Psychological Mechanisms Of Transformational Leadership

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Transformational leadership from the theory of the great man (noted in the writings of Lao Tzu, Confucius, Aristotle, Plato and other ancient authors). This theory is scientifically embodied in the theory of traits, which originates from the works of T. Carlyle and F. Galton.

The essence of these theories lies in the postulate of the uniqueness of a leader and innate leadership qualities. A leader cannot be trained and formed; a leader can only be born. Thus, this theory received further development in finding and studying a particular set of qualities inherent in an effective leader.

However, the theory of traits has formed another offshoot - the theory of charismatic leadership. Within the framework of this theory, only one quality was talked about, which makes a leader out of a person - charisma. This concept is mentioned in the Bible. The traditional understanding of the term assumed that the individual has a destiny to lead, and therefore is endowed "from above" with unique qualities that help him in the implementation of the mission.

This concept was first introduced into scientific use by Max Weber. According to Weber, "charisma" should be called a quality bestowed by God. It is thanks to him that a person is perceived by others as gifted with supernatural characteristics. Obedience, according to Weber, can come from rational considerations, habit, or from personal sympathy. Hence, respectively, three types of leadership are distinguished: rational, traditional and charismatic [21].

After Weber's work, research on the concept of charisma continued. Exotic religious concepts of charisma also appeared [3]. Studies have been conducted on the negative consequences and neurotic mechanisms of using charisma [8]. Finally, many sociologists have tried to determine the meaning of charisma in the life of society [11; 22]. Yet, all this time, charisma remained an abstract concept associated with something supernatural and did not lend itself to a clear scientific justification.

A new era began with Jean Blondel, who criticized Weber for not breaking with the religious origins of charisma. Charisma, according to Blondel, is a quality that you can form yourself.

Further, the concept of fabricated charisma appears [13], which considers this quality as a simple image in the eyes of perceiving subjects, rather than a real personal quality filled with mystical content. Many authors have talked about how charisma can be developed through training.

Thus, charisma has moved into the category of phenomena that can be described objectively by analyzing the behavior and personal qualities of charismatics (one of such descriptions can be found, for example, in the theory of Robert House [18]).

Transformational leadership theory

For the first time the term "transformational leadership" was introduced by J. V. Downton (1973). However, this concept was developed by James MacGregor Burns, in his 1978 book "Leadership". According to J. M. Burns, transformational leadership is not a set of specific personality traits, but a process in which a leader and a follower, interacting in a certain way, raise each other to a higher level of motivation and personal / moral development. To do this, leaders turn to the highest ideals and values of people, and also put them into practice.

J. M. Burns, in fact, became the first to point out that real leadership not only generates changes in the external environment and allows you to achieve certain goals, but also changes the personality of the people involved in this process.

Bernard Bass, a follower of Burns, explored leadership in the context of how a transformational leader affects followers. He identified three ways of such influence: increasing the awareness of the followers of the value of the task; focusing the attention of followers on the goals of the group, rather than on their own interests; activation of the needs of the highest level.

Unlike J. M. Burns, who considered the highest values in an inextricable connection with the personality of the leader, B. Bass perceived this state of affairs as something immoral, thus raising the issue of leadership ethics.

Transformational leadership includes four main components [6]:

1. Charisma and idealized influence. It is the degree of attractiveness of the leader's behavior, according to which followers identify with him. A charismatic leader demonstrates confidence using specific postures and gestures and thus appeals to the emotional level of perception. The implementation of such behavior is possible if the leader himself has a certain set of values and ideals to which he follows, which he demonstrates in each of his actions.
2. Inspirational motivation. This is the degree to which a leader communicates his vision to followers in a way that inspires them. Leaders challenge them by setting higher standards of behavior, communicating the meaning of the task and optimistic expectations about its completion.
3. Intellectual stimulation. The leader encourages employees to use their imagination, think for themselves, and look for new creative ways to solve common problems. With the help of a vision, he conveys to the followers a general picture and a frame in which each individual individual will carry out his activities.
4. Individual approach. It is the degree to which a leader listens to the needs, wants, and values of each individual. The leader also recognizes and rewards the contribution of each individual to the common cause.

