Transformational Leader in the Followers' View: Personal Characteristics and Work Practices

The research is aimed to compare the influence of individual characteristics of subordinates and real work practices on the perception of leaders as transformational leaders. This research expects to increase the knowledge about the conditions when leader will be positively assessment by his or her followers, and subsequently, to use this knowledge on practice. The object of the research is employees of Social Discovery Ventures IT - Company and COMP Production Company. The author analyzed the employees’ opinion about their leaders from the evidence of transformational leaders' elements. The research considers the research of influence of 1) social - demographic and individual characteristics of followers; 2) social - demographic and individual characteristics of leaders as objects of the perception; 3) combination of followers’ and leaders’ characteristics; 4) work practices and 5) attitudes and perceptions of work on the perception of the leader as transformational based on data (122 respondents) of two companies. Work practices, individual characteristics of followers, attitudes and perceptions of work influence on the perception of leader as transformational, creating a special model of the transformational leader perception. Efficiency and communications skills as conditions of career as work practice has the greatest influence on the perception of transformational leadership, so, transformational leadership is not only the positive image, but a process that could be controlled in Russia. Also, the portrait of transformational leader in Russia was made – young men (middle age 31 years), from IT – sphere with high ratings of Big Five comparing to their followers. The results are most useful for companies, where the success depends on the employees’ intellectual capital.