Transformational Leadership: A Tool to Manage the Complex Environment of Nonprofit Organizations

Nonprofit organizations, particularly within the field of mental retardation and developmental disabilities, are under pressure to perform differently than in years past. Funders currently demand more accountability, donors want results, clients crave evidence-based outcomes, and taxpayers are impatient with waste, abuse, and fraud. This empirical study explored , using Kouzes and Posner’s Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), the presence of transformational leadership in a primarily urban nonprofit organi zation, as well as perception alignment within that organization’s supervisory ranks. The study outlines to the members of the supervisory group of this nonprofit organization areas of transformational leadership that could improve as well as areas of relative strength. The supervisory ranks of the organization saw themselves as above average in transformational leadership. However, coworkers rated the same supervisors as below average in transformational leadership. Statistically significant differences were also found in senior staff assessment of their coworkers on the LPI subscale of Enable Others to Act. Department heads assessed executive staff as lower in Model the Way, and higher in the subscale of Challenging the Process than executives saw themselves. It appears that further research in nonprofit organizations, to include the CEO and front-line management, is warranted as is the need to evaluate transformational leadership in nonmanagerial groupings