A leader's behavior has a variety of emotions and feelings. In particular, the process of inspiring motivation is characterized by enthusiasm, optimism and excitement; for idealized influence - determination, confidence and pride; for intellectual stimulation - dislike, challenge and anger; for an individual approach - sympathy, care and love [8]. Transformational leaders can use both positive and negative emotions to influence followers to overcome their personal interests and motivate them to work for the good of the group. According to research results, transformational leaders express more positive emotions than non-transformational ones [5; 12].

In transformational leadership, a lot of attention is paid to awareness. Mindfulness should concern the feelings, actions and thoughts of the leader on the one hand, and on the other hand, the reaction of followers to the behavior of the leader. As awareness grows, so does the leader's motivation, as well as his ability to influence others. This is due to the fact that with the growth of awareness comes a clearer perception: the leader, being aware of his needs and the needs of others, can select those ways of action that will directly lead to the satisfaction of these needs.

When asked about the characteristics of a leader, the following set is given: the leader must be himself inspired by his idea and demonstrate it; the leader must be in touch with himself, the world and the people around him; the leader must have a vision and convey it with passion and emotion, which will allow him to bypass the person’s logic and speak directly to his “heart”; the leader must pay attention to each individual; the leader must be open to new things.

The behavior of a transformational leader is as follows: develop and share a vision of the future; looking for a way to get the maximum result by using the abilities of people; shows care and respect; invests in his own development and the development of followers; develops a culture of cooperation; empowers others to demonstrate leadership; builds trusting relationships; concentrates on the highest values; indicate what is important, correct, beautiful; achieves the greatest benefit for the greatest number of people; achieves correspondence between personal values and the values of followers;

Other qualities of a leader are often highlighted, but already here it is clear that these recommendations are rather abstract. The most common tool for assessing transformational leadership is the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). However, there are many other assessment options.

Transformational Leadership Mechanisms

In this article, we will try to outline the psychological and partly physiological mechanisms of transformational and charismatic leadership. To do this, we will consider the process of transformational leadership from two sides: from the side of interaction between the leader and the follower; from the side of the leader's personality.

The mechanisms of the leader's influence on the followers.

Emotions play an essential role in transformational leadership. Convincing expression of positive emotions in the process of communication contributes to the transfer of information about the high probability of achieving the goal [9; 10] and increasing the confidence of followers in achieving the expected indicators [20; 23]. Self-confidence can also affect the psychological readiness of followers, which characterizes the available physical, emotional and psychological resources needed to get the job done [15; 18].

Followers respond positively to positive emotions of leaders [6; 7; 10]. The influence of leaders' emotions on the affective reactions of followers can be explained by emotional contamination [10; nineteen; 23] and excitement [16; 23].

Followers experience more positive emotions, most likely through emotional contamination when they perceive an emotional state at a subconscious level [6; 10; sixteen]. In particular, when, when demonstrating an individual approach to followers, leaders express empathy and concern, their followers note a high level of psychological safety and emotional attachment to the leader [6].

This introduces two possible leadership styles.

1. Resonant, when two people (or a group of people) are tuned to the same emotional wave, ie. feel in sync.

2. Discordant when two people or a group of people feel constantly uncomfortable.

We find references to the processes of mental infection already in the works of the great sociologists Gustav Le Bon and Gabriel Tarde. The first of which predetermined all social processes by the effect of mental infection, and the second by the theory of imitation.

Jean Gabriel Tarde's theory was based on the direct transfer of information from the mind of one person to another. Among the main social processes, he singled out imitation. By the theory of imitation, he explained all types of interpersonal and collective interactions. Group behavior Tarde interpreted as the hypnotization of many people based on imitation, and this behavior itself - as one of the forms of somnambulism.

