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Transformational leaders inspire, energize, and intellectually stimulate their
employees. The author argues that through training, managers can learn
the techniques and obtain the qualities they need to become
transformational leaders.
From Transactional to
Iransformational Leadership:
Learning to Share the Vision
BERNARD M. BASS
^^ir jEdmund Hillary of Mount Everest
\ fajne liked to tell a story about one of
^J
Captain Robert Falcon Scott's earlier at-
tempts, from 1901 to 1904, to reach the South
Pole. Scott led an expedition made up of men
from thb Royal Navy and the merchant ma-
rine, as jwell as a group of scientists. Scott had
considel'able trouble dealing with the mer-
chant n|arine personnel, who were unaccus-
tomed
ip
the rigid discipline of Scott's Royal
Navy. S|:ott wanted to send one seaman home
because he would not take orders, but the sea-
man refused, arguing that he had signed a
contract and knew his rights. Since the sea-
man wds not subject to Royal Navy discipli-
nary action, Scott did not know what to do.
Then Ernest Shackleton, a merchant navy of-
ficer in $cott's party, calmly informed the sea-
man th^t he, the seaman, was returning to
Britain. Again the seaman refused —and
Shackle^on knocked him to the ship's deck.
After ar^other refusal, followed by a second
flooring, the seaman decided he would retuijn
home. Scott later became one of the victims
of his own inadequacies as a leader in his 1911
race to the South Pole. Shackleton went qn
to lead many memorable expeditions; once,
seeking help for the rest of his party, who
were stranded on the Antarctic Coast, he
journeyed with a small crew in a small open
boat from the edge of Antarctica to Souilh
Georgia Island.
LEADERSHIP TODAY
Most relationships between supervi-
sors and their employees are quite different
today. Few managers depend mainly on their
legitimate power, as Scott did, or on their
coercive power, as Shackleton did, to per-
suade people to do as they're told. Rather,
managers engage in a transaction with their
employees: They explain what is required of 19
Bernard M. Bass
is Distinguished Profes-
sor of Management and director of the
Center for Leadership Studies at the State
University of New York at Binghamton. He
has held faculty positions at the Univer-
sity of Rochester, the University of Pitts-
burgh, the University of California at
Berkeley, and Louisiana State University.
He is a fellow of the Academy of Manage-
ment and the Society for Industrial/Orga-
nizational Psychology, executive editor of
The Leadership Quarterly,
and a member
of the executive committee of the Interna-
tional Association of Applied Psychology
and past president of its division of orga-
nizational psychology. Bass has performed
research, led management development
programs, conducted workshops, and lec-
tured on leadership in more than 30 coun-
tries; his books have been translated into
many languages. He has led a worldwide
management research and training pro-
gram sponsored by the Ford Foundation.
Bass holds a Ph.D. from Ohio State
University. His latest work.
The Bass and
Stogdill Handbook of Leadership
(Third
Edition) (Free Press, 1990) reviews and
integrates leadership theory, research,
and applications from the social, political,
and behavioral sciences.
them and what compensation they will re-
ceive if they fulfill these requirements.
A shift in management style at Xerox's
Reprographic Business Group (RBG) pro-
vides a good example. In the first step toward
establishing management in which managers
take the initiative and show consideration for
others, 44 specific, effective management be-
haviors were identified. Two factors that char-
acterize modern leadership were found in
many of these behaviors. One factor—initial-
ing and organizing work—concentrates on ac-
complishing the tasks at hand. The second
factor —showing consideration for employ-
ees — focuses on satisfying the self-interest of
those who do good work. The leader gets
things done by making, and fulfilling, prom-
ises of recognition, pay increases, and ad-
vancement for employees who perform well.
By contrast, employees who do not do good
work are penalized. This transaction or ex-
change—this promise and reward for good per-
formance, or threat and discipline for poor
performance —characterizes effective leader-
ship. These kinds of transactions took place
in most of the effective 44 leadership be-
haviors identified at Xerox's RBG. This kind
of leadership, which is based on transactions
between manager and employees, is called
"transactiona! leadership."
In
many
instances, however, such trans-
actional leadership is a prescription for medi-
ocrity. This is particularly true if the leader
relies heavily on passive management-by-ex-
ception, intervening with his or her group
only when procedures and standards for ac-
complishing tasks are not being met. My col-
leagues and I have arrived at this surprising
but consistent finding in a number of research
analyses. Such a manager espouses the popu-
lar adage, "If it ain't broken, don't fix it." He
or she stands in back of the caboose of a mov-
ing freight train and says, "Now I know v/here
we are going." This kind of manager may use
20
disciplinary threats to bring a group's perfor-
mance up to standards —a technique that is
ineffective and, in the long run, likely to be
counterproductive.
