A new transformational leadership: A Meadian framework for a new way forward

Abstract

The most prominent theory in leadership studies is transformational leadership. Ironically, however, scholars who subscribe to transformational leadership have left the concept of transformation itself, unexamined and lying dormant in the background. In response to this neglect, I propose a Meadian framework of leadership that is centered on the nature of transformation in both leaders and leadership trans-actions. I present a framework that is Mead ian, and not exclusively from Mead, by integrating contemporary scholarship from a range of disciplines that corroborate and complement Mead’s work and provides transformational leadership scholars a new way forward. I use Mead’s I/Me distinction to answer who transformational leaders are in their embodied social selves and Mead’s role-taking notion in the social act to answer what transformational leaders do in relation with followers. In doing so, I provide leadership scholars a “third way” between dichotomous conceptions of singularly influential leaders on the one hand and leaderless leadership processes on the other.