Transformational leadership : an examination of cross-national differences and similarities

Success in the global marketplace depends on a manager’s ability to provide leadership. Exceptional success depends on sustaining extraordinary performance. Are there universal behaviours which are consistent around the world? Are there subtle differences of emphasis which vary across different nationalities or corporate environments? Senior executives were polled in two major divisions of a global petroleum company and from its major subsidiaries around the world. They were asked to describe examples of exceptional organizational performance and to identify the key leadership behaviours which they saw as explaining or accounting for the extraordinary outcomes. Content analysis led to a few key leadership behaviours being identified. The major finding was that the main dimensions of leadership for extraordinary performance are universal. Only a few variations in emphasis existed among six different regions of the world. Also there were some clear leadership differences, long established in the folklore of the company, associated with different corporate cultures in the two major divisions. Received: July 2002 Accepted: October 2002 its desired goals. In doing this, the objective of the transactional leader is: to ensure that the path to goal attainment is clearly understood by the internal actors; to remove potential barriers within the system; and to motivate the actors to achieve the predetermined goals (House, 1971). Put simply, transactional leadership focuses on the business of getting things done. According to Bass (1985), transactional leadership is postulated to result in followers achieving a negotiated level of performance. In this regard, both the leader and the follower agree on what the follower will receive for achieving the negotiated level of performance. However, organizational leadership consists of more than reacting to crisis and fulfilling basic needs. Leadership also depends on individuals accomplishing tasks and activities in a way that improves the contribution of the overall objective of the organization. In this context, leadership is perceived as a transformational process focusing on the mutual needs, aspirations and values that produce positive organizational change and results beyond expectations. Bass (1985, p. 17) describes transformational leaders as people who: Attempt and succeed in raising colleagues, subordinates, followers, clients or constituencies to a greater awareness about issues of consequence. This heightening of awareness requires a leader with vision, self-confidence, and inner strength to argue successfully for what is right or good, not for what is popular or is acceptable according to established wisdom of time. With transformational leadership comes a shift of focus from simply leading followers, by offering rewards, to empowering them to become leaders through the development of a relationship of mutual stimulation and trust. Mintzberg et al. (1995, p. 418) say that a leader must `̀ become, above all, a creator or shaper or keeper of skills’’. Peters and Waterman (1982, p. 83) say that transformational leaders throw themselves into a relationship with followers who feel elevated. Bass (1985) asserts that transformational leadership will result in followers performing beyond expectations because of the leader’s influence. By appealing to the self-interests of subordinates and their shared values, transformational leaders can help their followers collectively maximize performance outcomes. Leadership and performance Previous empirical research and metaanalyses indicate that diverse leadership styles have differential effects on individual performance. Over 35 studies have reported positive relationships between transformational leadership and follower performance (Kirkpatrick and Locke, 1996). On balance, the majority of research examining the relationship between transactional leadership and individual performance has been positive (Hunt and Schuler, 1976), although negative relationships have also been reported (Howell and Avolio, 1993). Finally, a third category of leadership behaviour labelled laissez-faire (or avoidance) leadership has shown mixed results ranging from positive (Greene, 1976), to negative (Bass and Avolio, 1990), to no relationship with follower performance (Podsakoff et al., 1984). Based on previous findings, Table I represents our proposed relationships between behaviours under each of these three leadership styles and their associated outcomes. We hypothesize that the first set of behaviours relating to transformational leadership yield results that are substantially above what is expected. Our contention is that these leaders create success by exhibiting the five primary behaviours: visioning, inspiring, stimulating, coaching and team-building. A detailed description of each of these can be found in Table II. For the purposes of this research study, our operationalization of transformational leadership included the following characteristics that we were able to draw out from the literature: seen as more effective and more satisfying to work for; promoted more frequently; develop followers to higher levels of individual and group performance; Table I Leadership behaviours and performance Leadership behaviours Performance Transformational visioning inspiring stimulating coaching team-building Beyond expectations Transactional rewarding coaching Meets expectations Lassez-faire avoiding Below expectations [ 6 ] Karen Boehnke, Nick Bontis, Joseph J. DiStefano and Andrea C. DiStefano Transformational leadership: an examination of crossnational differences and similarities Leadership & Organization Development Journal 24/1 [2003] 5-15