Moreover, whether the promise of re-
wards or the avoidance of penalties motivates
the employees depends on whether the leader
has control of the rewards or penalties, and
on whether the employees want the rewards
or fear the penalties. In many organizations,
pay increases depend mainly on seniority,
and promotions depend on qualifications and
policies about which the leader has little to
say. The breaking of regulations rnay be the
main cause of penalties. Many an executive
has found his or her hands tied b3^ contract
provisions, organizational politics, and in-
adequate resources.
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
Superior leadership performance — trans-
formational leadership — occurs when leaders
broaden and elevate the interests of their em-
ployees, when they generate awareness and
acceptarice of the purposes and mission of the
group, and when they stir their employees to
look beyond their own self-interest for the
good of the group. Transformational leaders
achieve these results in one or more ways:
They may be charismatic to their followers
and thus inspire them; they may meet the
emotional needs of each employee; and/or
they may intellectually stimulate employees.
Exhibit 1 lists the characteristics of transfor-
mational and transactional leadership; these
listings are based on the findings of a series
of surveys and on clinical and case evidence.
Attaining charisma in the eyes of one's
employees is central to succeeding as a trans-
formational leader. Charismatic leaders have
great power and influence. Employees want
to identify with them, and they have a high
degree of trust and confidence in them. Char-
ismatic leaders inspire and excite their errj-
ployees with the idea that they may be able
to accomplish great things with extra effort.
Further, transformational leaders are individ-
ually considerate, that is, they pay close atteiv
tion to differences among their employee?.;
they act as mentors to those who need heljp'
to grow and develop. Intellectual stimulatio jn.
of employees is a third factor in transforma-
tional leadership. Intellectually stimulating
leaders are willing and able to show their em-
ployees new ways of looking at old problems,
to teach them to see difficulties as problerqs
to be solved, and to emphasize rational solu-
tions. Such a leader was Lorenz Iversen, a.
former president of the Mesta Machine Coni-
pany, who said to his employees, "We got this
job because you're the best mechanics in the
world!" He practiced management-by-walli-
ing-around and stimulated the developmetjt
of many of Mesta's patented inventions. He is
remembered for instilling pride and commit-
ment in his emploj^es.
THE BIG PAYOFF
Managers who behave like transform<i-
tional leaders are more likely to be seen by
their colleagues and employees as satisfjdng
and effective leaders than are those who be-
have like transactional leaders, according tp
their colleagues', supervisors', and employees'
responses on the Multifactor Leadership Queii-
tionnaire
(MIQ).
Similar results have beeh
found in various organizational settings. Lead-
ers studied have come from an extremely
broad variety of organizations: chief executive
officers and senior and middle level managers
in business and industrial firms in the Unite^l
States, Canada, Japan, and India; research
and development project leaders; America^,
Canadian, and British Army field grade offi- 21
Exhibit 1
CHARACTERISTICS OF TRANSFORMATIONAL AND TRANSACTIONAL LEADERS
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADER
Charisma:
Provides vision and sense of mission, instills pride, gains respect and trust.
Inspiration:
Communicates high expectations, uses symbols to focus efforts, expresses important purposes
in simple ways.
Intellectual Stimulation:
Promotes intelligence, rationality, and careful problem solving.
Individualized Consideration:
Gives personal attention, treats each employee individually, coaches, advises.
TRANSACTIONAL LEADER
Contingent Reward:
Contracts exchange of rewards for effort, promises rewards for good performance,
recognizes accomplishments.
Management by Exception
(active): Watches and searches for deviations from rules and standards, takes
corrective action.
Management hy Exception
(passive): Intervenes only if standards are not met.
Laissez-Faire:
Abdicates responsibilities, avoids making decisions.
22
cers; United States Navy senior officers and
junior surface fleet officers; Annapolis mid-
shipmen; educational administrators; and re-
ligious leaders.
Moreover, various types of evaluations —
including performance ratings by both super-
visors and direct reports, as well as standard
financial measures — have produced a similar
correlation between transformational be-
havior and high ratings. Managers tagged as
high performers by their supervisors were
also rated, in a separate evaluation by their
followers, as more transformational than trans-
actional. Their organizations do better finan-
cially. The same pattern emerged between
followers' descriptions of shipboard Naval
officers and those officers' supervisors' per-
formance appraisals and recommendations
for early promotion. And among Methodist
ministers, transformational — not transaction-
al — leadership behavior was positively related
to high church attendance among congre-
gants and growth in church membership.
