Transformational leadership
Transformational leadership theory as an explanation of leadership in general
Transformational leadership emerged in the 1970s, and it has been widely used by leaders to stimulate followers to change the perspective of achieving personal goals toward the perspective of achieving collective goals. According to Ghasabeh & Provitera (2017), organizations cannot achieve competitiveness, adapt to the uncertain business environment, and attain their goals without good leadership. Various scholars have further developed the transformational theory of leadership, and the common definition of the theory is that leaders inspire followers and at the same, meets the basic needs (Ghasabeh & Provitera, 2017). The common trait found in transformational leaders is charisma. This means that transformational leaders motivate followers to believe in themselves and to become more committed in order to achieve organizational goals. To motivate followers toward a positive change, leaders use four dimensions, namely; idealized influence- they create a strong relationship with followers, establishes standards of morals, and a shared vision. Through idealized influence, leaders enhance interaction and collaboration and motivate followers to develop collective interests. Individualized consideration-transformational leaders recognize the needs and concerns of followers and offer support. Intellectual stimulation- leaders work with followers to develop new approaches and innovative ways. Inspirational motivation- leaders have an appealing vision, high standards and expectations. Followers develop a strong sense of purpose and develop higher expectations (Ghasabeh & Provitera, 2017). Transformational leaders employ these dimensions to increase the followers' intellectual capacity and help them improve performance and increase productivity. An important point to understand on transformational leadership is that o employees require knowledge to solve problems and to meet innovative needs. Thus, transformation leaders provide employees with a new understanding to solve problems. They transform the employees' values and attitudes and motivate them to think critically.
Chou et al., (2013) adds that organizations are using the model of a self-managed team to achieve a competitive, sustainable advantage. In today's competitive environment, team performance is required to respond to the changing environment and improve productivity. In addition, a team leader is required to manage and guide the group of people so that they can achieve the end goal. Among the various style of leadership, transformational leadership has been recognized as the appropriate style to manage and guide the team and improve team performance. Note that employees need cognitive trust- they must have confidence in leaders, and they need collective efficacy- a belief that employees can achieve higher performance (Chou et al., 2013). The article states that a transformational leadership style helps employees develop cognitive trust since they believe that the leader can help them complete the task. Due to the high level of trust in transformational leader, they develop cooperative behaviors and show a high willingness to complete the task (Chou et al., 2013). In addition, transformational leadership style helps employees develop collective efficacy since they believe that the leader will empower and encourage them to achieve the acceptable expectations and a result, they will believe in themselves and increase the capacity to work together to complete a task.
Transformational leadership theory within the Criminal Justice
Most organizations have recognized the benefit of transformational leadership in motivating workers to improve performance through factors such as affective commitment, beneficiary contact, and optimism (Caillier, 2014).Transformation leaders inspire workers to go beyond their self-interest and pursue a collective interest to achieve organizational goals. The author states that the criminal justice system uses the transformational leadership to motive the public agencies to accomplish the social-oriented mission. This style of leadership helps the public sector workers improve effort to achieve higher performance (Caillier, 2014). According to the expectant theory, public service workers are motivated by their personality, skills, and abilities to improve performance. For the workers to accomplish their mission, they must have valence and expectations. Within the criminal justice system, public service workers work on challenging goals, and they increase performance to achieve them. Transformational leadership play a significant role in helping the public workers set difficult goals (Caillier, 2014). They provide inspirational motivation- help them develop a sense of purpose, and intellectual stimulation- help them develop critical thinking skills to identify and solve problems. Since transformational leaders have the ability to develop clear and important goals and as a result, government employees increases performance through goal setting (mission-related goals).Note that transformation leaders strengthen the workers' self-efficacy, and this enables the workers to see the importance of goals and strive to achieve them. In general, the criminal justice system uses the transformational leadership style to create mission-related goals, increase the mission valence, and increase performance.
References
Caillier, J. G. (2014). Toward a better understanding of the relationship between transformational
Leadership, public service motivation, mission valence, and employee performance: A
Preliminary study. Public Personnel Management, 43(2), 218-239.
Chou, H. W., Lin, Y. H., Chang, H. H., & Chuang, W. W. (2013). Transformational leadership
And team performance: The mediating roles of cognitive trust and collective
Efficacy. Sage Open, 3(3), 2158244013497027.
Ghasabeh, M. S., & Provitera, M. J. (2017). Transformational leadership: Building an effective
Culture to manage organizational knowledge. The Journal of Values-Based
Leadership, 10(2), 7.
