Annotated Bibliography: Concepts of Transformational Leadership

Annotated Bibliography

1.) Watts, M., & Corrie, S. (2013). Growing the 'I' and the 'we' in transformational leadership: The LEAD, LEARN & GROW model. Coaching Psychologist, 9(2), 86-99.

This paper introduces the “Lead, Learn, and Grow” (LLG) model of transformational leadership. The model is presented by two authors who have a background in psychology and executive coaching. The authors begin the paper with an introduction to the importance of leadership to the survival of organizations in the current business environment. As a result of competition, globalization, and increasingly complex external environments, leadership has grown to be a significant source of competitive advantage. The authors have studies leadership, identified key factors to enhance transformational leadership, and packaged the approach in a “new” leadership model.

The LLG model was developed by Watts, who is a coaching psychologist that has worked with institutional leaders for years. It is a practice based model supported by research evidence. The fundamental effectiveness of the LLG model is found in aligning the beliefs and values of employees with the beliefs and values of the organization. While the LLG model may be packaged as a new approach to transformational leadership, the underlying effectiveness of the model is based upon old realizations. After reading the article and considering the background of the authors, an analyst has to be somewhat skeptical that this research analysis is a carefully crafted academic marketing scheme.

To be critical, the visual displays provided in the paper do help the reader understand transformational leadership. The conceptualization difficulties in regards to transformational leadership are aided through the use of very effective charts and graphs; however, the paper provides no new information or research that expands previous thought. It is my belief that the authors have conveniently packaged previously known research with a marketing scheme and some very good visual aids. The primary strength of the paper is realizing that transformational leadership models can be greatly improved with appropriate conceptual prompts and visual aids.

2.) Ruggieri, S., & Abbate, C. (2013). Leadership style, self-sacrifice, and team identification. Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal, 41(7), 1171-1178. doi:10.2224/sbp.2013.41.7.1171

The article opens by making a strong argument that leadership is an inherent function to groups of people. Regardless of social situation, leadership is a mechanism that is present to help groups of people makes progress towards a common goal. This paper is supported by quantitative research intended to gauge their capacity to identify with the team after experiencing a leader who is willing to self sacrifice for the group. The research methodology engaged call center staff that were led by a transactional or a transformational leadership style.

The results of the study found that regardless of leadership style, when a leader was willing to engage in self sacrifice, the staff reported higher levels of team identification. Therefore, the subordinates related leadership sacrifice on a personal level – the staff felt that the leader was sacrificing for them personally in addition to self sacrificing for the group’s benefit. This provides a very powerful message to exhibiting and future organizational leaders. In order to further reinforce an employee’s desire to work hard for the organization, they very often need to feel as if they are working for a team that is willing to work just as hard, or sacrifice, just as much as they perceive themselves to sacrifice.

The researchers in this article did provide the reader with additional research that had not been conducted previously. While self sacrifice is known to generate higher levels of team identification, assessing leadership style had not been addresses. The results show that regardless of leadership style, employees related strongly to leaders who are willing to self sacrifice.

3.) Lopez-Zafra, E., Garcia-Retamero, R., & Berrios Martos, M. (2012). The relationship between transformational leadership and emotional intelligence from a gendered approach.Psychological Record, 62(1), 97-114.

This article displays the research of the authors that has extended the available research connecting transformational leadership to emotional intelligence. Each researcher has a strong academic background that includes a Ph.D. at the following prominent schools: University of Jaen and the University of Granada’s Planck Institute. As such, transformational leaders are known to have an advanced intelligence, emotionally, that extends beyond academic or standardized testing intelligence. However, the role of gender in the relationship between transformational leadership and emotional intelligence has not been researched.

In this research, the authors investigated the relationship between transformational leadership, gender stereotypes, and emotional intelligence. The methodology included the use of questionnaires on 431 participants. Shockingly, the regression analysis that processed the data set showed that gender roles and emotional intelligence is a strong predictor of capacity for transformational leadership. Furthermore, those characteristics that society would label as “feminine” such as caring, compassion, and empathy were identified as a factor that can predict capacity for transformational leadership.

The research was obviously conducted by individuals with a strong research background. The literature review was supported by roughly 100 references. In addition, the research methodology was completed very thoroughly with the use of IBM’s SPSS program. Multiple regressions were used as well as validity testing to support the findings. The research extends the previous research base considerably. First, “feminine” emotional characteristics (caring, empathy), when present with high emotional intelligence, is a very strong predictor of transformational leadership. Lastly, high scores for transformational leadership were strongly correlated with contingent reward capacity and feminine characteristics can predict contingent reward.

4.) Odetunde, O. (2013). Influence of transformational and transactional leaderships, and leaders' sex on organisational conflict management behaviour. Gender &Behaviour, 11(1), 5323-5335.

This article discusses the relationship between transformational leadership and the ever-present conflict that exists in working environments. The article opens with the statement that conflict is not escapable; rather, it is a phenomenon that should be accepted in tolerable levels that aren’t necessarily detrimental to positive growth. Conflict provides an opportunity to grow, and organizations may actually be growing from the consistent response to some level of conflict.

The study in the paper was an investigation into the effect of transformational leadership style and leadership gender on organizational conflict management. Data were collected from over 100 male and female leaders, along with their staff, in order to determine the role leadership style and gender had on the employee’s perception of conflict management effectiveness. The results indicated that conflict management is best addressed through transformational leadership versus transactional leadership. Furthermore, the results did not show a difference between the male and female participants’ ability in regards to leadership style or the capacity to be an effective conflict manager.

Since conflict is an inherent component to managing in an organization, it is important for new leaders to refine their style to include transformational components, especially when the organization needs to reduce toxic conflict. Lastly, it is useless for leaders to focus on the elimination of conflict as a behavior management technique. Instead, leaders can be effective at managing the conflict that is present. The elimination of conflict should be regarded as impossible due to the human condition. Leaders within organizations can be more effective at providing organizational harmony by adopting transformational leadership practices in lieu of transactional leadership methods.