Defining and Clarifying Transformational Leadership

Transformational leaders focus on building relationships with people and creating change by emphasizing values. More specifically, TFL has been defined as a leadership style intended to “motivate and inspire followers to pursue higher-order goals through the transformation of followers’ attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviors” (To, Tse, & Ashkanasy, 2015, p543). In other words, these leaders can bring about successful organizational change by influencing followers to change their own views and beliefs about what is important – and thus shaping a shared vision among those within the organization. Transformational leadership originated from the concept of transforming leadership, introduced by James MacGregor Burns as a result of his work studying the ability of political leaders to inspire and motivate followers (Burns, 1978). Burns conceptualized leadership on a continuum of transactional leadership (characterized by exchanges with followers) and transforming leadership (characterized by stimulating, inspiring, and motivating followers). The concept of transforming leadership evolved as a result of the work of Bernard Bass, who not only advanced Burns original work further through explanation, interpretation, and research, but also began referring to this concept as transformational leadership (Bass, 1985). According to Bass, TFL is situated on the far end of the Full Range Leadership Model, which also includes transactional leadership (TAL) in the middle (including contingent reward and management by exception), and Laissez-Faire on the opposite end. Bass proposed that TFL augments or expands TAL because it incorporates both task (directive) and follower oriented (participative) orientations (Bass, 1995). Over time, four components or concepts of TFL have evolved: idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individual consideration.