3.3.1: Theoretical Background

Transformational leadership concept emerged 1970s and may be associated with the work of Downton (1973) and Burns (1978) who discussed the mechanism of influencing in leadership in contrast to the traditional transactional methods which were aligned with management (Kabeyi, 2018). The leadership focused on gaining followership and encouraging them to achieve the organizational common purpose. In his leadership model, James McGregor Burns proposed in his book called “Leadership” in 1978 that effectively market the origin of transformational leadership. The theory of transformational leadership was developed in the late 20th century by the work of Burns through his work in the field of political leadership. Before Burns’ development, more attention was usually made on leadership approaches to successful organizational transformation. Through Burns’ development, transformational leadership was identified as a leadership in which leaders and followers uplift one another to higher levels of motivation and morality for a given time in space. Therefore, transformational leaders raise followers from a lower level to a higher level of needs in line with Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Kabeyi, 2018).

The work of James McGregor Burns was further improved by Bernard M. Bass in 1985 in the book entitled “leadership and performance beyond expectations” (Kabeyi, 2019). In this book, Bass explained how the transformational leaders psychologically affect the motivation and performance of workers. Therefore, transformational leaders can achieve organizational goals by motivating followers through raising their awareness about the importance of the expected results and by defining clearly how these results can be achieved. Bass recommended that leaders should encourage followers to go beyond self-interest for the good of the team or the organization they are serving (Khan, 2015). By so doing, transformational leadership creates corporate citizenship by promoting a sense of belonging to the organization by followers. Therefore, transformational leadership should inspire team spirit and respect for one another in a team or organization while placing the interests of the organization above their individual or personal interests. Bass was the first person to officially use the word “transformational leadership” in the place of transforming leadership (Khan, 2015).

In transformational leadership, followers are challenged to take greater ownership of assignments, as the leaders take time to understand their abilities which are then aligned with available tasks to improve the employee as well as organizational performance (Morton, 2011). These create a positive learning environment and culture at the workplace. Transformational leadership requires the leader and the entire team to identify challenges, available resources and develop a long-term vision for the team and to constantly engage all team members in the work process so as to perform to the best of their abilities and grow professionally and personally.