I. Purpose
The purpose of this essay is to critically analyze and review the concept of transformational leadership. This will include a theoretical evaluation of the concept and an examination of the relationship between transformational leadership and transactional leadership from a research perspective as well as a theoretical context. This will be done in order to make it applicable to sports management and how this can cause a leader or a coach to link the team’s advancement with individual players’ goals and expectations in life and beyond.
II. Background
Leadership has been defined as moving people from one point to another. In the era of the Industrial Revolution some 200 years ago, leadership evolved by viewing a leader as one who combines factors of productions in a rational manner in order to gain optimal profits. In this context, labor was considered one of the factors of productions (alongside land and capital). Thus, labor was seen as something that was purchased as a means to an end, not an end in itself. This was where leadership was defined as transactional. However, after years of social theories and the growth of human rights and civil liberties have caused leadership to be defined in terms of uplifting and improving the worker or labor in the process of gaining productivity goals and targets.
This study will examine research into transformational leadership and how this research culminates in theory and forms the basis for practice. This will include an evaluation of the research components and how it leads to theory and eventually to practice.
III. Research versus Theory
There has been a growing popularity into the research about transformational leadership over the past 20 years. This is due to the fact that transformational leadership has come out to become the most acceptable and the most appropriate form of leadership for organizations and entities in the 21st Century.
However, the formulation of theories from research into transformational leadership has not been without issues and challenges. The fundamental problem and challenge in research into transformational leadership is the fact that there is no universally defined framework or paradigm for defining transformational leadership – it remains a subjective concept and as such, theories are opened to bias when they are formulated in empirical studies. This means that there are no parameters and conceptions that are central and fundamental in research into transformational leadership. This opens up the floodgates for several possible variables to be compiled and utilized in research works.
Conceptualization and operationalization of research is difficult and as such, the validity of findings are often in doubt and this often casts doubts on the theories formulated in research into transformational leadership.
However, most research works into transformational leadership assert that the emotional intelligence and level of psychological advancement of managers and leaders creates the framework for transformational leadership to be instituted in a given organization. Emotional intelligence is central and it involves the ability of managers and leaders to identify the best and most important needs and expectations of the group and team. Therefore, emotional intelligence variables are often utilized to operationalize research into transformational leadership. This causes the research works to culminate in important findings that are vital and representative of the best needs of people who are involved in leadership in various ways and forms. This also aids in creating the right parameters and frameworks for transformational leadership to be defined in a practical manner that can be advanced in order to create a more objective and a more certain theories that relate to that form of leadership.
Another important element of research into transformational leadership is that it focuses on change as a major variable in most studies. Change is a major premise on which the concept of transformational leadership and its inclusion is judged and evaluated. This culminates in a lot of analysis and reviews that leads to many pointers and positions.
IV. Theory Explained
Therefore, in all things transformational leadership is viewed in the context of the choices that are made by managers and leaders in times of change and this involve tying the most important and most vital needs of their workers to the change process of an organization.
Meaning of Research
The original idea of transformational leadership is meant to encompass the following pointers:
Leaders raise followers to higher levels of morality
Leaders and followers raise each other to higher levels of motivation
Therefore, all research done is about finding ways through which the best interest of people is achieved by improving and enhancing the levels of involvement of others. This research will therefore examine the best way through which transformational leadership occurs and how it is operated.
Translation of Theory into Practice
Transformational leadership is often applied in a rather subjective manner. This is because it is based on what a leader considers to be the best way in which it is to be done to meet the dual goals of the follower and the organization at the same time.
Therefore, the proposed study will examine how transformational occurs in sport and what the political and economic pointers mean to the leader. The implication is that there will be an attempt to apply major conceptions in this process in order to achieve optimal results and document theories as they are observed in practice.
Related Issues
Sports leadership is linked to management and other forms of leadership and control. Therefore, there will be the transposition of management theories of leadership into this in order to figure out the whole concept and framework of transformational leadership in the proposed study. However, the uniqueness of sports and its activities will be documented and identified in order to promote a more practical and a more applicable solution to the research questions and problems.
Practical and Theoretical Challenges
There are some practical challenges similar to issues pointed above. This includes the lack of consistently defined concepts and ideas that define the main parameters of transformational leadership. There is also the inherent individual differences that make this more complicated further. Also, there are many issues and matters relating to completeness that might be missing in practice. This renders theories incomplete.
Transformational Leadership and its Original Scope
Based on the conceptions and ideas relating to transformational leadership by Bass who developed the idea in 1978, there are some dominant ideas and views relating to transformational leadership:
Idealized influence
Inspirational motivation
Intellectual stimulation
Individualized consideration.
This is meant to create some kind of leadership fit that is based on the realities of the leadership paradigm and the promotion of an approach and system for dealing with the needs of people around a person. Therefore, leadership in all contexts including sports in college has to be done through some kind of idealized and positive guidance and influence.
Application of Transformational Leadership to College Sports Leadership
There are some qualities that defines the features of transformational leadership in practice including “ motivation to lead, leadership self-efficacy, motivation and capacity to relate to others in a pro-social way, optimism and openness to new experiences and viewpoints of others”.
Transformational leadership is about creating a democratic system that relates to the concern for people as well as concern for results without being biased to just one of the two concerns. This also includes innovation and a dose of proper handling of contingency as and when they come up. This therefore presents transformational leadership to be one that is based on the appreciation of realities and the attempt to ensure that everything is done to progressively improve both the followers and the organization.
Scope of Transformational Leadership in College Sports as Interpreted by Researchers
Sport is about teams and each team must work hard to achieve its core results and expectations. This includes the quest to win competitions and also pursue the best interest of the players in terms of compensation and the building of a proper lifestyle for all members of the team.
Application of Theory of Transformational Leadership Based on Research
Transformational leadership in college sports is one that will take all the interests and submissions of each player. There must be a strong connection to each player and there must be knowledge of what players aspire to. Based on the motivation of each player whether academic (need to get scholarship), professional or for personal enhancement, a transformational leader will need to understand what is the best interest of each player. And from there, use the players to form strong and competitive teams in order to deal with players’ needs and expectations. This will allow a leader to transpose the motives of each person to a formidable team that will work hard to achieve results and also operate according to the highest and best standards and expectations.
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