Transactional Leadership, also known as managerial leadership, focuses on the role of supervision,
organization, and group performance; transactional leadership is a style of leadership in which
the leader promotes compliance of his/her followers through both rewards and punishments.
Unlike Transformational leadership, leaders using the transactional approach are not looking
to change the future, they are looking to merely keep things the same. Leaders using
transactional leadership as a model pay attention to followers' work in order to find faults
and deviations. This type of leadership is effective in crisis and emergency situations,
as well as for projects that need to be carried out in a specific way.
An experimental study In an experimental study conducted on the
relationship between leaders' moral reasoning and subordinates' perceptions of leadership
behaviors in three organizational samples drawn from two countries. Kohlberg initially
proposed a stage theory of cognitive moral development to explain how people think about
interacting with their social environment. He argued that people's present moral capacity
incorporates problem-solving strategies learned at earlier stages. The data used in this study
were collected by questionnaire from one organization in Canada Data collection for sample 1. two
organizations in the United Kingdom Sample was drawn from a mid-sized Canadian university
and consisted of middle-level managers and subordinates in clerical and administrative
posts who rated these managers. Data collection for. He found that, 132 leaders and 407 subordinates
participated in this study. Data for Sample 2 were collected at a large telecommunications
company in the United Kingdom. Raters in this sample were subordinates working in technical
support and customer service who described their middle-level managers. Sample 3 consisted
of hospital ward managers and their subordinate nurses working in a mid-sized hospital in
the United Kingdom.
Textbook Edit: Transactional Leaders "Adhering to the path-goal theory, transactional
leaders are expected to do the following: "Set goals, articulate explicit agreements
regarding what the leader expects from organizational members and how they will be rewarded for
their efforts and commitment, and provide constructive feedback to keep everybody on
task". Transactional leaders focus on increasing
the efficiency of established routines and procedures and are more concerned with following
existing rules than with making changes to the structure of the organization.
Thus, they operate most effectively in organizations that have evolved beyond the chaotic, no-rules
stage of entrepreneurial development that characterizes so many new companies.
Transactional leadership establishes and standardizes practices that will help the organization
reach maturity, emphasizing setting of goals, efficiency of operation, and increase of productivity.
" Maslow's hierarchy of needs
Within the context of Maslow's hierarchy of needs, transactional leadership works at the
basic levels of need satisfaction, where transactional leaders focus on the lower levels of the hierarchy.
Transactional leaders use an exchange model, with rewards being given for good work or
positive outcomes. Conversely, people with this leadership style also can punish poor
work or negative outcomes, until the problem is corrected. One way that transactional leadership
focuses on lower level needs is by stressing specific task performance. Transactional leaders
are effective in getting specific tasks completed by managing each portion individually.
Transactional leaders are concerned with processes rather than forward-thinking ideas. These
types of leaders focus on contingent reward or contingent penalization. Contingent rewards
are given when the set goals are accomplished on-time, ahead of time, or to keep subordinates
working at a good pace at different times throughout completion. Contingent punishments
are given when performance quality or quantity falls below production standards or goals
and tasks are not met at all. Often, contingent punishments are handed down on a management-by-exception
basis, in which the exception is something going wrong. Within management-by-exception,
there are active and passive routes. Active management-by-exception means that the leader
continually looks at each subordinate's performance and makes changes to the subordinate's work
to make corrections throughout the process. Passive management-by-exception leaders wait
for issues to come up before fixing the problems. With transactional leadership being applied
to the lower-level needs and being more managerial in style, it is a foundation for transformational
leadership which applies to higher-level needs. Qualities of transactional leadership
Transactional leaders use reward and punishments to gain compliance from their followers. They
are extrinsic motivators that bring minimal compliance from followers. They accept goals,
structure, and the culture of the existing organization. Transactional leaders tend to
be directive and action-oriented. Transactional leaders are willing to work
within existing systems and negotiate to attain goals of the organization. They tend to think
inside the box when solving problems Transactional leadership is primarily passive.
The behaviors most associated with this type of leadership are establishing the criteria
for rewarding followers and maintaining the status quo.
Within transactional leadership, there are two factors, contingent reward and management-by-exception.
Contingent reward provides rewards for effort and recognizes good performance. Management-by-exception
maintains the status quo, intervenes when subordinates do not meet acceptable performance
levels, and initiates corrective action to improve performance.
Transactional vs. transformational leadership Transactional and transformational are the
two modes of leadership that tend to be compared the most. James MacGregor Burns distinguished
between transactional leaders and transformational by explaining that: transactional leader are
leaders who exchange tangible rewards for the work and loyalty of followers. Transformational
leaders are leaders who engage with followers, focus on higher order intrinsic needs, and
raise consciousness about the significance of specific outcomes and new ways in which
those outcomes might be achieved. Transactional leaders tend to be more passive as transformational
leaders demonstrate active behaviors that include providing a sense of mission.
Theory Y and Theory X Douglas McGregor's Theory Y and Theory X can
also be compared with these two leadership styles.Theory X can be compared with Transactional
Leadership where managers need to rule by fear and consequences. In this style and theory,
negative behavior is punished and employees are motivated through incentives.
Theory Y and Transformational Leadership are found to be similar, because the theory and
style supports the idea that managers work to encourage their workers. Leaders assume
the best of their employees. They believe them to be trusting, respectful, and self-motivated.
The leaders help to supply the followers with tool they need to excel.
Examples of transactional leadership Coaches of athletic teams provide one example
of transactional leadership. These leaders motivate their followers by promoting the
reward of winning the game. They instill such a high level of commitment that their followers
are willing to risk pain and injury to obtain the results that the leader is asking for.
Another example of transactional leadership is former Wisconsin state senator, Joseph
McCarthy. His ruthless style of accusing people of being Soviet spies during the Cold War.
By punishing for deviation from the rules and rewarding followers for bringing him accused
communist infiltrators, McCarthy promoted results among followers. This leadership style
is especially effective in crisis situations, and another example of this type of leadership
was Charles de Gaulle. Through this type of reward and punishment he was able to become
the leader of the free French in a crisis situation.
References
^ Schultz & Schultz, Duane. Psychology and work today. New York: Prentice Hall. pp. 164.
ISBN 0-205-68358-4.