Abstract
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Transformational leadership received a lot of attention from both researchers and academics, since James MacGregor Burns introduced the concept in 1975 and later Bernard M. Bass proved that it can be measured (1985). There is some evidence showing that such a leadership style is one of the most desired (Den Hartog, House, Hanges, Ruiz-Quintanilla, & Dorfman, 1999) and also one of the most effective (Bass, 1997, Bass & Riggio, 2006)
Transformational leadership theory has also played an important part in the effort to create an integrative theory of leadership. In its simples form, transformational leadership is a process that changes and transforms individuals (Northouse, 2001). Thus, one approach on viewing leaders is as agents of change and growth. Although there are numerous studies regarding transformational leadership or change process in the public sector in western countries (Wright, Pandey, 2010, Moynihan, Pandey, Wright, 2009,Kenmore 2009, Cooper, 2005), the issue of leadership in the Romanian public sector has not been subjects of research, especially from the perspective of leaders as agents of change. Romania has evolved from an authoritarian regime before 1989 to a democratic state, member of the European Union in a period of almost 20 years. Although after 1989, there was much talk about administrative reform especially from political parties, the reform itself was rather slow, ambiguous, without vision and mostly incremental, especially in the first years after the revolution (Mora, Ţiclău, 2008). The EU accession process has been a strong catalyst for change but main changes have been mostly on the legal framework and structure of the administration. Although the 2004 reform strategy had a component of civil service reform, this did not include specific leadership components.
The present study is keen to analyze the leadership component in the local public administration using transformational leadership as the main theoretical construct. The study uses the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) (Bass, 1985) in order to assess the type of leadership found in decentralized local public institutions, more exactly town halls and county councils and deconcentrated public institutions, more specifically prefectures. We aim to see the degree in which transformational leadership is present at local level and whether there are significant differences in organizational results according to leadership style. The originality of the study comes from the fact that it is the first study that uses the MLQ in local public administration in Romania.
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