{"id":52524,"date":"2026-10-19T09:25:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T08:25:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.socialchangeschool.org\/?p=52524"},"modified":"2026-10-19T09:57:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T08:57:45","slug":"leadership-trasformativa-cose-come-funziona-e-perche-cambia-le-organizzazioni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.socialchangeschool.org\/en\/19\/10\/2026\/leadership-trasformativa-cose-come-funziona-e-perche-cambia-le-organizzazioni\/","title":{"rendered":"Transformational Leadership: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Changes Organizations"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transformational Leadership: What It Is, How It Works, and Why It Changes Organizations<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an era marked by systemic crises, technological acceleration and a redefinition of what work means, one question cuts across businesses, nonprofits, public institutions and social movements alike: what kind of leadership do we need today?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guiding by objectives, assigning tasks and measuring performance is no longer enough. Complex contexts demand something different: the ability to orient people toward a larger purpose, to activate the latent potential of teams, and to generate change starting from human relationships before organizational processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is in this frame that transformational leadership has established itself as one of the most studied and applied models in organizational science over the past forty years. It is not a “motivational” approach in the superficial sense of the term. On the contrary, it is a well-founded theory, supported by decades of empirical research, with documented applications in sectors ranging from healthcare to education, from corporate management to international cooperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article offers an in-depth reading of the topic: from its theoretical origins to the latest scientific evidence, from practical models to the most common mistakes, with specific attention to the third sector, where transformational leadership perhaps finds its most natural field of application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why This Topic Matters Today<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Global data on worker engagement tell a worrying story. According to the Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2025 report, employee engagement fell to 21% worldwide in 2024, with an estimated productivity loss of 438 billion dollars. In the same year, manager engagement dropped from 30% to 27% \u2014 a signal that bears directly on the quality of leadership in organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are not abstract numbers. Behind these percentages are people who, every morning, do not find a sufficient reason to give their best. And, according to Gallup, the causes of this disengagement are largely attributable to the quality of the relationship with one’s direct manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question, then, is not whether leadership makes a difference. The data say it does, emphatically. The question is: what type of leadership is suited to today’s contexts?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKinsey, in its multi-year work on more than 375,000 data points collected from organizations around the world, has documented that leaders who can combine inspiration and accountability achieve results up to five times higher than leaders who limit themselves to operational management. The report Leadership at Scale<\/em> (McKinsey, 2024) stresses in particular that organizations that invest in leadership development during transformation processes are significantly more likely to reach their strategic goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Origins of the Theory: From Burns to Bass<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The concept of transformational leadership was born in 1978 with the American historian and political scientist James MacGregor Burns, who in his book Leadership<\/em> distinguished for the first time between two fundamental styles: the transactional one \u2014 based on the exchange of rewards for performance \u2014 and the transformational one \u2014 based on the leader’s ability to raise followers to higher levels of motivation and moral commitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Burns grasps something radical: leadership is not merely a mechanism of control or incentives, but a process of mutual transformation between those who lead and those who are led. The transformational leader does not buy performance: they evoke it, by working on people’s aspirations, values and professional identity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the researcher Bernard Bass who, beginning in the 1980s, develops this insight into an operational model. In his work with Bruce Avolio, Bass identifies the four fundamental dimensions of transformational leadership \u2014 the so-called “Four I’s” \u2014 and develops the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), the most widely used instrument in the world for assessing a manager’s leadership style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Four Pillars: Bass and Avolio’s “Four I’s”<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

1. Idealized Influence.<\/strong> The transformational leader is perceived as a role model. They act with consistency between declared values and concrete behavior, build trust through integrity and inspire through example. Their collaborators want to be like them \u2014 not out of uncritical imitation, but because the leader embodies the ideals the team shares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Inspirational Motivation.<\/strong> The transformational leader articulates a vision of the future that is meaningful and achievable. They know how to communicate high expectations so that the team perceives them as opportunities, not pressure. They create collective optimism, a sense of belonging and an orientation toward a common purpose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Intellectual Stimulation.<\/strong> A transformational leader challenges established assumptions. They encourage creativity, prompt critical thinking and create safe spaces where doubt and questions are welcome. They do not pretend to have all the answers: they value the team’s ability to find new solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. Individualized Consideration.