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TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP AND EMPOWERMENT

BY

CAXTON GITONGA KAUA

Caxtonk2008@yahoo.com

WANGARI MAATHAI INSTITUTE FOR PEACE AND ENVIRONMENT

STUDIES

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TRANSFORMATIVE LEADERSHIP AND EMPOWERMENT

Transformational leaders are those who inspire followers to achieve extraordinary outcomes and

in the process develop their own leadership capacity. They help followers to grow and eventually

develop into leaders by responding to their individual needs. This is also done by aligning the

objectives and goals of the individual followers with those of the group, the leader and the larger

organization. This is as opposed to transactional leaders who lead through contingent exchange.

The leaders are empowering.

Empowering leadership means providing autonomy to ones followers. The followers are as much

as possible allowed and encouraged to enable, direct and control themselves in carrying out their

responsibilities, aligning their goals to those of their leaders and organization. It is a product of

individualized consideration but it also involves elements of intellectual stimulation.

Empowerment of followers by a leader also involves delegating important tasks and

responsibilities to them.

This form of leadership differs from Laissez faire leadership. This is where by the leader abdicates

any responsibility for his/her follower’s performance and absents himself or herself from the

scenario both mentally and physically.

Truly empowered followers typically perform better and have better personal development. An

example of empowerment can be seen in the case of General W.L. Creech of the United States

Airforce tactical air command. The General changed from policies of centralization and

consolidation that were dehumanizing and focused on the tactical air commands end product i.e.

its aircraft and the people responsible for them.

General Creech restructured the organization by moving the authority and responsibility of the

tactical air command downward so as to meet clear and simple goals and to instill pride,

enthusiasm, a sense of belonging and psychological investment by those responsible.

Individualized consideration was emphasized in treating people needs and working conditions at

all levels as important. Small squadrons responsible for specific aircraft replaced large air wings.

The aircrafts were painted with the particular squadrons’ colors, crew chiefs name and also those

of the pilot.

This led to excellence becoming an obsession. Dramatic improvements occurred in sort rates and

aircraft mission capability. In providing a professional environment personnel developed pride and

ownership and took more responsibility through their motivation to do so. Management control

changed from management by exception towards transformational inspirational and empowering

worker motivation (Finegan, 1987).

Manz ans Sims (1995, 2001) see super leadership as the ultimate vehicle of empowerment. In this

the empowering super leader educates the followers so that each learns how to act as a self-leader.

This involves application of behavioral and cognitive focused strategies to lead one self.

A behavioral strategy for example is selecting a behavior that you want to change. It includes:

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Self-observation: Observing and gathering information about specific behaviors that you

have targeted to change

Self-set goals: Setting goals for your own work efforts

Management of cues: Arranging and altering cues in the work environment to facilitate

your personal behaviors

Rehearsal: Physical and mental practice of work activities before you actually perform

them

Self-reward: Providing yourself with personally valued rewards for completing desirable

behaviors

Self-punishment criticism: Administering punishments to yourself for behaving in

undesirable ways

A cognitive focused strategy is considering what is naturally rewarding about the work you do

(Sims and Lorenzi, 1992). It includes strategies such as:

Building natural rewards into tasks: Self redesign of where and how you do your work to

increase the level of natural rewards in your job. Natural rewards include results from

activities that make you feel a sense of competence, self-control and purpose

Focusing thinking on natural rewards: Purposively focusing your thinking on the naturally

rewarding features of your work

Establishing effective thought patterns: Establishing constructive and effective habits or

patterns in your thinking e.g. a tendency to search for opportunities rather than obstacles

from challenges. This can be achieved by managing beliefs and assumptions, mental

imagery and internal self-talk

Although empowerment does not always lead to an effective outcome, there is considerable

evidence for pay off. According to Menon (2001), internalization of goals is an important

component for empowering followers. Cohen and Ledford (1994) in a study of

telecommunications firm found out that self-managing teams were more effective than the

traditionally managed teams. Sprietzer (1996) has observed that workers feel more empowered

when they have a sense of low role ambiguity, have important organizational information and

when they work in a more participative environment.

Transformational leaders empower follower’s enhancing a collective sense of efficacy. This in

turn leads to enhanced work team effectiveness. This has been observed by Jung and Sosik (2002)

in their study of forty seven teams in four Korean organizations. Porossoit (2000) in a study of

more than 300 employees of a United States of America Fortune 100 company also found that

transformational leadership had a direct effect on worker job satisfaction. Jung et al (2003) found

that transformative leadership led to greater employee empowerment and a more innovative

organization culture in Taiwanese companies.

The transformational leader who fosters empowered followers. In a survey of two levels of leaders

in the U.S.A. army Masi (1994) concluded that individuals felt more empowered if their leaders

were transformational leaders and less transactional. He also found out that commitment to quality

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as well as motivation to achieve and succeed were correlated with perceived cultural norms of

empowerment.

Howard and Wellins also say that transformational leaders are empowering. He describes the

transformational leaders as being: visionary, inspirational, supportive, championing, facilitative

and individually considerate. This is as opposed to transactional leaders who are controlling,

commanding, rulers, judges or guards. The transformational leaders are more likely to be asking

as opposed to telling.

These empowering leaders pay great attention to the cohesiveness of their followers. They

encourage feelings of warmth and acceptance among the followers. They display inspirational

motivation by striving to point out the importance of the assignment at hand, the positive qualities

of individual followers and how they can complement each other’s strengths. He points out the

challenge involved in the task and the great recognition that success will bring.

