The staff at JLB enterprises is experiencing a slump in motivation that translates itself into increased costs, decreased production and an overall loss of efficiency. A change in leadership, or at least leadership strategy, can facilitate the turnaround the employees need in order to improve their performance. In terms of leadership components and their positive effect on employee morale, transformational leadership (Yukl, 2002) helps employee motivation by fostering the employees’ feelings of admiration, loyalty and respect towards the transformational leader. According to Covey (1991), transformational leaders raise the motivation and morale of their followers by identifying and developing new talent, recognizing and rewarding significant contribution and modeling love.
There are three key behaviors that contribute greatly to the transformational leadership process. Bass & Avolio (1990) identify inspirational motivation, which includes modeling appropriate behaviors for followers to emulate. The staff at JLB will certainly benefit from an outpouring of love to negate the alienation that predated their lack of motivation, and a strong role model to follow can show them a clearer path to get where they want to be. Yukl (2002) characterizes intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration as necessary to the transformational leadership process. He informs us that intellectual stimulation happens when the leader makes the followers more aware of the problem/issue at hand and influence them to look at these situations for a different perspective; a new look at an old problem can help workers to produce new solutions. The last key behavior Yukl (2002) reminds us of is the individualized consideration- which includes providing coaching, support and other encouragement to followers. These aids, some of which may be personally tailored, can assist the followers (worker’s at JLB) to simply feel better.
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Studies and research (field experiments and comparative studies) show that the direct subordinates of transformational leadership practices exhibit higher measures of motivation (Bass & Avolio, 1990), meaning they were more self-efficient, exerted extra effort toward the requirements of their positions, and displayed more independent thinking. In other words, their performance improved. Content analyses were conducted to isolate the effects transformational leadership had on the followers. Covey (1991) reports some common themes in the practices of transformational leaders that provide us with some insight into the leader-follower dynamic- the leaders all had a vision and they showed commitment to that vision through theirs and consistent behavior. This consistency helped engender the trust in the leader that is an integral part of the transformational leadership process.
According to Yukl (2002) transformational leadership has shown itself to be effective in any situation or culture due to its inspirational, developmental and empowering qualities. Workers who are hurting from lack of motivation cannot help but be enthused by this approach. Change-oriented leadership has some guidelines that must be followed in order for the transformation to be created. Covey (1991) requires the leader to have an appealing vision and to be able to articulate that vision clearly. He states that the success of the vision is dependent on how well the followers understand the objectives and goals. Bass & Avolio (1990) insist upon role modeling by having the leader set an example of impeccable business ethics consistently. They state the leader must also express confidence in his/her followers and act confidentially and optimistically; a leader’s confidence can be infectious. In a situation like JLB, the workers can boost their motivation and morale if they are consistently exposed to a confident outlook. Lastly, Yukl (2002) advised the transformational leader to empower people to help achieve the vision that is presented.
