Charismatic Leadership and Transformational Leadership - Book Report/Review Example

Literature Review: Effects of Transformational Leadership on Employees Introduction Transformational leadership literature has been preoccupied with examination of this leadership behaviour on job satisfaction, performance and work attitude of employees [(Colquitt and Piccolo, 2006), (Bono and Judge, 2003), (Keller, 2006), (Bono and Anderson, 2005), (Masood, Dani, Burns and Backhouse, 2006), (Hoffman and Frost, 2006)]. This theory of leadership has been predominant in literature ever since its evolution. However, despite the fact that there has been much focus of researchers and scholars on examining the theory of transformational leadership, there has been a significant gap in the available literature on the subject. The transformational leadership literature is limited to the effects of this leadership behaviour on the work related attitude of employees. There have not surprisingly been sufficient researches and studies on the analysis of transformational leadership effects in the event of organizational change. Because of the fact that transformational leadership is more about change (Bono and Anderson, 2005) than any other aspect of an organization, this gap is considered to be significant. This literature review encompasses studies carried out by different authors. The first section of this review analyses the methodological approaches presented in the significant transformational leadership literature. The second section points out the knowledge gap limiting the scope of existing literature. This study endeavours to put forward the existing focus of available literature on transformational leadership and the limitations of the theory. Part I: Methodological Orientations Most of the studies conducted in this regard could be propounded as based on positivist methodological approach. The literature on transformational leadership studied for this review predominantly utilises a systematic and scientific approach to conduct the research. Colquitt and Piccolo illuminate that transformational leadership theory generally encompasses four attributes of the behaviour exercised by a leader viz. idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. These qualities range from a leader's charismatic personality to his visionary, risk-taking and understanding approach (2006, p. 329). The authors also adopt a positivist approach and show with the help of empirical analysis that transformational leaders have great impact on how employees perceive their jobs to be. Colquitt and Piccolo conclude that "followers of truly exceptional leaders regarded their jobs as more challenging and important." (2006, p. 334) The research basically relies on studying 283 individuals on the basis of cross-sectional analysis of different job categories. The authors also propose a model of transformational leadership and core job characteristic effects for the purpose of analysis. Another significant study in this area include Bono and Judge (2003), who find with the help of scientific approach that transformational leadership yields better results in the form of employee job performance, satisfaction and motivation. This study also focuses on the role played by transformational leadership in motivating the employees to perform better at work and stay motivated. In their first study, the authors have conducted this research by surveying 247 participants/ individuals on leadership position with 654 individuals working as their direct subordinates. It was spread on a variety of nine organisations such as one governmental, one not-for-profit and the remaining seven were private businesses. The second study focuses on a sample of 162 participants who were undergraduate management students at a university. However, both the studies find an insignificant relationship between transformational leadership and the development of self-concordance on the part of employees. The authors suggest that the results of their two studies provide "better understanding of the psychological processes linking leaders and followers allows the design of more effective training programs." (Bono and Judge, 2003, p. 569) Keller's research on the transformational leadership show little evidence towards positivist approach focuses on finding a positive relationship between the specific usefulness of transformational leadership in bringing about change and innovations (2006). This research analyses the transformational leadership approach on the basis of performance in 118 research and development (R&D) project teams from 5 firms in different organisations. In order to analyse the effect of transformational leadership on research projects, the study utilises 674 employees working as members of one research project team in their organizations (Keller, 2006). The study finally concludes that transformational leadership bears a positive relationship with the effectiveness in research projects as well as innovations. Bono and Anderson (2005) propound that transformational leaders can transform organizations with the help of social processes and networks. This study utilises scientific approach and analyses data from six small organizations' 39 managers and 130 non-management employees by using the 'Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire'. It shows that the managers who have more transformational leadership skills are likely to have central positions in organizational advice and influence networks. The research focuses mainly on the social networks and social classes a leader can use to influence the subordinates or followers. It finds a positive relationship between transformational leadership and advice network centrality. The authors propound that the results of their study "enrich our understanding of the importance of social connections in the leadership process by focusing on the social capital of managers who use transformational leadership behaviours and their followers." (Bono and Anderson, 2005, p. 1311) The study conducted by Masood, Dani, Burns and Backhouse mainly examines the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational culture. The authors propound that "transformational leadership behaviour can influence to a great degree how followers work and are given freedom to work in organizations" (2006, p. 948). This study uses a different methodological approach from its peers in the respect that it conducts the research based on questionnaire. The study is based on 23-item measure of transformational leadership questionnaire to analyse the behaviour of transformational leaders. The questionnaires were presented to 339 followers from five manufacturing companies and 76 manufacturing leaders that was the major source of study. A laboratory experiment was conducted by Lapierre (2007) suggests that the leaders who show trust and benevolence towards their subordinates become more successful in motivating them towards enhanced performance and work efforts. The research exhibits a positivist approach and studies participants from a Canadian university having organizational work experience. The study does find a relationship between supervisor trustworthiness and employees' performance and effectiveness. The author put forwards that "this is the first study to examine the separate and joint effects of supervisor behaviours denoting trustworthiness on subordinate willingness to benefit the supervisor with extra-role workplace contributions" (Lapierre, 2007, p. 288) Hoffman and Frost (2006) relate the different aspects of intelligences to the three dimensions of transformational leadership viz. charisma, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. Rather than examining a relationship between transformational leadership and employees' performance, attitude and work-related behaviour, the authors go further to explain the