Transformational leadership focuses on developing followers into leaders. It inspires followers to commit to a shared vision and goals through idealized influence, intellectual stimulation, inspirational motivation, and individualized consideration. James MacGregor Burns first introduced the concept in 1978 to describe political leaders, and it is now used in organizational psychology. Transformational leadership enhances employee attitudes, performance, satisfaction and commitment. It encourages creativity, problem solving, and challenges assumptions. Research shows transformational leadership positively impacts individual, group and organizational outcomes.

1. Transformational Leadership
Leadership can be described as an important quality of a person, a vital attribute for an
organization ora keysource for an effective team towards attaining success. In these ways, leadership
occupiesitsspace indifferentfieldsandprovestobe importantinseveral aspects.The role of a leaderis
veryimportantina managementfieldinterms of taking the organization towards success or failure, as
Drucker (1985) defines "Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things". In its
ideal form, it creates valuable and positive change in the followers with the end goal of developing
followers into leaders. Enacted in its authentic form, transformational leadership enhances the
motivation, morale and performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms. These include
connecting the follower's sense of identity and self to the mission and the collective identity of the
organization;beingarole model forfollowersthat inspires them; challenging followers to take greater
ownershipfortheirwork,andunderstandingthe strengths and weaknesses of followers, so the leader
can align followers with tasks that optimize their performance.
James MacGregor Burns (1978) first introduced the concept of transforming leadership in his
descriptive researchonpolitical leaders,butthistermisnow used in organizational psychology as well.
Accordingto Burns,transformingleadershipisaprocessin which"leadersandfollowershelpeachother
to advance to a higherlevel of morale andmotivation".Burnsrelatedto the difficulty in differentiation
between management and leadership and claimed that the differences are in characteristics and
behaviors. He established two concepts: "transforming leadership" and "transactional leadership".
According to Burns, the transforming approach creates significant change in the life of people and
organizations. It redesigns perceptions and values, and changes expectations and aspirations of
employees.Unlike inthe transactional approach,itisnotbasedona "give andtake"relationship,buton
the leader's personality, traits and ability to make a change through example, articulation of an
energizingvisionandchallenginggoals. Transforming leaders are idealized in the sense that they are a
moral exemplar of working towards the benefit of the team, organization and/or community. In this
modern world, business culture changes more rapidly prior to time and it is mandatory that skill and
custom of the leadership has to adapt these changes. Heiftz and Laurie (1997) claim that: Instead of
maintainingstandard,leadershave tochallengethe style of doingbusiness andfacilitateothersin order
to distinguish immutable values from historical practices that must go. Research on this topic has
produced ample evidence that transformational leadership enhances employee attitudes and
performance (Bass, 1999, Lowe et al., 1996). More evidence has accumulated to demonstrate that
transformational leadershipcanmove followerstoexceedperformance,aswell asleadto high levels of
follower satisfaction and commitment to the group and organization (Bass, 1985, 1998). There has
always been a great interest in the topic of leadership, as early as the time of the Greek philosophers
such as PlatoandSocrates who were followed by many management and leadership gurus who wrote
many books on this topic (Bolden, 2004). Leadership is now being given great importance as it may be
that inthischangingglobal environment,leadershipmaybe the answertothe successof individualsand
organization (Gardiner, 2006).

