ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a few things that we should remember and forget about the kind of leadership and followership needed in a transitional postmodern world that is being shaped by the financial crisis and globalization. In many ways, James MacGregor Burns’ book is prescient of the twenty-first century. As a historian and biographer, Burns grounds his theory of transforming leadership on the history of political leaders from Roosevelt to Mao. He does not discuss business leaders. Transforming leadership rests on the idea that leadership is a process in which leaders engage followers in a discussion about their conflicting values. Transforming leadership is concerned with end-values, such as liberty, justice, and equality. According to the theory, transforming leaders and followers elevate each other through various stages of morality and need. Business leaders should also think of themselves as leaders in their industry as well as leaders of their firms.
