The relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness during organizational change

Abstract

Today’s business environment for organizations is highly challenging to cope with and complex organizational changes are ever-present as organizations need to evolve constantly. To be able to succeed in implementing a transformational organizational change a high level of leadership capabilities is required where transformational leaders and overall leadership effectiveness can enhance the chances for organization to succeed in change implementation. The purpose of this research was to study what is the relationship between transformational leadership and leadership effectiveness during transformational organizational change and how they can effect the outcome of the change implementation.

This research was conducted by applying a single case study with in-depth interviews by interviewing employees from organizations which were going or have gone through a transformational organizational change by evaluating their leader’s characteristics, effectiveness and performance during transformational organizational change. Organizations chosen for this research needed to fill the criterion that they were going or have gone through a transformational organizational change. Organizations chosen for this research were different by size, industry and the degree of internationality.

Based on the findings from the empirical research a clear connection was discovered between transformational leadership, high level of leadership effectiveness and successful outcome of change implementation. It was also discovered that open and clear communication, the leader’s own positive attitude towards the change and low level of hierarchy in organizations had a particularly positive effect for successful change implementation during transformational organizational change.