The Relationship between Transformational, Transactional Leadership, Job Satisfaction - Essay Example

Transformational leadership Transformational leadership Different leaders employ unique different styles of leadership, rangingfrom facilitative styles to autocratic, relatively hands-off, and micromanaging styles. Leaders can also use various strategies of motivation and techniques to boost performance of employees or achieve internal change. Transformational leadership impacts positively on organizational culture and employee motivation thereby influencing the success of the business. It is the most feasible style of leadership in the long-term (Bass & Riggio, 2008). A transformational leader goes beyond managing daily operations crafts strategies that can elevate the organization to the next level of success and performance. Transformational leadership styles focus on motivation, team-building and collaboration with workers at different organizational levels to achieve for the better. Transformational leaders set incentives and goals to push subordinates to higher levels of performance, while offering opportunities for professional and personal growth for every worker (Hoyt & Blascovich, 2003). Transformational leadership concept is a very popular form of leadership. According to Burns (1985), transformational leadership is a process where leaders and followers rise together to higher levels of motivation and morality. A transformational leader is a model of fairness and integrity. They set clear goals, encourage others, possess very high expectations, offer recognition and support, encourage people to look beyond self-interest, stirs people’s emotions, and inspires other people to go for the improbable. According to Hoy & Miskel (2001), transformational leaders seek to recognize the need for change, concentrate on long-term goals, develop new visions and muster commitment to the vision, and mentor followers to embrace greater responsibility. Transformational leadership entails four essential components: idealized influence, which entails mutual trust and building respect through choosing the right thing rather than the expedient; inspirational motivation, which involves transmitting meaning via symbols and stories from which followers identify. It also helps followers to achieve the impossible through having high expectations; intellectual stimulation, in which workers are challenged to think and answer own questions; and individualized consideration, where people are recognized at their best when individual needs are considered, and accomplishments and efforts recognized and encouraged. These components make transformational leadership more effective compared to other forms of leadership (Hoyt & Blascovich, 2003). While transactional leaders prove instrumental in achieving anticipated outcome where the leader recognize the followers’ role in achieving the desired outcomes, transformational leaders stimulate employees to look, from a different perspective, their work and generate awareness of the vision or mission of the organization, develop followers and colleagues to higher levels of potential and ability (Bass & Riggio, 2008). In addition, transformational leaders motivate followers to look beyond individual interest to those of the group. Transformational leaders set challenging goals and accomplish higher performance than transactional leaders. Transactional leadership tends to have operational focus. On the other hand, transformational leadership puts emphasis on a fundamental and strategic change. This makes transformational leadership more effective than transactional leadership (Brown & Reilly, 2009). Transformational style of leadership is essential to the strategic development of business. Transformational leaders set ambitious goals and can accomplish rapid success via team-building skills and vision. They put energy and passion in every organizational activity, and care about the achievements of the followers. Transformational leaders are more effective than other forms of leaders because of their way of operations. They engage in developing vision, selling the vision, finding ways to move forward, and leading the charge in order to accomplish organizational goals (Brown & Reilly, 2009). Transformational leaders seek to impart a high commitment level to the vision. Motivation is one of the ways used by transformational leaders. They sustain motivation through the use of rituals, ceremonies and other cultural symbolism. Overall, transformational leaders balance attention between the mental state of followers and action that creates progress. They are also people-oriented, and believe that success is a result of sustained commitment (Liontos, 1995). Transformational leaders have a tacit promise to followers to become transformed in the process of transforming the organization. They are often charismatic. They believe that confidence and passion can be mistaken for reality and truth. It is evident that great things have been achieved via enthusiastic leadership. Transformational leaders normally have large amounts of enthusiasm, which is pivotal in their success (Liontos, 1995). Transformational leadership relies on motivation to inspire their followers to achieve the vision of the organization. Motivation is the force that guides, initiates and maintains goal-oriented behaviors. It causes people to take action. Forces that lie beneath motivation can be social, biological, cognitive, or emotional in nature. Different researchers have come up with theories to explain motivation (Hornett, 2001). Humanistic motivation theories are founded on the fact that people possess cognitive reasons to conduct various actions. Abraham Maslow’s illustrates this in his hierarchy of needs presenting different motivation at different levels. In the viewpoint of Maslow, people are motivated to fulfill basic biological needs for shelter and food, as well as those of love, shelter and esteem. After meeting the lower level needs, self-actualization becomes the primary motivator. Transformational leaders believe in motivation to raise the level of people and achieve unexpected performance, which makes it most effective style of leadership (Hornett, 2001). According to the instinct theory of motivation, people are motivated to act in particular means because they are programmed to do so evolutionarily. William James developed a list of human instincts including play, anger, attachment, shame, fear, modesty, shyness, and