Author Note
Aleya Tylinski
I have no known conflict of interest to disclose.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Aleya Tylinski
Email: atylinski@liberty.edu
Discussion Thread: Transformational Leadership Case Study
Aleya Tylinski
BUSI 503
Lack of Success
As Barelli came into HTE, he had experience working in a smaller business and was not as familiar
with the structure of the 250-employee company. As a transformational leader, one advocates change for
their employees and the leader’s changes make sense to the people (Northouse, 2022). By using
transformational leadership, employees feel strong enough to discuss new ideas within the organization.
The first thing Barelli did that created a lack of success was to not ask for input from lower or middle
employees and instead only made changes at the top. Another form of transformational leadership is to
create a vision of the company and for everyone to see and understand the vision. The second area for
lack of success is that Barelli didn’t necessarily address the vision with his employees and many were
uncomfortable in their roles to the point that they didn’t know their job duties and the vision wasn’t there
so morale declined significantly. Some employees were also reporting to multiple supervisors. That itself
can affect morale due to the supervisor skills each possesses and how they could have different rules over
the others. Lastly, Barelli’s leadership did not have a set style. It was everyone and employees didn’t
understand how he was trying to be hands-on when in reality he only delegated tasks and worked with
those in upper management rather than working with all employees. Transformational leaders need to lead
their followers and create a relationship. Barelli failed to do that.
Advice to New President
The new president coming in is dealing with a company that has a large amount of debt and a cash-
flow crisis. Barelli came in and tried to transform a company without first understanding the structure of
the business and the organizational culture. The new president needs to come in and observe the daily
operations so they can an understanding of how the company runs. Secondly, the new president needs to
focus on the employees. After Barelli became a leader, employee morale and performance declined
because they were not understanding their roles. Effective transformational leadership results in
successful employee performance (Buil et al., 2019). This type of leadership encourages positive in-role
and extra-role behaviors from employees. The need president can meet with employees from upper
management to lower employees and understand how they feel working for HTE before discussing the
changes and providing them with a new vision of the company.
Leadership Paradigm
Transactional leadership is different from transformational leadership in the fact that transactional
focuses more on the tasks of the goal rather whereas transformational which focuses on the people and
inspiring them to do well in a business. Transactional leadership has expected outcomes, but
transformational leadership results when performance is going well and those who provide
transformational leadership have a higher performance from their employees over transactional in some
instances (Northouse, 2022). Transactional leadership does not focus on individual employees or their
personal development. If the transactional leader delegates or wants something done, their followers must
do what they are told rather than working together with someone who provides transformational
leadership. “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards
of God’s grace in its various forms” (New International Version,2021, 1 Peter 4:10). People are entrusted
to manage each other and those who are servant leaders and use transformational leadership use God’s
gift to serve each other. Using everything God has given people fulfills’ s His purpose.
References
Buil, I., Martinez, E., & Matute, J. (2019). Transformational leadership and employee
performance: The role of identification, engagement and proactive personality.
International Journal of Hospitality Management. 77. Pp 64-75.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278431917308472?via
%3Dihub#sec0085.
New International Version (2021). BibleGateway Online. https://www.biblegateway.com/
Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and Practice (9th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
(US). https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/books/9781071834473
