The Impact Of Transformational Leadership Style On Organizational Growth

Transformational Leadership Style

Questions:

1. What is the impact of transformational leadership of top leaders on organization’s growth?

2. How transformational leadership can drive the growth and development for large organizations? 
 

1.1 Introduction

Transformational leadership is often defined as the that particular style of  leadership  which  encourages the leader to  participate in the  various operational activities of the organization, to make  significant   contribution to the process  of defining the changes that must be incorporated within  the organization,  to  assist the subordinates in  defining  the aims an objective  of the change management  process and to execute the said   changes in a committed manner (Clarke, 2013). Researchers al-Dumur and al-Awamilah (2013) are of the opinion that the   transformational leadership style is one of the most appreciated and most successful organizational leadership styles that are practiced in the real world.

The primary objective of this paper is to provide insight in to a project aimed at assessing the impact of transformational leadership style on the growth of organizations. A   brief description of the problem   would be stated, along with the identification of the aims and objectives of the research work.  The research work is being conducted to find the answers to certain queries: the said questions would also be mentioned in the paper, along with the methods chosen   for conducting the research work.

 Transformational   leadership is often   considered as that particular type of  leadership styles  that emphasizes on  providing the subordinates  with long term  vision based  motivations, thus enhancing the entire  work environment (Choudhary, Akhtar& Zaheer, 2013). Numerous research  works  have been conducted in the recent past  with    the aim of  identifying the most appropriate  and successful method of organizations  and the findings of majority of  such studies indicated  that the utilization of   transformational leadership style has been  found effective in  increasing the efficiency of the employees, thus enhancing  the financial benefits of the organization (Roueche et al. 2012). However, very few studies   have been directed towards the identification of the relationship between the said leadership style and the overall growth of the organization.

The absence of scholarly works in the said domain has encouraged the researchers to make an attempt at identifying the manner in which transformational leadership styles influence the overall goal of a business organization.

1.3.1. Aim of the research work

The aim of the said research work is to identify the impact of transformational leadership styles on the overall growth of an organization, besides revealing the manner in which the said leadership style can be effectively used to escalate organizational development and growth.

1.3.2. Objective of the research work

The objectives of this research work are:

1. To identify and analyze the impact of transformational leadership styles on the overall growth of an organization.
2. To reveal the manner in which the transformational leadership style can be effectively used to escalate organizational development and growth.

1.3.3 Research questions

The proposed research work would be conducted so as to find the answers to the following sets of questions:

1. How does transformational leadership practices of  the higher management  influence the growth of an organization?
2. How transformational leadership can be efficiently used to drive the overall growth and organizational development for business corporations?

1.4 Justification Of The Project

It has already been mentioned that   in spite of the fact that transformational  leadership style is  unanimously   considered as the most  efficient manner  leading the subordinates  within an  organizational infrastructure, the number  of research conducted towards the identification of the influence of  transformational leadership styles  on  organizational  growth  factors.   Thus,    conducting    the proposed research work is justified as it would facilitate the identification of the following factors:

1. The effect or impact of transformational leaders (or their leadership styles) on the daily operational activities of business organizations.
2. The efficient utilization of the principle of transformational leadership in   escalating the growth of business organizations.

Research Objectives

The findings of  this research work  would be  efficiently used by  organizational leaders  to  boost up the morale  of their employees,  thus  enhancing  their efficiency: a  much used route for achieving organizational growth. The findings   of this research work would  also be of much help to organizations that   encourage transformational leadership styles but  still struggling with  finding the route to organizational growth.

Last but not the least, the findings of this research work can be used to conduct a comparative study between the efficiency of various leadership styles in making a business organization grow.

1.5 Expected Research Output/Outcome

It is being expected that the findings of this research work would help in the development of a conceptual framework, which in turn could be utilized in understanding how transformationa  leaders can  influence the growth of   an  organization in a direct  or indirect manner. Besides this, the said research work would be helpful in revealing the strategies that transformational leaders use to ensure both financial and organizational  growth  of  business  enterprises.

The proposed research work is expected to  find answers to all the ‘research questions’ defined in  the section above: the literature review, data collection and data analysis  sections would  in evidently help in  creating a blue print for  the successful and efficient utilization of  the  transformational leadership principles  in  the practice.  It is expected that organizations that are striving at finding the right leadership strategy or the entrepreneurs who are  considering setting  up new ventures would be immensely benefitted by the  findings  of the research work.  

