Instrumental Leadership For Measurement And Extension – Critical Analysis

Transactional Leadership

Discuss about the Instrumental Leadership for Measurement and Extension.

Leadership can be defined as an action of leading the employees in an organization towards achieving organizational success (Clarke, 2013). Leaders are responsible for directing, building inspiring vision and creating something new for organizational progress. Leadership can be classified based on the ways in which organizational leaders lead the employees. Some leaders are stick in existing organizational structure for achieving organizational success (Collins et al., 2014). On the other hand, some leaders are highly dynamic in nature for adjusting with dynamic business environment and bringing innovation towards organizational success. The study will critically assess transactional leadership and transformational leadership. Moreover, based on the critical assessment, the study will also demonstrate the superiority of one leadership over other.

Transactional leadership is one of the most important leadership styles for managing the workforces of an organization. It highly focuses on supervision, organization and performance of the employees. In this leadership style, organizational leaders control the productivity and efficiency level of the employees through reward and punishment. According to Antonakis and House, (2014), transactional leadership style highly focuses on directing and motivating the employees by tempting to their self-interest. The power of these kinds of leaders come their formal responsibility and authority of the organization. On the other hand, McCleskey, (2014) opined that transactional leadership style is also known as telling style, where the employees are to follow the instruction provided by the leaders. The exchange between the employees and the leader takes place through achieving routine performance goals. These types of leaders motivate the employees through rewarding them on achievement of their desired goals. On the other hand, the leaders punish the employees, who do not wish to work as per organizational standards.

According to Birasnav, (2014), transactional leaders connect the goals with rewards, explain the expectation, and provide essential resources, set mutually agreed goals and offer rewards for success performance. On the other hand, Wahyuni et al., (2014) opined that transactional leaders intervene only when employee performance does not meet the standards of organization. They tend to monitor the work of the employees, watch the deviation from the organizational standards and take corrective actions for minimizing that deviation. Tyssen et al., (2014) opined that transactional leaders allow employees to make decisions. The employees are allowed to make decision for the work process, but all the decisions remain under the control of the leaders.

Transformational Leadership

Transactional leaders highly follow the structure and value of their organization. According to Epitropaki and Martin, (2013), these kinds of leaders are more concerned about maintaining the normal flow of operation. They overemphasize on detailed and short-term goals and set standard work procedures.  On the other hand, Odumeru and Ogbonna, (2013) pointed out that transactional leaders do not encourage employee’s creativity and generation of innovative ideas. Therefore, this kind of leadership is better applied in such organization, where organizational problems are simple and clearly defined. Transactional leaders tend to ignore the ideas, which do not fit with the existing organizational plans and goals. Furthermore, Hamstra et al., (2014) opined that transactional leaders are highly directive and action-oriented as per organizational standards. The relationship of these leaders with the employees is highly transitory and not based on any emotional bonds. Moreover, transactional leadership works well in crisis situation, where high level of focus is needed for accomplishing certain task.

Transformational leadership is a kind of leadership approach, where organizational leaders work with the employees towards identifying the organizational changes. They are also intended towards creating vision to guide the changes by inspiration and executing the changes through the efforts of committed group of employees. Creating high performance employees is of prime importance for any organization. It needs organizational leaders to inspire the employees and go beyond just task requirements. Transformational leaders are inspiring, visionary, thoughtful thinker, daring and risk-takers. These leaders allow the employees for fostering their creativity and innovation towards organizational success.

According to Furtner et al., (2013), the foundation of transformational leadership is to promote consistent mission, vision and set of value for the employees. These leaders guide the employees through strong sense of meaning and challenges. They work optimistically and enthusiastically towards fostering spirit of teamwork and commitment. On the other hand, Rowold, (2014) opined that transformational leaders encourage the employees to be creative and innovative. They encourage innovative ideas from the employees and never criticize the employees publicly for any of their mistakes. Furthermore, Choi et al., (2014) pointed out that transformational leaders can act like role model for the employees and the employees can emulate them for enhancing their job efficiency. Such leaders always gain respect and trust from the employees through their work. The leaders highly understand the needs of the employees and often sacrifice personal gain for the favor of the employees. On the other hand, Tremblay and Gibson, (2016) mentioned that transformational leaders rewards employees for their innovation and creativity. They treat employees differently as per their talent and knowledge level.

Critical Analysis of Transactional Leadership and Transformational Leadership

Transformational leaders start with developing a vision and view for future, which can excite the employees towards organizational changes.  Akbar et al., (2015) mentioned that such leaders encourage the employees towards accomplishing more than what is anticipated. Transformational leaders have the ability of transforming the self-interest of the employees into collective interest. They motivate the employees to beyond their self-interest for organizational favor. On the other hand, Ali et al., (2014) opined that transformational leaders provide autonomy over specific task and delegate authority to the employees when they are trained. This leadership style highly emphasizes on ethics and cooperation in addition to higher human value. Transformational leadership is adaptive in nature and can be tailored to fulfill both individual as well as organizational goals. This kind of leadership can bring harmony to the organizational situation by enhancing organizational efficiency.

