Towards Transformational and Transactional Neuroleadership

Associate Professor Zainal Ariffin Ahmad drzaba2001@yahoo.comAdel Tajasom adeltajasm@yahoo.com

Human Development LabGraduate School of BusinessUniversiti Sains Malaysia11800 Penang MALAYSIATel: 604-6532534, Fax: 604-6577448

International Annual Seminar and Workshop

KSU,27th -28th March 2009

Leadership in historyLeadership could be traced back to the conversations of Aristotle and Plato (Johnson, 1991) Leaders who are intuitive access previously compartmentalized, relevant, and important thoughts that have been stored in their mental filing system through environmental readings, files from the past or a combination thereof" Dyer and Carothers (2000, p. 2) Leaders characterized by being in touch with the physical (body), mental (mind), emotional (heart), spiritual (soul), and environmental (place) opportunities in the workplace on a regular basis (Vaughan, 1979; Emery, 1994)

Definition and Theories"Leadership is one of the most observed and least understood phenomena on earth" (Wren, 1995, p. 9). Early Theory on leadership was Trait theory of leadership or the Great Person Theory, "generated within the context of a person's moral and philosophical framework in relation to one's followers and constituents". Krause (1997, p. 3)

DefinitionPhillips (1999), Leaders are:

leaders move others by caring, inspiring, and persuadingLeaders have bias for action and a sense of urgency leaders act with respect for the values of the people The only way to inspire and persuade people is to established trust, understanding, learning, listening,

Leadership TheoriesAs trait theory could not adequately explain good or bad leadership behaviours then, the theory was based on task behaviour.During the 1970's leadership focused on the situational theories of effective leaders.

Leadership Theories

Hersey and Blanchard (1984) Situational Leadership Theory Path Goal Theory (1974) Fiedler's Contingency Theory (1967) Influence of situational factors between leader behavior or traits and outcomes (Yukl, 1989)

Transactional Leadership

Burns (1978) Transactional leadership as an exchange that

motivates followers by providing rewards and benefits for productivity.

Bass (1985) Transactional leaders

clarify their followers' responsibilities, expectations the leaders have, tasks that must be accomplished, and the benefits to the self-interest of the followers for compliance.

Transactional Leadership3 behaviors of Transactional leaders (Bass,

1995):

Contingent reward – followers and leaders have a positively

reinforcing interaction;

Management-by-exception – the leader intervenes only when things go

wrong, and

Laissez-faire – when leadership is absent.

Transformational Leadership Burns (1978)

A process in which "leaders and followers raise one another to higher levels of morality and motivation;” these leaders motivate followers to transcend their own immediate self-interest for the sake of the mission and vision of the organization.

Bass (1985) Transformational

leaders motivate their followers to perform beyond expectations by activating followers' higher order needs, fostering a climate of trust, and inducing followers to transcend self-interest for the sake of the organization.

Transformational Leadership

3 behaviors of Transformational leaders(Bass, 1985):

Idealized Influence or Charisma Inspiration Intellectual Stimulation Individualized Consideration

Towards Neuroleadership

Transactional vs Tranformational LeadershipTransactional vs Transformational NeuroleadershipDecision Making and Neuroleadership PropositionsMethodology

Neuroleadership

Neuroleadership is the study of leadership through the lens of neuroscience.NL applies what we are learning about the brain in these instances, thus building a neurological theory base for the “soft skills.”

NL looks at elements of leadership such as

awareness of self,awareness of others,insight, influence, decision making.

Transactional vs TransformationalNeuroleadership

Bass Transactional

and Transformational dimensions are separate.

Burns Transactional

and Transformational are opposite ends of the leadership continuum.

Regardless of separate and continuum, the common behaviour is decision making which is one of the elements of leadership in Neuroleadership.

Decision Making & Neuroleadership

Whereas decision making has been studied extensively from the economics standpoint, not so from leadership behavior or style.

Whereas leadership theories cannot explain the leader’s behavior of decision making, we explore the neuroscientific aspects of decision making, i.e. from the neuroleadership perspective.

Therefore, we extend Bass’ work on Transactional and Transformational Leadership

into Transactional and Transformational

Neuroleadership.

Transformational vs Transactional & Neuroleadership

Transformational Neuroleadership

Transactional

Idealized Influence

Influence Management-by-exception

Inspiration Insight Laissez-faire

Intellectual Stimulation

Self Awareness Contingent

RewardIndividualized Consideration

Awareness of Others

Decision Making

The Common Denominator:Decision Making

NLDecision Making

Classical Decision Theory (CDT)Classical Decision Theory (CDT) - making decisions involve choosing a course of action among a fixed set of alternatives with a specific goal in mind (Wout, Kahn, Sanfey & Aleman, 2006).

