CHAPTER 2

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is a style of leadership that involves leaders using

their power, knowledge and experience in effective ways by providing support,

interacting with employees and having discussion in a friendly (Shah et al. 2011).

Transformational leaders always look for opportunity to help change employee goals,

needs, identities, values, priorities and ambitions with the aim of boosting their trust

and confidence that would enable them to increase their performance and

commitment to the organization. With that, transformational leaders are able to

facilitate and encourage employees to effectively utilize their skills, knowledge and

experience in the organization (Shah et al. 2011). Leaders who practice the

transformational leadership style will combine visionary and authentic leadership with

the aim of changing the educational environment not only to the school but also the

teachers working in it (Waters, 2013).

As pointed out by Bass & Avolio (1995), transformational leadership style is

defined by four key aspects: inspirational motivation, idealized influence, intellectual

stimulation and individualized consideration. Inspirational motivation basically

involves the coherent speech and sharing of an attractive vision with the employees

and use of emotions to demonstrate optimism and enthusiasm. Idealized influence

involves setting a lead example by sacrificing certain aspects for the benefit of the

team or organization (Bass & Avolio, 1995). Individualized consideration involves

the provision of support and encouragement to the followers. Intellectual stimulation

refers to transformational behaviours that raise the awareness of employees of the

 problems facing them and challenges them to view their problems from new

perspectives (Kark & Shamir 2003). Directly, these four behaviours of

transformational leadership significantly contribute towards the motivation of

employee.

According to Yukl (1994), explained some tips of transformational leadership

that are develop a challenging and attractive vision, together with the employees. Tie

the vision to a strategy for its achievement. Develop the vision, specify and translate it

to actions. Express confidence, decisiveness and optimism about the vision and its

implementation. Realize the vision through small planned steps and small successes in

the path for its full implementation.

2.2 Teachers’ Motivation

In the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Need Theory (1943) there are five-tier which

consists: psychological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs

and self-actualization. From the introduction, a brief explanation was given about all

of this hierarchy needs.

The first is physiological needs are the need at the bottom of the triangle and

include the lowest order need and most basic. This includes the need to satisfy the

fundamental biological drives such as food, air, water and shelter. According to

Maslow organisations must provide employees with a salary that enable them to

afford adequate living conditions. The rationale here is that any hungry employee will

hardly be able to make much of any contribution to his organisation.

Second, when all physiological needs are met and are no longer controlling

thoughts and behaviours, the needs for security can become active. While adults have
 little awareness of their security needs except in times of emergency or periods of

disorganization in the social structure (such as widespread rioting), children often

display the signs of insecurity and the need to be safe.

Third is, when the needs for safety and for physiological well-being are

satisfied, the next class of needs for love, affection and belongingness can emerge.

Maslow states that people seek to overcome feelings of loneliness and alienation. This

involves both giving and receiving love, affection and the sense of belonging.

Fourth, after the first three classes of needs are satisfied, the needs for esteem

can become dominant. These involve needs for both self-esteem and for the esteem a

person gets from others. Humans have a need for a stable, firmly based, high level of

self-respect, and respect from others. When these needs are satisfied, the person feels

self-confident and valuable as a person in the world. When these needs are frustrated,

the person feels inferior, weak, helpless and worthless.

Fifth, Maslow describes self-actualization as a person's need to be and do that

which the person was meant to do from the start. These needs make themselves felt in

signs of restlessness. The person feels on edge, tense, lacking something, in short,

restless. If a person is hungry, unsafe, not loved or accepted, or lacking self-esteem, it

is very easy to know what is the person anxious about. However, it is not always clear

what a person wants when there is a need for self-actualization.

2.3 Relationship between Transformational Leadership and Teachers’ Motivation

According to Burns (1978), transformational leadership is a process in which

leaders and followers help each other to advance to a higher level of morale and

motivation. Transformational leadership enhances the motivation, morale, and

performance of followers through a variety of mechanisms. These include connecting

the followers’ sense of identity and self to the project and the collective identity of the

organization; being a role model for followers that inspires them and makes them

interested; challenging followers to take greater ownership for their work, and

understanding the strengths and weaknesses of followers, so the leader can align

followers with tasks that enhance their performance.

A previous study based on Abdullah, Ling and Shamihah (2018) stated that

there is a significant relationship between inspirational motivation of the leader and

teachers’ motivation. The result was found that the teachers’ motivation affected by a

few factor which influence direct or indirectly by the principal action. There are two

factors involved with the teachers’ motivation, internal and altruistic. The first is

internal factor, where are the intrinsic desires for personal and professional

development and working in educational setting. While altruism is refer to ‘a love for

desire to work with children or young person, and an inclination to serve society’.

Moreover, teachers’ motivation also affected with other few factors such as

the working conditions, educational policies and occupational status. In term of

working conditions, teachers need to have a conducive environment and necessary

equipment from materials and so on. Thus, this will motivate the teachers to deliver

greater performance and participation of student. While the educational policies must

be specific and determine the decision of how the education development should be

executed. And lastly is the occupational status view the teachers’ esteem and

recognition and what is been perceived by the society as professional. In Javaid’s

(2009) view, ‘a teacher’s professional status can be judged by his or her role in policy

making, curriculum development and teaching/learning development’.