According to Seltzer and Miller (1990), the transformational leaders have certain behaviors that

contribute towards creating an empowering environment. These behaviors include shared decision

making, cohesive team building and encouragement of individual development. In addition to

these we have inspirational goal setting, fostering autonomy and setting of high expectations.

Empowering leaders differ from laissez faire leaders due to their ability to set the boundaries within

which their subordinates are given discretionary opportunities. They then follow up with resources,

support and caring for the follower’s. This is clearly depicted by Ulmer (1992) in his analysis of

the success of the Desert storm Iraq war. He pointed out the empowerment given to the field

commander Norman Shwarzkopf by then then American president George. H. Bush and Joint chief

of staff Colin Powell.

His superiors gave him and focused on a basic strategy and provision of resources. The field

commander then executed the strategy under a distant authority. However on a daily basis he held

lengthy phone conversation with General Colin Powell during which he was given some guidance,

had some questions answered and made requests that were either granted, denied or modified. He

operated with the value system of his profession but within the current macro political and resource

realities as defined for him by his superiors.

THE DARK SIDE OF EMPOWERMENT

Under certain situations, empowerment can have negative effects. This happens when:

The follower’s goals are unaligned and in opposition with the goals of the organization

When empowerment of the follower’s provide them with an opportunity to sabotage the

organization

When empowerment generates inflexible norms that are detrimental to the organizations’

and individual follower’s creativity

When leaders when to be highly empowered whereas they are not. The leaders will

exaggerate and give themselves a high dishonest empowerment score making the followers

feel low due to their modest scores.

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Giving themselves high empowerment ratings makes the leaders develop the feeling that

they are empowered while in reality they are not

The empowered managers may also heap all failures on the followers even when these are

actually system or process failures while taking back all the gift.

By encouragement of self-actualization, empowerment may foster self-interest rather than

goals that go beyond the individual follower (Alimo-Metcalfe 1994)

Lower rank cadres normally find more obstacles to empowerment compared to their

leaders (Howard and Wellins 1994)

The charismatic elements and idealized influence of the transformational leader can foster

a potentially unhealthy dependence on the leader (Kark et al 2003)

Empowered followers may employ group think whereby they uncritically conform to each

other’s opinions to redefine their goals and perpetuate their security. They avoid

introducing disturbing information or disagreeing with each other so that harmony can be

preserved. This leads to loss of critical information and creative ideas (Janis and Mann

1977)

Empowerment may lead to social loafing when workers are encouraged to work as a team.

The loafers take advantage of the fact that no single member is responsible for the groups’

performance. This may result in some members feeling nor harboring any responsibility to

perform since they will be considered as having contributed to the groups’ achievement

Lack of top management support can obstacle empowerment. Howard and Wellins (1994)

also note various ways in which the senior management can bar empowerment. These

include:

Provision of little resources and time for change

Directive leadership practices

Insufficient leadership

Reluctance to share information

Unclear vision and values

Lack of commitment and urgency for change

HOW TO MAKE EMPOWERMENT MORE EFFECTIVE

Empowerment can be made more effective in various ways. These include countering group think

by intellectually stimulating followers by questioning their thinking and assumptions, supporting

who voice unusual or provocative ideas to reduce conformity and encouraging flexibility that may

stem from empowerment

Countering social loafing by bringing in contingent rewards, active management by exception and

transformational diagnosis and action so as to restore the loafer’s commitments and involvement.

Adjustment in workloads may also be necessary

Empowerment can be made effective through self-defining leadership. Kuhnert and Lewis (1987)

note that self-defining leaders are guided by their internal values rather than personal needs or by

purely external standards. They thus can and do base their delegation on a broad context,

considering longterm goals of the organization as well those of their followers rather than being

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tied to immediate selfish short term goals. The self-defining leaders delight in accomplishing tasks

and higher order objectives.

The self-defining leaders comfortably delegate autonomy to followers to develop them in the

process helping move them to become self-defining, transformational leaders themselves. This is

as opposed to self-oriented leaders who delegate to accomplish their self-worth and relations

oriented leaders who delegate to feel appreciated by colleagues and maintain their own self-

esteem.

Empowerment can also be made effective through effective delegation process. Bass and Avolio

(1991) have come up with twenty ways that can make delegation more effective. These include:

Share problems, offer suggestions and appropriate alternatives for completing the task

Give information necessary to the task

Maintain an appropriate level of personal responsibility

Empower followers with the authority to get the job done

Give support and encouragement as needed

Allocate necessary resources to complete the job

Request for progress reports

Review effects of delegated performance

Provide praise and rewards for successfully accomplishing objectives

Avoid intervening unless requested to do so by followers

Delegate the appropriate level of responsibility and authority based on needs and

capabilities

Assume that some mistakes will occur before the follower becomes proficient in the task

Expect that it may take longer for followers to complete the task than if you did it

Consider how the delegation of a task to a follower may another follower, coworker or

superior

Make sure the tasks’ objectives are clear, specific and acceptable to the follower

Try to use delegation to manage both performance and development

Try to delegate tasks to followers that are meaningful and of use to them

Explain to your followers why you have chosen them to do the task

Distinguish initially how much control to retain over the process and product of their efforts

Try not to delegate tasks too often that you would not enjoy performing yourself

CONCLUSION

Transformative leadership leads to empowerment of followers. Empowerment is a critical process

that helps define transformational leadership. It illustrates why it is effective in building follower

commitment and inspiring better performance. Yet empowering followers entails a delicate

balance between sharing of power and relinquishing it. It is therefore for a transformative leader

to be aware of both the shortcomings of empowerment and ways in which it can be made more

effective.

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