ASU Rachel Leadership and Engaging in Transformational Leadership Discussion

I need you to respond to the discussion question about 200 words with referenecs .

What is it about Rachel’s leadership that clearly suggests that she is engaged in transformational leadership?

Northouse (2019) describes transformational leadership as a process that transforms people. It is being concerned with followers’ needs, valuing them as individuals, and having such an influence that encourages followers to achieve more than what’s expected of them. Transformational leaders create a connection with their followers that increases motivation and morality (Northouse, 2019). Rachel demonstrates transformational leadership through her concern for working mothers. She offers an on-site childcare program, flextime scheduling for mothers with young children, and full health coverage offered to part-time employees (Northouse, 2019). As the company grows, she’s not satisfied with the distance that is developing between her and her employees. As a transformational leader, she values the connection with her employees. Viewing this from the stakeholder perception, Rachel’s behaviors lead me to believe that she identifies her employees as stakeholders. Mitchell et al. (1997) uses the definition by Freeman “a stakeholder in an organization is any group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives”. The relationship that exists would be a mutual power-dependence relationship; her employees depend on the company to achieve their personal goals and the company depends on their expertise in exchange (Mitchell et al., 1997).

Given the problems Rachel is confronting as a result of growth of the company, what should she do to reestablish herself as a transformational leader at ICCR?

According to Northouse (2019), strong moral values are a personality characteristic of transformational leaders. Rachel exhibits this with her desire to connect with her employees and creating a great organizational climate. Jones (1991) explains that moral intent is acting on moral judgment. Rachel must balance the moral factor of being present for her employees against the other factor of traveling excessively. The company is successful and while she wants it to continue to grow, she needs to develop a plan that will allow her the opportunity to connect more with her employees. Viewing Rachel’s situation using the Attribution Theory, external factors would be attributed to the disconnect that is occurring. Those external factors would be the excessive travel required and the time that it takes away from her ability to be present.

Shonda Rimes’ TED talk goes hand in hand with Rachel’s situation. She needs to stop and evaluate her priorities and make time for those at the top of her list, her employees. It sounds as though she needs to rediscover “the hum” that Shonda Rimes described. Rachel also needs to meet with her department heads on a regular basis and reinforce the values and vision that she has for her company.

References

Jones, T.M. (1991). Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: An issue contingent model. Academy of Management Review, 16(2). 366-395.

Mitchell, R.K., Agle, B.R., and Wood, D.J. (1997). Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really counts. Academy of Management Review, 22(4). 853-886.

Northouse, P.G., 2019. Leadership theory and practice. SAGE.

TED. (2016, March 4). Shonda Rhimes: My year of saying YES to everything [Video]. YouTube.