Bruce Avolio, Bernard Bass
Sergio Caredda
Avolio, B. J. (2011). Full range leadership development. Sage, Cop.
Description:
The Full Range Leadership Model is a general leadership theory that focuses on the behaviors of leaders in different situations and is based on the work by Bruce Avolio (Avolio, 2011) and Bernard Bass (Avolio and Bass, 2002).
The model (which has received several adaptations afterwards) essentially paints a trajectory of different leadership styles through a schema where on one ax the level of engagement is mapped and on the other the level of effectiveness. Three broad types of leadership are identified:
- Laissez-faire Leadership. In this style, leaders don’t really intervene and tend to avoid responsibility.
- Transactional Leadership. In this style, leaders essentially tend to promote compliance by followers through both rewards and punishment. It is named transactional because the focus is the exchange of value between employee performance and the leader’s response to it. Some consider this a form of management rather than of true leadership.
- Transformational Leadership. This style follows a more long-term focus. The basic idea here is to substitute egoistic short term individual goals, with higher-level, value-based, long term goals. This paradigm change usually increases commitment, self-confidence, and employee satisfaction
As such, this model can also be seen as a “maturity model” for Leadership. Many of the models presented in this article tend to refer to one of the two latter categories of this framework, although there is a lot of focus in leadership literature to aim for transformational leadership. However, many of the competency-based models are often purely operational and focused on performance evaluation.
Notes:
Also: Avolio, B. J., & Bass, B. M. (2002). Developing potential across a full range of leadership: Cases on transactional and transformational leadership. Routledge.
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