Leadership Theory essay

Bass' Transformational Leadership Theory – Transformational theory was developed by Bernard M Bass relatively late in his professional career. Bass along with his colleagues developed the model of transformational leadership and the means to measure it. According to Bass and Stogdill, transformational leader’s influence is based on the leader’s ability to inspire and raise consciousness of the followers by appealing to their higher ideals and values. According to these theorists, this occurs because transformational leader has charisma and engages in particular behavior as well.

They motivate their subordinates to do more than what they originally intended, set challenging expectations and typically achieve higher performances. Such leaders also tend to have more committed and satisfied followers. Transformational leadership has four components. The first component is the individualized consideration where the leader shows interest in subordinate’s personal and professional development, acts as a mentor or coach and listens to followers’ needs and concerns. The second component is the intellectual stimulation where the leader challenges the assumptions, takes risks and solicits followers’ ideas.

He also stimulates and encourages the subordinates to be more creative and innovative. The thirds component is where the leader inspires the followers towards goals and provides meaning, optimism and enthusiasm, articulates a vision that is appealing and inspiring to others. The fourth components is the idealized influence where the leader inspires confidence and is perceived as charismatic, behaves in admirable ways that cause the follower to identify with the leader (Antonakis, Cianciolo, Sternberg, 2004, p. 159).

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Bass provided much empirical support for the effectives of transformational leadership across a range of organizational and individual outcomes, including productivity, job satisfaction and commitment. In his book Transformational Leadership, Bass examined the effects of transformational leadership on performance and found that such type of leadership had positive effects in almost all of the situations. The book also suggested using transformational leadership as an organizational culture, and advocated use of the theory for organizations looking to be successful in the rapidly changing industrial environment.

The leadership style can also be adopted into training, as this type of leadership is considered to be the most effective for making followers into leaders (Bass, Riggio, 2006, p. 244). ii. Burns' Transformational Leadership Theory – Transformational leadership theory is credited to James MacGregor Burns. His research on political leaders laid the groundwork for his leadership theory, which came to be known as transformational leadership theory. Burns proposed that leadership is indistinguishable from followers’ needs and goals and is a result of the interaction between the leaders and followers.

He distinguished two forms of leadership: transactional used by traditional mangers in day-to-day work and transformational where the leader is committed to a vision to which empowers others. Both of these theories have been described in the previous sections. Burns’ theory hence is said to distinguish between morality of ends and morality of means. According to him transformational theory is “a process in which leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality” (Burns, 2004, p. 21).

Burns asserted that transformational leadership is needed to solve the world’s most critical problems such as global poverty. His work reacquainted people with the work of German Sociologist Mark Weber who first highlighted the difference between economic and non-economic sources of authority. Burns amplified this theory by using illustrations such as that of Franklin D Roosevelt and Mohandas Gandhi, which made the distinction between leaders and managers so striking that it could not be ignored. According to him this needs leadership that is not top-down but starts at the grassroots level.

He further assets that transformational leadership can be used by anyone in any level of the organization and involves influencing peers, subordinates and superiors (Bass, Riggio, 2006, p. 244). iii. Kouzes and Posner’s Leadership Challenge theory – James Kouzes and Barry Posner are considered to be the best thinkers of leadership theory in modern times. In their book, The Leadership Challenge, which was based upon their research into leadership practices of effective managers, they introduced what is known as the Kouzes and Posner model.

They collected data from several thousand people, at various levels in organizations, who had been identified as successful in the way they lead others. In determining what practices and behaviors were common among those effective managerial leaders, Kouzes and Posner came up with five competencies which they considered as necessary for effective leadership. These five competencies are: inspiring a shared vision, enabling others to act, challenging the process, encouraging the heart and modeling the way.

They further split these five competencies into 10 commitments of leadership, which are simple the behaviors that extraordinary leader exhibit. These include building trust, practicing what you preach, and ensuring that people are competent to do the job in the hand (Topping, 2001, p. 10). Kouzes and Posner developed the popular concept of a 360 degree feedback system designed to assess an individual’s effectiveness as a leader, as perceived by his peers, superiors and subordinates. Also, Kouzes and Posner say that leadership is practiced by every individual at some point in time.

According to them a good leader is one who most people admire and would willingly follow. They tried and were successful in operationally defining an exemplary leader by consistent consensus on the practices of leaders from business, community, government, churches and schools (Chemers, 1997, p. 83). Clinical psychologists may work in many different employment settings such as hospitals, medical schools, outpatients’ clinics, colleges and universities, businesses and industry, and private or group practices.

The leadership traits to be analyzed depend on both the profession they are in as well as the employment setting where they work. This paper concentrates on the clinical psychologists in a private practice, which is either single or group based. The psychologists in private practices may provide clinical services in their solo practice or in conjunction with other mental health or health care practitioners in a multidisciplinary setting. However, clinical psychologists who offer psychotherapy service tend to do so in private practice environments.

Some clinical psychologists even provide direct clinical consultation and other professional services to their own patients and clients (Plante, 2005, p. 16). Licensed clinical social workers commonly known as CSW or LCSW are trained clinicians with at least a Master’s degree like MSW, MSSW DSW, or PhD and additional training and expertise in their specialty. Clinical social workers practice in a variety of ways such as hospitals, counseling, or mental health centers and private practice. They interact with other managed care practices to give their clients complete medical attention.

Most private practitioners are clinical social workers who provide psychotherapy usually paid through health insurance or by client themselves. Many private practitioners split their time between working for an agency or hospital and working in a private practice (Rosenberg, Clarke, 1987, p. 9). The marriage and family therapists’ occupation developed as a result of societal changes and demand for expert assistance. While the professional started with the severe damage cause during World War II, family and marriage therapy began to be recognized as a popular profession only in the 1960s.

Informal marriage counseling however began more than 70 years ago. By 1950s, the marriage and family therapy became more refined with the start of group therapy. The revolution however happened in 1960s, where patients were regarded as normal people with problems instead of the extremely ill and hospitalized patients. Now, the goal became changing the structure and interaction of the family rather than changing the individual to adjust to the family setting. By 1970s, family and marriage therapy became a full-fledged profession having separate accredited graduate programs (Prescott, 2000, p. 4).

Many people assume that majority of the marriage and family therapists work in private practice. This is not a correct assumption. Marriage and family therapists work in many settings and fill a variety of roles. They work in outpatients and in patient settings in both public and private programs, private practice settings and universities. They serve as therapists, clinical supervisors, program administrators, educators and trainers and researchers. Family therapists also provide consultation to a variety of public and private agencies in how to implement a family centered approach in their services (Snyder, 1996, p. 7).

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