Rational and Emotional Defense from the Point of View of a Transformational Leader

This article discusses the rational and emotional defense strategies used by transformational leaders, using the letters from Dr. King and Socrates as examples. It explores the importance of converting rational defense into emotional defense to effectively communicate and propagate a mission statement.

Rational and emotional defense from the point of view of a transformational leader
Introduction
As a leader of a community or a group, an individual is responsible for the acts of the group.
He has this burden of pulling his team towards the desired goal and takes care of the
obstacles at the same time. While delivering the duties of a leader, an individual has to ensure
a defense strategy to save a situation for the time being. Adoption of wrong defense tactics
can sometimes send a wrong message of the followers as well. The "letter written by Dr.
King from the Birmingham jail" and the apology made by Socrates is a great example to
testify this statement.
The rational defense can be converted into emotional defense by making it the voice of
the mission
In order to compare these two pieces of literature from the point of view of leadership and
management, we need to first understand that both Socrates and Martin Luther King were
practicing transformational leadership at that point. The thumb rules associated with the
transformational kind of leadership clearly states that a transformational leader cannot take
resort in rational defense alone sometimes he is required to take resort in emotional defense
as well (Vera,2014).
When we read the answer written by Martin Luther King, we find that in the beginning, he
took the support of the "rational defense" when he disarmed himself by establishing himself
as a champion of a greater cause, a cause associated with injustice which was prevailing in
the society. He clearly said that he visited Alabama not because of a particular task; he
visited Alabama because injustice against a particular community was prevailing there
(Majali,2014).
1

In order to justify his acts he also came with a mission statement that says "injustice
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." As a manager and transformational leader, King
also sets an example of "turning a problem into an opportunity" with the help of this
statement. It was a problem in front of him because his own counterparts in the expedition
were hostile to him; he successfully generalized this condition and made it even bigger
(Gomes,2014).
The text of "The Apology" as written by Socrates, reads few lines that say "it is necessary to
create tensions in the mind of individuals so that they can come out of the comfort zones of
the myths." This statement does not suit to a text which bears the heading of "The Apology."
Still, it works well with the masses. It serves the sentiments of a transformation leader (Abu-
Ruman, 2016).
Conclusion
The study of the "Letter from the Jail" and "The Apology" gives us the case of two
transformational leaders that converted their problems into an opportunity to communicate
and propagate their mission statements. Both these pieces of literature also give us an idea
about the tactics of these leaders, where they generalized the statements in the favor of a
mission and saved a situation that can bring down the morale of their team. They took the
resort in the tactic of a rational defense however, by generalizing the message they converted
a rational message into an emotional defense as well.
2

References
Abu-Ruman B (2016) e impact of transformational leadership in crisis management
preparedness. Journal of Business Administration 12 (3)
Barth-Farkas, F., & Vera, A. (2014). Power and Transformational Leadership in Public
Organizations. International Journal of Leadership in Public Services, 10,4, 217-232.
Gomes, A.R. (2014). Transformational leadership: Theory, research, and application to
sports. In C. Mohiyeddini (Ed.), Contemporary topics and trends in the psychology of
sports (pp. 53-114). New York: Nova Science Publishers
Majali R (2014) the impact of transformational leadership in the performance of Jordanian
industrial: entrepreneurial orientation as a mediating variable. Unpublished
dissertation, Jordan: University of Islamic Sciences
3

4