2.4.2 Transformational leadership in organisations
Podsakoff et al. (1990: 108) have described how a number of organisational
studies researchers (e.g: House 1977; Bradford and Cohen 1984; Bass 1985;
Bennis and Nanus 1985; Tichy and Devanna 1986; Conger and Kanungo 1987;
Kouzes and Posner 1987) were engaged in developing theories of the ‘new’
transformational and charismatic leadership for the business organisation context
during the late 1970s and 1980s.
While the various research teams developed individual models, Podsakoff et al.
(1990: 114) were able to identify a number of behavioural components common
to these models. These leader behaviours are, specifically:
identifying and articulating a vision;
providing an appropriate role model;
fostering the acceptance of group goals;
having high performance expectations;
providing individualised support;
recognising accomplishments; and
providing intellectual stimulation.
Among these studies, the works of Bass (and later Bass and Avolio) have
emerged to provide the most well-known and most-used theoretical (the Full-
Range Model of Transformational leadership) and applied (the Multi-factor
Leadership Questionnaire) frameworks for transformational leadership. In
hospitality leadership studies, transformational leadership has been the most
frequently utilised of the range of leadership theories (see Table 3 - 1 below) and
every transformational leadership hospitality article has employed the
approaches of either Bass (1990a) or Avolio and Bass (2004a).
Accordingly, the following section describes the key points in the evolution of
Bass/Bass and Avolio’s model for transformational leadership in organisations.
These key points are: (i) the initial factor structure of the transformational
leadership model (Bass 1985); and (ii) the development of the Full-Range
Leadership Model and the Multi-factor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Bass and
Avolio 1990; 1995; 1997).