Transformation Leadership - Essay Example

 Transformational Leadership Q.1 From a transformational leadership perspective, what are the likely benefits of gender balance in the leadership of an organisation? If balance does not exist, how might it be nurtured? Leaders that are classified as transformational leaders are the ones that do not practice positional authority. Instead, these people are committed to train the subordinates to become a leader in their own way by being able to work under less supervision and express themselves freely within the business organization. Basically, the transformational leaders and followers are all equal in the sense that they work towards one organizational goal as a team. The only difference between a transformational leader and his/her subordinate is the fact that each of them has a different set of activities played within the organizational group.1 Several empirical studies show that male and female workers reflect different qualities that are both needed in the success of the organizational goals.2 Male leaders tend to use the transactional leadership strategy since men are more inclined to think rationally as compared to women.3 On the other hand, female leaders adopt more of the transactional leadership qualities since they are more charismatic and have the ability to communicate well by nature as compared to men.4 With regards to team work, a gender balance could contribute a higher probability of having a more efficient work team by avoiding any possible gender-based organizational conflicts. If gender balance does not exist within an organization, there is a need to implement a two-way communication line among the leaders and subordinates in order to develop and establish a better organizational behaviour. Q.2 Is “emotional intelligence” more relevant to Transformational Leadership than to older and more autocratic leadership paradigms that focussed on leaders telling workers what to do? Why? Yes. Emotional intelligence is more relevant to transformational leadership than the autocratic leadership paradigm. When we talk about emotional intelligence, we are actually referring to a person’s ability to appraise, regulate and express their own emotions as a way to achieve their personal and professional goals.5 In other words, this type of people possess the qualities of self-awareness, self-motivated and sensitive to the feelings of other people aside from their ability to handle social relationship and manage their own emotions.6 Transformational leadership style has four components known as: (1) charisma or idealized influence, (2) inspirational motivation, (3) intellectual stimulation, and (4) individual consideration.7 This type of leaders goes beyond what is happening around his environment since they have the ability to implement new ideas all the time.8 They are also flexible with organizational changes and could easily adapt with the implementation of a new strategic plan. Personal charisma, a form of a referent power, is an important characteristic of a good leader since it could attract his/her subordinates to cooperate well with the leader.9 According to Palmer et al. (2001), charisma is highly correlated to a person’s ability to monitor their own emotions around other people – a character that is included in the classification of emotional intelligence.10 Transformational leaders also possess the ability to create vision for future development, insinuate intellectual stimulation11, or be an inspiration to his/her subordinates.12 Q.3 How can shared identity and values among workers be of benefit to organisational performance? Organizational culture such as the corporate values, behavioural norms, employees’ patterns of behaviour should be strong in terms of consistency and pervasiveness. According to Schein (1992), the tight competition in the market due to several external factors such as globalization, mergers and acquisitions as well as the development in workforce increases the need for a strong organizational culture in order to establish and maintain a sound working environment.13 Basically, the performance of an organization is correlated by the outcome of team performance. Considering that each members of the team as well as the performance of a team can be easily affected by extrinsic factors that are related to legal, technological, social, industrial, and political matters14, a shared identity and corporate values among the workers could minimize and prevent the possibility of organizational misunderstandings that are often caused by conflicting ideas, vision, and personal opinions. It also minimizes the possible arguments that may arise due to gender-role differences in each of the team leaders.15 A shared identity and corporate values does not only avoid a possible organizational conflict, it also enables the team leader to utilize the individual traits and talents of each team members to work effectively towards the organizational goal.16 In fact, workers who are motivated to work towards a collective goal could increase the effectiveness of team work.17 Q.4 Are there circumstances in which people’s shared identity and purpose could limit an organisation’s agility? Explain your answer. Personally, I do not believe that a shared identity and purpose could limit the organization’s agility. First, each individual or members of the team under a transformational leadership are allowed or have the freedom to express their own personal opinion and thoughts which may contribute to the success of attaining the organization’s goal. In fact, transformational leaders are not only capable of implementing a new idea or a solution to a problem.18 This type of leaders also inspires and motivates the team members to use their creative imagination to enable them to construct and develop the best solution that could enable the whole team to reach the organizational goal.19 The fact that transformational leaders intellectually stimulate each of the team members expands the organization’s agility into a new horizon. Through an open verbal communication, each of the team members could easily brain-storm and think of a better solution that could improve the entire organizational performance. According to Graham & Unruh (1990), self-management or allowing the team members to make a contribution for the benefit of the whole team serves as an effective intrinsic motivation among the employees.20 Basically when the team members are highly motivated with their work, they tend to become more inspired and alert in terms of providing the best services and work performance within the business organization. Q.5 How would a weak or ineffective Leadership Development Program affect the organisation’s long-term behaviours and performance? The practice of a weak managerial leadership is more likely to contribute to the organizational failure and the company’s loss of profit due to a poor and inefficient business operation. In line with having an inefficient operational system, a company may suffer from a significant increase in the unnecessary operational costs due to mismanagement and other operational errors that may arise because of a miscommunication and