Gustave Le Bon had ideas similar to those of J. G. Tarde. He created a typology of leaders for a number of reasons.

1. By the temporary nature of influence: short-term energetic leaders and leaders capable of strong, lasting and persistent influence.
2. By means of influence, they use: a statement (a short statement without evidence and reasoning), repetition (often the same statement) and infection (one of the manifestations is imitation).
3. By the "type" of charm: acquired (associated with a name, wealth, reputation), personal (magical charm) and associated with success [1].

He studied the crowd and argued that a special collective intelligence is formed in it, which occurs due to three mechanisms: anonymity, infection and suggestibility. The last two are of particular interest to us: infection and suggestibility. By infection, he understood the spread of mental states of some people to others. Suggestibility is an uncritical perception of certain actions. Thus, crowd formation and other social processes were explained by the hypnotization of individuals.

The provisions that Zh. G. Tarde and G. Le Bon are descriptive rather than empirical. The process of hypnotization received its material justification in the works of Russian authors such as I. P. Pavlov, V. M. Bekhterev, K. I. Platonov, A. A. Ukhtomsky et al. In their works, hypnosis began to be understood as the creation of a stable focus of excitation (dominant) in the brain, against the background of general inhibition. The inhibitory state implies, on the one hand, a transitional state between sleep and wakefulness, and, on the other hand, the absence of a critical factor, i.e. a person in a state of hypnosis does not critically assess the information that comes from the hypnotist (unless, of course, it affects his basic interests). Thus, a suggestion that satisfies the needs of the individual is usually accepted and supported. Most modern research on the brain in the process of hypnotization confirms Pavlov's thesis that hypnosis is an intermediate state between sleep and wakefulness.

On the other hand, I. Bernheim, the founder of the entire modern direction of hypnosis, argued that for the implementation of a suggestion there is no need to immerse a person in the described state, but this state will make this or that suggestion more effective and acceptable for the client.

Now let's see what the function of the state, which we have devoted so much space to discuss, is and how it relates to transformational leadership. This state consists in the ratio of the processes of excitation and inhibition in the cortex and subcortical zone. The first is responsible for logical thinking, the second for our emotions. The task of activating the state of hypnosis is to turn off criticism and logical thinking. For this, a person can really be immersed in a half-doze, but you can use other methods, for example, to arouse this or that emotional state in him. As you know, the volume of our consciousness / attention is limited and emotions also take a part of this volume. The more the volume of consciousness goes to extraneous objects and processes, the less remains for criticism and suggestion is accepted.

We can illustrate this with an example. Suppose a patient has just given the test results to his doctor and is awaiting a diagnosis from him. This diagnosis has a fatal meaning for him - the next few words of the doctor can determine his fate. The doctor says that everything is fine, the patient calms down and calmly returns home. This was the suggestion. After all, the patient never for a second doubted what the doctor had said. And it would be foolish not to trust in this situation. Moreover, the patient did not need to be euthanized or performed with other operations. It is enough just to be the person whom the patient has an opinion of as an expert. The most surprising thing is that if the doctor announced an unsuccessful diagnosis and was mistaken at the same time, then the patient might have symptoms that were not there earlier, which is also a feature of suggestion and is based on certain physiological mechanisms that we will not consider here. One has only to say that at the moment the diagnosis is announced, an idea settles in a person's head, a dominant is created, which attracts all the patient's thoughts, actions and emotions, which leads to the implementation of this idea.

Thus, simple trust, belief in the expertise of another person and strong emotional arousal were enough for suggestion.

Now it will be quite clear to the reader how transformational leadership, where the main emphasis is placed on building trusting relationships, creating a vision (dominant), and charisma of a leader, is connected with the processes of hypnosis.

