Transformational and Charismatic Leadership in Health Care

A critical examination of the role of transformational and charismatic leadership in developing health care services which are responsive to change.

This paper begins with an articulation of origins and developments of transformational leadership theory and while supporting the assertion that charisma is an important component of transformational leadership behaviour argues that it is not in itself a defining feature. The cascading effect of transformational leadership is explored in relation to contemporary research both within the U.S. and U.K. and is utilised to articulate the relationship between transactional and transformational behaviours within health care settings which constitute an optimum change profile. The nature of vision and charisma within the health care setting are critically evaluated along with the relationship between transformational leadership and key outcomes such as felt autonomy, job satisfaction, low staff turnover, service quality and the achievement of organisational (cultural) change.

Outline
Abstract
Transformational Leadership
Explanation of Transformational Leadership Behaviours
A Full Range Model of Transformational Leadership
Criticisms of Transformational Leadership Theory
Charismatic Leadership
Personal Identification
Social Identification
Internalisation
Self-Efficacy
Facilitating Conditions
Criticisms of Charismatic Leadership Theory
Summary
“Bass (1985, 1998) provides a more expanded and refined theory of transformational leadership which develops the work of Burns (1978) and House (1977), by giving far more attention to the behaviour and needs of followers than had previously been given. Bass (1985, 1998) argued that the principles of transformational leadership could be equally applied to situations where the outcomes were not positive than those where the opposite was true and describing transactional and transformational leadership as a singe continuum rather than mutually independent continua. Bass (1985, 1998) identifies the main characteristics of transformational leadership as; charisma idealised influence, intellectual stimulation and consideration of the emotional needs of each follower, (Hunt, 1996).”