As co-editors, we are pleased to bring you this special virtual Issue of the International Journal of Public Leadership that compiles previously published research articles on the topic of transformational leadership in the public sector. Ever since James McGregor Burns outlined the concepts of transactional and transformational leadership in his influential 1978 book, Leadership, the quest to achieve organizational goals and foster change through transformational leadership, has been a powerful lens to research leadership.

Studies of transformational leadership in private sector organizations abound, but there has been a growing number of articles with research on transformational leadership in the public sector in recent decades too, particular on reform and performance measurements by Don Moynihan, Sanky Pandey, Bradley Wright and others, as well as on the pages of this journal.

To facilitate research on transformational leadership in the public sector, we have selected five studies of transformational public leadership from around the world—in India, Indonesia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, and across the UK, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Syria—to highlight some of the research on this topic that we have published since 2018. We have also included an invited essay that can be considered as asking the questions to understand the micro-dynamics of operationalizing transformational leadership. Advancing the understanding of transformational leadership in the public sector can explore the shift in emphasis to less individualistic and more collaborative forms of leadership.

We look forward to publishing new research that deepens our understanding of transformational leadership to highlight more effective public leadership practices.

The papers listed below will be free to access from 26th of May to 26th June 2023. 

Professors Tim A. Mau, University of Guelph (Canada) & Richard F. Callahan, University of San Francisco (USA) Co-Editors, International Journal of Public Leadership  

 

Free to access

The empirical relationship between transformational leadership and job attitudes: mediating role of psychological capital – a study of healthcare in India 

Tanveer Ahmad Shah, Zahoor Ahmad Parray and Shahbaz ul Islam 

 

The hospital management responses in implementing transformational leadership style in Dr. Zainoel Abidin Regional Public Hospital 

Ni Made Dwi Ratnadi, Ashiva Martunis, Dodik Aryanto and Anak Agung Gde Putra Widanaputra 

 

Transformational and transactional leadership and skills approach: Insights on stadium management 

Majd Megheirkouni, Amarachi Amaugo and Shehu Jallo 

 

Perceptions of leader transformational justice and job satisfaction in public organizations 

Hassan Barau Singhry 

Transition and transformation in youth care in the Netherlands: Emergent challenges for leadership and management in the youth sector 

Marsha de Vries and Ronald Wolbink  

 

Ten propositions about public leadership 

Jean Hartley