According to CDT theory, the aim in making a decision is to maximize the gains, or expected value of the outcome, and use information in a way that would accomplish this goal.

Three components of a decision: (1) options or courses of action, (2) beliefs and expectancies of the options in achieving

the goal, and (3) outcome expectancies (negative or positive)

Transformational vs TransactionalNeuroleadership Neuroleadership

For transactional leaders, decision making is based on contingent rewards.They clarify the options and outcomes for the followers to maximize gains or benefits to perform meeting expectations. Transactional leaders interact with their followers to make decision to suit self-interests.

For transformational leaders, decision making is based on cognitive rewards.They provide a climate of trust and draw out the followers’ higher order needs to perform beyond expectations.Transformational leaders inspire their followers to make decision that transcend self-interests.

Propositions

Transformational leaders and transactional leaders differ in how they make decision.

Transformational leaders make decisions based on cognitive rewards

Transactional leaders make decisions based on expected or contingent rewards

Methodology

Use neuroimaging (EEG/fMRI) to find out how transformational versus transactional managers make decisionThe selected managers identify their style via MLQ (5X) Experiments – decision making task Data gathering – EEG/ERP Apparatus – Geodesic Sensor Net Electrode 32-channel

Bass' (1985) Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ Form 5X)45 item survey - assesses transformational factors, transactional factors, non-leadership factor, and outcome factors. Five point likert scale (0 = Not at all; 1 = Once in a while; 2 = Sometimes; 3 = Fairly often; and 4 = Frequently) In this study, the subjects (managers) will be asked to complete this questionnaire. Once we know their style, we would conduct the study using EEG. Subject wi

Transformational MLQHelps me to develop my strengths.

Instills pride in me for being associated with him/her.

Emphasizes the importance of having a collective sense of mission.

Gets me to look at problems from many different angles.

Seeks differing perspectives when solving problems.

Expresses confidence that goals will be achieved.

Articulates a compelling vision for the future.

Spends time teaching and coaching.

Suggests new ways of looking at how to complete assigned tasks.

Specifies the importance of having a strong sense of purpose.

Considers me as having different needs, abilities, and aspirations from others.

Talks optimistically about the future.

Goes beyond self-interest for the good of the group.

Treats me as an individual rather than just a member of the group.

Talks about their most important values and beliefs regarding education.

Transactional MLQ Focuses attention on irregularities, mistakes, exceptions, and deviations

from standards.

Provides me with assistance in exchange for my efforts.

Fails to interfere until problems become serious.

Concentrates his/her full attention on dealing with mistakes, complaints and failures.

Makes clear what one can expect to receive when performance goals are achieved.

Directs my attention toward failures to meet standards.

Keeps track of all mistakes.

EEG ExperimentParticipants fill out MLQ(5X) and identify themselves as Transformational (TF) and Transactional (TS)Select 10 TS and 10 TF

Task TS Subjects

TF Subjects

Transactional Task

Contingent Rewards

Transformational Task

Cognitive Rewards

Task The subject seated in a comfortable chair placed 80 cm away in front of LCD stimulation screen in a dimmed and sound-atenuated room. They were instructed to fixate a central point on the LCD monitor, relax when performing the task and to avoid body movement, blinking or other eye movement to minimize the artifact. The task given to subjects in this experiment is known as the classic oddball paradigm in the EEG literature. In this task, a train of equally spaced visual stimuli is presented to the subject. There are two types of stimuli; the standard stimuli and the target stimuli. The standard occur more frequently (140) than the target (60) events. The subject are instructed to respond to the target which is when the LCD monitor displaying the ‘X‘s by pressing the SR Switch and do nothing when the LCD monitor displaying the ‘O’s.

ERP RecordingThe EEG was amplified and analog filtered with 0.3 Hz – 30 Hz bandpass filters (referenced to the vertex) and 60-Hz notch filters.

The EEG signals - recorded continuously at 250 sampling rate per second by the Net Station with a 24-bit analogue to digital converter.

The EGI Net Station - recorded all event onset times and accuracy for later analysis.

Instruction and visual stimuli were presented on a 17-inch LCD monitor

The experimental trials were controlled by commercial software, E-prime (Psychology Software Distribution, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), to present the trials and to record relevant trial information.

E-prime also sent event information to an EEG recording system (Net Station)

EEG in Human Development Lab

Example EEG Transformational vs Transactional