<\/strong> Each team member is treated as an individual, with their own needs, aspirations and strengths. The transformational leader listens, mentors and supports each person’s professional growth. The relationship is not standardized: it is personalized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientific Evidence: What the Research Says<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Transformational leadership is probably the most studied leadership style in the academic literature of the past thirty years. The body of available evidence is considerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Psychology<\/em> (2025), which analyzed project-based organizations across different sectors, confirmed that transformational leadership correlates significantly with higher team performance, greater innovation capacity and higher job satisfaction. The researchers underline that these advantages are even more pronounced in contexts of high complexity and uncertainty \u2014 exactly the kind of environment in which most organizations operate today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the nonprofit front, a study published in Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations<\/em> \u2014 with evidence drawn specifically from Italy \u2014 examined the relationship between leadership style and work outcomes in nonprofit organizations, concluding that transformational leadership predicts positive outcomes more reliably than transactional leadership in the NPO context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research conducted in high-pressure environments is also particularly relevant: a study on organizational resilience in emergency management agencies, law enforcement and nonprofit organizations found that transformational leadership has a positive and statistically significant effect on organizations’ ability to respond and adapt to shocks. Transformational leaders, in other words, do not merely motivate teams under normal conditions \u2014 they prepare them to withstand the impact in critical moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More recent research (2025) in Frontiers in Psychology<\/em>, focused on knowledge sharing and employees’ professional growth, showed that transformational leadership facilitates \u2014 through the mediation of self-efficacy and psychological capital \u2014 collective learning processes that generate long-term value for the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transformational Leadership in the Third Sector: An Ideal Field<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The third sector has structural characteristics that make it a particularly fertile environment for transformational leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonprofits, NGOs and social enterprises operate by definition under conditions of scarce resources, complex missions and high relational intensity. They cannot compete with the private sector on pay. They do not have the coercive power of the public sector. What they can offer is something harder to replicate: meaning, belonging, impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is exactly the raw material of transformational leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A review of the existing literature published in the Journal of Park and Nature Administration<\/em> (JPNA) analyzed multiple studies on nonprofits and concluded that leaders with a transformational style have a documented positive impact on the satisfaction, motivation, engagement and performance of collaborators in nonprofit organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not surprising if we consider Deci and Ryan’s Self-Determination Theory (2000), widely cited in the literature on transformational leadership: when the fundamental needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness are met \u2014 as happens in teams led by transformational leaders \u2014 people experience a stronger and more lasting intrinsic motivation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Europe, the growing demand for managerial skills in the third sector is also reflected in policies supporting organizations. In 2024, the Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo invested two million euros in Guidelines for the Organizational Development of the Third Sector, with the explicit aim of strengthening the leadership capacity of nonprofit organizations in northwest Italy. The Next Generation You program, from which the guidelines draw inspiration, demonstrated over four years of experimentation how lasting organizational change starts from the quality of internal leadership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Italy, European social economy data offer a significant backdrop: according to figures cited by Fondazione Terzjus, 2.8 million social economy entities operate in Europe, employing a total of 13.6 million people, nearly one million of them in Italy. An ecosystem of this size requires leadership equal to its complexity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transformational vs. Transactional Leadership<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

One of the most frequent confusions concerns the relationship between transformational and transactional leadership. Bass’s model does not set them in opposition: it places them on a continuum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transactional leadership is based on the principle of exchange: rewards in return for performance. It is efficient, predictable, and suited to stable contexts with well-defined tasks. It is not inherently “wrong”: a certain degree of transactionality is necessary in any organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The limit of purely transactional leadership is that it does not generate growth. It optimizes the existing system without transforming it. It does not stimulate innovation, does not activate latent potential, and does not prepare people to face disruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Transformational leadership, by contrast, operates on a different plane: it does not ask people to do more in exchange for something. It invites them to become something different \u2014 professionally, as individuals, as an organizational community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bass and Avolio’s Full Range Leadership model (1994) suggests that the most effective leaders know how to combine both styles, calibrating them to the context: transactional when clarity and structure are needed, transformational when vision and change are needed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Most Common Mistakes in Practice<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Confusing charisma with transformational leadership.<\/strong> Charisma is only one ingredient. A charismatic leader who does not intellectually stimulate collaborators, does not care for their individual development and does not build a shared vision is not a transformational leader: they are a magnetic leader, which is very different and often more fragile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using vision as a rhetorical tool.<\/strong> Inspirational motivation works only if the vision is authentic, consistent with the leader’s real behavior and perceived as credible by the team. A vision stated only in corporate presentations produces distance, not engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neglecting individualized consideration.<\/strong> Many leaders focus on the collective dimension \u2014 vision, culture, climate \u2014 forgetting that each person has specific needs. The research is clear: personalizing the relationship is one of the most robust predictors of engagement and performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Applying transformational leadership without structure.<\/strong> Transformation without control becomes chaos. An effective transformational leader does not abdicate managerial responsibilities: they exercise them within a framework that balances freedom and accountability, vision and operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overvaluing short-term results.