Transformational Leadership Paper

For centuries leaders have been analyzed in order to determine what the traits and characteristics of a successful leader are. Leadership, as defined by Koontz and Weihrich (2008) is “the art or a process of influencing people so that they will strive willingly and enthusiastically toward the achievement of group goals” (p. 311). Leadership plays an important role in employee’s participation, creativity, recruitment to an organization, their commitment to the organization, and productivity levels. Over the years, there have been a number of theories surrounding leadership such as the “Great Man” theory, which, according to Riaz and Haider (2010), “assumes that leaders are born and have innate qualities, therefore, leaders

Throughout time, many books and papers have been written to study the birthplace of leadership failure, its causes, results, and ultimately, the best way to oversea these situations to avoid future failures. Some leadership experts, may argue that the best way to learn how to lead, is to study successful leadership outcomes and more importantly, how former miscalculations were committed and as a result, what gran plan was used that resulted in the leaders turnaround success. To be a great leader, the individual has to be cognate of what elements, including external and internal impact, resulted in their failure, as well as, how to avoid leadership oversight in the future. In this paper, I will attempt to do just that, as I will incorporate the transactional and transformational leadership theory from this course and apply them to the leadership failures of one of the most entertaining leadership failures of all time: the DeLorean Motor Company.

In order to be authentic the transformational leader needs to be an ethical moral agent. “A leader is praiseworthy as a moral agent if he or she possesses a developed conscience and acts in ways that are kind, charitable and altruistic rather than selfish or maleficent.” (wright.edu). The authentic leader tends to complete actions which are best for the followers. Leaders actions should be judged based on the ends sought, means used, and the consequences achieved.

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

****Granted, every quality associated with transactional and transformational leadership may not easily serve the needs of the ethical public-sector leader. For example, risk-taking and commitment are elements of transformational leadership; however, Dobell (1989) argues that there are systemic reasons as to why public-sector leaders tend to avoid risk and sustain the status quo, and also that the attempts by public officials to satisfy various groups may be perceived as a lack of commitment and inconsistency. Nonetheless, other qualities such as honesty, optimism, fairness, inner direction, and the motivation of followers can add to the ethical climate of public-sector organizations. Thus, a public-sector leader who focuses on specific aspects of both

Wiater, Diane Marie. “Transformational leadership: An examination of significant leadership development life experiences of selected Doctor of Ministry students Regent University, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2001.

Carey, 2015). Therefore, we come to learn that transformational leaders are often necessary and utilized to transform an inadequate low performance organization into an adequate high performance organization. In other occurrences, a transformation leader is expected to rescue an organization from a crisis. However, in order to carry out and achieve this task, it is vital for the leader to overhaul the organizational culture and subculture that may be prevalent. This task can be accomplished through nine methods of transforming other individuals such as: 1. Raise and increase awareness. It is vital that the leader makes other individuals aware of potential rewards and how they may be achieved. For example, pride in the job as well as offering financial incentives and bonuses. 2. Facilitate others in looking past self-interest. It is vital for the transformational leader to help others acknowledge and comprehend the big picture through explaining the presenting the whole scenario. For example, if an organization is to hire more employees to carry out certain task there will be cuts in various other areas. 3. Help individuals achieve self-fulfillment. The transformative leader assist others in not focusing on minor satisfactions such as completing a job prior to the deadline due to the fact that an individual did not take days off, this helps the organization grow and

In 1960 John R. P French and Bertram Raven identified five bases of power accessible to managers (Victor, 2015). These five sources of power are legitimate, reward, coercive, expert, and referent (Jones & George, 2015, p. 435). Legitimate power not with the person; is granted to the position held in an organization’s hierarchy. Reward power is gained by rewarding subordinates for jobs well done, however the rewards must the expectancy of subordinates or the power ultimately fails. Coercive power is based on using fear to intimidate subordinates to carry out tasks. Expert power is based in the distinct knowledge, skills, and expertise that a leader possesses. Referent power is a function of the personal characteristics of leader that result

There are a number of leadership theories which can be implemented by the leaders in the workplace of the organization to maintain an effective leadership, such as transactional leadership theory, transformational leadership theory, trait theory, great man theory and behavioral theory. All of these leadership theories define a number of critical factors which are required in an individual to attain an effective leadership in the workplace of the organization (Miner, 2015). These leadership strategies and principles focus on the character growth of the leader in one way or other. For example, a transformational leader grow himself or herself to a high quality of character and motivates the followers to follow his or her footsteps to enhance their character and personalities. So the principle of leadership involves the focus on two factors of self-growth and then the growth of the followers. The quotation suggests these factors to be the success criteria for an individual playing the role of a leader. Most of the leadership theories support the self-growth and follower-growth factors to be the criteria to measure the effectiveness of the leadership of an individual

Transformational leadership focuses on what the leader should accomplish, yet it pays attention to the leader’s personal characteristics and their relationships with other groups. The transformational leader helps bring many changes to the group. To illustrate, the transformational leader develops and transforms people by focusing on a routine which meets the standards of the group. Therefore, as a leader I would transform my team to help people look beyond their self-interest and understand their need to change themselves. As mentioned previously, there is nothing wrong with change especially if it has been applied correctly. Change can bring greatness to the team, business and the individual because they are learning to better themselves

Leadership is a position we can easily identify, a word that is inherently understood, but to clearly define leadership is broad and complex. I remember early in the beginning of NURS 641 class, I had to define leadership in my own words. I described leadership as the power to influence people to achieve the same goal, vision, or purpose. I see true leaders as great communicators with high moral standards that are not afraid of change and who continue to innovate, inspire, and empower everyone to improve or progress the group. As there are many leadership definitions, there are also various leadership styles. What stands out the most for me is transformational leadership. Burns (as cited by Crowell, 2011, pp. 81-82) described a

This paper summarizes the article written by Cam Caldwell, Rolf D. Dixon, Larry A. Floyd, Joe Chaudoin, Johnathan Post, and Gaynor Cheokas regarding the need for a new type of leadership in today’s social work environment, defined as Transformative leadership. The article itself varies in the definition, however in a broad sense Transformative leadership is maintaining good moral standing and sound business ethics among employees and individuals inside and outside the workplace. However, in order to reach this theoretical level of business related moral and ethical leadership known as

Describe the role of leadership types within teams. What are some of the primary reasons teams fail? What can be done to ensure team success? Give a personal example of team success. Support your discussion with appropriate leadership theories that apply.

Being able to lead a group or someone is a very powerful action. Being a leader in general is very powerful. Leadership is an art that is painted, sculpted, and displayed in all sorts of ways. There are many different styles of leadership that correspond with different tasks. From transformational leadership to laissez-faire leadership, there are various styles throughout the continuum. A transformational leader is one of the best, more successful leadership style. When going down the continuum, the leadership styles only become less effective. Everyone also falls in distinctive categories when it comes to leading others. The leadership style that is displayed depends on the person leading and those who are being led along with the task.

A common challenge that is impacting a number of firms is the ability to have everyone effectively work together. This is because differences of opinions and animosity are creating situations where no one is communicating with each other. These issues are having a negative impact on the firm and the way that it is able to reach out to stakeholders. As a result, the company is facing challenges in the way that it is interacting with customers. If left unaddressed, this can lead to the loss of market share and their competitive advantage.