lack of a structured operational system. As a long-term effect, the company may also suffer from a decrease in sales performance caused by a poor quality of customer service. A poor leadership development program does not only affect the company’s profitability but also decreases the working attitude and morale of the leaders as well as his or her subordinates. Several studies show that workers who are not satisfied with their job are more prone to work-related stress and burnout.21 A high number of unsatisfied workers at work could also increase the rate of absenteeism and turnover of competitive workers.22 A high rate of absenteeism and the turnover of competitive workers could negatively affect the daily operations of the business operations. As a result, the work performance of each members of the team decreases in terms of efficiency and quality. It also becomes more difficult to create and maintain a healthy and peaceful working environment. Q.6 “I think most of us are looking for a calling, not a job… jobs are not big enough for people.” Transformational leadership is based on the idea that workers invest their being into their jobs, and that a leader can recognise and support this in a manner that is beneficial to the worker and the organisation. How can a transformational leader motivate people? Are there particular styles of motivation that can help make a job “big enough” for a person? Explain your answer. Under the self-concept-based theory23, transformational leaders motivate their subordinates by increasing their self-efficacy, by linking the work values with the values of the workers in the sense that it increases the self-expressiveness of the employees, and by facilitating the workers’ social identification within the organization. Using the self-efficacy approach refers to the leaders ability to enable the workers to have a clear organization vision by putting up a very high expectation over the workers’ ability to achieve the organizational goals.24 Basically, workers who have a clear and accurate vision combined with their ability to implement the organization vision could create a positive impact over the employees’ work performance.25 Another way in which transformational leaders motivate their subordinates is by implementing a value internalization and self-engagement in relation to work. In the process, employees could learn to appreciate the value of their work performance towards the success of the team work. According to Shamir et al. (1993), a commitment to work is similar to an internalized personal and moral commitment.26 For this reason, activities related to work will be viewed and valued as the employee who is doing the job; not just the job itself. Transformational leaders could also increase the employees’ social identification with the team. This strategy allows each of the employees to feel that they belong or is a significant part of the group. Aside from using the self-concept-based theory, transformational leaders also adopt an inspirational motivation by offering intrinsic rewards such a sincere acknowledgement for a job well done or a handling the employee a simple thank you note instead of an extrinsic reward.27 Basically, there are two types of rewards that could improve the job performance and satisfaction of the employees. These are the company rewards which are offered by the organization management and the one-on-one rewards which are being extended by the employees’ bosses. A traditional reward system such as compensation and promotions are slowly becoming ineffective in terms of motivating the generation X and Y employees28 since material rewards such as cash incentives could result in demotivating the employees29. The main reason why ‘pay-for-performance’ concept fails to work is because in exchange with the money, the pride and job satisfaction of employees suffer. Eventhough extrinsic rewards such as increase in pay or bonus given to employees could still be effective in some cases, a more recent study shows that the application of intrinsic rewards or a motivational approach such as congratulating the employees for a job well done either verbally, written on a personal note, through public recognition, or implementing a celebration for success in work performance is more effective in motivating employees to increase their work performance.30 As a result, the team leaders could make a job ‘big enough’ for a person since employees would feel that they are one of the keys that could improve the team’s performance. Q.7 Imagine you have been asked to prepare an information sheet that advises people on how to develop and improve their effectiveness as a transformational leader. What key points would you make? What areas of competence, values and behaviours are likely to be most relevant? As a transformational leader, I will promote a shared leadership within the organization aside from encouraging the whole group to the practice the promotion of intrinsic rewards. According to Pearce & Conger (2003), a shared leadership is a “dynamic and interactive way of influencing the team members to lead one another in order to achieve the organizational goals.”31 In the process of promoting a shared leadership strategy, I will the team members to practice a collective leadership wherein each of the team members will be challenged to learn how to become a leader in their own little ways.32 To make the promotion of a collaborative leadership successful, I will teach them personally the importance of a collaborative leadership. Eventually, I will encourage and motivate the entire group to utilize a 360-degree feedback program wherein each members of the group will be invited to openly discuss potential errors and suggestions that could make the entire program successful.33 It is also necessary to adopt several leadership development strategies such as the use of an individual development plan (IDP).34 The use of the IDP will encourage and train each of the team members to design and develop their own personal strategies that could enhance the current transformational leadership strategy that is currently being practiced within the organization. It is also possible to promote an action learning program.35 As the team leader, I will encourage the team members to regularly join a small group discussion on solving a complex and real-life situational problem versus the application of a transformational leadership. This strategy will benefit the entire group in the sense that it will allow each of the participants to reflect on specific situations and enable them to develop their own transformational leadership strategies. At the end of the day, each of the team members will be required to participate in a group problem-solving discussion with regards to the individual solutions they have developed in order to solve the real-life situational problems as well as the rationale behind their chosen strategy. By sharing their own rationale, other members of the team will have the opportunity and benefit of reflecting the ideas of their team mates aside from improving the communication line within the group. Among the areas of competencies, values and behaviour that are