Describe the following leadership theories: (a) Transformational

Leadership, (b) Situational Leadership Theory/Model.

INTRODUCTION
Alan Keith of Genentech defined Leadership as creating a way for people to
contribute to making something extraordinary happen.

John Maxwell defined leadership as "leadership is influence - nothing more,

nothing less." This moves beyond the position defining the leader, to looking at
the ability of the leader to influence other.

Warren Bennis' definition of leadership is focused much more on the individual

capability of the leader: "Leadership is a function of knowing yourself, having a
vision that is well communicated, building trust among colleagues, and taking
effective action to realize your own leadership potential."

Leadership is and has been described as the process of social influence in

which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment
of a common task

Leadership is defined in so many different ways that it is hard to come up with a

single working definition. Leadership is not just a person or group of people in a
high position; understanding leadership is not complete without understanding

interactions between a leader and his or her followers. Neither is leadership

merely the ability or static capacity of a leader.

In these unique social dynamics, all the parties involved attempt to influence
each other in the pursuit of goals. Leadership is a process in which a leader
attempts to influence his or her followers to establish and accomplish a goal or
goals. Leadership is a process in which a leader attempts to influence his or her
followers to establish and accomplish a goal or goals.

A leader is a person who influences a group of people towards a specific result.

Leaders are recognized by their capacity for caring for others, clear
communication, and a commitment to persist. An individual who is appointed to
a managerial position has the right to command and enforce obedience by virtue
of the authority of his position. However, he must possess adequate personal
attributes to match his authority, because authority is only potentially available to
him. In the absence of sufficient personal competence, a manager may be
confronted by an emergent leader who can challenge his role in the organization
and reduce it to that of a figurehead.

It follows that whoever wields personal influence and power can legitimize this
only by gaining a formal position in the hierarchy, with commensurate authority.
Leadership can be defined as one's ability to get others to willingly follow. Every
organization needs leaders at every level.

THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP
Leadership theories are a relatively recent phenomena that have been
advanced by the sudden interest in historical leaders and the desire to identify
the characteristics and behaviors that these leaders exhibited. By understanding
the characteristics of the leader, their successes and failures, as well as the
political and work environment they faced, the modern day worker can hope to
replicate this success.

Transformational Leadership starts with the development of a vision, a view of

the future that will excite and convert potential followers. This vision may be
developed by the leader, by the senior team or may emerge from a broad series
of discussions. In order to create followers, the Transformational Leader has to
be very careful in creating trust, and their personal integrity is a critical part of the
package that they are selling. In effect, they are selling themselves as well as the
vision.

When a decision is needed, an effective leader does not just fall into a single
preferred style, such as using transactional or transformational methods.
Factors that affect situational decisions include motivation and capability of
followers. Leaders here work on such factors as external relationships,
acquisition of resources, managing demands on the group and managing the
structures and culture of the group.

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
The central concept here is change and the role of leadership in envisioning and
implementing the transformation of organizational performance.

The transformational leadership style is said to occur when one or more persons
engage with in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher
levels of motivation and morality. This is almost like a synergy that might exist
whereby everyone gets raised to a higher level of performance.
Mahatma Gandhi is a great example of a transformational leader, because he
satisfied the needs of his followers. But instead of riding those needs to power,
he remained sensitive to a higher purpose. His vision of leadership went beyond
himself to the greater good of all that followed him.
John Kotter (1988) distinguishes transformational leadership from management.
Effective management carefully plans the goal of an organization, recruits the
necessary staff, organizes them, and closely supervises them to make sure that
the initial plan is executed properly. Successful leadership goes beyond
management of plans and tasks. It envisions the future and sets a new direction
for the organization. Successful leaders mobilize all possible means and human
resources; they inspire all members of the organization to support the new
mission and execute it with enthusiasm. When an organization faces an
uncertain environment, it demands strong leadership. On the other hand, when

an organization faces internal operational complexity, it demands strong

management. If an organization faces both an uncertain environment and
internal operational complexity, it requires both strong leadership and strong
management.
In 1993, Kenneth Leithwood's theory of leadership added to this model of the
transformational leader.

His theory explained that the transformational

leadership style fostered the acceptance of group goals, communicated high

performance expectations, and challenged people intellectually. The leader also
set the example of what is expected from those being led in terms of the ideal
behavior.
The transformational leader (Burns, 2008) motivates its team to be effective and
efficient. Communication is the base for goal achievement focusing the group on
the final desired outcome or goal attainment. This leader is highly visible and
uses chain of command to get the job done. Transformational leaders focus on
the big picture, needing to be surrounded by people who take care of the details.
The leader is always looking for ideas that move the organization to reach the
companys vision
The final stage is to remain up-front and central during the action.
Transformational Leaders are always visible and will stand up to be counted
rather than hide behind their troops. They show by their attitudes and actions
how everyone else should behave. They also make continued efforts to motivate

