Values-based transformational leadership: The relationship between consciousness, values, and skills

This study focused on two little-researched influences of transformational leadership: (a) leadership style as defined by behavior, and (b) a leader's perceived stage of moral development. Leadership has been postulated as a process which includes defining the reality of others (Smircich & Morgan, 1982) and serving as a role model for others (Bass, 1985a). If these claims are to be credited, we inevitably face a moral issue: By what right does a leader have such say over the reality of others? What is the condition of the leader's moral perceptions and practices? Is the leadership style, in fact, a reflection of a measurable condition of moral awareness? Might values-based transformational skills be available only to those individuals who have reached an advanced stage of moral awareness rather than those with purely behavioral management skills?; The sample consisted of 61 chief executive officers (CEOs), chief operating officers (COOs), presidents, and chairpersons from for-profit public and private corporations with annual revenues ranging from 20 million dollars to multi-billion dollars. Eight major categories of industry were represented, among them high technology, entertainment, food services, lodging, financial services and clothing manufacture. Five of the 61 participants held positions within companies that rank among the top five companies within their particular industry in the world. Each participant completed the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire 5x-Short (Bass & Avolio, 1995) and the Hall-Tonna Inventory of Values (Hall, 1994).; There were two significant findings for this study: (a) transformational participants were significantly lower on the Values Cycle 5 subscale score than non-transformational participants, and (b) transformational participants were significantly higher on the Values Cycle 5 subscale score than non-transformational participants.; These findings indicated transformational leaders within the study exhibited more morally advanced values than non-transformational leaders. Although hypotheses related to age, education, skills, and consciousness were not significant, their results tended toward significance, offering suggestions for the design of further research in this area.