Transactional And Transformational Leadership

Introduction:

Discuss about the Transactional and Transformational Leadership.

Keeping the boat afloat is the main principle that is usually followed by the leaders who believe in the transactional leadership. This leadership style mainly believes in maintaining the normal flow of operations in a particular workplace by using a checklist of disciplinary powers. They often take the help of array of incentives that are believed by them to motivate the performance of the employees. The leaders believing in transactional leadership help in motivation of subordinates through the provision of rewards so that they can be encouraged for better results (May et al., 2014). They mainly do not believe in development of a strategy and following such strategy in leading the organization towards making the organization the peak of the zenith. In place they remain more concerned with the everyday flow of work so that it may be conducted smoothly without the rising of any severe issues (Antonakis & House, 2014).

On the other hand, the transformational is quite different from the transactional leadership. It is different in the sense because besides guiding his team in the day to day chores, the leader also encourages his team to participate in developmental strategy preparation (Avolio & Yammarino, 2013). They mainly believe in guiding the team in such a way so that the workers can not only accomplish his daily workload but also work in such a way so that it can flourish towards a better level helping the organization to reach its objectives. This style of leadership mainly focuses on effective team building and providing them with motivation towards achieving excellence in their work fields. They also influence collaborative movements within the employees in the team at different levels of the organizational sectors so that the organization can achieve its mission easily and its vision gets also accomplished. This leadership also provides enough scope for both the personal and professional growth for each of the employees whose effect is very well reflected in their skills and achievements (Rich, 2014).

While analyzing both the leadership critically, it can be easily stated that a leader supporting the transformational leadership would definitely be entertained by the organization and its higher authority. Several of the reasons can be stated which will back it up. This leadership is important in the sense that it not only helps the employees to complete their regular courses of work and be productive but also helps in developing strategies which help in achieving the company’s objectives successfully. Such leadership always tends to develop a very ambitious environment where the workers regularly face various challenges to meet them. In turn, the workers become more diversified in their experiences in handling out various situations and tasks (Dumdum, Avolio & Avolio, 2013). They also learn how to perform tasks in a strategized and collaborative teamwork so that the tasks are not only completed but also help the organization to observe better profit margin leading to success in global market making the organization a flourishing one (Kark & Shamir, 2013).

Transactional Leadership

A number of qualities should always be possessed by the leaders so that the person can become successful in leading a team towards greater efficiency.  A strict focus, less distraction and selective ignorance are the first to be noted. Besides confidence in himself of achieving the mission and marinating transparency in his activities and decisions would help his team to realize the goals clearly. Integrity, inspiration and passion to achieve a challenging task often make him a true figure. Innovative mind of the leader is another quality. Other attributes would include patience and stoicism. The leader should also display authenticity, decisiveness and open mindedness while collaborating with the team members. Being personable is another attribute. Other qualities for being an effective leader would also include empowerment, positivity, generosity and persistence (Day et al., 2014). Being insightful in every of the objectives set would help him to plan in a way that would provide him success. Communication is one such area where the leaders should be well versed in. Besides, accountability should also be practiced by him in order to be labeled as an effective leader.

The above mentioned qualities when present in a leader help the leader to guide a team effectively. If the leadership model possess a correct focus, it would be helpful for the team members to understand their goals and work accordingly. A confidant leader would have his aims set and thereby can determine how to achieve the goals through correct input from the team members. Transparency in his work would help the workers to be clear in their approach. Integrity in his approach will help to build a bond with the team members who will be based on truthfulness and thereby a stable work environment can be maintained which would be free from any sort of discrepancies (Komives & Wagner, 2016). Besides his passion will drive him to achieve the company’s mission through a strategic development and will help to exercise his innovative plans and ideas in his work plan to thrive towards betterment. Patience and stoicism will help the leader to guide the team even if the assigned project failed miserable rather than getting excited and being down. Patience will help him to guide the team members in the crisis period so that they can revive back. Maintaining authenticity in different assignments would help the team members to rely on him and would in turn result the team members to maintain a relation of trust and bonding. His open mindedness would help the members to discuss their fear, weakness and strengths irrespective of the feelings that how the leader would react. His positivity and generosity would influence the team members not to lose hope or get demoralized but run towards success. His decisiveness and empowerment would help to implement a strong hold on the team members which would help him to govern each and every aspects of to team towards development (Lussier & Achua, 2015). Lastly his accountability for the decisions he had taken and his power of communication would help to lead the team towards betterment and help the organization to flourish in the coming years.

