This paper critically reviews Kearney and Gebert's 2009 article, "Managing Diversity and Enhancing Team Outcomes: The Promise of Transformational Leadership," examining how transformational leadership compares to transactional and laissez-faire styles in educational management. The review summarizes the authors' thesis — that transformational leadership converts demographic and informational differences into team assets — and evaluates the quality of their research presentation, including its objectivity and awareness of limitations. The paper also considers the broader relevance of transformational leadership for a globalized, increasingly diverse educational landscape in the 21st century.
This paper demonstrates the technique of critical article review: the student identifies the source's central thesis, evaluates the quality and objectivity of the argument, notes acknowledged limitations, and offers a reasoned personal response. This approach — summarize, evaluate, contextualize — is a foundational skill in graduate-level academic writing.
The paper opens by introducing the source article and its leadership context, then presents the authors' thesis and research findings. It follows with an evaluative section assessing the article's objectivity and persuasiveness. The final body sections situate the argument within 21st-century educational trends, including online and blended learning, before closing with a forward-looking conclusion. The structure is linear and appropriate for a short critical review.
Kearney and Gebert argue for the validity and practicality of transformational leadership in their 2009 publication, "Managing Diversity and Enhancing Team Outcomes: The Promise of Transformational Leadership." The authors immediately argue for the superiority of this style over other styles commonly found in educational management environments, such as transactional and laissez-faire leadership. Most of the research cited before the presentation of their study falls within approximately the last fifteen years, with the literature most directly precedent to transformational leadership in connection with diversity in educational leadership drawn from the past decade. The use of both modern and somewhat older literature in the opening sections of the article is effective in establishing the context for the leadership style and the research study performed.
Kearney and Gebert contend that transformational leadership is the most effective style to employ when seeking to tap into leadership resources that often go underutilized or unacknowledged. In their research study, such a resource was candidates of diverse backgrounds — including age, gender, and ethnicity — within the education environment, and specifically in team-based activities involving educators, administrators, and staff.
Kearney and Gebert's central thesis is that transformational leadership is a style which helps turn differences — specifically those that are demographic and informational — into assets for a team, rather than perceived liabilities (2009). They conducted their research study using professionals in education. Their findings supported their hypothesis and confirmed their thesis. The thesis is articulated clearly and simply. The research is well presented and includes an awareness of its own limitations. The article conveys both the authors' perspective and the broader context of the issue effectively. Despite a definitive stance in favor of transformational leadership, there are noticeable efforts to present information with at least moderate objectivity.
This reviewer agreed with the thesis of the article. Transformational leadership is a style that should continue to prove practical and yield compelling results in the globalized world of the 21st century. Diversity in organizational settings is an increasingly critical consideration, and research such as Kearney and Gebert's provides a useful framework for understanding how it can be leveraged as a strength rather than managed as a challenge. Even where the authors take a clear position, their effort to acknowledge limitations and present competing considerations lends the article credibility.
Education is becoming significantly more accessible to more people around the world through various formats — on-campus, online, and integrated models combining both online and in-person coursework. As an effort to remain current, innovative and alternative styles of leadership in the education field should be tested and employed. Students and teachers are encountering higher and more intense occasions of diversity as part of the educational experience. To become more comfortable with — and, as the authors emphasize, to maximize the potential of — these inevitable experiences in diversity, teams should adopt transformational leadership.
There will certainly be some resistance and some failures in the application of this style, a possibility the authors acknowledge. Research consistently shows that diverse teams, when well led, outperform homogeneous ones on complex tasks. The advantages of transformational leadership, which promote the constructive use — not exploitation — of demographic differences among education staff, are apparent and applicable across a range of contexts.
Productivity and innovation are key to success in the 21st century in the education field, and in most other fields within the globalized economy. The advantages of transformational leadership — which promote the positive use of demographic differences among education staff — are apparent and useful in various ways. As diversity in educational environments continues to grow, educational leadership frameworks that treat that diversity as an asset rather than a liability will be increasingly essential. Kearney and Gebert's research offers a well-grounded case for transformational leadership as one such framework.
Karanxha, Z., Agosto, V., & Bellara, A. (2013). The hidden curriculum: Candidate diversity in educational leadership preparation. Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Faculty Publications, Paper 12. Retrieved from
Kearney, E., & Gebert, D. (2009). Managing diversity and enhancing team outcomes: The promise of transformational leadership. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(1), 77–89.
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