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Transformational Leadership

Transformational Leadership: An Effective Leadership Approach in Managing TDCJ Multi-units.

By Christopher A. Osuoha MBA (General Business Administration) Wayland Baptist University, Texas.

May 11, 2012

This Research Paper is submitted in fulfillment of the partial requirement for Leadership and Management Development (MGMT 5306).

The researcher; Christopher A. Osuoha is pursuing an MBA degree in General Business Administration at Wayland Baptist University. Correspondence in respect of any question or concern should be forwarded to the Christopher A. Osuoha at the under-listed address: School of Graduate Studies, Wayland Baptist University, Amarillo Campus, 4530 Canyon Drive, Amarillo, Texas. Or E-mail: Christopher.osuoha@wayland.wbu.edu.

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Transformational Leadership

Table of contents Title Page Table of Content 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Conceptual framework 2.1 Components of transformational leadership 2.2 Characteristics of transformational leadership 2.3Application of transformational Leadership in TDCJ 3.0 Discussion 3.1 Transformational Leadership evaluation techniques 4.0 Criticism 4.1 Recommendations 5.0 Conclusion 6.0 References 1 2 3 4-5 6 -7 7-8 9-10 11 12 13 13 13 13

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Transformational Leadership 1.0 Introduction Transformational leadership is the most researched leadership model by leadership scholars and experts. The purposes of such numerous researches are to understudy the uniqueness and dynamism of transformational leadership, to understand the applicability of the model in an organizational setting, to evaluate its effectiveness and study its pitfalls, hence proffering solutions to such shortcomings. This leadership style has been effectively applied by many organizational leaders to leverage corporate governance and provide perspective to accomplish organizational goals by leading management and staff effectively. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) is one of such organizations that have successfully utilized this type of leadership model to transform its operations and integrate its 114 units across the State of Texas to an effective and best criminal justice system in the world. As a state agency entrusted with the management of the criminal justice system to keep the streets of Texas safe from convicted felons the challenge is not an easy one. The responsibility of TDCJ is to manage offenders in the state prisons, state jails and private correctional facilities that have contract with the agency and also provide funding and certain oversight of community supervision as well as supervision of offenders released from prison on parole or mandatory supervision (TDCJ, 2012). You will agree with me that to discharge these responsibilities, there is a need for effective leadership at state level, regional level and at unit level. The basic challenge of leadership is to provide the enabling environment, motivate the staff and appeal to the moral values of the followers (employees) to ensure compliance to the agencys rules, directives, procedures and policies in performing their duties. This is in line with Burns conceptualization that transforming leadership appeals to the moral values of followers in an attempt to raise their consciousness about ethical issues and to mobilize their energy and resources to reform institutions (Yukl, 2010). In this research paper I will review the conceptual framework of various transformational leadership literatures, discuss the application of this model to leadership and management at TDCJ, examine the criticisms and recommend possible ways of improving the effectiveness of transformational leadership in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. I will also explain the components and characteristics of transformational leadership. I will systematically analyze how this leadership model work at the unit level and its approach in managing changes. Methods of evaluating performance to determine effectiveness and enforcement of the Agencys rules, procedures and policies will be explained.

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Transformational Leadership 2.0 Conceptual Framework The concept of transformational leadership has been presented by various scholars of leadership from their theoretical perspective of leadership thought and other experts from their experiences of the applicability of the model in leading organizations. The credit for the pioneer work in transformational leadership is given to McGregor Burns for his work published in 1978 where he analyzed political leadership applying transformational leadership in contrast with other leadership styles particularly transactional leadership. Burns described transformational leadership as a continuous process by which leaders and followers raise one another to higher level of morality and motivation (Burns, 1978). In a much later work in leadership Gary Yukl explained that Burns description of transformational leadership appeals to the moral values of followers in an attempt to raise their consciousness about ethical issues and to mobilize their energy and resources to reform institutions (Yukl, 2010). Burns concept is based on the fact that transformational leadership is a continuum and not just specific behavior. Under this context, the leader defines his vision, sets objectives, communicates these visions and objectives effectively to his followers and motivates them to work in a unity of purpose to accomplish the organizational visions and objectives. In TDCJ as an Agency of the Government of State of Texas, initiation and implementation of procedures and policies within the confines of Laws of State of Texas has been the concern of the leadership at all times. Initiations of these policies are one thing and the implementation is a different thing. The leadership of this agency at all levels has strived to motivate the employees to enforce these policies and observe the procedures outlined for their safety while enforcing them. An ardent follower of Burns transformational leadership concept; Bernard Bass researched and improved on Burns concept describing it in respect of leaders impact on the followers. His perception is underlined by the fact that transformational leaders affect and motivate their followers to perform above expectations through purposeful leadership and the followers in turn respect, admire and trust them for their quality of leadership. This concept has come to be known as the Basss transformational leadership theory among leadership scholars. Bass conceptualization of leadership hinges on morality and ethics which compelled him to probe into the moral and ethical justification of transformational leaders actions. In TDCJ the morality and ethics of the Agency has been reinforced by different level of leadership on issues concerning sexual assaults by an offender on another offender or staff and vice- versa. The emphasis on zero tolerance of sexual assault was passed down from the Executive Director; Brad Livingston down to the regional directors and to the unit wardens who ensure that the policy directives are effectively enforced at the regional and unit level to uphold the moral and

