When a leader externally exhibits the traits of a transformational leader but is willing to sacrifice morals, ignore ethics and push personal beliefs on their followers they become what are known as a pseudo-transformational leader (Bass and Steidlmeier, 1999). It is important to be able to clearly identify a pseudo-transformational leader from a truly transformational leader in order to secure the success of your organization or cause you are working towards. If wrongly identified, you could allow yourself and your efforts to be lead astray by a less then worthy leader.
Pseudo-transformational leadership is more prevalent in today’s society than ever before. The media continues to highlight situations where leaders high on the ladders of big business have made choices creating a direct benefit to them, while sacrificing the needs of their followers. A recent example of this is the discovery that the leadership team of Hostess was continuing to earn bonuses and draining employee pension funds to fund organization operations, all while employees were hard at work trusting in their leadership team to save their jobs. But they didn’t. They saved their Christmas bonuses but not the employee pension funds or their already reduced-salary jobs. I would consider these leaders pseudo-transformational because they communicated to the employees a need to reduce salaries for the greater good of the group, but then they continued to make poor decisions which only secured their futures on not those of the employees they were leading.
Most businesses large or small in the United Sates currently are focused on doing more with less due to the struggling economy in our country. This shortage of resources partnered with the growing lack in moral focus by the general population makes it even more important to be able to spot a
