Words: 2873
Part of being a successful leader is knowing what things lead to failure as well as what things leads to success. Effective leadership must have cognitive, interpersonal, and political skills; project management skills; and technical expertise (Yuk, 2006). Leaders must also be able to envision, organize, socially integrate, and externally span to ensure that his team is effective and efficient in achieving goals, maintaining team cohesion, and keeping the decisions compatible with the organization’s needs.
Leadership must be able share this complex monitoring with his employees/teams in order to track information n trends and developments (Yuk, 2006). Leadership should be able to also develop strategic plans to address the organization’s requirements by considering long-term objectives, the organization’s strengths and weaknesses, core competencies, current and new strategies, and outcomes of these strategies (Yuk, 2006). Leadership style most effective to motivate employees The most effective leadership style in motivating employees is the transformational leadership style.
The transformational leadership style empowers its employees by creating an environment, which is motivating and stimulating (Yuk, 2006). Motivating employees creates the belief in the goals of the organization and provide the employees with a feeling of belonging, which existed in the unit before his arrival. The transformation and motivation that this type of leadership offers encourages the followers to be more aware of the importance of their jobs, “it induces them to transcend their own self-interest for the sake of the organization or team; as well as activating their higher order needs” (Yuk, 2006, p. 62). They also inspire their followers and display great passion, enthusiasm and energy in bringing out desired change in an organization. This type of leadership is always visible and leads from the front and set an example in front of their subordinates to follow. Thus, they are quite effective in overcoming resistance among the employees by injecting enthusiasm, energy and willingness among such employees and setting examples by themselves for these subordinates to follow.
A supervisor who motivates provides employees with the confidence that their work is being recognized and appreciated. Employees must be made to believe that the relationship between the supervisor and employees is one of respect and valued opinions. Impact and Influence of Transformational Leadership Transformational leadership greatly increases the ability leaders have to influence an increase in staff collaboration and changed attitude for work related behavior. For example, according to Letdown (1 990), the effect of transformational leadership is “uniformly positive. Although his conclusions were directed towards educational organizations, it is equally applicable to other leaders as well. He cites two findings from his own studies: Transformational leadership practices have a sizable influence on (staff) collaboration (Letdown, 990. ) Significant relationships exist between aspects of transformational leadership and [the staffs] own reports of changes in both attitudes toward [organizational] improvement and altered [work] behavior (Letdown, 1990. In addition to having a greater ability to influence increased staff collaboration and changed attitudes, there are other ways that transformational leadership can enhance leaders. Burns (1978) believes that effective transformational leaders and followers control and have the capability to enhance the stability of organizations. He states this is done through a procedure that involves everyone working with one other. The followers as well as the leaders will be able to lift one another to achieve high levels of motivation.
According to Morehouse (2001), a transformational leader has the following qualities: empowers followers to do what is best for the organization; is a strong role model with high values; listens to all viewpoints to develop a spirit of cooperation; creates a vision, using people in the organization; acts as a change agent within the organization by setting an example of how to initiate and implement change. Transformational leadership is a contemporary leadership model. Transformational leadership enables followers to rise to a higher level of performance than presumed possible.
According to transformational leadership theory, leadership does not reside in an individual but, in the relationship between individuals. According to Bass (1985), leadership should be oriented to social vision and change rather than focused solely on attaining organizational goals. Transformational leadership focuses on changing the human condition and can spring from any SOUrce. Transformational adhering empowers individuals at all organizational levels to assume leadership roles. Therefore, leadership plays a major role in the development of an organization into a less stressful environment and enjoyable place to work.
Leaders and leadership behaviors are a vital part of organizational effectiveness (Yuk, 2006). Every organization needs leaders at various levels of operation. Leaders is instrumental in creating stability and directing managers at all level of the organization towards attainment of long-term goals and ensuring success of the organization (Invading, 2006). Some of the required skills a leader demonstrates are influencing, motivating, and facilitating, he or she must instill a sense of purpose amongst employees passionately to the work of the organization.
Transformational leadership approach There are four approaches to leadership used by transformational leaders to motivate, increase productivity and decease turnover in the workplace. According to Hall, Johnson, Haycocks, and Keeper (n. D. ) there are four transformational leadership approaches. The first one is idealized influence which describes leaders that set good examples for employees. They are respected and trusted to make good choices for the organization. They are able to motivate, create change and boost the interest of employees.
Second, inspirational motivation is exhibited by leaders who are able to motivate employees to become loyal to the vision and mission of their organizations. They are also able to encourage team spirit to achieve goals and increase productivity in the organization. Third, intellectual stimulation allows leaders to encourage inventiveness and change through the ideas of employees. By doing so, the employee is able to hind critically and develop problem solving skills to help the organization become more effective.
