Bass, Bernard, From Transactional to Transformational Leadership: Learning to Share the Vision, Organizational Dynamics, Winter 1990 The first two of Bass’s theories explain the leadership development for a small number of people. Transformational Leadership Theory is the most widely accepted theory today. Why is Transformational Leadership theory superior to the Trait Theory and the Great Events Theory? When a person is deciding if he respects you as a leader, he does not think about your attributes. He observes what you do so that he can know who you really are. He uses this observation to tell if you are a honorable and trusted leader, or a self serving person who misuses her authority to look good and get promoted. Self serving leaders are not as effective because their employees only obey them, not follow them. They succeed in many areas because they present a good image to their seniors at the expense of their people.
Insecurity – Dr. Egnor’s office. This is Nancy speaking. I deprive someone of their identity in order to enhance my own. Teacher’s that make their students memorize their lectures and don’t allow student’s opinions in order to have more identity for themselves. Our identities depend on our role. Life is a battleground – the universe is not out to get us; we need to strive to be more cooperative and communal. Everything rests with me – this leads to workaholism, burnout, stressed and strained and broken relationships, and unhealthy priorities. If I’m not making noise, nothing is happening. However, we do not have to carry the whole load. Fear – we want order and make lots of rules and procedures which may prevent dissent, innovation, challenge, change to happen. Chaos is the precondition to creativity. If there is no creativity the organization is half dead. Denial of death – the scientific community honors the death of an idea because it produces new learning. Best organizations encourage people to take risks that may sometimes lead to failure because they understand that from failure we can learn. Death is natural and is not the final word, but allow new life to emerge. Important that we deal with our own inner lives in order to help others. How do we do this? We do “inner work” such as journaling, reflective reading, spiritual friendship, and meditation. We need to love each other.
It is okay to have fears, but we do not have to be afraid. Leaders have lots of fears, but you should not be your fears and you do not need to lead from fear. We should lead from our inner place of trust and hope so that we can create a world that is more hopeful and trustworthy.
So basically, you must be trustworthy and you have to be able to communicate a vision of where you are going.
James M. Kouzes & Barry Z. Posner (1987). The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Power refers to a capacity that person A has to influence the behavior of another (person B), so that he or she (person B) acts in accordance with A’s wishes. This power is a capacity or potential as it implies a potential that need not be actualized to be effective. That is, a power may exist, but does not have to be used to be effective. For example, a teacher has certain powers over students, but that power does not have to used to be effective. The mere knowledge of an teacher's power by student has some influence over him or her. Coercive Power - A person with coercive power can make things difficult for people. These are the persons that you want to avoid getting angry. Employees working under coercive managers are unlikely to be committed, and more likely to resist the manager. Reward Power - Able to give special benefits or rewards to people. You might find it advantageous to trade favors with him or her. Legitimate Power - The person has the right, considering his or her position and your job responsibilities, to expect you to comply with legitimate requests. Expert Power - This person earns respect by experience and knowledge. Expert power is the most strongly and consistently related to effective employee performance. Referent Power - You like the person and enjoy doing things for him or her.
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