimulating vision for the organization, honesty, empathy, authenticity, the ability to defer self-interest to ensure that others are recognized, a holistic concern for the organization, the ability to share power with others, and the ability to develop others (as cited in Johns, 2004, p. 25). The transformational leader is also an effective communicator who persists during hard times and still has the courage to continue to move ahead even when fatigued and encountering difficulties (Schuster, 1994, as cited in Johns, 2004, p. 25).

As already discussed in Section 1, business productivity and change cannot occur without effecting people’s psychology to effect change. I initially felt that supervision would be fundamental to addressing and identify issues to allow reflection to plan a way forward to address issues, such as, performance management, productivity, effectiveness and understanding the views of the individuals to effect and improve individuals and team goals, and linking this to the business plan. This approach I

Transformational theory is relevant to this study since it informs the independent variable. It asserts that transformational leadership creates positive change in the followers whereby they take care of each other's interests and act in the interests of the group as a whole therefore contributing to overall organization performance.

There are many models of leadership that exist across a range of fields (e.g. social work, education, psychology, business, etc.). The ability to transform an organization successfully requires a different set of attitudes and skills. Transformational leadership is an approach where a leader utilizes inspiration, charisma, individualized attention, and intellectual stimulation with their employees (Iachini, Cross, & Freedman, 2015, p. 651). Transformational leadership helps to clarify organizational vision, inspires employees to attain objectives, empowers employees, encourages employees to take risks, and advocates the seeking of alternative solutions to challenges in the workplace (Transformational Leadership, 2015). It allows the leader to engage and motivate each follower identify with the organization’s values and goals.

The three articles used for this comparison matrix looked at transformational leadership and how it affects those in relation to each study. The three articles were all written with a different purpose in mind, with all three correlating to the same hypothesis, “How does transformational leadership affect employees/individuals in different settings?” With similarities found in topic, it was also evident that there were several contrasting variables within each article. The three empirical articles that were utilized for this comparison were as follows: Transformational Leadership in

Yammarino, F.J., Spangler, W.D., & Bass, B.M. (1993). Transformational leadership and performance: A longitudinal investigation. Leadership Quarterly, 4, 81–102.

Transformational leadership needs to be fostered at all levels in the firm. In order to succeed, the firm needs to have the flexibility to forecast and meet new demands and changes as they occur —and only transformational leadership can enable the firm to do so (Bass, 1990, p. 31).

The book The Heart of Change shows the practical side of the theories that are taught in the course textbook. It presents stories of successes and failures based in the application of concepts discussed in Organizational Behavior and Management and in class. Although we talked about several different concepts the ones that are evident in the examples in The Heart Of Change are the more progressive and individual centered approaches. The leadership characteristics that are important to successful change in an organization are those that are espoused in the transformational theory of management. It makes sense that ideals in line with the transformational management theory

Transformational leadership theory applies four factors for leaders to influence employees to perform beyond their abilities. These factors describes leaders that promote leadership through idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration (Shresh & Rajini 2013).Transformational leaders are deem as the most effective leadership style because of their character strengths as a excellent role model who leads by example and manage people based on their strengths and weaknesses to optimizes the organization performance (Shresh, & Rajini, 2013). Transformational leaders are known to reward, encourage and mentor people based on performance through inspiration, creativity, and innovation to solve problems to exceed expectation of the organization (Smith,

According to Pamela Spahr from St. Thomas University Transformational Leaders “possess a single-minded need to streamline or change things that no longer work. The transformational leader motivates workers and understands how to form them into integral units that work well with others.” (Spahr, 2015)

Transformational leaders express a clear vision, inspire others and work together with their team to identify common values and goals (Marquis and Huston 2009). They also recognise followers’ potential, assist them to develop their strengths and identify individual differences (Bass 2008).

This essay is based on the Transformational leadership theory and will be referred to as TL throughout this essay. This essay will look into criticisms and arguments against the theory and analyse the reasoning of these criticisms and arguments. Effective leaders are well aware that in best practice it is never viable to implement one style of leadership and flexibility is vital for a smooth operation. This essay will

During the past three decades, transformational leadership has helped to transform the workforce. The need for this type of inspirational style was recognized and explored in an original work called Leadership by James Macgregor Burns (1978). Burns believed that transformational leadership was a collaborative process that served to raise the morals and motivations of everyone involved (Leadership, 1978, 19). This type of leader works to inspire others with a goal or plan for the future. According the Marquis and Huston (2015) one of the key aspects of this style is the ability to empower others

Transformational leaders would go through different stages of psychological testing how they behave and act. The testing has shown the improvement and change reactions of those who have been through testing. Despite the changes of some leaders, there were those whose leadership behaviors were not changed. The purpose was to see if their behaviors could and would help motivate their subordinates. Transformational leaderships have shown that they could motivate their followers to surpass their own self-interests to a much high level than the leaders. The behaviors of the transformational leadership will continue to have major changes on the performance of the followers. Transformational leaders have responsibilities and will continue to have positive impact to organizational culture, subordinate performance and