This also enables the employee to become independent thinkers. The last one, individual consideration is always given to employees by transformational leaders. They are often mentors and coaches who care about the employees. They also help employees reach their personal goals as well as the goals of the organization. Thus, turnover is often reduced. The performance of a leader is judged by the SUccess that an organization achieves and by the level of satisfaction experienced by the employees.
Research studies eave consistently demonstrated a positive association between leadership behaviors on employee outcomes (Coke, 2001 Organizational success is linked to increased productivity, improved quality, and innovation. The performance of the employees directly correlates to increased productivity and employee satisfaction is directly correlated to employee performance (Look, 2001 Leadership styles that do not promote motivation in employees In contrast to transformational leaders, transactional leaders attempt to appeal to followers self interests by creating an exchange relationship.
According to Burns (1 978), the allowing comprise transactional leadership practices: Contingent Reward – the leader uses perks to reward followers for meeting work objectives. Passive Management by Exception – the leader uses punishment and/or negative reinforcement to correct unacceptable performance or deviation from the accepted standards. Active Management by Exception – the leader closely monitors employees as they perform their jobs and corrects them to ensure work is completed according to standard. Laissez-Fairer Leadership – The leader takes a hands-off approach and ignores the needs of others, does not respond to robbers and does not manage employee performance. Transactional leadership employs the standard reward/punishment paradigm as its basis for gaining compliance between leaders and followers. It is essentially an extrinsic motivational approach. In other words, “If you do what I say, I will give you a reward. If you don’t do what I say, you will be punished. ” Transactional leaders believe they have a moral purpose to lead; however, that moral purpose does not carry them too far.
It’s more “modal” than it is “moral. ” leadership believes in morals only so far as they assist the goals. The transactional moral-valued leader leads with modal values (the means are more important than the ends) that include honesty, fairness, responsibility and honoring one’s commitment. These are all good points. The limitation is that transactional leadership assumes that people will follow others by rewards and punishments. This leadership style works well with a clear chain of command. Transactional leadership is leadership by command.
Transactional leadership attempts to influence others by exchanging work for wages, but does not create morale or inspire worker creativity. Leaders who use transactional leadership as a primary practice foster an environment of power and politics where leaders and followers exchange gratifications in a political marketplace. Transactional leadership creates short-lived relationships because sellers and buyers cannot repeat the exchange identically. Transactional relationships comprise quick cost- benefit calculations. The objective in transactional relationships is to promote the individual interests of people going their separate ways.
Transformational leadership has (to some degree) what transactional leadership has, i. E. Moral Laos (ends) of leadership (not just the purpose), but adds to that vision and inspiration The autocratic or authoritarian leadership uses punishment instead of motivation, and reward. This type of leadership exhibit weakness in the following areas: lack of communication with employees, lack of empowerment of employees with decision making, poor systematic approach to and organization of management system leading to perception of no consideration of front-line workers, poor attempt at team building and lack of self evaluation of effectiveness.
This often leads to mistrust. Organizations do not row with this type of leadership. The performance off leader is judged by the success that an organization achieves and by the level of satisfaction experienced by the employees. Research studies have consistently demonstrated a positive association between leadership behaviors on employee outcomes (Look, 2001 Employees do not function well under this type of leadership. They may become afraid and uncomfortable around this type of leader and show signs of resentment.
This type of leadership takes away the ability to think independently from the employees and they are made to rely solely on the adhering to make decisions for them. Organizational success is linked to satisfaction is directly correlated to employee performance (Look, 2001). Lower the job satisfaction, lower the performance and lower the productivity thus leading to the organization failing to meet the long-term goals and eventually becoming unsuccessful. This leadership style exhibits organizational instability and lack of motivation in the employees because of insecurity and fear of the unknown and a fear of failure.
The authoritarian does not develop any interpersonal relationships with employees and this could result in a lack of trust. The lack of employee empowerment under this type of leadership will cause a decrease in profitability and productivity. Musses (1987) states that charismatic leaders are interested in committing ideological goals and dedication to themselves. Charismatic Leadership is very similar to transformational leaders. There is a main difference. The transformational leadership is concerned with its followers and transforming their organization.
The charismatic leadership may be satisfied with its leadership and will not promote any changes. “The values of the charismatic Leader are highly significant. If they are well- intentioned towards others, they can elevate and transform an entire company. If they are selfish and Machiavellian, they can create cults and effectively rape the minds (and potentially the bodies) of the followers. Their self-belief is so high, they can easily believe that they are infallible, and hence lead their followers into an abyss, even when they have received adequate warning from others.
The self- belief can also lead them into psychotic narcissism, where their self-absorption or need for admiration and worship can lead to their followers questioning their leadership. They may also be intolerant of challengers and their repeatability (intentional or otherwise) can mean that there are no successors when they leave. ” (www. Changing’s. Org/disciplines/leadership/style/ charismatic_leadership. Tm) Transformational leadership is quite similar to charismatic leadership in the sense that a transformational leader may also be charismatic.