and rally their followers, constantly doing the rounds, listening, soothing and
enthusing.
Organizations utilizing a transformational strategy have the opportunity to
motivate and inspire employees, especially when the company is facing a
challenge or change in direction. The transformational strategy provides a sense
of purpose and meaning that can unite employees to achieve a common set of
goals. One of the methods the Transformational Leader uses to sustain
motivation is in the use of ceremonies, rituals and other cultural symbolism.
Small changes get big hurrahs, pumping up their significance as indicators of real
progress.
The major drawback of transformational strategies is that they depend on the
highly developed intellectual skills of employees to be successful. This is
because an exciting and satisfying place to work alone does not guarantee
goals will be achieved.
Transformational leadership is a process in which the leaders take actions to try
to increase their associates' awareness of what is right and important, to raise
their associates' motivational maturity and to move their associates to go beyond
the associates' own self-interests for the good of the group, the organization, or
society. Such leaders provide their associates with a sense of purpose that goes
beyond a simple exchange of rewards for effort provided.

The transformational leaders are proactive in many different and unique ways.
These leaders attempt to optimize development, not just performance.
Development encompasses the maturation of ability, motivation, attitudes, and
values. Such leaders want to elevate the maturity level of the needs of their
associates (from security needs to needs for achievement and selfdevelopment). They convince their associates to strive for a higher level of
achievement as well as higher levels of moral and ethical standards. Through the
development of their associates, they optimize the development of their
organization as well. High performing associates build high performing
organizations
Today,

transformational

leadership

has

evolved

into

"transforming

organizational framework." This framework focuses on four components:

An active and disorderly environment.

An organization as a background for capacity building.

Transformational leadership that assembles facilitates and lifts up human

and organizational processes.

Outcomes

characterized

by

maximized

employee

and

corporate

capabilities and their possible contributions to employees, the company,

and society.

SITUATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Whilst behavioral theories may help managers develop particular leadership
behaviors they give little guidance as to what constitutes effective leadership in
different situations. Indeed, most researchers today conclude that no one
leadership style is right for every manager under all circumstances. Instead,
contingency-situational theories were developed to indicate that the style to be
used is contingent upon such factors as the situation, the people, the task, the
organization, and other environmental variables.

This approach sees leadership as specific to the situation in which it is being

exercised. For example, whilst some situations may require an autocratic style,
others may need a more participative approach. It also proposes that there may
be differences in required leadership styles at different levels in the same
organization.

Contingency leadership theory in organizational studies is a type of

leadership theory, leadership style, and leadership model that presumes that
different leadership styles are contingent to different situations. It is also referred
as Situational Leadership theory although, as originally convened, the situational
theory term is much more restrictive. The original situational theory argues that
the best type of leadership is totally determined by the situational variables

Situational theory also appeared as a reaction to the trait theory of leadership.

Social scientists argued that history was more than the result of intervention of
great men as Carlyle suggested. Herbert Spencer (1884) said that the times
produce the person and not the other way around. [11] This theory assumes that
different situations call for different characteristics; according to this group of
theories, no single optimal psychographic profile of a leader exists. According to
the theory, "what an individual actually does when acting as a leader is in large
part dependent upon characteristics of the situation in which he functions.
There are many ways in which a situation effects the method of leadership a
supervisor would employee. In their study The Role of the Situation in
Leadership, Doctors Victor H Vroom, and Arthur G Jago have identified three
distinct roles in which the situation affects leadership. The first role the situation
plays in affecting leadership is that situations outside a leaders control may affect
the effectiveness of the overall organization. Often when the organization is in
trouble the blame is placed on leaders. Many times these leaders have little to no
control over the state of the organization. However, when measuring a leaders
effectiveness in such situations one must look at how they respond to what they
can control such as their subordinates.
A second finding of Vroom and Jago is that Situations shape how leaders
behave. According to Vroom and Jago, Their research, showing that situation
accounts for about three times as much variance as do individual differences. A
third and final finding of Vroom and Jago is that Situations influence the

consequences of a leaders behavior. According to Vroom and Jago "a leadership

style that is effective in one situation may prove completely ineffective in a
different situation (Vroom and Jago). Thus, the choice of leadership style one
uses may bring about either positive or negative consequences depending on the
given situation.
The Fiedler contingency model bases the leaders effectiveness on what Fred
Fiedler called situational contingency. This results from the interaction of
leadership style and situational favorableness (later called "situational control").
The theory defined two types of leader: those who tend to accomplish the task
by developing good-relationships with the group (relationship-oriented), and
those who have as their prime concern carrying out the task itself (taskoriented). According to Fiedler, there is no ideal leader. Both task-oriented and
relationship-oriented leaders can be effective if their leadership orientation fits
the situation. When there is a good leader-member relation, a highly structured
task, and high leader position power, the situation is considered a "favorable
situation". Fiedler found that task-oriented leaders are more effective in
extremely favourable or unfavorable situations, whereas relationship-oriented
leaders perform best in situations with intermediate favorability .