2. Transformational leadership concentrates in developing individual personality trait and it is
difficult to understand and teach the concept was another critic. The significant feature of
transformational leadershipisthat,itconcentratesthe developmentof followerandtriestoenrich their
personality.Itencouragesandinvolvesinspiring followers to commit to a shared vision and goal of the
organization. A transformational leader encourages others to become leaders; as a result the entire
organization will be filled with people possessing effective leadership qualities, Kelly (2003). Now,
researchand a numberof meta-analyseshave shownthattransformational andtransactional leadership
positively predicts a wide variety of performance outcomes including individual, group and
organizational level variables ( Bass & Bass 2008, The Bass Handbook of Leadership: Theory, Research,
and Managerial Applications" 4th edition Free Press). The full range of leadership introduces four
elements of transformational leadership: Individualized Consideration, Intellectual Stimulation,
Inspirational Motivation and Idealized Influence.
IndividualizedConsiderationis the degree towhichthe leaderattendstoeachfollower's needs,
acts as a mentoror coach to the followerandlistenstothe follower'sconcernsandneeds.The manager
givesempathyandsupport,keepscommunicationopenandplaceschallengesbefore the followers.This
alsoencompassesthe needforrespectandcelebratesthe individual contributionthateachfollower can
make to the team. The leader coaches and mentors, provides continuous feedback and links
organizational members needs to the organizations mission. The followers have a will and aspirations
for self-developmentandhave intrinsicmotivationfortheirtasks.Individual consideration is a measure
of the extent to which the leader cares about the individual followers concerns and developmental
needs. Managers can engage in this through giving subordinates value and making them feel useful.
Further, individualized consideration has been viewed as a vehicle for developing subordinates
confidence to tackle problems (Bass, 1985).
Intellectual Stimulation is the degree to which the leader challenges assumptions, takes risks
and solicits followers' ideas. Managers with this style stimulate and encourage creativity in their
followers.Theynurture anddeveloppeople whothinkindependently. The leaderstimulatesfollowersto
rethinkoldwaysof doingthingsandto reassesstheiroldvaluesandbeliefs.Thisdimensionisconcerned
withthe degree towhichfollowersare provided withinteresting and challenging tasks and encouraged
to solve problemsintheirownway. Forsuch a leader,learningisavalue and unexpected situations are
seen as opportunities to learn. The followers ask questions, think deeply about things and figure out
betterwaysto execute theirtasks. The intellectualstimulationdimensionof transformational leadership
in particular has been associated with challenging subordinates to be creative, think critically and
independentlyandfindnovel waysof solving problems while seeking a wide range of opinions before
deciding upon solutions (Bass, 1998).
Inspirational Motivationis the degree to which the leader articulates a vision that is appealing
and inspiringtofollowers andactsas a model forsubordinates, communicatesavisionandusessymbols
to focus efforts. The dimension is a measure of the leader's ability to engender confidence in the
leader's vision and values. Managers with inspirational motivation challenge followers with high

3. standards, communicate optimism about future goals, and provide meaning for the task at hand.
Followers need to have a strong sense of purpose if they are to be motivated to act. The visionary
aspects of leadership are supported by communication skills that make the vision understandable,
precise,powerful and engaging. The followers are willing to invest more effort in their tasks; they are
encouraged and optimistic about the future and believe in their abilities. Through inspirational
motivation, the transformational leader inspires subordinates to “try harder” for the benefit of the
organization (Kelloway and Barling, 2000).
IdealizedInfluenceprovidesa role model for high ethical behavior, instills pride, gains respect
and trust. The leader provides vision and a sense of mission, instills, pride, gains respect, trust and
increasesoptimism.Suchaleaderexcitesandinspiressubordinates.Thisdimension is a measure of the
extent of follower's admirations and respect for the leader. As a development tool, transformational
leadershiphasspreadalreadyinall sectorsof westernsocieties,including governmental organizations.
Idealized influence reflects the leader's ability to engender the trust and respect of their followers.
Throughidealized influence,transformational leaders become role models for their subordinates, and
provide both vision and a sense of mission to the group (Humphreys and Einstein, 2003).
Managers can be rate about the issues concerned to the dimensions of transformational
leadership through the multifactor leadership questionnaire (MLQ) by Bass and Avolio (2000) that
provides a solution for one’s criticism. The MLQ is used in measurement or determination of the
dimensionsforthisleadership,whichare Idealizedinfluence,Individualizedconsideration, Inspirational
motivation and Intellectual stimulation.
Transformational leadership therefore, have great capability to increase the performance
beyondexpectationsandtherebyabletomake massive changesamongindividualsandorganizations. It
isprovedinthisessaythat it hasbeenjustifiedthattransformational leadershipisstated to be better in
a business perspective when compared with other leadership styles like transactional leadership in
which the leader set goals and give rewards as motivation factor for desired performance and the
decisionsmade are concerned only with the leader, success and failure occurs in an equal probability.
The significant feature is that, feedback is expected from the follower too thus creating a two way
communication.Inthe currentworld,transformational leadershipishighly recognized and practiced by
executives in modern organization. The current business scenario is influenced by insecurity, global
commotion and organizational volatility, for which transformational leadership would be a better
solution to deal these factors efficiently. On the other hand, transformational leadership indulges
effective team work; the leader motivates his follower and provides constructive feedback. The
significantfeatureof thisleadershipmodel isthat,itfocusesoncommongoal (Ethics, 133). An effective
team work is concentrated where majorities and minorities are in the same platform to attain an
objective.