The only difference lies in the fact that a transformation leader is focused on bringing a change or transformation, while a charismatic leader may or may not want such change. Transformational leaders can make use of their harms, experience and education to influence and guide the behavior of their subordinates towards desired change. Barbour (2005) studied the connection between three types of leadership styles, transactional, charismatic and transformational leadership used to measure five sources of work motivation in leadership.
He tracked the impact of these motivation types by giving the leaders the Motivation Sources Inventory (MIS) and the Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire (ML-rater version) to complete. The followers were also given the Mull-factor Leadership Questionnaire to examine and report the behavior f their leadership. Barbour (2005) used information taken from a sample of 178 leaders and 759 reports from several different organizations to complete the research. He discovered the connection between the leadership styles as they relate to motivation, behavior, analysis, procedures, and discussed the results.
This study suggested that transformational leaders are most likely to practice the motivation and exhibit positive behaviors. Positive outcomes of transformational leadership The transformational leadership style is best suited to continually increase the morale and motivation of employees. According to Bass (1 990), transformational leaders inspire employees to exceed the expected by embracing a vision and striving to achieve that vision. Transformational leaders demonstrate specific behaviors and actions: attributed charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration (Conger, 1999).
Attributed charisma occurs when leaders demonstrate behaviors that engender respect and trust. Leaders who display charisma demonstrate interest in the well-being of others, stay calm in crises, formulate decisions that benefit the group as a whole, demonstrate competence, ND earn followers respect (Bass & Viola, 1994). Leaders who display inspirational motivation engage and inspire others by providing meaningful and challenging work (Bass, 1990). Intellectual stimulation includes promoting risk taking and creativity by encouraging followers to question assumptions, redefine problems and consider alternative approaches.
Individual consideration includes developing individualized relationships with followers to empower and support them. Transformational leadership behaviors increase followers’ commitment to support the leader’s vision, create innovative approaches, assume greater accessibility and perform more effectively (Bass, 1985). Through building interconnectedness, leaders have the ability to promote self-directed teams, and learning environments where members honor and use their skills. As Bass (1990) concluded, transformational leadership maximizes employee morale and productivity.
Knowledge of transformational leadership theory alone is insufficient for becoming an effective leader. It is important to be able to translate transformational leadership theory into observable, daily leadership behavior. According to Segregation (1 990), the following are transformational behaviors leaders can demonstrate with followers: 1 . Say good morning to employees each day; encourage other employees to do the same. Saying good morning demonstrates to employees a value and appreciation of their presence at work. 2. Involve employees in goal setting and establishing objectives for the year.
Involving employees illustrates their opinions are valuable. Involving employees also demonstrates a willingness to listen to and integrate their input creating employee buy-in. 3. Invite employees to seek new and different solutions by inviting and encouraging different perspectives. Avoid promoting tutus quo thinking, and challenge employees to stretch themselves intellectually and creatively. 4. Clarify and summarize main points during meetings; facilitate, but avoid imposing personal points of view. Use a participative leadership approach. 5.
Establish teams and task forces to distribute power. Delegate responsibility and include employees in governance activities. Ask employees to lead or chair committees. 6. Look for the good things that are taking place in various departments and publicly recognize individuals and teams who have contributed to the organizations goals. Send emails to individuals to rivalry thank and recognize them. 7. Conduct employee satisfaction surveys and act on the results. Communicate actions taken as a result of employee survey feedback. Reinforce to employees that their input made a difference. 8.
Allow employees to try new ideas and encourage risk taking. 9. Encourage employees to participate in training. Facilitate a training or workshop and share new knowledge and information. 10. Communicate high expectations for employees and model expectations. Avoid expecting 100% if unwilling to commit 100%. Demonstrate consistency in actions and words. On the other and, transformational leadership transcends short term goals and the routine carrot and stick motivational style. In lieu of that, transformation leadership focuses on the intrinsic needs of the people who are the “followers. The transformational moral-valued leader leads with transcendent values (the ends are more important than the means) that include liberty, justice, equality, and collective well-being. Transformational leadership assumes that people will follow others who inspire them. The best way to get things done under this approach is through enthusiasm and energy, not just words. Transformational leadership is adhering by example. Integrating transformational leadership behaviors in daily leadership work will ensure consistently modeling behaviors expected from others.
Transformational leaders consider employees to be a valuable resource rather than just employees. Employees are included in the decision making process. Transformational leaders are good listeners and communicators. Employees are allowed to refute ideas and present alternatives regarding the workplace. Therefore, the transformational leadership style has proven to be the most effective style to motivate employees in the workplace.