Another concept that explains the impact of the transformational leader on followers is the theory of social learning, the main exponent of which is Albert Bandura. Social learning theory states that an organism can learn not only through classical or operant conditioning, but also through ordinary imitation. Physiologically, imitation is predetermined by the existence of mirror neurons, which realize the function of recognizing and understanding the behavior of other people. Moreover, in accordance with the concept of A. Bandura, an individual does not need to receive reinforcement for an imitative action, on the contrary, the performance of such an action can itself serve as a reinforcement and be performed automatically in the future. Hence the importance of leading by example in transformational leadership.

The processes of imitation and suggestion are quite similar, in fact, the model of behavior provided by another person by itself serves as a suggestion. Therefore, the qualities of the model are the same in both cases - the model should be bright, unusual, attractive, and demonstrate significant behavior. These qualities are given by A. Bandura himself.

Leadership development mechanisms

A lot of attention in transformational leadership is given to mindfulness. The leader must include in the sphere of awareness his emotions, needs, motives, thoughts, behavior, and the same qualities inherent in followers. A leader must articulate a vision based on his own needs and the needs of others. Thus, a leader is required to be clearly aware of his mental processes, and especially of the emotional state (after all, it is through emotions that our needs are manifested). So, leaders either spontaneously experience the emotions they demonstrate [2; 6; 9], or create and demonstrate corresponding emotions [20]. In other words, leaders control their feelings and / or their expression, that is, they do emotional work [7; fourteen].

The emotional intelligence theory of John Mayer and Peter Solovey, later developed by Goleman Daniel, most clearly describes the figure of a leader in this vein.

The concept of emotional intelligence is based on the presence in the brain of regions collectively called the emotional brain (limbic system). The emotional brain is responsible for both the expression of our emotions and our memory. Thus, during memorization, the hippocampus (one of the zones of the emotional brain) connects sensory information with the emotional state, and upon subsequent presentation of similar sensory information, the already imprinted emotional reaction is triggered.

According to the authors of the theory, for example, human intuition is based on these processes. An individual, finding himself in a new situation, can evaluate it as favorable from the standpoint of logic, but a presentiment says otherwise. This is due to the fact that this new situation resembles a similar situation in the past, which led to a bad outcome and now makes itself felt, while the individual may not be aware of this connection. Thus, developing self-confidence, the individual develops intuition and he has the opportunity to avoid unfavorable situations in advance.

However, emotional intelligence is something different and more than the emotional brain, and rather includes the whole functioning of the brain. Thus, Daniel Goleman identifies the following components of emotional intelligence: knowledge of oneself and one's emotions; the ability to manage yourself and your feelings; the ability to understand the feelings and desires of other people; the ability to manage the feelings and desires of other people.

These qualities rather indicate the need to use the integral work of the brain and the logical part of it even more. The individual needs to transfer his bodily, emotional and physiological reactions, which he usually does not notice, to the conscious level. The leader also needs to associate certain external attributes that other people display with a particular emotional state.

The question is whether it is generally possible to develop the described qualities in oneself, and, if so,how difficult it is to do it and what is the mechanism.

It should be said that at the moment there is no single methodology for the direct development of emotional intelligence. A fairly large number of different trainings are organized, but as a rule, they do not imply a clear justification of the connection between the exercises used and the concept of emotional intelligence. However, the author would like to point out one of the areas that could meet the goals of the development of emotional intelligence - this is Gestalt therapy.

The essence of Gestalt therapy is just reduced to the awareness of their emotions and needs, with their subsequent implementation of actions. In the process of gestalt therapy, a state of congruence is achieved - when what we say and do directly corresponds to what we want and feel.

Congruence is directly related to the concepts of surface and deep action in leadership. The emotions that a leader experiences in reality may differ from what he wants to demonstrate to his followers [16]. In this case, the leader suppresses the emotions that he is experiencing and imitates the emotions that he considers appropriate [14]. For example, a leader can demonstrate enthusiasm without experiencing it, or change his own inner feelings and “tune in” to the corresponding emotions [7; eight].