In contrast to the Fiedler contingency model, the path-goal model states that
the four leadership behaviors are fluid, and that leaders can adopt any of the
four depending on what the situation demands. The path-goal model can be

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classified both as a contingency theory, as it depends on the circumstances,

but also as a transactional leadership theory, as the theory emphasizes the
reciprocity behavior between the leader and the followers .

The path-goal theory of leadership was developed by Robert House (1971)

and was based on the expectancy theory of Victor Vroom.[19] According to
House, the essence of the theory is "the meta proposition that leaders, to be
effective, engage in behaviors that complement subordinates' environments and
abilities in a manner that compensates for deficiencies and is instrumental to
subordinate satisfaction and individual and work unit performance. [20] The theory
identifies four leader behaviors, achievement-oriented, directive, participative,
and supportive, that are contingent to the environment factors and follower
characteristics.
The Situational Leadership theory allows leaders to make a choice which
ultimately predicts their effectiveness. Although this style of leadership is new, it
is views as highly successful, and thus, leaders whom follow the situational
model are considered successful leaders. Job satisfaction, willingness to work
and performance were all rated highest with Situational Leadership.
The situational leadership model proposed by Hersey and Blanchard
suggests four leadership-styles and four levels of follower-development. For
effectiveness, the model posits that the leadership-style must match the
appropriate level of followership-development. In this model, leadership

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behavior becomes a function not only of the characteristics of the leader, but of
the characteristics of followers as well.

To determine the appropriate leadership style to use in a given situation, the

leader must first determine the maturity level of the followers in relation to the
specific task that the leader is attempting to accomplish through the effort of the
followers. As the level of followers' maturity increases, the leader should begin to
reduce his or her task behaviour and increase relationship behaviour until the
followers reach a moderate level of maturity. As the followers begin to move into
an above average level of maturity, the leader should decrease not only task
behaviour but also relationship behaviour. Once the maturity level is identified,
the appropriate leadership style can be determined.

A situational leadership style is not dictated by the leadership skills of the

manager. The idea of situational leadership is more closely tied to using the
style needed to be successful given the existing work environment being
managed or the specific needs of the business.

The effective manager is able to utilize multiple leadership styles as conditions

change. This is the theory behind the concept of situational leadership.
Implementing situational leadership in an organization then becomes a matter of
training managers to recognize the current work setting or employee situation
and using the most effective leadership style given that specific challenge.

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CONCLUSION

From the review of leadership theory, current models and competency

frameworks in use throughout the public and private sectors it would appear that
a somewhat limited version of transformational leadership is being promoted.
Most frameworks go beyond simple definitions of behaviors, to also consider
some of the cognitive, affective and inter-personal qualities of leaders, however,
although the role of followers may be recognized it is usually in a rather
simplistic, unidirectional manner. Leadership, therefore, is conceived as a set of
values, qualities and behaviors exhibited by the leader that encourage the
participation, development, and commitment of followers.
Although leadership is difficult to define, it is essential in all types of organization,
but even more important in public administration. There are more levels of
leadership involved in public administration, with at least different levels specific,
both inside and outside the organization (Gorton, Mahler, and Nicholson 291).
Each of these theories takes a rather individualistic perspective of the leader,
although a school of thought gaining increasing recognition is that of dispersed
leadership. This approach, with its foundations in sociology, psychology and
politics rather than management science, views leadership as a process that is
diffuse throughout an organization rather than lying solely with the formally
designated leader. The emphasis thus shifts from developing leaders to
developing leaderful organizations with a collective responsibility for leadership.

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The basis of good leadership is honorable character and selfless service to your
organization. In your employees' eyes, your leadership is everything you do that
effects the organization's objectives and their well-being. Respected leaders
concentrate on what they a r e [ b e ] (such as beliefs and character), what they
k n o w (such as job, tasks, and human nature), and what they d o (such as
implementing, motivating, and providing direction).
For example immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President George W.
Bushs approval rating skyrocketed from about 50 percent to almost 90 percent.
In one historic, terrible day, he was transformed, in the eyes of his fellow
Americans, into a strong and decisive leader. At the end of his second term, his
approval rating had fallen to about 27 percent.
President Bushs status as a leader was situational, depending on the events of
that fateful day in September of 2001. At the helm when the attacks took place,
he was transformed into a strong leader.
In addition to the soft skills, the leader is also expected to display excellent
information processing, project management, customer service and delivery
skills, along with proven business and political acumen. They build partnerships,
walk the talk, show incredible drive and enthusiasm, and get things done.
Furthermore, the leader demonstrates innovation, creativity and thinks outside
the box. They are entrepreneurs who identify opportunities - they like to be
challenged and theyre prepared to take risks.

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REFERENCE
1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leadership
2
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/theories/leadership_theories.htm
3. http://www.money-zine.com/Career-Development/LeadershipSkill/Transformational-Leadership/
4. http://www.answers.com/topic/leadership
5. http://www.allbusiness.com/management/management-theory/105945341.html#bzid=eb3acb5d-c6a0-4791-b61a-35c545f12193&code=O1B&code=C4X
6. http://www.leadership-studies.com/documents/mgmt_standards.pdf

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