Introduction
Researchers have developed various theories to describe the unique phenomenon of transformational leadership, and each has provided a unique conceptualization (Hersey & Blanchard, 1993; Howell & Costley, 2001; Kouzes & Posner, 2007). I reviewed a dissertation named "Exploring the relationship of learning strategies and transformational leadership for business managers". This is a comprehensive review of the transformational leadership continuum from a passive attitude to a transactional and transformational leadership approach.
Transformational leadership
According to Bass (1985), transformational leadership motivates people to do more than is expected by raising their awareness of the importance and values of goals and gaining employee commitment to support the organization’s goals and needs rather than their own self-interests. Transformational leadership has been demonstrated to positively affect followers’ performance (Bass & Avolio, 2004). In particular, transformational leadership motivates followers to exceed performance expectations and increases leadership effectiveness (Pounder, 2001). One of the ways transformational leaders do this is by exhibiting the leadership practices defined by Kouzes and Posner (1997): challenge the process, inspire a shared vision, enable others to act, model the way, and encourage the heart. The promotion of transformational leadership has been shown to improve the financial performance of organizations (Barling, Weber, & Kelloway, 1996) and to increase overall organizational effectiveness (Bass & Avolio,
2004). In recent history, transformational leadership has been widely considered to be the preferred leadership style by industry and scholars (Bass & Avolio, 2004).
Background of the problem
In today's global business environment, business leaders must remail competitive in order to survive. Managers must find learn to be effective in today's ever changing business environment. There has been a history of evolving leadership strategies that have been implemented across organizations. Today, leadership development programs align with critical corporate goals involving organizational change and focus on a business-driven action learning approach. According to Boshyk (2000), the founder of Global Executive Learning, a company can change its strategy and the behavior of its people through a business-driven action learning approach. Crotty and Soule (1997) defined action or experience-based learning as “training through business simulations, games or dealing with real life business problems” (p. 14). This is the “learning by doing” approach.
Purpose of the study
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between learning strategies of managers and their transformational leadership practices in a business context. The link between learning strategies and transformational leadership is explored. The study determines whether specific learning strategies are predictive of effective leadership. Learning strategies were tested in a business environment against their relationship to transformational leadership.
Research questions
The methodology involved a survey approach utilizing the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) which measures leadership practices and provides information about
leadership behavior, and the Learning Tactics Inventory (LTI) which measures learning
tactic strategies when learning from experience. A survey was administered to a broad
range of fully employed Master of Business Administration (MBA) students who held
positions at various managerial levels within their organizations. Argusa (2010).
Conclusion
The results of the study indicated a relationship between leadership and learning. Leaders who proactively seek new learning strategies exhibited leadership behaviors. Transformational leadership showed to be the most effective style. Successful and effective leaders develop and learn critical management and leadership skills from the naturally occurring experiences in the
workplace. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude from the results of the study that learning from experience by utilizing learning strategies can help leaders to learn from experience more effectively and increase their capacity as transformational leaders. Argusa (2010).
References
Argusa, Eric D. (2010). Exploring the relationship of learning strategies and transformational leadership for business managers.
Barling, J., Weber, T., & Kelloway, E. K. (1996). Effects of transformational leadership training on attitudinal and financial outcomes: A field experiment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 827-832.
Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. New York, NY: Free Press.
Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (2004). Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire, Third Edition: Manual and sampler set. Redwood City, CA: Mind Garden.
Boshyk, Y. (2000). Business driven action learning: Global best practices (1st ed.). London, UK: MacMillan.
Crotty, P., & Soule, A. (1997). Executive education: Yesterday and today, with a look at tomorrow. Journal of Management Development, 16(1), 4-21.
Hersey, P., & Blanchard, K. H. (1993). Management of organizational behavior: Utilizing human resources. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Howell, J. M., & Costley, D. L. (2001). Understanding behavior for effective leadership. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (1997). The leadership practice inventory: Facilitator’s guide. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2007). Leadership challenges (4th ed.). New York, NY: Wiley.
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