relationship between multiple intelligences and the three transformational leadership elements. This research also adopts a positivist approach towards analysing the transformational leadership behaviour. The study utilizes an empirical methodology based on surveying a sample of 86 physicians enrolled in MBA programs. The authors find a significant relationship between cognitive intelligence and intellectual stimulation, social intelligence and charisma and, emotional intelligence and individualised consideration. They propound that "the results supported the propositions that specific forms of intelligence would be related to particular transformational dimensions." (p. 46) Part II: Effects of Transformational Leadership on Employees The literature on transformational leadership is strictly limited to the relationship of transformational leadership with job performance, satisfaction, work related attitude and employee behaviour. This literature review encompasses studies conducted by different authors on the transformational leadership theory, however, the greater emphasis has predominantly been on issues like effects of transformational leadership on employee behaviour, performance, satisfaction, motivation and culture etc employees [(Colquitt and Piccolo, 2006), (Bono and Judge, 2003), (Keller, 2006), (Bono and Anderson, 2005), (Masood, Dani, Burns and Backhouse, 2006), (Hoffman and Frost, 2006)]. Bono and Anderson (2005) criticises the existing literature on the grounds that it focuses more on relationships rather than analysing important aspects of organization like organizational change. Transformational leadership should be more about change and transformation than anything else. The study propounded by Colquitt and Piccolo (2006) is limited to the research of transformational leadership behaviour on job satisfaction and performance. Another limitation of this research as suggested by the author themselves is that the study relies heavily on cross sectional data which makes the results less significant. The study of Bono and Judge (2003).is limited to the extent that they focus entirely on the processes through which transformational leaders influence or affect employee behaviours and work performance. Keller criticises the existing literature in the words that "although the empirical literature concerning transformational leadership and substitutes for leadership are ample, lack of rigor has been a problem. " (2006, p. 202) The author also adopts a critical approach to the trend of conducting research on the basis of cross sectional data as in Colquitt and Piccolo (2006). The author emphasises the need for laboratory research and tests three models of leadership in his study viz. transformational leadership, initiating structure and substitutes for leadership. This study also does not utilise laboratory testing approach to the research on the subject. The study conducted by Masood, Dani, Burns and Backhouse (2006) focuses on 'psychological process of leadership' (p. 941) in order to analyse the impact of transformational leadership behaviour on organizational culture and situational strength. Although the authors stress on the importance of 'change' in the roles played by leaders in the context of contemporary environment, however, the focus of their research does not remain to be on organizational change. Lapierre (2007) has conducted a laboratory research on the effect of supervisors' trustworthiness on the employees' work related efforts. This study is limited to analysing the effects of transformational leadership characteristics on employees' efforts and commitment. A research on transformational leadership components and multiple intelligences by Hoffman and Frost (2006) also focuses exclusively on measuring the relationship between transformational leadership and different intelligences, with a profound suspect in the generalisation of the study as it relied too heavily on the sample consisting of physicians enrolled in an MBA program. The authors further illuminate that the study's "potential limitation was the linkages drawn from the scales used to measure the multiple intelligences" (2006, p. 48). Furthermore, this study does not point out the effects of transformational leadership components i.e. charisma, intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration in the event of organizational change. This suggests that most of the literature on transformational leadership is limited strictly to the analysis of effects of this leadership behaviour on several aspects of employee behaviours; motivation, satisfaction, performance, behaviour, social networks, leader intelligence, employee perception, efforts etc. However there has been a significant gap in the literature concerning the effectiveness of transformational leadership in bringing about organizational change. Conclusion This literature review encompasses the limitations in the literature of transformational leadership theory. This review analyses different authors' and scholars' works on the subject and provides an analysis of the methodological approaches adopted by these authors. An analysis of the literature suggests that most authors have utilised a positivist approach to the research. The literature is predominantly based on scientific and systematic methodology where most researchers have utilised empirical analysis to prove their hypotheses. It also provides a critical analysis of the available literature on the basis that most of the emphasis on transformational leadership theory has been on its effects on employee behaviour, task performance, work related behaviour, motivation, satisfaction etc. Several researchers have focused on identifying relationship between transformational leadership and different aspects of employee behaviour, perception, attitude, performance and culture. Furthermore, there has also been a study analysing relationship between transformational leadership components and intelligences. Hence great focus has been on employee and task issues while one of most important element of transformational leadership i.e. organizational change has been ignored. This review propounds that despite the fact that there has been great emphasis on transformational theory research, yet there is a wide gap of knowledge in the available range of literature on the effects of transformational leadership in the event of organizational change. The existing literature is limited overwhelmingly to the dyadic relationships, as suggested by Bono and Anderson (2005), rather than on the most important issue in contemporary organizations i.e. change. References Colquitt, J.A. and Piccolo, R.F. (2006). 'Transformational Leadership and Job Behaviours: The Mediating Role of Core Job Characteristics.' Academy of Management Journal, 49(2), 327-340. Bono, J.E. and Judge, T.A. (2003). 'Self-Concordance at Work: Toward Understanding the Motivational Effects of Transformational Leaders,' Academy of Management Journal, 46(5), 554-571 Keller, R.T. (2006). 'Transformational Leadership, Initiating Structure, and Substitutes for Leadership: A Longitudinal Study of Research and Development Project Team Performance,' Journal of Applied Psychology, 91(1), 202-210 Bono, J.E. and Anderson, M.H. (2005), 'The Advice and Influence Networks of Transformational Leaders,' Journal of Applied Psychology, 90(6), 1306-1314 Masood, S.A., Dani, S.S., Burns, N.D., and Backhouse, C.J. (2006). 'Transformational Leadership and Organizational Culture: The Situational Strength Perspective.' Lapierre, L.M. (2007). 'Supervisor Trustworthiness and Subordinates' Willingness to Provide Extra-Role Efforts,' Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37(2), 272-297 Hoffman, B.J. and Frost, B.C. (2006). 'Multiple intelligences of transformational leaders an empirical examination,' International Journal of Manpower, 27(1), 37-51 Read More