Indonesian president's transformational leadership in the critical era

Abstract

Leadership research tends to focus on the importance of transformational leadership in normal times; there have been few studies to date on transformational leadership in a crisis. Leadership effectiveness was identified as the most important mechanism, particularly in times of crisis. This paper aims to reflect on the President of Indonesia's crisis leadership model in order to generate transformative leadership characteristics to deal with the situation. This study showed that Indonesian presidents generally exhibit strong idealized influence and inspirational motivation, but they were often weak in intellectual stimulation and individualized consideration. What is currently needed by Indonesia in facing a crisis is a transformative leader who always strives to advance the nation and avoiding to prioritize their group for the sake of national unity and sovereignty, understands the problems faced by their subordinates, motivates them to seek new approaches in performing their duties, organizational tasks, listens attentively to input from subordinates, and especially willing to pay attention to the needs of subordinates. During a crisis, transformational leadership is necessarily required to manage the economy, politics, and society in Indonesia. This study compared transformative leadership from previous presidents towards the present president, Joko Widodo, through literature studies and examined the presence of leadership style for each president. Five indicators of successful transformative leadership must be accomplished, including strives to advance the nation and avoiding to prioritize their group for the sake of national unity and sovereignty, understands the problems faced by their subordinates, motivates them to seek new approaches in performing their duties, organizational tasks, listens attentively to input from subordinates, and especially willing to pay attention to the needs of subordinates.