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Transformational Leadership

ethical values of TDCJ as a responsible government agency that have good ethical and best practice in criminal justice administration. According to Richard Coxs report on transformational leadership, Bass identified three ways that leaders can transform followers these include increasing the awareness of the importance and value of task, getting them to be focused on organizational goals rather than their individual interest, and by activating their high-order needs (Cox, 2007). TDCJ has used the annual mandatory in-service training for all staff to maintain its emphasis on the importance providing effective criminal justice system to the citizens of State of Texas. However, there are continuous training at every unit of the agency about standard operating procedures and safety tips. The leadership utilizes these training programs to continuously mount effective campaign of increase awareness of its vision and objectives. The agency use regular operations audit to evaluate performance and recommend corrective measures from audit findings to enforce compliance to standard procedures and get the entire staff focused on the goal of the agency. Every six months, auditors are sent to every unit to verify and enforce compliance of standard operations procedures. It must be pointed out here that TDCJ has been doing a lot to ensure that staff higher-order needs are activated. Good health care insurance, retirement benefits and compensatory time has been properly packaged to motivate employees to high level of commitment towards realization of the agencys objectives. Another transformational leadership exponent; Bass observed that transformational leaders stimulate the followers to perform above expectation (Bass, 1985). This is the hallmark of true organizational citizenship that reinforces the quality of followership. It tends to show the level of impact a leader can have on his followers. I TDCJ some leaders have actually stimulated staff to higher level of productivity by inspiring them to maintain highest ethical standard in performing their duties. The bottom-line is that transformational leadership theorists acknowledged the fact that the core responsibility of a transformational leader is to build human capacity by discovering and initiating core values and organizational culture that will serve as a catalyst that will speed up the accomplishment of corporate goals and objectives. Hickman pointed out that the core responsibility of a transformational leader is to bring about human and economic transformation within the organization by generating visions, objectives, strategic goals and cultures that enhance the capability of individuals, groups , units and the entire organization to practice its values and serve its purpose (Hickman, 1997).

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Transformational Leadership 2.1 Components of Transformational Leadership Transformational leadership style has undergone a lot of technical metamorphosis from other leadership theories, concepts, and behavioral patterns emerging as a hybrid of other leadership styles. The application of diversified leadership techniques is one of the high points that stand out transformational leadership style for the other leadership approach. At the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, transformational leadership model affords leaders some degree of flexibility to deal with contingent situations applying an alternative leadership approach under the framework of transformational leadership. Technically speaking the integration of four basic components of transformational leadership as identified by Bass is a significant step to define the functions and methodology applied by transformational leaders to develop focused, loyal and productive followers. According to Bass, the components of transformational leadership are classified into four basic parts - Charisma or idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual simulation and consideration of individual differences (Bass, 1985). Charisma Charisma entails the extent a leaders behavior and attitudes through leadership by personal example endears him more to the followers, inspiring them to yield total commitment and support to the leader and his visions. This involves the leader setting clear goals, developing cultures and values and instilling them into the followers. This component of transformational leadership is responsible for indoctrinating or institutionalizing followers to high ethical and moral standard as far as accomplishing organizational goals are concerned. In various TDCJ Units, charisma of the leader is the driving force to enforce new policy directives and procedures. If not that, it would have not been just easy for 2 correctional officers to manage 144 Offenders and successfully enforce such rules among them in a cell block. Inspirational Motivation This is basically the extent to which a leader can craft missions and visions that appeal and inspire the followers to above expectation performance. Richard Cox observed that leaders with inspiring motivations challenge followers with high standard, communicate optimism about future goals and provide meaning for the task at hand (Cox, 2007). The implication is that for followers to be motivated the must have clear direction and a strong sense of purpose which demands effective persuasive communication skill that will enable him captivate the

