Leadership Development in Organizations

What is Leadership

Leadership Studies and Analysis

Since its introduction over twenty years ago , charismatic leadership has been strongly emphasized in the US management literature (Bass , 1985 House , 1977 . The benefits of charismatic or transformational leadership are thought to include broadening and elevating the interests of followers , generating awareness and acceptance among the followers of the purposes and mission of the group , and motivating followers to go beyond their self-interests for the good of the group and the organization (Bass , 1985 . Charismatic or transformational leaders articulate a realistic vision of

the future that can be shared stimulate subordinates intellectually , and pay attention to the differences among the subordinates . Tichy and Devanna (1990 ) highlight the transforming effect these leaders can have on organizations as well as on individuals . By defining the need for change , creating new visions , and mobilizing commitment to these visions , leaders can ultimately transform organizations (Hartog et al , 1999

According to Bass (1985 ) the transformation of followers can be achieved by raising the awareness of the importance and value of desired outcomes , getting followers to transcend their own self-interests and altering or expanding followers ' needs . Bass (1985 ) defined the transactional leader as one who recognizes what followers want to get from their work and tries to see that followers get what they desire if their performance warrants it exchanges rewards for appropriate levels of effort and responds to followers ' self-interests as long as they are getting the job done . Numerous research studies have been conducted in this area , and , collectively , the empirical findings demonstrate that leaders described as charismatic , transformational , or visionary have positive effects on their organizations and followers , with effect sizes ranging from .35 to .50 for organizational performance effects , and from .40 to .80 for effects on follower satisfaction , commitment , and organizational identification

Studies have been carried out in many different countries , and research in this area also shows that transformational leadership is closer to perceptions of ideal leadership than transactional leadership . As Lord and Maher (1991 ) note , being perceived as a leader is a prerequisite for being able to go beyond a formal role in influencing others . They hold that leadership perceptions can be based on two alternative processes First , leadership can be inferred from outcomes of salient events , and attribution is crucial in these inference-based processes (Lord Maher 1991 . For example , a successful business `turnaround ' is often quickly attributed to the high quality `leadership ' of top executives or the CEO (Hartog et al , 1999 . Leadership can also be recognized based on the fit between an observed person 's characteristics with the perceivers implicit ideas of what `leaders ' are (Hartog et al , 1999

Cultural groups may vary in their conceptions of the most important characteristics of effective leadership . As such , different leadership prototypes would be expected to occur naturally in societies that have differing cultural pros (Bass , 1990a Hofstede , 1980 . In his book Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations , Bass (1985 ) drew a sharp contrast between a leader who is transformational as opposed to merely...