Book essay on “The Dark Side of Transformational Leadership: A Critical Perspective”

The recent economic misfortune challenges the legitimacy of business leadership and those presented as heroic, charismatic and transformational visionaries. This book contributes to the lively debate about the role of transformational leadership in business and society. Tourish parallels transformational leadership with cults; and argues that the noticeable overlaps should caution against the potential of moving organizations further along the dysfunctional cult continuum than is desirable. In addition to dissent, Tourish promotes consideration of an alternative perspective based on institutionalized feedback into the organizational decision-making process. This book sets out to prepare students of leadership to critically analyze and reflect on leadership behavior and decisions, and to warn, against trusting too much in the judgment of others and not enough in our own.