2.1 Conceptual Framework

Researchers (Lowe  and  Avolio, 2013) have made an attempt   of  identifying  the most common leadership factors that are capable of   influencing  the growth of an organization: the factors revealed by them include  the technical  and industrial knowledge  of the leader in concern, the manner in which  he or  she motivates the subordinates, the personality  of the said leader and his / her motives.

Authors Van Dierendonck et al. (2014) on the other had are of the opinion that the higher management of an organization can play a significant role  in  escalating the growth  of  an enterprises. Researchers Baloch, Ali and Zaman (2014) second their opinion as they are of the opinion that the higher management retains the unique capability  of managing the manner in  which the employees interact with  each other, maintain a  competitive spirit among the employees and develop a healthy work environment:  needless to  say  that all these factors are essential for the growth of an  organization.

                          

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework of organizational growth

2.2 Research Hypothesis

In the light of the research objectives and research questions stated  in section 1,  the following  research hypothesis are being stated  so as to be  tested during the research work:

H (1): Null Hypothesis: Transformational leadership has no impact on the growth and development of an organization.

H (2): Alternate Hypothesis: Transformational leadership has significant impact on the growth and development of an organization.

2.3 Research Methodology

The following research methodologies would be utilized for conducting the research work:

1. Literature review: Researchers Takhar-Lail and  Ghorbani (2015) are of the opinion that conducting a review of the existing literary articles provides an insight in to the domain being studied upon.  A detailed literature survey   would thus be conducted   so as to collect secondary information on the research topic.
2. Data collection: It has already been mentioned that the primary objective of conducting the research work would be to collect information from secondary sources.

Research Questions

On the other hand, primary data to be utilized in the research work would be collected using the following techniques:

1. Group interviews: Veteran organizational leaders would be interviewed so as to collect information regarding their leadership styles and the efforts they made towards the growth of the organizations they have been associated with (Coleman  & Ringrose  (2013).
2. Online questionnaires would be utilized to collect information from individuals willing to participate in the survey (Wahyuni, 2012). The questioner would be set up keeping the objective of the research work in mind and is expected to reveal information useful for the study.
3. Data analysis: The collected using the above mentioned techniques would be interpreted using both qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis.
4. Quantitative data analysis: The two techniques to be utilized by quantitative data analysis include descriptive statistics and hypothesis testing .

The term ‘descriptive statistics’ can be utilized to define the process of collecting  statistical data from  secondary resources ( including  the standard deviation,  mean, mode and median of the  key variables of the research work), so as to  compare the position  of each of the values with that of  the mean (Amelina, 2012).

On the other hand, hypothesis testing would be utilized so as to understand whether the data collected during the research study supports the research hypothesis or not (Petty, Thomson and Stew, 2012).

Besides this, the technique of regression analysis would also be utilized for interpreting the information shared by the individuals who participated in  the survey (Feinsinger, 2013).

1. Qualitative data analysis: The information collected from the secondary sources of data (including existing literary articles, scholarly papers, etc) interpreted so as to develop the relationship between the various information available from the interviews and the online surveys (Finley, 2014).

It is expected that the utilization of the above mentioned methods would facilitate the process of meeting the objectives of the research work 

The   following section of the report presents a detailed description of the manner in which the findings of the proposed research work would be published, along with the estimated time and budget required for conducting the project in a successful manner.

3.1 Organization of the Study

The findings of  the proposed research work would be presented  in    form of  a report: the  contents of the report being segregated in to the following sections:

1. Chapter 1: Introduction

The very first chapter of the report would be utilized to introduce the research topic to the audience:  a brief description of the  research domain, along with the formal definition of ‘transformational leadership’ would be presented in this section. Besides this, the aim and objective of the research work, along with the justification behind the selection of the research topic would be presented in this chapter.

1. Chapter 2: Literature Review

The conduction of a background literature is considered to be an essential element of any research work: the second chapter of the report  would be utilized  to  discuss the information available from  the existing literary works.

1. Chapter 3: Research Methodology

It is a well known fact that the identification of appropriate research techniques facilitates the conduction of successful research works. Thus, the third chapter of the report would be utilized to identify the techniques that have been utilized in conducting the research work: justification for   the selection of the said techniques would also be mentioned in this chapter.