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interest of the followers. Unit wardens have utilized this component of transformational leadership to introduce and implement unit polices through TDCJ. Transformational Leadership Intellectual Stimulation This reflects the extent, to which a leader conducts research into some unclear facts and assumptions and brainstorm with his followers in a quest to find answers to proffer solutions to organizational task. A leader that applies this component of transformational leadership always inspires great innovations and organizational learning. Steve Jobs was one of the prolific users of this particular part of transformational leadership and it was effective in innovating cutting edge products that Apple Computers used in developing competitive advantage. This was the concept that led to the founding of Program for Aggressive and Mentally Ill Offenders (PAMIO) at the Bill Clements Unit , Amarillo, Texas. This program is basically a unit based program although it was approved by the appropriate authorities at the headquarters in Huntsville. The purpose of this program is to separate and manage aggressive and mentally ill offenders from the general population and try to influence them to embrace good behavior and opportunity to pursue a vocation or to obtain the basic education (GED) that will help them re-integrate in to the society upon release from prison. This landmark achievement came by the joint effort of the Correctional Majors and Unit Wardens effort to open an avenue to brainstorm on mental health crisis management. Individualism or Individualized Considerations This component of transformational leadership has its root from psychological generalization that individuals prefer to be treated individually. This hinges on the fact that individualism is the first law of nature. Bass integrated this in his concept to enable leaders nurture and make followers feel the sense of belonging when their personal interest is attended to by a leader. The extent which a leader attend to individual followers needs, opens up an avenue for the leader to act as the coach and mentor to that individual follower. This creates some level of closeness between the leader and the followers providing a platform for common alignment of interest. TDCJ employed this to groom the new officer when they are initially assigned to a shift. The mentors will serve as professional guild till they become fully integrated into the system. 2.2 Characteristics of Transformational Leadership The characteristics of transformational leadership tend to describe the attributes of a transformational leader. Richard Cox observed that the answer to the big question What is it about certain leaders that empowers them to successful lead their organization through

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change (Cox, 2007), holds the key to the definition of the characteristics of transformational leadership. According to his report Cox suggested that the characteristics of transformational leadership are inherent in the following. Transformational Leadership 1. Leaders should be inspired personally and demonstrate it. 2. Leaders should be acquainted to the realities and connect themselves to the environment and the people around them. 3. Leadership should vision and possess the ability to communicate this vision with great passion and interest. 4. Leaders should paying undivided attention to others including the followers engaging them and build trust and commitment. 5. Leadership demonstrates openness and willingness to welcome innovations and organizational learning. 6. Abiding sense of integrity and honesty is the hallmark of transformational leadership. If the leader is honest and has high level integrity the followers will trust him and follow him whole heartedly. 7. Transformational leaders must demonstrate high level of optimism in leading the organization towards the achievement of the established objectives. He must radiate with confidence to boost the morale of the followers and keep them focused. 8. Transformational leaders have special qualities that set them aside from other kinds of leaders; chief among these qualities is the ability to take risk. For a leader to be transformational he must have the ability to venture to the unknown, trade on untested waters and break new grounds. A look at the characteristic of transformational leadership raveled that transformational leadership is like a process that starts from the top and end at the bottom or it may also start from the bottom and ends at the top. It is like a dual phenomenon that can start from either ways. At TDCJ the characteristics of transformational leadership are evident at all level of job responsibilities. The manners all units are integrated in their daily operations by the headquarters at Huntsville demonstrate unity of purpose and congruence of the goals of all individual units. The executive director maintains direct link with the regional directors and the units wardens respectively to know exactly what goes on at regional and at unit levels. However, the TDCJ leadership structure utilizes delegated responsibilities and authority to enable lower level leaders to accomplish their assigned divisional or unit objectives.

