Transformational Leadership Theory and its Application in Overcoming Challenges Faced by Contemporary Leaders: Jeff Bezos Example

This report discusses the main aspects of transformational leadership theory and how it helps an organisation to overcome its challenges. It also provides an example of Jeff Bezos who has used transformational theory in his career to overcome all the challenges in his journey.

Leadership

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................1
Main aspects of transformational leadership theory..................................................................1
Transformational leadership helps in overcoming the challenges faced by contemporary
leaders....................................................................................................................................2
Example- Jeff Bezos..................................................................................................................2
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................4
References..................................................................................................................................5

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Introduction
Leadership is all about mapping a direction in an organisation so that a new vision could be
created for the betterment. Leadership skills are very important for an organisation to grow
successfully. The main motive of them is to inspire others by their action so that all the
challenges could be overcome. The main difference between leader and follower is
innovation, as leaders come up with creative and innovative ideas and followers work upon
that. Leadership creates an inspiring vision for the future by motivating the people so that
they can work in a team to achieve an effective vision. In this report, the main aspects of
transformational leadership theory are discussed. It also helps an organisation to overcome its
challenges that are faced by contemporary leaders. The example of Jeff Bezos is considered
as he has used transformational theory in his career which has helped him in overcoming all
the challenges in his journey.
Main aspects of transformational leadership theory
The transformational theory is associated with four main aspects that are followed by every
leader. The first main concern is individualised consideration, in this mentor or leader assures
that all the needs and concerns of an individual are resolved. It is required so that support of
employees could be gained and contribution of employee while working in a get is improved.
Thus, leaders in the transformational policies take care that every individual is appreciated for
their work so that positive self-development takes place. The second aspect of using
transformational leadership is intellectual stimulation that deals with degree through which an
individual take risks and challenges (Al-Husseini & Elbeltagi, 2016). To be successful every
leader should have a potential to take risk so that they can learn from all the unexpected
situations. In this theory, leaders focus upon motivation so that they can inspire their

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followers to perform well. For this they offer a role model so that high ethical behaviour is
implemented and respect and trust of customers can be increased. The concept of
transformational leadership is widely used in an organisation. Transformational leadership
theories involve a strong commitment between leaders and followers (Lashinsky, 2012).
Transformational leaders influences individual to take high risk and develop confidence in
the employees. It supports the employees by inspiring them and boosting the confidence so
that they have a clear vision for the future. The aspect of this theory is to create value in
performance and also to offer solution for challenges (Bush, Abdul Hamid, Ng & Kaparou,
2017). The main reason of this theory is that it recognizes the need of every individual and
work on the ways through which they can motivated. This leadership theory is responsible as
it make leaders to develop a clear vision so that high level of integrity is created. The basic
aspect of transformational leadership theory is motivating the followers so that they
demonstrate a clear commitment of future success. It also addresses all the problems and
supports the organisation in creating unique ideas (Khalili, 2016). Thus, it can be stated that
transformational leadership theory is most influential approach in today’s world. As it deals
according to the employee need and demand. It is a theory that deals with a vision to change
inspiration for the employees. The leader focuses on increasing the job performance by
understanding the strength and weaknesses (Kantor & Streitfeld, 2015).
Transformational leadership helps in overcoming the challenges faced by
contemporary leaders
It is true that leaders face various challenges, thus transformational leadership theory helps in
overcoming the challenges. As transformational leadership helps in quickly formulating a
clear vision so that improvement can be done for an organisation. It supports an employee to
deal all the challenging condition. Transformational leadership can promote enthusiasm in the
work environment by driving the company to positive innovations (Kantor & Streitfeld,

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2015). Transformational leadership theories prove to motivate the people so that they can
optimize their performance. There are various difficulties in the workplace like conflicts due
to the culture or designation related issues, these can be resolved by transformational
leadership. It helps in resolving the dynamic nature of organisation by understanding the
issues faced by an individual, organisation or in global environment. Transformational
leadership theory supports the organisation by understanding the challenges in a detailed way
(Effelsberg, Solga & Gurt, 2014). They sometimes are ready to uncover the truth for the
success of an organisation. This theory helps in resolving various issues. The major concern
of retention is also resolved by this theory as they reach out to the employee so that plans
could be created for developing the career for longer run. It maintains a close connection with
the employees and the company. In every business there are various challenges faced by the
employees but transformational leadership comes up with effective outcome so that
productivity of work is improved. The challenges are resolved because transformational
theory not only focuses on motivating the staff but rather focus from the vision of an
organisation Transformational leaders enable solution for all the challenges and make sure
that equality and social justice is gained (Stone, 2013). It expands the access and
opportunities so that conflicts could be managed. It helps in having a clear vision so that
change can be produced over time. This theory can be applied to every field in an
organisation so that positive environment for employees (Katou, 2015).
Example- Jeff Bezos
Transformational leadership style is one of the most effective leadership styles as it is
practiced by various big leaders and it is proven for attaining positive outcomes.
Transformational leadership style involves a commitment of relationship between the leaders
and his followers. Leaders with transformational leadership style believes in taking their

