Transformational Leadership and Urban Renewal

Executive Summary Leadership is a concept that has generated increasing interest in this century. A current focus has been on Burns's theory of transformational leadership. Transformational leadership involves leaders and followers working together to develop mutual goals, to recognize and achieve higher order needs based on needs hierarchies postulated by developmental theorists, and to intend substantive change. Further, Burns postulated that transformational leadership is not the purview of a few, select individuals but occurs at all levels of organizations and in the routine tasks of everyday life. That is, anyone can be a transformational leader. Despite Burns's contention that transformational leadership can occur at all levels of organization and society, most of the discussion of transformational leadership has centered on persons in traditional, hierarchical power positions. This paper focuses on a social movement, urban renewal, which involves volunteer activity and persons not in hierarchical power positions. The urban renewal efforts of two southern California towns are highlighted, with examples from other towns' renewal efforts also cited. It is demonstrated that many renewal efforts utilize a transformational leadership approach. It is further shown that those efforts which employ a transformational leadership approach are often more successful than those that do not. It is concluded that transformational leadership does occur in voluntary, non-hierarchical groups and leads to substantive change. Further study is recommended to confirm these conclusions and advocate for broader recognition and encouragement of transformational leadership in various organizations.