The article “Transformational Leadership: Do the Leader’s Morals Matter and Do the Follower’s Morals Change?” is a quantitative study undertaken by Mulla and Krishnan (2011) in which they investigated (1) the impact that a transformational leader’s empathy and values had on their follower’s perception of transformational leadership, and (2) the impact that transformational leadership on follower’s empathy and values.
Mulla and Krishnan (2011) define moral development as an increased ability to understand, care about, and act upon the difference between right and wrong. The authors describe the components of moral development as moral sensitivity, moral judgment, moral motivation and moral character.
Moral sensitivity is described by Mulla and Krishnan as the ability to evaluate a situation and identify a moral problem. They describe moral judgment as the ability to formulate a plan that applies a relevant moral standard. Moral motivation is defined as the motivation to select a moral value above other values. Moral character is seen as the executing and implementing a moral course of action. Thus moral sensitivity and moral motivation refer to the ability to perceive and be motivated to select a moral standard but moral judgment and moral character involve the actual creation and implementation of a moral plan of action.
According to Burns (as cited by Mulla & Krishnan, 2011), “the crucial task of transformational leaders is to raise the awareness and consciousness of their followers to higher levels of conduct and morality” (p. 130). Their study found that there was a definite relationship between transformational leaders and their values. They also found a relationship between impact of transformational leadership on a follower’s moral sensitivity and moral motivation was greater for leader-follower pairs that existed over longer periods of time versus those that existed for short durations. Their findings show that transformational leaders can increase moral sensitivity in their followers when they maintain a relationship with the followers over a period of time.
Mulla, Z. R., Krishana, V. R. (2011). Transformational leadership: Do the leader’s morals matter and do the follower’s morals change? Journal of Human Values, 17(2) 129-143.