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Transformational Leadership

2.3Application of transformational Leadership in TDCJ Leadership exist in all forms organizations irrespective if their size and nature of operations. I believe leadership is the significant connect between organization, structure, design and resources. The kind of leadership in an organization determines the type of strategy and action plan to be taken to realize organizational goals and visions. Baines pointed out that leaders first and foremost, are responsible for learning both personally and as well as organizational wise (Baines, 1997). This was also corroborated by Hickman who observed that leaders face many new challenges, leaders must be able to see the emerging opportunity before they become manifest in the market place (Hickman, 1997). A close look at the leadership structure in TDCJ reveals that the agency has an articulate organizational structure that powers leadership throughout the entire agency. The agency makes use of 5 years strategic plan to guild the leadership in the strategic vision. In this plan, projections are made into the future operating activities, policy directives and organizational focus. TDCJ is governed by the Texas Board of Criminal Justices which is composed of nine non-salaried members appointed by the governor of Texas for a Fix Term of 6 years. According to the TDCJ Strategic Plan FY 20011 2015, the board governs primarily by setting rules and policies that guild the agency, by employing the executive director and by considering other agencys actions at its regular scheduled meetings (TDCJ, 2012). The organogram shows other leadership positions that make up the leadership structure. The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) which is the main investigating arm of the agency is responsible for enforcing federal and state Laws in the agency. The State Council for Offenders Division is responsible for providing legal advice to indigent offenders. Also the Office of the General Council Division provides legal services to management on issues concerning corrections laws and supervision including administrative issues. Administrative review and Risk Management Divisions, the Chief Finance Officer, Business and Finance Division, Information Technology Divisions, Internal Audit, Executive Director ( who act as the leader of the Agency), Executive Administrative Services, Manufacturing and Logistics, Facilities Division and Victims Service Divisions. Each of these divisions is led by different leader but the influence on leadership emanates from the Executive Director who is in charge of the management of the entire agency. Through the implementation of transformational leadership model the Executive Director who is the overall leader has been able to manage the organization through the support of various divisional managers and regional managers who give him constant updates

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Transformational Leadership

on their various divisions and units. As transformational leaders these managers has develop a strong leader- follower relationships to enable them act in unison to realize the organizational goal irrespective of the division or unit. The leadership structure in TDCJ utilizes the delegation of authority and responsibilities from top organizational leaders to lower level leaders in the agency. The leadership hierarchy structure reveals that high level leaders are situated at the corporate headquarters in Huntsville, the middle level leaders at the regions and the lower level leaders at unit levels. As a matter of fact authority and delegation of responsibility flow in that other from the headquarters to the regions and down to the units. To the leader at the headquarters the regional and the unit leaders automatically become the followers, so the influence becomes a direct one in that the headquarter leader hit the ground running by influencing the region and unit leaders. The headquarters leader initiates some polices and pass them down to the regional and unit leaders to implement. So, TDCJ leadership is just like a complex mechanism that is activated from the top by the Executive Director who is the substantive leader of the agency. The implication of applying transformational leadership concept in TDCJ is to appeal to the social and ethical value of the staff and management to collaborate rather than to work as individuals or fragmented groups. The leaders engage with one another at all three levels to raise their motivation and moral levels in one hand and also leaders and followers engage in a two way relationship at regional and unit level to improve the interconnectedness and ability to leverage synergy to accomplish the organizations goals at those levels. This is supported by Burns conceptualization of transformational leadership which explained that transformation occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and follower raise one another to higher level of morality and motivation (Burns, 1978). The main concern of this research is to investigate how effective transformational leadership has been in TDCJ at all levels and how successful have leaders being in impacting followers applying transformational leadership concept. The extent of the effectiveness of the application of the transformational leadership concept will be analyzed in the discussion that follows both at the state level and at regional /unit levels. The impact in building leaderfollower capability utilizing this model of leadership will be explained.

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Transformational Leadership 3.0 Discussion A look at the application of transformational leadership concept in the management of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice suggest that the leadership has developed an effective platform to build capacity to leverage creativity, encourage innovation and selfinduced motivation that has fostered the implementation of various policies, procedures and operations guidelines at levels of the agency. To be frank transformation leadership success in TDCJ is credited to a joint effort of the leaders and the followers. There is concerted effort by both the leader and the followers to build a strong bond to ensure successful accomplishment of goals at unit and regional levels. This implies that the leader provide the need visions and set goals providing the road map on how to actualize that. In many units of TDCJ this can be done through various meetings involving the leader and the followers exchanging ideas and brainstorming on methods that can be applied to solve a problem or checkmate a growing trend in the unit or at the region. I wish to emphasize here that transformational leadership has been successfully applied in TDCJ in several ways that both the leader and followers team up as a group with a common goal of accomplishing a stated target. This has been in the form of review of severe critical incidents where the leader and the followers review the root course of an incident and provide remedies that will help forestall future occurrence. Through transformational leadership suicide rates among high risk offenders have been reduced to the barest minimum. This is as a result of the leadership and the entire correctional staff working as a team to ensure that high risk offenders are identified and placed on constant surveillance and supervision to ensure that every possible attempt to suicide is prevented. This as a matter of fact, will not be realized without the leadership and followership raising one another to a higher level of professional ethics and motivation. The successful application of transformational leadership is achieved by the leaders ability to replicate the four basic attributes described by Bass which includes the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. Charisma or idealized influence on the followers. Inspirational motivation of the followers Intellectually stimulation of the followers Giving individualized attention to the followers.

These are the basic attributes that formed the building blocks of transformational leadership in TDCJ. It must be pointed out that on the side of the followers they has been authentic and supportive of the ideas generated by the leaders. This has facilitated implementation of polices.

