Northouse, Leadership 9e
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Lecture Notes
Chapter 8: Transformational Leadership
Learning Objectives
8-2 Explain how transformational leadership works.
8-4 Discuss the criticisms of transformational leadership.
8-5 Recognize applications of transformational leadership.
Annotated Chapter Outline
I. Description
A. Among the most current and popular approaches to leadership.
i. A process that changes and transforms people and their:
a. Emotions.
b. Values.
c. Ethics.
d. Standards.
e. Long-term goals.
ii. Part of the “New Leadership” paradigm, which focuses on charismatic and
affective elements of leadership.
iii. Research in transformational leadership has grown in a variety of fields:
B. Transformational leadership’s popularity might be due to its emphasis on intrinsic
motivation and follower development.
i. Fits the needs of today’s work groups, who want to be inspired and empowered
to succeed in times of uncertainty.
ii. Some have suggested interest in transformational leadership is exaggerated and
C. Transformational Leadership Defined
i. Transformational vs. transactional leadership according to James MacGregor
Burns in 1978’s Leadership:
a. Transactional leadership: Leadership which focuses on the exchanges
that occur between leaders and their followers.
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b. Transformational leadership: The process whereby a person engages
with others and creates a connection that raises the level of motivation
and morality in both the leader and the follower.
ii. Exchange dimension of transactional leadership is common at all organizational
levels.
a. Exchanges or transactions between leader and member are a natural
iii. Employees prefer management who perform transformational leadership
behaviors:
a. Encouraging creativity.
b. Recognizing accomplishments.
iv. Transformational leadership can result in positive psychological gains for both
leader and follower.
v. Pseudotransformational leadership was developed as a way of conceptualizing a
leader that meets all qualifications of transformational leadership except raising
the level of morality in others.
a. Pseudotransformational leadership: Refers to leaders who are self-
vi. Pseudotransformational leadership includes:
a. Inspired leadership that is self-serving.
D. Transformational Leadership and Charisma
i. Charisma: A special personality characteristic that gives a person superhuman or
exceptional powers and is reserved for a few, is of divine origin, and results in the
person being treated as a leader.
a. Another early definition: A special gift that certain individuals possess
that gives them the capacity to do extraordinary things.
ii. House’s theory of charismatic leadership suggested that charismatic leaders act
in unique ways that have specific charismatic effects on their followers.
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iii. House’s personality characteristics of a charismatic leader:
a. Dominance.
iv. Behaviors of charismatic leaders:
a. Role models for their own beliefs and values.
b. Appear competent to followers.
c. Articulate ideological goals that have moral overtones.
v. Effects of charismatic leadership according to House:
a. Follower trust in leader’s ideology.
b. Similarity between the followers’ beliefs and the leader’s beliefs.
c. Unquestioning acceptance of a leader.
d. Expression of affection towards the leader.
vi. These charismatic effects are more likely to occur in contexts in which followers
feel distress because in stressful situations followers look to leaders to deliver
them from their difficulties.
vii. A major revision to House’s theory, by Shamir, House, and Arthur (1993),
postulated that charismatic leadership transforms followers’ self-concepts and
tries to link the identity of followers to the collective identity of the organization.
a. This link is forged by emphasizing the intrinsic rewards of work and de-
viii. In summary, charismatic leadership works because it ties followers and their self-
concepts to the organizational identity.
E. A Model of Transformational Leadership
i. Bass (1985) provided a more expanded and refined version of transformational
leadership that was based on, but not fully consistent with, the prior works of
Burns (1978) and House (1976).
ii. Bass extended Burns’s work by:
a. Giving more attention to followers’ rather than leaders’ needs.
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iii. Bass gave more attention to the emotional elements and origins of charisma.
a. Charisma is a necessary but not sufficient condition for transformational
leadership.
iv. Bass argued that transformational leadership motivates followers to do more
than expected by:
a. Raising followers’ levels of consciousness about the importance and
v. The model of transformational and transactional leadership incorporates seven
different factors: 4 transformational factors, 2 transactional factors, and 1
nonleadership, nontransactional factor.
vi. Transformational leadership improves follower performance and long-term
potential.
a. People who exhibit transformational leadership often have a strong set
of internal values and ideals, and they are effective at motivating
followers to follow those ideals.
d. These leaders usually have very high standards of moral and ethical
conduct and can be counted on to do the right thing.
