Transformational Leadership and Middle Management: Towards a Role for Mere Mortals

Transformational leadership has become one of the most prominent topics in current research and theory on leadership. Much of the work on the topic, however, has focused on higher-level executives, with less attention to middle managers. Writers on middle managers often depict them as working under sharp constraints and limitations. This raises many questions about whether and how transformational leadership applies to middle managers. This paper reviews the literature on the meaning and nature of transformational leadership and on the characteristics of middle management. Then it describes some of the ways in which middle managers can engage in the leadership behaviors described in Bass’ conception of transformational leadership. Then it advances a set of propositions about organizational conditions that influence the prospects for transformational leadership at middle management levels.