Adding Value to Leadership Gets Extraordinary Results

Abstract

I n 1978 James MacGregor Bums proposed a theory of leadership that has shaped new understand ings of leadership practice. According to Burns, leadership is exercised when persons with certain motives and pur= poses mobilize resources so as to arouse and satisfy the motives of fol: lowers. He identified two broad kinds of leadership, transactional and trans formative. Transactional leadership fo cuses on basic and largely extrinsic motives and needs; transformative, on higher-order, intrinsic, and, ultimately, moral motives and needs This latter point is important to understanding Bums's theory Transformative leader ship is first concerned with higherorder psychological needs for esteem, autonomy, and self-actualization and. then, with moral questions of goodness, righteousness, duty, and obligation. In his groundbreaking examination of the moral dimension in manage ment and motivation, Amitai Etzioni (1988) provides a compelling case for moral authority as a source of motiva tion and a basis for management Etz ioni acknowledges the importance of extrinsic and intrinsic motivation but goes further Ultimately, he contends, what counts most to people is what they believe, how they feel, and the shared norms and cultural messages that emerge from the groups and com;