Revisiting Transformational Leadership

Leithwood & Poplin (1992) states “schools are complex systems made up parts with grater interdependencies than we earlier believed. Successful first order changes usually depend on the support provided through significant second-order changes. Failure to acknowledge this complexity is the second reason Sarason (1990) offers for the predictable failure of educational reform.” Therefore, in order to bring changes to their schools, school leaders are required to focus their attention and use their power to facilitate the changes. “The issue is more than simply who makes which decisions,” says Richard Sagor (1992). “Rather it is finding a way to be successful in collaboratively defining the essential purpose of teaching and learning and then empowering the entire school community to become energized and focused. In schools where such a focus has been achieved, we found that teaching and learning became transformative for everyone.”

Burns (1978) defines leadership as “leaders inducing followers to act for certain goals that represent the values and the motivations – the wants and needs, the aspirations and expectations – of both leaders and followers.” Transformational leadership emerges when the leader is not satisfied with the way things at present. He ventures ahead of the current situation and change it. Instead of accepting the currently applied rules, the leader attempts to alter the rules. In order to do this, the leader expands and promotes the interests of their employees as he generates awareness and acceptance of the purposes and mission of the group and stirs his employees to look beyond their own self-interest for the good of the group. Transformational leaders seek to raise the consciousness of followers by appealing to higher ideals and values such as liberty, justice, equality, peace and humanitarianism instead of emotions such as fear, greed, jealousy or hatred. In Islam, a leader pledges to his followers that he will try his best to guide, protect and treat them fairly and with justice and these followers can expect him to remain positive about the future no matter how bad the situation may be. The leader must never give up or lose hope. “ Follow thou the inspiration sent unto thee, and be patient and constant, till God do decide: for He is the best to decide.”(Surah 10: 109)

HISTORY

Transformational leadership was first distinguished from transactional leadership by Downton (1973), however, it was the work of James McGregor Burns (1978) which first drew attention to the ideas associated with transformational leadership (Leithwood, Tomlinson and Genge, 1996). His work was later extended by Bernard Bass as well as others. Neither Burns nor Bass studied schools but rather based their work on political leaders, Army officers or business executives. Bass incorporated into the theoretical construct, House’s (1977) theory of charismatic leadership and in 1985 presented a formal theory as well as models and measurements of its factors of leadership behavior which later led to the emergence of a new concept of the leader as being transformational in the 1980s.