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Transformational Leadership 3.1 Transformational Leadership Evaluation Techniques The important part of this research work is the evaluation of the application of transformational leadership in TDCJ and the evaluation methodology used. From research perspective I think it will be scientifically appropriate to measure accurately to realize proper evaluation, validity and findings. In evaluating transformational leadership in TDCJ I feel is most appropriate to utilize the Full Range of Leadership (FRL) model that was originally developed by Burns. Burns categorized leadership into transformational and charismatic styles with the following core elements: Transformational Leadership a. b. c. d. Idealized behavior Inspirational motivation Intellectual stimulation Individualized considerations.

Transactional Leadership a. Contingent reward b. Management-by-exception Both a and b were classified by Burns as active elements of transactional leadership. Burns went further to classify management-by-exception as passive or avoidant in some cases. Although the generally accepted measurement tool for evaluating transformational leadership model is the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire also referred to as MLQ which is 142 structured questions about leaders behaviors and attitudes. This evaluation questionnaire comes in two parts the part that is completed by the leader himself and that completed by another person usually an associate to the leader. This is to obtain more accurate information that will be free from bias. In this research I used Burns Full Range Leadership (FRL) model to evaluate the application of transformational leadership in TDCJ. I believe it is more appropriate to compare the characteristics of transformational leadership in TDCJ to the scholastic evaluation criteria set by Burns which I believe is more direct and pragmatic in approach.

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Transformational Leadership 4.0 Criticism Though transformational leadership is seen as the best model of leadership and has been successfully applied by many individuals and organizations, yet a lot critics still do not see the reason why is acclaimed to be the best model of leadership. The following includes the criticism of transformational leadership: 1. Transformational leadership relies on impression created by management and supporters to promote the morality of a leader. 2. In transformational leadership followers may be manipulated or coerced to believe what the leader wants them to believe even though it may misrepresent the original vision of the organization. 3. Transformational leadership is hard to be trained in due to the fact that it embodies a lot of leadership styles. Its comprehension by followers a times is very difficult. Considering this criticism, I must point out that TDCJ is no exception to the critics described above. Leadership may use coercive power to influence followers to embrace certain policies and procedures that may not have been ordinarily accepted by them. To me I may consider this as followership dilemma. 4.1 Recommendation: Through this research I was able to make some significant findings about the application of transformational leadership concept in TDCJ. Leaders have used their leadership positions to motivate followers positively to implement policies and procedures that have kept the agency efficient and effective even when their safety and interest are exposed to a very high level of risk. In the light of this I wish to make the following recommendations. 1. That the leaders should be open and fair to the followers in applying the principles of transformational leadership. 2. That transformational leadership should be a two-way process involving the leader and the followers and not a one sided process. 3. That organizational vision should be clearly stated and communicated effectively at all levels. 4. The needs of the followers should be a concern to the leader and such individual needs of the follower should be attended to build strong leader-follower relationship. 5. Leaders should seek the opinion of their followers in deciding on policy issues.

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Transformational Leadership 5.0 Conclusion Leadership is a strong factor that shapes an organizations visions and defines its objectives. The goals and objectives of an organization many be set targets such as profit maximization, growth or strict implementation of budget. These objectives are realized through the integration of organizational resources by the leaders. If the leaders fail to mobilize the followers it will be difficult for the organization to realize any of these goals. However the success of a leader in every organization depends on the leaders ability to leverage the support of the followers. If he can influence the actions of the followers positively by personal example he will gain their trust and support and that will go a long way to realizing the vision and objectives of the organization on the long run. Texas Department of Criminal Justice should not be an exception to the dynamism of transformational leadership. TDCJs ability to replicate the transformational leadership concepts developed by eminent leadership scholars like Burns, Bass and Daft in its operations at all level demonstrates how successful transformational leadership style can be adopted in a large government agency with complex operations and multi-unit structure. 6.0 Reference
Baines, A. (1997). Exploiting Organizational Knowledge in Learning Organization. Work Study, Vol 46, No 6, PP 202 - 6. Bass, B. (1985). Leadership and Performance Beyound Expectation. New York: The Free Press. Burns, J. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row. Cox, R. (2007). Transformational Leadership. www.transformationalleadership.net. Hickman, G. (1997). Transforming Organizations to transform society: Kellogg Leadership studies project. The James McGregor Burns Leadership Academy. TDCJ. (2012, May). About the texas Department of Criminal Justice. Retrieved from TDCJ Web Site: http://www.tdcj.state.tx.us/about_tdcj.html Yukl, G. (2010). Leadership in Organizations. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall.