A Contemporary Consideration of Transformative Leadership

Although the term transformational leadership was introduced by Downton (1973), the concept did not gain credibility and wide acceptance until the publication of the book Leadership by James Macgregor Burns (1978). Burns, a University of Maryland professor, said that “transformational leadership occurs when one or more persons engage with others in such a way that leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of morality ” (p. 20). Burns contrasted transformational leadership with transactional leadership, defining transactional leadership as encompassing those transactions that occur when leaders give rewards in exchange for specific behavior by followers. Followers working strictly for a paycheck exemplify transactional leadership. In contrast, transformational leadership involves the transformation of the attitudes, motivations, and behaviors of both leaders and followers (Jackson & Parry, 2008). Mohandas Ghandi is frequently cited as a classic exemplar of transformational leadership (Northouse, 2007). Ghandi spent lengthy periods in prison and withstood health-threatening fasts to create a transformative moral vision based on what he called truth (Fisher, 1983; Nahavandi, 2003). His willingness to actually live his spiritual visio