¶ … Leadership Theories
Two major categories of leadership theory are transformational leadership and transactional leadership. Both theories originated in the 1970s with the upsurge of popular psychosocial therapeutic approaches. Transformational leadership is based on the creation of high trust relationships that evoke intrinsic employee motivation and are characterized by meaningful extrinsic incentives for followers and leaders. Transformational leaders tend to exhibit charismatic personalities that inspire followers to work toward a mutually valued vision that has been communicated by the leaders to stakeholders. Because of the strength and solidity of the transformational relationship between leaders and followers, groups are apt to be guided by shared norms. The members of the group appreciate and follow rules and regulations that assume a flexible nature that optimizes the achievement of shared objectives and recognizes the disparate contributions of group members. One adjunct benefit of transformational leadership is the sense of belonging to a group with mutually satisfying goals and the development of group members who are able to identify with their leader.
Transactional leadership is a manifestation of the transaction that is established between leaders and their followers. According to this theory, transactional leadership results in a positive and mutually beneficial...
Indeed, this is the undergirding theory for human resource practices. The motivational power of transactional relationships stems from the ability of leaders to identify and implement means to align worker performance with the objectives developed by the leader or inherent to the operations of a business. That is to say that the leader seeks to adequately reward or punish followers in a manner that ensures the performance-based tasks will be adequately accomplished. When the individual workers, the leaders, and the business enterprise are in sync, transactional relationships produce optimal effort and an environment that is reinforcing to all stakeholders. The psychological principle underlying transactional theory is that people seek to maximize experiences or transactions that are pleasant and avoid unpleasant experiences or transactions. An adjunct to this leadership theory is that people tend to seek those who complement their strengths.
Application of theory. A challenge at work utilizing transformational leadership is the use ofperformance measures that builds on employees' strengths. A prevailing problem has been human resources insistence on performance reviews that emphasize skill development. That is to say that even if an employee has all the requisite knowledge to conduct their job responsibilities, they may…