e. Attributional component: A component of idealized influence factor
i. Intellectual stimulation: Factor 3 of Bass’s model, which includes
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j. Intellectually stimulating leadership encourages new approaches,
l. Leaders who practice individualized consideration take on a coaching or
adviser role and try to assist followers in becoming fully actualized.
m. Transformational produces greater effects than transactional
n. Transformational leadership is additive and leads to the motivation to
transcend a follower’s own self-interests for the good of the group or
transactional leadership.
vii. Transactional leadership does not focus on followers’ needs and/or personal
development.
a. Instead, leaders exchange things of value with followers to advance
their own and their followers’ agendas.
b. Contingent reward: Factor 5 of Bass’s model, an exchange process
the people doing it.
d. Management by exception: Factor 6 of Bass’s model, leadership that
involves corrective criticism, negative feedback, and negative
reinforcement.
e. Active management by exception: Close monitoring of followers for
viii. Nonleadership factors represent nontransactional behaviors.
a. Laissez-faire: Factor 7 of Bass’s model, which describes leadership that
falls at the far-right side of the transactional–transformational
leadership continuum.
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e. Recent research (Yang, 2015) argues that laissez-faire leadership may
not be the absence of leadership, but instead may be a strategic
ix. Assessments measure transformational leadership’s characteristics and efficacy.
a. Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) developed by Bass (1985)
based on a series of interviews he and his associates conducted with 70
senior executives in South Africa.
d. MLQ has undergone extensive revision in the interest of strengthening
its reliability and validity.
e. Based on a summary analysis of MLQ studies, charisma, and motivation
F. Other Transformational Perspectives
i. Bennis and Nanus (2007) asked 90 leaders basic questions on their lives and
personalities to identify four common strategies used by leaders in transforming
organizations.
a. Vision: An image of an attractive, realistic, and believable future for a
leader’s organization.
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d. Social architects provide transformative direction for shifting norms,
values, and identities.
ii. Kouzes and Posner (2002, 2017) developed their model by interviewing leaders
about leadership and analyzing the content of leaders’ answers.
a. Practices: Five actions in the Kouzes and Posner model that enable
d. Challenging the process: Being willing to change the status quo and step
into the unknown.
e. Enabling others to act: Building trust, promoting collaboration, and
II. How Does the Transformational Leadership Approach Work?
A. A broad-based perspective that encompasses many facets and dimensions of the
leadership process.
i. Describes how leaders can initiate, develop, and carry out significant changes in
organizations.
B. Transformational leaders set out to empower followers and nurture them in change.
i. Attempt to raise consciousness and encourage followers to transcend their own
self-interests.
a. Creates a culture of empowered employees.
ii. Leaders acting as a role model for followers assist in transformational change.
a. These leaders have a highly developed set of moral values and a self-
determined sense of identity.
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C. Transformational approach depends on the creation of a vision.
i. Emerges from the collective interests of various individuals and units in an
organization.
a. The vision is a focal point for transformational leadership.
D. Transformational leaders are social architects who articulate organizational values and
norms.
i. Interpret and shape shared organizational meanings.
E. Transformational leaders are effective at working with people above all:
i. Build trust and foster collaboration.
ii. Encourage others and celebrate them.
iii. Make people feel better about themselves and their contributions.
III. Strengths
A. Widely researched from many different perspectives.
i. Charismatic or transformational leadership were the focal point for over one
third of leadership research articles written from 1990-2000.
B. Intuitive appeal which matches societal understandings of leaders as frontline advocates
for change.
C. Treats leadership as a process occurring between both followers and leaders.
i. Leadership is not the sole responsibility of the leader.
a. Emerges from interplay between leaders and followers.
ii. Needs of others are central to the leader.
D. Provides a broader view of leadership that augments other leadership models.
i. Many leadership models focus on the transactional process.
ii. Addition of transformational approach expands the picture of leadership.
a. Particularly to include a leader’s attention to follower needs and
growth.
iii. Followers respond to both transactional and transformational behaviors, which
only occur together in the Full Range of Leadership model.
E. Places a strong emphasis on followers’ needs, values, and morals.
i. Burns saw moving people to higher standards of moral responsibility as a
definitive characteristic of transformational leadership.
ii. Includes motivating followers to transcend their own self-interests.
iii. It is “fundamentally morally uplifting.”
a. One of the few leadership models with an inherent moral dimension.
F. Substantial evidence of effectiveness.
i. In studies using the MLQ to appraise leaders, transformational leadership was
positively related to follower:
a. Satisfaction.
