LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE EIGHTH EDITION

Transformational Leadership
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Transformational Leadership
 Process – Assumes that leader’s interactions can
transform followers.
 Influence - Assumes that a leader can transform
followers to accomplish what they would do
otherwise.
 Core elements – Assumes that followers’ emotions,
values, ethics, standards, and long-term goals can be
changed.
 Measure – Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire
(MLQ) which measures different leadership
behaviors (the 4 Is).

From Northouse - Leadership Theory and Practice, Eighth Edition © 2019 SAGE Publications, Inc.
LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE EIGHTH EDITION 3

Types of Leadership: Transactional

Focuses on the

 
exchanges
that occur - No new taxes => votes.
between leaders - Sell more cars => bonus.
and their followers
- Do assignments => grade.
                                      
- Surpass goals => promotion.

The exchanges that can be

observed in all organizations.

From Northouse - Leadership Theory and Practice, Eighth Edition © 2019 SAGE Publications, Inc.
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Types of Leadership: Transformational

Process of Leader is attentive to the
engaging with others needs and motives of

 
to create a connection
that increases
followers and tries to help
motivation followers reach their fullest
and morality in both potential.
the
                                      
leader and the follower
Abraham Lincoln – raised
the hopes and demands of
millions of people, motivating
them to give themselves to
end slavery.

Mahatma Gandhi
From Northouse - Leadership Theory and Practice, Eighth Edition © 2019 SAGE Publications, Inc.
LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE EIGHTH EDITION 5

Types of Leadership: Pseudo-Transformational

Focuses on the
leader’s
Leaders who are
own interests – transforming but in a
rather than the negative way
interests of his or – self-consumed,
her followers exploitive, power-
oriented, with warped
moral values
includes leaders like
 Adolph Hitler
 Saddam Hussein
From Northouse - Leadership Theory and Practice, Eighth Edition © 2019 SAGE Publications, Inc.
LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE EIGHTH EDITION
Transformational Leadership Factors:
The 4 Is
 Idealized Influence
 Being a strong role model
 High standards of moral and ethical conduct
 Inspirational Motivation
 High expectations
 Inspiring followers to commitment to a shared vision
 Intellectual Stimulation
 Stimulating followers to be creative and innovative
 Develop innovative ways of dealing with organization issues
 Individualized Consideration
 Listening carefully to the needs of followers
 Helping followers grow through personal challenges

From Northouse - Leadership Theory and Practice, Eighth Edition © 2019 SAGE Publications, Inc. 6
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Strengths
 Intuitive appeal. People are attracted to TL because it makes
sense to them.
 Emphasizes followers. TL emphasizes followers’ emotions, needs,
values, and morals.
 Effectiveness. Evidence supports that TL is an effective form of
leadership. The dimensions measured (especially the 4 I’s and
contingent rewards) impact followers’
 Motivation
 Performance
 Satisfaction

From Northouse - Leadership Theory and Practice, Eighth Edition © 2019 SAGE Publications, Inc.
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Criticisms
 Lacks conceptual and measurement clarity.
 The 4 I’s overlap.
 Transactional and transformational leadership overlap.
 Essentially ignores task oriented behavior (planning, defining
roles, defining objectives, problem solving).
 Validity of MLQ is weak.
• Does the MLQ simply measure how much a follower likes a leader?
• Do leaders with high MLQ scores actually transform their followers?

 TL treats leadership more as a set of personality traits and

abilities than a behavior that can be taught.

 Has the potential to be abused.

 Without absolute moral standards, the difference between
transformational and pseudo-transformational leadership is blurred.
From Northouse - Leadership Theory and Practice, Eighth Edition © 2019 SAGE Publications, Inc.
LEADERSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE EIGHTH EDITION 9

Thank
You