5/27/2009
Transformational Leadership Characteristics on the Projects
Donghwa Clint Kim Yanlin Shi Bo Wang Jun Gan Koh
Agenda
1. Introduction 2. The Effects of Trust on the Projects 3. The Effects of Inspirational Motivation on the Projects 4. The Effects of Creativity Stimulation on the Projects 5. The Effects of Individualised Consideration on the Projects 6. Conclusion
Introduction
• Globalisation in companies’ business • Complex projects with various functions and cultures • They need a leader to manage cross-functional and cross-cultural projects • Leaders with transformational leadership style successfully manage those projects
Trust
• Nature and Concept
– Trust is a shared vision of the individual members within a team
Webber (2002)
Trust
• Why trust is important in project team?
– To overcome the obstacles and challenges in managing the projects such as:
functional diversity diversity in time allocation multiple reporting relationships
Trust
• How to build the trust?
– Effective and frequent communication – Consider the members’ needs – Respect and agree with their decisions – Selection of the team members at the beginning stage – Share and adjust the expectations – Set a shared and clear goal of the project
– To reduce the conflicts between the leader and members – To make members to admire and respect the leader and try to achieve the same goal as a leader – Perform better and achieve greater success
1
5/27/2009
Trust
• Effects of trust on the performance and success of the project
– Positive impacts on the performance of the members and team as a whole – Improvement in the quality of the performance of the project – Result the project to be successful
Inspirational Motivation
Inspirational motivation means leaders behave in ways that motivate those around them by providing meaning and challenge to their followers’ work.
Bass, Avolio, Jung and Berson (2003)
• The impact of inspirational motivation on projects
– Generally speaking, transformational leadership is proved to be more effectively on motivating project teams to make extra effort. – Transformational leadership is also analyzed to do a better job than other styles to achieve the aim of motivation in the cross-boundary environment.
Inspirational Motivation
• The effective methods to implement inspirational motivation
– self-reinforcement, e.g. Leading by example – intrinsic or extrinsic?
Inspirational Motivation
Sources
Intrinsic process motivation
Features
happens when people are motivated to perform certain kinds of work or to engage in certain types of behaviors for the sheer fun of it happens when individuals perceive their behavior will lead to certain extrinsic tangible outcomes, such as pay, promotions, bonuses, etc happens when individuals are other-directed and seek affirmation of traits, competencies, and values from external perceptions happens when individuals are inner-directed and set internal standards for traits, competencies, and values that become the basis for their ideal selves happens when individuals adopt attitudes and behaviors congruent with their personal value systems, strong ideals and beliefs are paramount in this motivational source
Instrumental motivation
Self-concept-external motivation
– More Specific sources of motivation?
Self-concept-internal motivation
Goal internalization motivation
Table 1 Five Sources of Work Motivation
Inspirational Motivation
• The effective methods to implement inspirational motivation
– Other suggestions:
presents an optimistic and attainable view of the future; moulds expectations and shapes meaning; reduces complex matters to key issues using simple language; create a sense of priorities and purpose.
Creativity Stimulation
2
5/27/2009
Creativity Stimulation
Creativity Stimulation
• Transactional leadership
– mostly stirs employees with the extrinsic rewards (Bass, 1990) – mainly focuses on maintaining the status quo (Amabile, Conti, Coon,
Lazenby, and Herron, 1996)
• Transformational leadership
– enlarges or promotes the intrinsic interests of employees (Bass, 1990) – to some extent is more effective at encouraging followers to think “out of the box” (Sosik, Avolio, and Kahai, 1997)
Creativity Stimulation
• How can transformational leaders stimulate followers creativity?
– Producing the climate for creativity – Stimulating followers to think in new ways – Leading cross-functional project teams
Creativity Stimulation
A circular process of creativity activity
(Basadur, 2004)
Creativity Stimulation
• Obstacles of creative thinking
(Basadur, 2004)
What leaders can do … (Basadur, 2004)
• In order to prevent followers from getting used to waiting for problems to solve…
Transferring the ownership of problem finding
– People tend to avoid important problems which cross different functions and departments. – When confronting new problems, people tend to follow their old experiences or available answers to solve them. – People might be afraid to implement their creative solutions.
•
In order to help followers to open their mind to brand new perspectives of the problems…
Training
•
In order to stimulate followers to facilitate creative solutions…
Employee suggestion system
3
5/27/2009
Individualised Consideration
• What is Individualised Consideration
– Paying close attention to each individual team member – If necessary, act as a mentor – Why is it important?
Individualised Consideration
• What does Individualised Consideration Involve?
– By paying close attention to each team member, choose an ideal course of action to take – Delegate more work and give more autonomy to team members – Implemented through Management by Wandering Around (MBWA)
Individualised Consideration
• Benefits
– There are short-term and long-term benefits – Short-term benefits are for the immediate project – Long-term benefits are for the employee and the organization
Conclusion
• How do characteristics of transformational leadership affect the success of a project?
– Trust – Inspirational Motivation – Stimulating Creativity – Individualised Consideration
Thanks for your patience! Any questions?
4