Bass' Transformational Leadership Theory

Bass defines transformational leadership in terms of how the leader affects followers, who are intended to trust, admire and respect the transformational leader.

He identified three ways in which leaders transform followers:

1. Increasing their awareness of task importance and value.
2. Getting them to focus first on team or organizational goals, rather than their own interests.
3. Activating their higher-order needs.

Bass noted that authentic transformational leadership is grounded in moral foundations that are based on four components:

• Idealized influence
• Inspirational motivation
• Intellectual stimulation
• Individualized consideration

...and three moral aspects:

• The moral character of the leader.
• The ethical values embedded in the leader’s vision, articulation, and program (which followers either embrace or reject).
• The morality of the processes of social ethical choice and action that leaders and followers engage in and collectively pursue.

Below are a number of behaviors common to transformational leadership

TRANSFORMATIONAL

1. BUILDS ON THE NEED FOR MEANING
2. PRE-OCCUPIED WITH POWER AND POSITION,
3. POLITICS AND PERKS
4. SWAMPED IN DAILY AFFAIRS
5. ORIENTED TO SHORT-TERM GOALS AND
6. SEPARATES CAUSES AND SYMPTOMS AND
7. WORKS AT PREVENTION AND IS CONCERNED WITH TREATMENT
8. FOCUSES ON TACTICAL ISSUES
9. MAKES FULL USE OF AVAILABLE RESOURCES
10. (HUMAN) HUMAN INTERACTIONS
11. FOLLOWS AND FULFILS ROLE EXPECTATIONS
12. HUMAN POTENTIAL WITHIN CURRENT SYSTEMS
13. SUPPORTS STRUCTURES AND SYSTEMS THAT REINFORCE OVER-ARCHING VALUES AND GOALS

Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectation. New York: Free Press.
Bass, B. M. (1990). From transactional to transformational leadership: Learning to share the vision. Organizational Dynamics, (Winter): 19-31.
Bass, B. M. and Steidlmeier, P. (1998). Ethics, Character and Authentic Transformational Leadership, at: http://cls.binghamton.edu/BassSteid.html
http://changingminds.org/disciplines/leadership/theories/bass_transformational.htm