The bright and dark sides of leadership: transformational leadership in a non-western context

The present study aims to explore positive and negative leadership behaviours (i. e. transformational and non-transformational leadership) in a non-Western ‘change and transformation’ context through qualitative methods. Thirty-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with workers in Turkey. In addition to the original dimensions found in the literature, four of transformational leadership emerged: benevolent paternalism, implementation of vision, employee participation and teamwork, and proactive behaviour. Among these categories, paternalism was identified to be the most frequently mentioned aspect of transformational in the Turkish context, which implies that cultural context may influence form and enactment of transformational leadership. Regarding non-transformational leadership, categories emerged: destructive, closed, passive/ineffective, active-failed and a miscellaneous. Among these, destructive leadership that includes authoritarian elements was as the most frequently mentioned form of non-transformational leadership. These imply that non-transformational leadership comes in many forms, supporting the numerous on the destructive/unethical–ineffective/incompetent continuum found in the leadership literature. The findings are discussed with reference to the literature and social change in Turkey.