relevant to the promotion of transformational leadership skill includes: (1) the importance of transformational leadership among each members of the team; (2) the opportunity to practice transformational leadership style within the organization; (3) the ability of the team leader to conduct an immediate, extensive as well as a positive feedback; and (4) the ability of each team members to reflect and determine their own capabilities. How the team members perceive the importance of the transformational leadership style could affect their decision to willingly participate in the program. Even though sufficient training and development are given to the group, the absence of the opportunity to practice transformational leadership within the organization could hinder the success of the program. For this reason, the leader should assess and evaluate the current situation that could block the progress of the program. Team leader should have the ability to immediately implement the 360-feedback program in order to maintain the enthusiasm of the team members to make the program successful. Lastly, team leader should allow the team members to reflect their own capabilities. Knowing their own strength and weaknesses will enable them to improve the areas that strongly need a further development. Question 8 In the scenario below, assume you have been appointed to your position because of your effectiveness as a transformational leader you are expected to apply your transformational leadership skills and knowledge to achieve an effective outcome. Leading Change Your company’s board is planning significant investments in a new technology and a new direction for the company. Staffs are integral to the company’s success and future, but they are unclear what this change means for them. You have been asked to give a presentation to staff in cooperation with an external expert consultant about the new technology and new direction. Q.8.1 You are in a position where you are leading change. How would you organise your presentation and any related activities to help ensure a useful change outcome? Prior to implementing the organizational change, I will have to examine the organizational culture such as the corporate values, behavioural norms, employees’ patterns of behaviour should be strong in terms of consistency and pervasiveness since a strong organizational culture makes the implementation of organizational change a lot easier. It is also necessary to promote team building within the organization36 followed by empowering employees the right to voice out their personal concerns and suggestions on with regards to the plan for a change. A good communication among the team members is essential in maintaining a harmonious work environment. In the absence of a two-way communication between the team leaders and his/her subordinates, the chances of having internal conflicts will be higher as compared to allowing each of the team members to verbally share their thoughts and opinions. Basically, enabling the team members to voice out their personal opinions and violent reactions with regards to the organizational change will also provide the team leader the opportunity to develop an effective strategy to persuade each of the team members to support the organizational change. According to Jaffe and Scott (1992), “empowerment refers to the organizational shifts from limiting the power to determine its future and how it will get there to a few top executive including other members of the organization in the process.”37 The authors also added that empowerment should never be done on an individual process. The whole organization should also participate in making structural changes to make it work. Empowering the people up to a certain limit will enable the company to be more efficient in achieving the goal of the company. There are a lot of factors that contributes to the failure of implementing an organization. One of the most common failures is caused by the inability of the managers / leaders of the organization to handle resistance to change.38 According to Uris (1964), there are three common factors that causes ‘resistant to change.’39 These include: the fact that people may feel that they have no control over the sudden changes; employees may see change as a threat to their current positions of authority; and employees may fear that change could result to a loss of status or privileges. In order to avoid failure in organizational change, a good leadership skill is necessary when implementation of organizational change40 since an effective leadership skill can enhance the business operations by reducing all the unnecessary internal conflicts that may arise due to ‘resistance to change.’41 Q.8.2 At the presentation a senior staff member raises some legitimate problems and concerns that cast doubts on his new company direction. How do you respond? What do you tell the board? Why? During the presentation with the senior staff members, I will discuss about the importance of developing a new organizational goals in relation to the plan to invest in a new technology. Setting a new organizational goal is important since it provides the organization with a clear vision on how to go about with the new plan. In the process, the team members could easily align their work performance with the new organizational goals. Change is necessary in order to provide the company with new opportunities. However, there are challenges attached with a rapid organizational change.42 It is but normal for some members of the team to have some doubts on whether the new plan would succeed or not especially when the team has not yet officially announce a new organizational goal. Implementing an organizational change requires a lot of cultural transformation or a new business model. Often times these necessary changes could increase pressure related to ‘resistance to change.’43 It is possible that some members of the team would be reluctant with the new plan to invest on a new technology because of their fear of not being able to successfully adopt with the new job requirements or fear that they may lose their job in the process. For this reason, the top management should develop a concrete plan with regards to the possible reasons that may lead to ‘resistance to change.’ A good example of a plan is with regards to the inability of some of the old employees to adopt with the new technology. To enable them to adopt with the use of the new technology, it is necessary for the team leaders to develop a plan on extending a short-term training and development to ensure that all the workers could learn how to use the new technology. In case of fear of losing their job in exchange with the new technology, the team leaders should clearly explain the rationale behind the need to invest on a new technology in terms of the potential return on investment (ROI) or the work efficiency it could the organization could enjoy upon implementing the new plan. The first 100 days of implementing organizational change is critical to the success of the new plan. 44 In fact, it should be done within the shortest possible time. 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