Beyond mediocrity: transformational leadership within a transactional framework

Student Leadership Development: A Functional Framework

“…Several staff statements also described this outlook, revealing an approach focused on involving more faculty in student leadership training activities, facilitating Wednesday morning leadership training sessions for interested students, and heightening the awareness and importance of student leadership within the school. All adult participants saw the efforts of the deputy as visionary (Blanchard & Hodges, 2005), of purpose (Bass, 1993), and embodying positive change (Ford & Ford, 1994;Friedman, 2004). Likewise, a personal reflection from the deputy underscored her philosophy of student leadership.…”

“…Transactional leadership maintains the status quo (Locke, 1999), is task and relationship oriented (Tuohy, 1999), and "involves an exchange process between leaders and followers, whereby followers reap immediate, tangible rewards for carrying out the leader's orders" (Locke, 1999, p. 5). By contrast, transformational leadership is described as leadership that seeks to change the status quo (Locke, 1999), involves leaders motivating followers to improve present attitudes and assumptions (Friedman, 2004;Yukl, 1994), and is principally concerned with notions of purpose and vision (Bass, 1985;Bass & Avolio, 1994;DuBrin & Daglish, 2003). Charismatic leadership is based on the admiration and respect shown to a leader by subordinate coworkers, and is grounded in trust, honesty, and credibility (Friedman, 2004).…”

“…By contrast, transformational leadership is described as leadership that seeks to change the status quo (Locke, 1999), involves leaders motivating followers to improve present attitudes and assumptions (Friedman, 2004;Yukl, 1994), and is principally concerned with notions of purpose and vision (Bass, 1985;Bass & Avolio, 1994;DuBrin & Daglish, 2003). Charismatic leadership is based on the admiration and respect shown to a leader by subordinate coworkers, and is grounded in trust, honesty, and credibility (Friedman, 2004). Charismatic leaders are treated by followers as possessing superhuman or exceptional qualities (Weber, 1947), and are concerned with "influencing followers to accept and own a vision and to work together towards its realization" (Crawford, 2002, p. 278).…”

“…Such actions resonate with the view of leadership espoused by Dubrin and Daglish (2003) and Locke (1999), who have placed emphasis on rewarding individuals for meeting standards. Furthermore, the House Coordinators claimed that creating additional leadership roles empowered students to take greater responsibility for achieving set goals (Bass, 1990), and that emphasizing an inclusive and collaborative leadership approach helped promote a House culture of vision-ary change (Friedman, 2004).…”

Dissipative structures in educational change: Prigogine and the academy

“…Teachers and administrators are frequently mandated to provide services that are largely predetermined by conflicting external sources and that can some-times omit the value of the internal knowledge and experience of highly qualified teachers and administrators (Birnbaum 2000). When these individuals attempt to implement transformative changes, the grip of transactional leadership is strong enough to drive schools and colleges towards near equilibrium environments where mediocrity overshadows creativity (Friedman 2004). …”