According to Odumeru and Ogbonna, (2013), transactional leaders employ reward and punishment to motivate employees towards organizational success. They are highly concerned about the association between the rewards and efforts. On the other hand, Birasnav, (2014) opined that transformational leaders employ enthusiasm and charisma for inspiring the employees towards organization success. They arouse emotions within the employees, which motivates them to work beyond the framework. In transformational leadership, the leaders emphasize more on relationship with the employee, whereas, transformational leaders emphasize more on ideals, values, needs and morals of the employees.

According to Tyssen et al., (2014), transactional leaders are highly responsive in nature and the basic orientation of this leadership deals with present issues. On the other hand, McCleskey, (2014) pointed out that transformational leaders are proactive in nature and it generates new expectation from the employees. Transactional leadership goes with normal and existing flow of organization and does not encourage any changes in the organization, whereas, transformational leadership encourage organizational changes for adjusting with dynamic business environment. According to Clarke, (2013), transactional leadership is highly reliant on the power of the leaders towards reinforcing subordinates for successful completion of the desired goals. On the other hand, Epitropaki and Martin, (2013) opined that transformational leaders possess effective visioning, management and rhetorical skills for developing strong emotional bonds with the employees. Transactional leaders develops existing organizational culture, whereas, transformational leaders change the existing organizational culture.

According to Rowold, (2014), transactional leaders are bureaucratic in nature and the employees are to follow the instruction of the leaders. On the other hand, Tremblay and Gibson, (2016) opined that transformational leadership is charismatic nature and the leaders act as role model for the employees towards performing for organizational success. Birasnav, (2014) mentioned that transactional leaders rely on planning and execution of the organizational goals through existing organizational policies. On the other hand, Hamstra et al., (2014) opined that transformational leaders allow the employees to innovate and create new ideas for organizational success. Transformational leaders reward the employees based on their creativity and innovation. Transactional leadership is best suited, where organizational problem is quite simple, whereas, transformational leadership is best suited, where organizational problem is complex in nature. Moreover, transactional leadership mostly deals with day-to-day operation, whereas, transformational leadership goes beyond the day-to-day operations and craft organizational strategies for next level success.

According to Rowold, (2014), in transactional leadership, the personal interests of the employees are not taken into consideration for achieving organizational success. There is no emotional bond between the leaders and the employees. On the other hand, Clarke, (2013) opined that transformational leaders takes the self-interest of the employees into consideration along with organizational success. Therefore, in transformational leadership, there is high level of emotional bond between the employees and leaders. In this way, transformational leaders are much more capable of bringing organizational harmony than those of transactional leaders. It minimizes the gap of the employees with the leaders of the organization having high level of support from the leaders.

According to Choi et al., (2014), transactional leaders tend to maintain the existing organizational structure and do not encourage innovation and creativity from the sides of employees. Employees are to work simply with the normal flow of the organization. Therefore, transactional leaders are incapable of facing dynamic situation and unable to solve complex organizational problems. On the other hand, Ali et al., (2014) opined that transformational leaders are highly focused on future oriented actions and allow innovation and creativity of the employees towards organizational success. Therefore, transformational leaders are capable of creating uniqueness in the organization and beating the market competition. Transformational leaders get ample amount of solutions to the complex organizational problems, as they allow creative ideas of the employees to solve organizational problems. Therefore, transformational leaders are much more capable of solving complex organizational problems than those of transactional leaders.

According to Wahyuni et al., (2014) transactional leaders motivate the employees through setting goals and promising rewards upon meeting those goals. However, employees are too limited within achieving their target and getting rewards. On the other hand, Tremblay and Gibson, (2016) opined that transformational leaders offer learning opportunities to the employees and allows them to solve complex organizational problems. Therefore, transformational leaders are much more capable of making the employees responsible than those of transactional leaders. Furthermore, Epitropaki and Martin (2013) pointed out that transactional leaders often punish the employees on not achieving the organizational goals. It may discourage the employees for their further improvement. On the other hand, Odumeru and Ogbonna, (2013) opined that transformational leaders never criticize the employees publicly for any of their mistakes. Moreover, transformational leaders offer learning opportunities to learn new things from their mistakes. Therefore, transformational leaders are much more capable of motivating the employees towards better performance.

From the above analysis, it is apparent that transformational leadership is superior to transactional leadership. Transactional leadership mainly deal with day-to-day operations, whereas, transformational leadership highly focuses on future success for an organization. Transformational leaders are much more open and adaptive than those of transactional leaders, which foster innovation in organization.

Conclusion

While concluding the study, it can be said that transactional leadership manages the employees within the existing organizational framework. On the other hand, transformational leadership allows innovation and creativity of the employees towards organizational success. Transactional leaders offer rewards to the employees on achieving their desired goals. On the other hand, transformational leadership offers rewards and recognitions to the employees for demonstrating creativity and innovation. Transformational leaders are much more capable of transforming the self-interest of the employees to group interest than those of transactional leaders. Transformational leaders strongly rely on group performance that that of individual performance towards better organizational success. Transactional leaders mostly use technical knowledge for determining the change process. On the other hand, transformational leaders search for adaptive solutions for engaging the minds and hearts of the employees in the change process. Moreover, transactional leaders mostly deals with existing perspectives of organization, whereas, transformational leaders mostly deals with future perspective of organization. Therefore, transformational leadership can better be utilized in strategic decision making of an organization than that of transactional leadership.

Reference List

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