Transformational Leadership

Effective leadership plays a great role in bringing out the best performance of the team members and also helps in achieving the company’s vision at a much faster rate. Since effective leadership brings out the best character and personal skills of each and every team members, hence the quality of the work produced by the team members both at an individual level and also at collaborative team performance remains very high. Their communication helps in preparing an attractive and mobilizing path that acts as a challenge for the team members. Therefore the team does not get burned put or bored of the regular day chores, rather finds every day as interesting and challenging (Goleman, Boyatzis & Mckee, 2013). The team gets focused in obtaining the set up results that were planned to achieve the maximum success. Effective leadership has also been successful in increasing the organizational capacity through the implementation of innovative inputs that have a very positive impact on the environment of the workplace. Effective leadership also results in the creation of proper attraction, inspiration and management of talent producing the utmost result leading to higher productivity. Effective leadership also helps in making the team member competent but in a positive way so that best results can be obtained from the the team members helping to meet the profit margin.

A high performance team maintains a profile that portrays definite roles and specific talents and skills which usually remains focused at a particular goal that the organization wants to achieve. They usually maintain a strong bond among the team members with high knit collaborative approach that shows high innovative outlooks. This is mainly done to achieve superior results which are maintained with a tight knit perspective that helps them to face any challenges with courage and honesty and surmount any barriers that prevent from achieving the organizations’ vision. People in a high performance team are usually multi talented and highly skilled and remain capable of interchanging roles (Petrovsky, James& Boyne, 2015). They possess robust methods of resolving issues efficiently in order to prevent it from obstructing the smooth flow of work in the work environment. The team not only harbors individual having their high enthusiasm, but also maintains a team bonding that has clear sense of focus and intense energy to achieve the company’s mission and vision.

Reference:

Antonakis, J., & House, R. J. (2014). Instrumental leadership: Measurement and extension of transformational–transactional leadership theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(4), 746-771.

Avolio, B. J., & Yammarino, F. J. (Eds.). (2013). Introduction to, and overview of, transformational and charismatic leadership. In Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead 10th Anniversary Edition (pp. xxvii-xxxiii). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Daft, R. L. (2014). The leadership experience. Cengage Learning.

Day, D. V., Fleenor, J. W., Atwater, L. E., Sturm, R. E., & McKee, R. A. (2014). Advances in leader and leadership development: A review of 25years of research and theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 25(1), 63-82.

Dumdum, U. R., Lowe, K. B., & Avolio, B. J. (2013). A meta-analysis of transformational and transactional leadership correlates of effectiveness and satisfaction: An update and extension. In Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead 10th Anniversary Edition (pp. 39-70). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Goleman, D., Boyatzis, R., & McKee, A. (2013). Primal leadership: Unleashing the power of emotional intelligence. Harvard Business Press.

Kark, R., & Shamir, B. (2013). The dual effect of transformational leadership: Priming relational and collective selves and further effects on followers. In Transformational and Charismatic Leadership: The Road Ahead 10th Anniversary Edition (pp. 77-101). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Komives, S. R., & Wagner, W. (Eds.). (2016). Leadership for a better world: Understanding the social change model of leadership development. John Wiley & Sons.

Lussier, R. N., & Achua, C. F. (2015). Leadership: Theory, application, & skill development. Nelson Education.

May, D., Peus, C. V., Frey, D., & Kerschreiter, R. (2014, January). Follower Perspectives on Transformational and Transactional Leadership. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2014, No. 1, p. 11795). Academy of Management.

Petrovsky, N., James, O., & Boyne, G. A. (2015). New leaders’ managerial background and the performance of public organizations: The theory of publicness fit. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 25(1), 217-236

Rich, P. B. (2014). The impact of the relationship between ethical leader behavior, transformational leadership, and organizational performance moderated by organizational hierarchy (Doctoral dissertation, CAPELLA UNIVERSITY).