love. This theory became obsolete after development of new motivation theories. The incentive theory, on the other hand, asserts that people are motivated by external rewards to do things. Behavioral concepts of learning such as reinforcement and association significantly contribute to incentive theory of motivation (Mahdinezhad, Suandi, Silong & Omar, 2013). According to drive motivation theory, people are motivated to act in such a way to reduce the internal tension resulting from unmet needs. Drive theory of motivation is useful in describing behaviors that have biological components such as thirst and hunger. However, these behaviors are not normally motivated purely by physiological needs. Another theory of motivation that is commonly used is arousal motivation theory. This theory suggests that people act in particular ways to either increase or decrease arousal levels. According to arousal theory of motivation, people are motivated to keep an optimal arousal level. This level, although, can vary based on the situation or the individual. The use of these motivation theories makes transformational leaders more effective than other styles of leadership (Mahdinezhad, Suandi, Silong & Omar, 2013). Transformational leadership helps in connecting cultures and bringing cultural backgrounds together through intercultural communication. Transformational leadership ensures smooth participation and involvement of people in multicultural teams. It is vital that people move beyond their cultural preferences in order to become successful. In addition, transformational leaders seek to understand the way in which their team members view and understand the world around them. Transformational leaders achieve effectiveness by having this kind of view on team members. The values that both members of the team and the leaders hold are important influences on their relationship (Zagorsek, Dimovski & Skerlavaj, 2009). Transformational leaders strive to show the team that they trust them. This means trusting the team itself, colleagues, and the boss. As a transformational leader, one needs to be loyal, open and transparent. This entails giving credit to the individuals responsible for any wins, small or big. Transformational leaders never take credit for the hard work of others. They share information and always doing things openly where all can see. They create trust by holding themselves accountable first before holding others responsible, accountable (Zagorsek, Dimovski & Skerlavaj, 2009). Transformational leaders always communicate openly. Open communication is vital for building trust. They get team members talking to each other in an honest, meaningful way. They do this by creating a team charter that defines the purpose of the team, as well as every individual’s role. When they define expectations clearly, good and valuable results are delivered (Bryant, 2003). Transformational leaders also strive to build trust through delivering results. Results give one instant trust and credibility. Delivery of results is based on competence. Competence, on the other hand, grows out of accountability, responsibility and performance principles. Delivering results converts the critics, establishes a trust in relationships, and restores lost trust caused by incompetence. Transformational leader inspires trust by simply being competent. This makes them more effective than other leaders (Bryant, 2003). Transformational leaders help employees to become socially responsible. They facilitate the development of processes and systems in developing social responsibility. The more the leaders understand their leverage with respect to corporate social responsibility, the greater their capacity to pass these insights in the organization’s goals in integrating corporate social responsibility throughout their business model and operations (Catalano, 2002). Transformational leaders provide the tools, and a framework to embed corporate social responsibility culture and ethic into the brand and to the strategic framework of the organization. These can influence the whole enterprise for the entire lifecycle of the personnel thus have considerable influence (Catalano, 2002). Transformational leadership is poised at working horizontally and vertically within and across the organization, making this style of leadership more effective. Bibliography Bass, B. M. & Riggio, R. E. (2008). Transformational Leadership. Mahwah, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and Performance Beyond Expectation. NY: Free Press Bass, B.M. & Avolio, B.J. (1994) Improving Organizational Performance through Transformational Leadership, London: Sage Brown, F.W. & Reilly, M.D. 2009, "The Myers-Briggs type indicator and transformational leadership", The Journal of Management Development, vol. 28, no. 10, pp. 916-932. Bryant, S.E. 2003, "The role of transformational and transactional leadership in creating, sharing and exploiting organizational knowledge", Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, vol. 9, no. 4, pp. 32. Burns, J.M., (1978) Leadership. New York: Harper &Row Catalano, P. 2002, The relationship between transformational and transactional leadership and job satisfaction in an aerospace environment, Nova Southeastern University. Hornett, M. 2001, Transformational leadership in the health promoting school, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto. Hoy, W. K., & Miskel, C. G., (2001). Educational Administration, ‘Theory, Research and Practice, 6th ED, New York: McGraw Hall Hoyt, C.L. & Blascovich, J. 2003, "Transformational and Transactional Leadership in Virtual and Physical Environments", Small Group Research, vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 678-715. Liontos, L.B. 1995, "Transformational leadership Reprint]", Journal - British Columbia Business Education Association, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 32-34. Mahdinezhad, M., Suandi, T.B., Silong, A.D.B. & Omar, Z.B. 2013, "Transformational, Transactional Leadership Styles and Job Performance of Academic Leaders", International Education Studies, vol. 6, no. 11, pp. 29-34. TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP, INC2013, , Experian Information Solutions, Inc, Costa Mesa. Zagorsek, H., Dimovski, V. & Skerlavaj, M. 2009, "Transactional and transformational leadership impacts on organizational learning*", Journal for East European Management Studies, vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 144-165. Read More