Shallow action refers to the process of modeling an observable emotion that the leader is not actually experiencing. According to A. Ya. Chebykin, workers usually associate superficial action with undesirable results of work. It is most often negatively associated with the task, possibly because “superficial workers” have limited cognitive resources to solve the task. According to the theory of conservation of resources (S. E. Hobfoll, 1989), in the process of serving, superficial action spends valuable cognitive resources on constant self-monitoring and self-correction.

In contrast, deep action is associated with desired work outcomes. This may be due to a positive customer response to service from an employee who adheres to this form of emotional work. This allows him to generate more cognitive resources in the process of servicing than to consume [7]. A positive relationship between the deep action process and job satisfaction is noted among “deep action actors” who feel authentic at work, which contributes to a “pleasant” work experience [9].

Simply put, with a superficial (incongruent action), a lot of mental and sometimes physical energy is spent on the internal struggle between true emotions and the emotions shown. In case of deep (congruent) action, on the contrary, emotions themselves serve as a source of energy, which is channeled into a single channel.

Of course, this state is not achieved immediately, Gestalt therapy is included in the category of long-term types of psychotherapy, so the exercise can last for years. However, we are now talking about neurotic people, for whom understanding their emotions and the emotions of others is initially a difficult task. For people who are completely healthy, such problems should not exist.

Considering the mechanism of the development of awareness in gestalt therapy, it is worth noting the main points. An understanding of one's feelings is achieved through the constant association of one's bodily sensations, emotional states, and cognitive comprehension. This is done with the help of various variations of the question "What do you feel?" / "What sensations do you have in your body when you say this?" Gradually, a person learns to recognize more subtle shades of their emotions. He learns to name his emotions and thereby differentiate them. Finally, he learns to understand the current emotion as such, through the association of words and bodily sensations.

This concept is based on the fact that a person himself learns to recognize and understand his emotions in the process of ontogenesis by designating certain bodily sensations by the name of a particular emotion.

Having defined emotion and need, the individual is taught to determine the object to which this need is directed, i.e. essentially shape the vision. In the end, they work with the person on the realization of the emotion (for example, he may be asked to express his anger right in the consultation situation). However, an individual not only expresses his emotion, he learns to realize it most effectively (when a person has fully expressed his anger, he may be asked how he could express his anger in a different way, more effectively). At the end, the client integrates the experience gained during the session and can transfer it to other situations.

Thus, the person is usually fragmented, becoming more congruent and integrated. If earlier, his words could not reflect his feelings, and his actions did not correspond to his needs, which in turn left an imprint on his external manifestations, now he can direct all his energy to the implementation of a clearly set task.

The question of how this should affect the interaction of the leader and followers is quite simple to answer. By being more congruent, the individual begins to behave differently, and in particular more confident, which makes him an effective role model. his intense emotional state is transmitted by infection to his followers.

It should certainly be noted that in any other psychotherapeutic direction, such qualities as awareness and reflection develop, however, Gestalt therapy appears as the most focused on this task.

Transformational and transactional leadership

Traditionally, publications devoted to transformational leadership consider the differences between the transformational leadership style and the transactional one. Apparently we should also touch on this issue. Typically, representatives of the transformational direction declare that transformational leadership is aimed at fulfilling the highest needs of the individual, while transactional leadership involves only satisfying the lower ones. Such a statement is more likely used for marketing purposes, because both there and there are exchanges. The exchange can be carried out both at the level of lower needs and higher ones. Rather, the difference lies in the learning mechanisms implemented by these styles. For transformational leadership, the main mechanism is imitative learning, while for transactional leadership it is operant.

Conclusion

In this article, an attempt was made to at least partially reveal the psychological and physiological mechanisms of transformational leadership, which will help further research in this area, as well as the creation of methods for developing leadership qualities.

In conclusion, it is worth noting the important contribution of transformational leadership to leadership theory in general. This is, first of all, a shift of attention from the rational aspects of leadership (in fact, leadership), to the emotional aspects, and, therefore, to the very essence of leadership, which is primarily associated with the motivation of people.

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