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ii. Also contributes to a leader’s personal growth.
IV. Criticisms
A. Lacks conceptual clarity.
i. Covers a wide range of activities and characteristics:
a. Vision.
b. Motivation.
ii. Makes it difficult to define the parameters of transformational leadership.
iii. Fails to outline a well-defined causal model that accounts for the unique effects
of theoretical dimensions.
iv. Confounds conceptualization and operationalization.
a. That is, the theory is disconnected from how it is measured.
v. Parameters often overlap with similar conceptualizations.
a. Transformational and charismatic leadership often are treated
synonymously, even if charisma is often modeled as a small component
of transformational leadership.
B. Problems with measurement validity.
i. In some versions of the MLQ, the four factors of transformational leadership (the
Four Is) correlate highly with each other.
a. Implies they are not discrete factors.
ii. Transformational leadership is perhaps best understood as a narrative.
iii. Reviews of research on transformational leadership reveal that the factor
structure does not replicate across studies.
C. Treats leadership as a personality trait or personal predisposition rather than a behavior
that people can learn.
i. Makes training for this approach difficult or implausible.
ii. Many scholars emphasized that transformational leadership is concerned with
leader behaviors.
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D. Lack of evidential support for leaders transforming individuals and organizations.
i. Evidence indicates that transformational leadership is associated with positive
outcomes, such as organizational effectiveness.
a. No directionality has been determined in this association.
ii. Limited preliminary research by Arthur & Hardy (2014) has provided some
causative support.
E. Seen as elitist and antidemocratic.
i. Transformational leaders often play a direct role in creating changes, establishing
a vision, and advocating new directions.
ii. Bass contends transformational leaders can be directive and participative as well
as democratic and authoritarian.
iii. Limited research attention to lower levels of leadership.
a. However, some research suggests that transformational leadership can
occur at all levels of the organization.
iv. Related criticism: a “heroic leadership” bias which fails to acknowledge shared
leadership or reciprocal influence.
a. Minimizes or erases the role of followers.
F. Potential for abuse.
i. Transformational leadership is concerned with changing people’s values and
moving them to a new vision.
ii. If the values to which leaders are moving their followers are not better, and if the
set of human values is not more redeeming, then the leadership must be
challenged.
a. However, we lack an understanding of this dynamic or how leaders are
challenged.
iii. Burns (1978) argued understanding this area (i.e., charisma and follower
worship) is one of the central problems in leadership studies.
a. Charismatic nature of transformational leadership can be used for
destructive purposes.
iv. Astute followers must remain vigilant and attentive to their leader’s vision to
mitigate abuses:
a. Collective or self-focused.
G. May not be effective in all national cultures.
i. Data does not support the assertion that it is universal.
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ii. Value may be limited in developed economies such as Western Europe and North
America.
a. Most effective in Africa, the Middle East, South America, and parts of
Southeast Asia.
H. May not be well-received by millennials.
i. Transformational leaders may be less effective because this cohort may be less
willing to collaborate with others to achieve common goals.
ii. Millennials have expressed a greater desire for work–life balance and want to
“work to live” rather than “live to work.”
a. Makes it less effective to encourage followers to prioritize
organizational and task needs and goals over individual interests.
iii. Millennials expect frequent promotions and value extrinsic rewards, making
fundamental components of transformational leadership less effective:
V. Application
A. Not prescriptive; provides a broad set of generalizations of what is typical of leaders
who are transforming or who work in transforming contexts.
i. Does not assume how leaders should act in a particular situation to be successful.
B. Provides a general way of thinking about leadership that emphasizes ideals, inspiration,
innovations, and individual concerns.
i. Requires self-awareness and the ability to relate leader behaviors to follower
needs.
C. Bass and Avolio (1990a) argued this approach is teachable at all organizational levels.
i. Wide range of applicable areas:
a. Recruitment.
b. Selection and promotion.
ii. Can positively affect firm performance.
D. Programs designed to develop transformational leadership usually require that leaders
or their associates take the MLQ or a similar measure.
i. To determine the leader’s particular strengths and weaknesses in
transformational leadership.
a. Help leaders pinpoint areas in which they could improve their
leadership.
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E. Building a vision has received special attention in training programs.
F. Desire to provide effective training in how to be more successful in demonstrating
transactional and transformational leadership resulted in the development of a guide by
Sosik and Jung (2010).