Transactional and Transformational Leadership - Assignment Example

Leadership Perspectives: Transactional and TransformationalTransformational leadership and transactional leadership are often applied in various leadership contexts. These two leadership approaches can be applied in different situations as well as in a same leadership context. According to transformational theory, the leaders have the responsibility of enhancing the workers productivity through motivation and encouraging them to work towards achievement of the intended objectives. Relatively, the transactional leadership mainly laid emphasis on management of duties, and such revolve around supervision, control of functions and ensuring proper group performance (Eliyana, 2010).

Transformational and transactional leadership relate to trait theory, skills approach, and the behavioral perspective in a number of ways. The trait theory primarily dwells on the fact that leader’s personality influences their levels of performance at work place (Laureate Education, 2012). Thus, as a leader may be applying his innate skills of leadership he can choose to incorporate the transformational approach. The transformational approach comes in through motivation of the employees to working hard towards ensuring that the overall objectives set are achieved (Danforth et al., 2010). The leader can also use the transformational approach to make his subjects likeminded and aligned towards achieving the set objects.

As well, the transactional theory may be used in the traits theory to offer supervision and controlling of employees. This approach can be adopted when the leader is seeking to find quality results by supervising the manner in which the employees work.The skills approach takes into account the knowledge and skills of the leader. Most of this knowledge is obtained from learning and experience from previous work. Looking at the skills approach vis a vis the transactional and transformational approach, it is evident that the two styles can be used together to enhance the productivity of the employees.

A skillful leader may adopt the transformational approach in encouraging and motivating the employees to work hard towards achieving the intended objectives. Relatively, the transactional approach can be adopted in the skill theory when the leader intends to supervise the manner in which the employees work (Eliyana, 2010). The transactional leadership therefore enables the leader take control of the work environment and monitor closely what the employees are doing.Behavioral perspective of leadership can also be used together with the transformational and transactional leadership.

The behavioral perspective mainly dwells on the leadership behaviors that enable the leaders to work towards achievement of the set goals. The transactional theory can thus be applied when the leader intends to supervise the employees. Moreover, the transformational approach is equally applicable when the behavioral leader intends to motivate the employees towards working to achieve a similar objective.From the above illustration, it is evident that both the transformational and transactional leadership can be applied in the cases of trait, skills, and behavioral approach.

The transformational theory is mainly applicable in the instances when the leader intends to motivate the employees to work towards attaining their intended objective (Silvia & McGuire, 2010). In this, the leader communicates the work objective to the employees and then encouraging them to work towards achieving them. The transactional theory is equally applicable when the leader intends to supervise the manner in which the employees work on the particular task. The elements of transactional theory mainly dwell on supervising, controlling, and coordinating the manner in which the activities are done within the organization (Silvia & McGuire, 2010).

These two theories can therefore, be merged with the other theories to improve the level of accuracy in performance of the tasks. ReferencesDanforth, E. J., Doying, A., Merceron, G., & Kennedy, L. (2010). Applying social science and public health methods to community-based pandemic planning. Journal of Business Continuity & Emergency Planning, 4(4), 375 - 389.Eliyana, A. (2010). Impacts of transactional and transformational leaderships upon organizational citizenship behavior . Journal of US-China Public Administration, 7(6), 24 - 31.Silvia, C., & McGuire, M. (2010). Leading public sector networks: An empirical examination of integrative leadership behaviors.

The Leadership Quarterly, 21(40), 264-277. Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2012). Leadership theory: Transactional transformational leadership theory. Baltimore, MD: Author.