0.5 Williams, s., & Jones, f. (july 2009). transformational leadership  (Page 2/4)

Definition of key terms

Transformational leadership

Over the last twenty-five to thirty years, arrays of conceptual models have been employed in research of educational leadership. The 1990s brought leadership models that included shared leadership, site-based management, empowerment, and organizational learning (Hallinger, 2003). Transformational leadership has arguably been a predominant major approach and the backbone or base of these models. Within the area of education, Phillip Hallinger gives his reflection of transformational leadership in the following statement (2003):

Transformational leadership focuses on developing the organization’s capacity to innovate. Rather than focusing specifically on direct coordination, control, and supervision of curriculum and instruction, transformational leadership seeks to build the organization’s capacity to select its purposes and to support the development of changes to practices of teaching and learning. Transformational leadership may be viewed as distributed in that it focuses on developing a shared vision and shared commitment to school change. (p. 330)

This statement coincides with Yukl’s view of transformational leadership that points out; in essence, transformational leadership is a process of building commitment to organizational objectives and then empowering followers to accomplish those objectives (Yukl, 1998).

Servant leadership

In the essay that was first published in 1970, The Servant as Leader , Robert K. Greenleaf coined the phrase “Servant Leadership”. In that essay, he said (1970):

“The servant-leader is servant first. It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first . Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions. The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature.”

“The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served , become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And , what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?” (pp13-14)

Literature review

Below is a narrative review of literatures that compare and contrast two leadership styles: transformational leadership and servant leadership. Overall, according to the literatures the conceptual framework for each leadership style is very similar. Still, there is one underlining factor that causes the two leadership styles to differ. While one factor may seem minuet, the factor in question can cause an overwhelming difference within an organization. With the studies, we will analyze (a) transformational leadership, (b) servant leadership; and (c) the difference between the two leadership styles. When the literatures are combined, it appears that while the two leadership styles are very similar, arguably there is at least one difference.