Along with the above mentioned factors, discussions would also be made on the interview questions and the online questionnaire that have been utilized for collecting information from the primary data sources.

1. Chapter 4: Data Analysis

The data collected from the primary and secondary sources of data would be analyzed using various analytical techniques:  the results of this analysis would be described in chapter 4 of   the report.

1. Chapter 5: Conclusions and Recommendations

This would be the last and concluding chapter of the report:  the findings of the research work would be presented in a comprehended manner, besides pinpointing the direction  in which further research works can be conducted.  Attempts would also be made toward assessing the success of the research work with respect to its aim  and objectives.

Research Hypotheses

3.2 Project Schedule

The project has been scheduled in the following manner:

Table 1: Estimated time schedule

Outline Number	Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish
0	Research work	87 days?	Fri 7/1/16	Mon 10/31/16
1	Start date	0 days	Fri 7/1/16	Fri 7/1/16
2	Topic Selection	22 days?	Fri 7/1/16	Mon 8/1/16
2.1	Considering a wide range of topics to conduct research on	10 days	Fri 7/1/16	Thu 7/14/16
2.2	conducting primary background research on the selected topics	5 days	Fri 7/15/16	Thu 7/21/16
2.3	Finalizing the domain of research	5 days	Fri 7/22/16	Thu 7/28/16
2.4	Research topic finalized	1 day?	Fri 7/29/16	Fri 7/29/16
2.5	finalizing the research topic	2 days	Fri 7/29/16	Mon 8/1/16
2.6	research topic finalized	0 days	Mon 8/1/16	Mon 8/1/16
3	Creating the layout of the research work	10 days	Tue 8/2/16	Mon 8/15/16
3.1	Forming the research plan	5 days	Tue 8/2/16	Mon 8/8/16
3.2	Selecting the research techniques to be used	5 days	Tue 8/9/16	Mon 8/15/16
4	Data collection	25 days?	Tue 8/16/16	Mon 9/19/16
4.1	collecting data from secondary sources	7 days	Tue 8/16/16	Wed 8/24/16
4.1.1	literature review	7 days	Tue 8/16/16	Wed 8/24/16
4.2	collecting data from primary sources	18 days?	Thu 8/25/16	Mon 9/19/16
4.2.1	Conducting group interviews	4 days?	Thu 8/25/16	Tue 8/30/16
4.2.1.1	Group interview 1	1 day?	Thu 8/25/16	Thu 8/25/16
4.2.1.2	Group interview 2	1 day?	Fri 8/26/16	Fri 8/26/16
4.2.1.3	Group interview 3	1 day?	Mon 8/29/16	Mon 8/29/16
4.2.1.4	Group interview 4	1 day?	Tue 8/30/16	Tue 8/30/16
4.2.2	Online survey	18 days	Thu 8/25/16	Mon 9/19/16
4.2.2.1	creating the questionnaire	3 days	Thu 8/25/16	Mon 8/29/16
4.2.2.2	conducting the survey	15 days	Tue 8/30/16	Mon 9/19/16
4.3	data collection completed	0 days	Mon 9/19/16	Mon 9/19/16
5	Analysis and Interpretation of the information collected	10 days	Tue 9/20/16	Mon 10/3/16
5.1	qualitative analysis	10 days	Tue 9/20/16	Mon 10/3/16
5.2	quantitative analysis	10 days	Tue 9/20/16	Mon 10/3/16
5.3	data analysis completed	0 days	Mon 10/3/16	Mon 10/3/16
6	Arriving at the conclusions	3 days	Tue 10/4/16	Thu 10/6/16
7	Creating a rough draft to present the findings of the research work	7 days	Fri 10/7/16	Mon 10/17/16
8	Publishing the results of the research work	10 days	Tue 10/18/16	Mon 10/31/16
9	End date	0 days	Mon 10/31/16	Mon 10/31/16

Figure 2: Gantt char of the project

3.3 Project Budget and Budget Justification 

The estimated budget of the project is being provided in the following table:

Table 2: Estimated budgetary requirements

Outline Number	Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish	Predecessors	Resource Names	Cost
0	Research work	87 days?	Fri 7/1/16	Mon 10/31/16			$4,000.00
1	Start date	0 days	Fri 7/1/16	Fri 7/1/16			$0.00
2	Topic Selection	22 days?	Fri 7/1/16	Mon 8/1/16			$0.00
2.1	Considering a wide range of topics to conduct research on	10 days	Fri 7/1/16	Thu 7/14/16	1		$0.00
2.2	conducting primary background research on the selected topics	5 days	Fri 7/15/16	Thu 7/21/16	3		$0.00
2.3	Finalizing the domain of research	5 days	Fri 7/22/16	Thu 7/28/16	4		$0.00
2.4	Research topic finalized	1 day?	Fri 7/29/16	Fri 7/29/16	5		$0.00
2.5	finalizing the research topic	2 days	Fri 7/29/16	Mon 8/1/16	5		$0.00
2.6	research topic finalized	0 days	Mon 8/1/16	Mon 8/1/16	7		$0.00
3	Creating the layout of the research work	10 days	Tue 8/2/16	Mon 8/15/16			$0.00
3.1	Forming the research plan	5 days	Tue 8/2/16	Mon 8/8/16	7		$0.00
3.2	Selecting the research techniques to be used	5 days	Tue 8/9/16	Mon 8/15/16	10		$0.00
4	Data collection	25 days?	Tue 8/16/16	Mon 9/19/16			$3,000.00
4.1	collecting data from secondary sources	7 days	Tue 8/16/16	Wed 8/24/16			$1,000.00
4.1.1	literature review	7 days	Tue 8/16/16	Wed 8/24/16	11	Literature Review[1]	$1,000.00
4.2	collecting data from primary sources	18 days?	Thu 8/25/16	Mon 9/19/16		data collection[1]	$2,000.00
4.2.1	Conducting group interviews	4 days?	Thu 8/25/16	Tue 8/30/16			$0.00
4.2.1.1	Group interview 1	1 day?	Thu 8/25/16	Thu 8/25/16	14		$0.00
4.2.1.2	Group interview 2	1 day?	Fri 8/26/16	Fri 8/26/16	17		$0.00
4.2.1.3	Group interview 3	1 day?	Mon 8/29/16	Mon 8/29/16	18		$0.00
4.2.1.4	Group interview 4	1 day?	Tue 8/30/16	Tue 8/30/16	19		$0.00
4.2.2	Online survey	18 days	Thu 8/25/16	Mon 9/19/16			$0.00
4.2.2.1	creating the questionnaire	3 days	Thu 8/25/16	Mon 8/29/16	14		$0.00
4.2.2.2	conducting the survey	15 days	Tue 8/30/16	Mon 9/19/16	22		$0.00
4.3	data collection completed	0 days	Mon 9/19/16	Mon 9/19/16	23		$0.00
5	Analysis and Interpretation of the information collected	10 days	Tue 9/20/16	Mon 10/3/16		data analysis[1]	$1,000.00
5.1	qualitative analysis	10 days	Tue 9/20/16	Mon 10/3/16	23,20		$0.00
5.2	quantitative analysis	10 days	Tue 9/20/16	Mon 10/3/16	23,20		$0.00
5.3	data analysis completed	0 days	Mon 10/3/16	Mon 10/3/16	27		$0.00
6	Arriving at the conclusions	3 days	Tue 10/4/16	Thu 10/6/16	26,27		$0.00
7	Creating a rough draft to present the findings of the research work	7 days	Fri 10/7/16	Mon 10/17/16	29		$0.00
8	Publishing the results of the research work	10 days	Tue 10/18/16	Mon 10/31/16	30		$0.00
9	End date	0 days	Mon 10/31/16	Mon 10/31/16	31		$0.00

As depicted in the table, it has been assumed that cost associated with conducting the literature review would be $ 1000 approximately: it   includes the cost associated with gaining access to the recently published literary articles (most article repositories encourage subscriptions to be made for full access of the literary works), besides other miscellaneous costs.

The  cost  associated with the data collection process has been estimated to be  approximately $ 2000: this includes the costs  associated with  conducting the group interviews (the cost of  hardware and software tools for recording information, providing travelling expenses to the participants, etc), the cost associated with the development  of the questionnaire  and  conducting the online survey.

On the other hand, the analysis and the interpretation of the information collected from the primary sources would require the utilization of specialized software tools:  the licensing of these tools along with the maintenance of the computer devices to be utilized for this purpose would  definitely incur an expenditure of   around $ 1000.

Thus, the estimated cost of   conducting the research work is $ 4,000 approximately.  

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