Results were the same for evaluation of
team performance in complex business simu-
lations. Considerable credit for Boeing's turn-
around since its 1969 crisis can be given to its
chief executive, T. A. Wilson, who has empha-
sized technological progress, aggressive mar-
keting, and a willingness to take calculated
business risks. The confidence that Boeing
employees have in Wilson, and their respect
for him as a brilliant engineer and an out-
standing leader, have instilled in them great
pride in the company and its products.
EXTRA EFFORT FROM BELOW
Transformational leaders have better re-
lationships with their supervisors and make
more of a contribution to the organization
than do those who are only transactional.
Moreover, employees say that they themselves
exert a lot of extra effort on behalf of managers
who are transformational leaders. Organiza-
tions whose leaders are transactional are less
effective than those whose leaders are transfor-
mational — particularly if much of the trans-
actional leadership is passive management-by-
^a!?w^^-'w3«w!ET3'^''^-'".<->
exception (intervening only when standards
are not being met). Employees say they exert
little effort for such leaders. Nevertheless,
leader-fdllower transactions dependent on
contingent reward may also work reasonably
well if the leaders can provide rewards that
are valued by the followers.
Exhibit 2 illustrates the effect that trans-
formational, as compared with transactional,
leadership has on employee effort. The data
were collected from 228 employees of 58 man-
agers in a large engineering firm. The manag-
ers were ranked according to their leadership
factor scores, which were based on descrip-
tions of leaders by their employees and col-
leagues on the Multifactor Leadership Ques-
tionnaire. "Four-star" leaders were those who
ranked in the top 25% on a leadership factor
score; "one-star" leaders were among the bot-
tom 25 % of managers on the leadership fac-
tor score. From 75% to 82% of the "four-star"
transformational managers had employees
who indicated they frequently exerted extra
effort on their jobs. Of the "one-star" transfor-
mational managers, only 22% to 24% had
employees who said they frequently exerted
extra effort.
It is interesting to note that, as Exhibit 2
illustrates, being rated as "four-stcir" rather
than "one-star" in
transactional
leadership did
not have the same impact on emplo^^ees' extra
effort as a high rating had for the transforma-
tional leaders. Similar findings have emerged
from stxidies of leaders and their immediate
employees at a diverse range of organizations,
including Digital Equipment Corporation and
Federal Express.
DIFFERENT STYLES OF
TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP
their personal styles. H. Ross Perot is self-
effacing: "I don't look impressive," he says.
"To a lot of guys I don't look like I could afford
a car." But Perot created the $2.5 billion ED!3
organization from his vision, initiative,
err|-
phasis on hard work, and a special organiza-
tional culture with strict codes of moralit'y
and dress and quasi-military management.
His personal involvement in the rescue of twp
of his employees trapped as hostages in Iran
in 1979 is an extreme example of individual-
ized consideration, a transformational factor.
Leslie Wexner of The Limited, Inc. enjoys a
more flamboyant lifestyle. But like Perot,
Wexner converted his vision of a nationwide
chain of women's sportswear stores into a
reality through his own hard work. He stimu-
lates employee participation in discussions
and decisions and encourages them to shade
his vision of the company's future.
Many on
Fortune's
list of the ten toughest
bosses would not live up to modern be-
havioral science's prescriptions for the gooidl
leader: one who initiates the structure for in-
teraction among his colleagues, and who doQs
so with consideration for their welfare. Never-
theless, these tough bosses are highly success-
ful as a consequence of the transformational
qualities they display; Boeing's Wilson is ja
case in point. Although they do initiate struc-
ture and may be considerate of their employ-
ees, these leaders succeed through such trans-
formational factors as charisma and the abil-
ity and willingness to treat different subotl-
dinates differently, as well as by providing in-
tellectual stimulation for the employees. They
frequently raise standards, take calculated
risks, and get others to join them in their vi-
sion of the future. Rather than work within
the organizational culture, they challenge and
change that culture, as Roger Smith of Gen-
eral Motors Corporation did. Self-determin,a-
tion and self-confidence are characteristic of
them. They succeed because of these transfor- 23
As noted earlier, certain types of behav-
ior characterize the transformational leader.
Yet transformational leaders vary widely in

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