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subordinates with himself and whenever change is required in the organization for the
objective of enhancing organizational performance or for resolving any issue faced the
employees, leader along with his employees finds out the all available ways in order to select
one of the most appropriate resolution with the objective of gaining positive outcomes (Day,
Gu & Sammons, 2016). With regards to this, a transformational leader motivates and inspires
their employees and subordinates regularly in order to perform well. Jeff Bezos is a
charismatic as well as transformational leader and his unique thinking style make him
effective as well as one of the most successful business men across the globe.
With regards to this, transformational leaders are known as better influencers as their duty is
to take consent of his followers and subordinates on his words. Apart from this,
transformational leaders are capable enough to mould the thinking capabilities of
subordinates of leaders in order to motivate them to attain extraordinary benefits (Cheng,
Bartram, Karimi & Leggat, 2016). Jeff Bezos is one of the behemoth leaders of this era and
with his unique style of leadership and different thinking process, he has lifted his company
on the peak and today, Amazon is counted in amongst the most valuable companies across
the globe. Apart from his company, Jeff Bezos is also counted in the top thirty riches men
across the globe and it is one of the biggest achievements of his career which have made him
stand with the big business men across the globe (Bui, Zeng & Higgs, 2017).
In the initial times, Jeff Bezos used to perform its functionalities as per the autocratic
leadership style and in relevance to this leadership style, multiple times, organization faced
severe losses. Along with this, he used to follow centralised decision making process under
which all decisions were used to taken by him irrelevance to the nature of decision. This was
leading the organization towards downfall and most valuable employees left the company due
to inappropriate workplace environment (Mittal & Dhar, 2015). But later on, Jeff realised his
mistakes and adopted certain crucial changes in his leadership style for the objective of

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gaining positive outcomes, controlling labour turnover as well as for the objective of
enhancing organizational productivity. In addition to this, Jeff has adopted transformational
leadership style along with charismatic leadership style for the objective of executing its tasks
and for leading its subordinates. Jeff Bezos inspires his subordinates with his vision and his
vision is so clear which could easily be seen in his actions also. Along with this, he also
believed in innovation which is another major aspect for the organization to grow and prosper
as well as to retain its existing and potential customers’ interest within the organization. Jeff
Bezos believes in work life harmony rather than believing in work life balance and with
regards to this, Jeff’s expectations from his employees is also high as he treats them in an
effective and appropriate manner (Nielsen & Daniels, 2016). Along with this, Jeff respects
suggestions from every individual and if he finds it beneficial for the organization, he also
implements it for improving organizational performance. These are some of his behavioural
attributes which makes him one of the greatest transformational leader with highest rate of
success (Bui, Zeng & Higgs, 2017).

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Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that transformational leadership
theory works on understanding the need and demand of an individual. It makes sure that
effectiveness is increased in an organisation by influencing an individual to take high risk and
have a clear vision. In this report, example of Jeff Bezos has undertaken to understand
transformational leadership theory in his career. He believed in taking his subordinates up
with himself which ultimately boosted up the confidence of all employees in the organization.

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References
Al-Husseini, S., & Elbeltagi, I. (2016). Transformational leadership and innovation: a
comparison study between Iraq's public and private higher education. Studies in
Higher Education, 41(1), 159-181.
Bui, H. T., Zeng, Y., & Higgs, M. (2017). The role of person-job fit in the relationship
between transformational leadership and job engagement. Journal of Managerial
Psychology, 32(5), 373-386.
Bush, T., Abdul Hamid, S., Ng, A., & Kaparou, M. (2017). School leadership theories and
the Malaysia education blueprint: Findings from a systematic literature
review. International Journal of Educational Management, 12-40 .
Cheng, C., Bartram, T., Karimi, L., & Leggat, S. (2016). Transformational leadership and
social identity as predictors of team climate, perceived quality of care, burnout and
turnover intention among nurses. Personnel Review, 45(6), 1200-1216.
Day, C., Gu, Q., & Sammons, P. (2016). The impact of leadership on student outcomes: How
successful school leaders use transformational and instructional strategies to make a
difference. Educational Administration Quarterly, 52(2), 221-258.
Effelsberg, D., Solga, M., & Gurt, J. (2014). Getting followers to transcend their self-interest
for the benefit of their company: Testing a core assumption of transformational
leadership theory. Journal of Business and Psychology, 29(1), 131-143.
Kantor, J., & Streitfeld, D. (2015). Inside Amazon: Wrestling big ideas in a bruising
workplace. New York Times, 15(3), 74-80.

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Katou, A. A. (2015). Transformational leadership and organisational performance: Three
serially mediating mechanisms. Employee Relations, 37(3), 329-353.
Khalili, A. (2016). Linking transformational leadership, creativity, innovation, and
innovation-supportive climate. Management Decision, 54(9), 2277-2293.
Lashinsky, A. (2012). Amazon’s Jeff Bezos: The ultimate disrupter. Retrieved September, 3,
2013.
Mittal, S., & Dhar, R. L. (2015). Transformational leadership and employee creativity:
mediating role of creative self-efficacy and moderating role of knowledge
sharing. Management Decision, 53(5), 894-910.
Nielsen, K., & Daniels, K. (2016). The relationship between transformational leadership and
follower sickness absence: the role of presenteeism. Work & Stress, 30(2), 193-208.
Stone, B. (2013). The everything store: Jeff Bezos and the age of Amazon. Random House,
792), 12-40.