<\/strong> Transformational leadership takes time to express its potential. Organizations that change leadership frequently \u2014 or that demand immediate results \u2014 often do not allow the time needed for trust relationships to be built and transformational processes to consolidate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Future Trends: Transformational Leadership in the 2025\u20132030 Decade<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Several trends are redefining the context in which transformational leadership operates, amplifying its relevance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The integration of Artificial Intelligence.<\/strong> As AI automates repetitive, low-complexity cognitive tasks, the added value of human leaders will increasingly concentrate on relational, ethical and inspirational dimensions \u2014 exactly the domain of transformational leadership. McKinsey has stressed that in this scenario the ability to combine strategic vision with emotional intelligence becomes a fundamental differentiator for leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The engagement crisis.<\/strong> With the documented decline in work engagement worldwide (Gallup, 2025), organizations that manage to build work environments founded on purpose, growth and authentic relationships will have a significant competitive advantage in attracting and retaining talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leadership in systemic crises.<\/strong> From climate change to geopolitical tensions, from humanitarian crises to demographic transformations, the coming years will require leaders capable of guiding under conditions of high uncertainty. Research on organizational resilience clearly indicates that transformational leadership is one of the most effective antidotes to institutional fragility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women’s leadership as a driver of transformation.<\/strong> According to McKinsey data (Women in the Workplace, 2024), for every 100 men promoted to manager roles, only 81 women receive the same promotion. Yet research consistently shows that women tend to express leadership styles more consistent with the transformational model. Investing in women’s leadership is not only a matter of equity: it is a matter of organizational effectiveness. In the Italian and Spanish third sector, where women hold 50\u201360% of top positions in the 100 largest organizations, this issue takes on a particularly concrete dimension.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Transformational leadership is not a management fad, nor an abstract ideal. It is a model grounded in decades of empirical research, successfully applied in widely different sectors \u2014 from healthcare to international cooperation, from industry to civil society organizations \u2014 and rigorously documented by the international scientific literature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a world where 79% of workers do not feel fully engaged in their work, and where organizations face growing complexity with often shrinking resources, the ability to inspire, stimulate, accompany and value people is not optional: it is a strategic competence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is all the more true for the third sector, where the mission cannot be separated from the quality of leadership, and where consistency between declared values and concrete behavior is a necessary condition for building trust \u2014 both inside and outside the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who wish to develop these skills in a structured way and apply them to real contexts of social change, there are specialized programs that approach transformational leadership not as abstract theory but as a daily practice of guidance, such as the LEAD Master at Social Change School, which has been training third-sector leaders across Europe for over twenty years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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SOURCES USED<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Primary sources and data cited:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  • Bass, B.M. (1985). Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectations<\/em>. Free Press.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Bass, B.M. & Avolio, B.J. (1994). Improving Organizational Effectiveness Through Transformational Leadership<\/em>. Sage.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Burns, J.M. (1978). Leadership<\/em>. Harper & Row.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Deci, E.L. & Ryan, R.M. (2000). Self-Determination Theory and the Facilitation of Intrinsic Motivation, Social Development, and Well-Being. American Psychologist<\/em>, 55(1), 68\u201378.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Gallup (2025). State of the Global Workplace: 2025 Report<\/em>. Gallup Press. [gallup.com]<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • McKinsey & Company (2024). Leadership at Scale<\/em>. McKinsey Organization Practice. [mckinsey.com]<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • McKinsey & Company (2024). Measuring Leadership: Inspiration and Accountability<\/em>. McKinsey Featured Insights. [mckinsey.com]<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • McKinsey & Company (2024). Women in the Workplace 2024<\/em>. McKinsey & Company \/ LeanIn.org.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Hoch, J.E. et al. (2018). Do Ethical, Authentic, and Servant Leadership Explain Variance Above and Beyond Transformational Leadership? Journal of Management<\/em>. Cited in: Frontiers in Psychology<\/em> (2025).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Bai, Y. (2025). Transformation Leadership with Knowledge Sharing and Employee Career Growth. Frontiers in Psychology<\/em>, 16, 1624245. [ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Frontiers in Psychology<\/em> (2025). Transformational Leadership and Project Success: The Mediating Roles of Team Reflexivity and Project Team Resilience.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations<\/em> \u2014 Does Transformational Leadership Better Predict Work-Related Outcomes Than Transactional Leadership in the NPO Context? Evidence from Italy. [cambridge.org]<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • ResearchGate \u2014 Does Transformational Leadership Build Resilient Public and Nonprofit Organizations?<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • JPNA \u2014 Journal of Park and Nature Administration<\/em> (2024). A Scoping and Theoretical Review of Joy in Leadership in Nonprofit Organizations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • ScienceDirect \u2014 Transformational Leadership: An Overview. [sciencedirect.com]<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo (2024). Linee Guida per lo Sviluppo Organizzativo del Terzo Settore<\/em> (Guidelines for the Organizational Development of the Third Sector). [compagniadisanpaolo.it]<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Fondazione Terzjus (2025). Terzo Settore: Una Nuova Proposta Formativa<\/em> (Third Sector: A New Training Proposal). [terzjus.it]<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Crescenzi, M. & Battistessa, D. (2024). Le ONG sono ancora cool per i giovani?<\/em> (Are NGOs Still Cool for Young People?). Presentation to the Leaders4Future network, June 2024.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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