Transactional Leadership : Leadership And Group Performance

The three leadership practice of Dr. Cliff Roberts of Nebraska CHI delegated leadership, transformational leadership, and transactional leadership. Transformational leadership is a type of leadership where the leader does a lot of communication with the staff, they identify the change needed, create a plan to change through inspiration and executes the change while developing the follower into a leader. The leader is always generally energetic, enthusiastic and passion about their work. They are always inspiring positive changes into employees, focus on helping the staff succeed well, always challenging employees to take greater ownership in their work and understand the weakness and strength of each person and align each with the task that optimizes their performance.

5. Transactional leadership includes a deal between the leader and his/her followers. The workers are basically doing tasks for the organization, in order to receive some kind of benefits, money, etc.

Another example of Transactional leadership that can also be seen in my scenario is found in Lewin’s theory (1939). Clark (2009) explains that Lewin’s leadership

Transactional leadership is built on reciprocity, the ways in which leaders and followers influence one another, and the idea that the relationship between leader and their followers develops from the exchange of some reward, such as performance rating’s, pay, recognition, or praise (Marturano, 2004). This style of leadership does not promote a close relationship amongst the boss

Transactional leadership on the other hand was first described in 1947 by Max Weber; he first coined "rational-legal leadership — the style that would come to be known as transactional leadership — as the exercise of control on the basis of knowledge” (Spahr, 2014). According to Spahr (2014), characteristics of transactional leaders include: focus on short-term goals, favor structured policies and procedures, thrive on rule following and doing things correctly, revel in efficiency, left-brained, inflexible, and opposed to change.

In my opinion, the leadership at North River Middle School is a primary example of the transactional leadership style. The principal, Mr. Jameson, school has not attained adequate yearly progress and test scores were down. In his defense, Mr. Jameson had professional development workshops, increased classroom walk through, and talked to departments about the problem. Nevertheless, Mr. Jameson failed to listen to his staff concerning the obstacles that teachers were facing in the classroom. Mr. Jameson practically ignored comments and feedback that did not align with his thinking. As a result, he is facing probable termination of employment if, the school does not show improvement.

“Transactional leadership is a style of leadership focused on contingent rewards of followers” (McGuire & Kennerly, 2006, p.180). Goals are set, directions are given, and rewards are used to reinforce employee behaviors associated with meeting or exceeding established goals. Followers are manipulated and controlled with rewards of praise and recognition, merit raises, and promotions, which can be given or withheld according to the employee’s performance. The outcome of such behavior is enhanced role clarity, job satisfaction and improved performance (McGuire & Kennerly, 2006).

According to Sullivan and Decker (1997) transactional leadership is a traditional, goal oriented type of leadership based on the social exchange theory. Work is exchanged for rewards in

These rewards come in the form of salary increment, bonus and recognition (Gill 2011). Employees who fail to perform well are punished (Bass 2008). Howell and Avolio (1993) study confirms that the contingent rewards leadership has a negative effect on follower’s performance (Gill 2011). Similarly, transactional leadership is based on a contingent reward and punishment system, it does not offer much in term of motivating and inspiring people (Bach and Ellis 2011).

Over the past twenty years, an abundant body of researches have been done to review transformational leadership and transactional leadership. Burn (1978) was the first person to introduce and conceptualize the concept of transformational leadership and transactional leadership. Bass (1985) based on Burn’s concept and deepened his notion with modifications, which stated that one of the best frameworks of leadership is transformational or transactional. Following Bass and Avolio (1994, p. 4) provided the idea of these two leaderships and generalized them into the development of global economic world. Bass and Avolio (1997) also suggested that there was no need to view transformational and transactional leadership as

Transformational leaders are proactive, inspire, provide individualized consideration, intellectual stimulation and idealized influence to their staff. Learning opportunities are created, encouragement to solve problems and development of strong emotional bonds are tools transformational leaders provide. Finally transformational leaders possess integrity, vision, rhetorical and management skills, and motivate staff to aspire to goals beyond self-interest. Transactional leaders focus on setting objectives or goals and creating a reward system upon attainment of the goals. Google exhibits the transformational style of leadership that comes in part from their servant leadership style. Smith (2004) defines six components of servant leadership: valuing people, developing people, building community, displaying authenticity, providing leadership, sharing leadership the style adopted by Google leadership

Transactional and transformational leadership differ. Ingram (2016) states “Different managers employ distinctly different management styles, ranging from relatively hands-off, facilitative styles to autocratic, micromanaging styles. Managers can also employ different motivational strategies and techniques to boost employee performance or accomplish internal change. Transformational and transactional leadership are polar opposites when it comes to the underlying theories of management and motivation. Understanding the difference between transformational and transactional leadership is crucial for anyone pursuing a career in management.” (Ingram, 2016). When I was a manager, I had to make sure my store operated properly and maintain sales. Sometimes I would hold contest for my workers to motivate them, Ingram (2016) states “Transactional leadership styles are more concerned with maintaining the normal flow of operations. Transactional leadership can be described as "keeping the ship afloat." Transactional leaders

While the transactional leadership can be seen as simple contract trade based on the interest of greed, which sometimes get confused with what we call the manager’s task. The transformational leadership seeks to satisfy high need of its subordinates, commit to aspiring human dimension to a process of stimulation and mutual development in which the selfish interests are transcended in favor of the common good.

Transformational leadership taps into the motives of followers in order to reach their goals, while transactional focuses on the exchanges that occur between leaders and followers (Northouse, 2013). The branches of the military in general would be considered transactional leadership organizations. This type of leadership encourages followers to perform tasks at a high level in order to achieve advancement or increase in pay or rank. Conversely, transformational leadership would be focused on creating a connection between the leader and the followers, in order to perform tasks in such a way as to increase the feeling of morality in both the leader and the follower (Northouse, 2013). Panorama did not exhibit any behavior that tried to motivate Bailey to feel a connection to him. Instead, Panorama tried to intimidate, coerce, and punish Bailey to execute the tasks he was required to perform.

Transactional leadership is a style that maintains business operations by helping the business to continue the flow of business activities and operations. The leaders at Ford follow the same style to motivate the employees in day to day activities in order to enhance the business (Lecture 2,